Lay My Hat

So, how's it going now we are nearly one month in ? I have had an increase in views and clicks to the ad, as I assume more people are looking at the weather forecasts, particularly as there has been a snow alert. I have also had about 8 click-throughs to my website, but none of this months bookers have fessed up to using metcheck to find me.

They're a friendly bunch (Metcheck), and open to new ideas, but I'm not convinced yet. Here are the very tedious reasons why:

1) The stats we get are views (useless but interesting) and click-throughs to our website (more interesting) on a live report each day.

2) When we were allowed 200 characters click-throughs were low - running at around 1-3%.

3) Upping to 500 characters (thanks, Andrew), our click-throughs were 12-25% - seriously better.

4) Probably around 60-80 views per resort per day (we're on 10 resorts), and increasing as snow approaches(?).

5) But in the 2 weeks of 500 characters, and hundreds of click-throughs, not one (that I can prove) enquiry, let alone booking.

There's something wrong, and this is what I don't understand: at this time of year it's just the diehards who're looking at the weather, let's say 50/day/resort. And let's say that there are 12-35% (can't be that high) who may just be curious about our ad. But after a few days (say) they've all clocked the website, and they're not going to look again. So they click-through rate would decrease (per 100 views) not increase or remain steady.

I can see this doesn't mean anything to anyone, but I just can't see the logic of the response.

Of course it only needs a single booking to make the £35/month worthwhile, and I've got to stick to it as the season looms and they kick up to their 50,000 or so visitors/day.

MG

I'll stay with it till January I think. i was fully-booked by then last year.

How much is it to advertise with Metcheck?

Cheers
Kersh

I am listed on two resort pages for £10 per month. As I can just use it till the season is booked up, I think it is quite good value, but have yet to have any results. I am waiting for the first decent snowfall for that to happen I think. MG is listed on a few more I think.

Or around £4 / resort for 10+. Our click-throughs are averaging round 12% on views of 500+ per day, but I'm not convinced yet.

That sort of response should produce enquiries, and it doesn't.

Views are increasing daily as the season approaches.

MG

Stats are about the same for my two resorts MG.

MG, thanks. I just checked their website and it's £4.95 + VAT per resort for 2 - 9 resorts.

You're right that if it just creates traffic to your site but no requests come through then that it's not all that great.

K

One interesting fact with our click-through ads on Metcheck (not the AdSense stuff) is they don't vary, they're part of the page for each resort. So we're doing very well for the Metcheck pages we're on with our keywords/phrases on Google, Yahoo and MSN after a month or so.

Conventional click-through AdWords ads are not going to show up on the 'other' search engines.

MG

I'll keep it going for another month or so, but winter is almost fully booked now. Need to do some checking on the stats as \i've been away this last week

I'm going to give it a bash, I think. Will let you know how I get on...

I've been really impressed by our Metcheck click-throughs from 10 ski resorts. Brilliant rates, and far exceeds Google AdWords. Not easy to pin down any bookings from it.

However, looks like a load of codswollop.

I've had some correspondence with Metcheck regarding the fact that their click-throughs don't show up on our Google Analytics. In fact the only ones have been our test clicks.

Their response - better ask Google, not their problem.

Using a new stat counter today (WP Stats for WordPress), which gives instant results, shows that clicking, say, 10 clicks on a specific resort, gives 10 clicks on the stat counter, plus the source (specific resort) and therefore who did it - me.

In other words, my click-throughs work, and agree 100% with the stat counter, and that the apparently high rates shown for 'genuine' punters, on our Metcheck admin panel, hovers near zero.

So, I'm cancelling unless they can come up with some reason for this, or I'm doing something dumb.

MG

MG, just what I was starting to suspect. As my own clicks show up on my stats, why aren't other peoples?

Let's see what Firebug says before going into the attack? Has anyone else been using it?

I find it hard to believe that there haven't really been any genuine clicks.

MG

Me too, but why aren't they showing up on our stats when our own do?