Hardcore Banners vs Softcore Banners

I am interested in hearing what other people have to say about the click thru ratios between hardcore and softcore banners. Are there any analytics out there that prove or disprove a better click thru ratio with hardcore banners?

I think any metrics would be almost meaningless unless someone were testing with banners that were absolutely identical except that one was hardcore and one was softcore... and that is usually not the case.

If you test 5 different banners for the same site, you'll get 5 wildly different conversion rate... and further, you may even find that banner 1 outperforms banner 2 using traffic source A, while banner 2 outpulls banner 1 using traffic source B.

Not trying to be unhelpful, but I hear all the time somebody say "Oh, non-hardcore doesn't sell" or "Oh, it never sells as well" or whatever, and it has so much more to do with the quality of the models, banners, and traffic that it gets reallly difficult to compare.

If anyone does have any actual apples-to-apples comparision data, I'd love to know more, because traffic metrics have always fascinated me.

I agree with Chip here also, it depends on where banners are placed, text surrounding them, what they are promoting, etc, etc...

For example, a softcore banner being used with hardcore content isnt going to get as many clicks as a hardcore banner being used on softcore content, likewise banners that mention price in my experience typically dont get clicked as much however, convversion ratios on those banners are lower.

There are far to many variables to be able to adequately say one type is better than the other unfortunately.

What is universal though, whether soft or hardcore a good banner showing 'hot' content will always get clicks, whether that be for a full on hardcore site or a non nude site... Just as a banner with a 'different' look will, like th eold banner exchange 'enter | exit' banners from a few years ago.

Regards,

Lee

i click on banners that show hardcore on them more than softcore