I was browsing the New York Post on my iPhone this morning when a GoDaddy banner advertisement caught my attention. The banner was highlighting three new gTLD domain names: You.Training, You.Fitness, and You.Coach:
I am not really sure what prompted this targeting, but it’s interesting to see GoDaddy pitching the new gTLD domain names in a banner advertisement on a mainstream news website.
I don’t do much work from my iPhone and don’t know if I have ever even logged in to my GoDaddy account using my iPhone, so I don’t think it would have anything to do with any of my registered domain names or search history. Even if I did, I doubt they would try and target me for new gTLD domain names since I have fewer than 10 (maybe 5).
Unfortunately, I did not click on the banner to see where it took me within the GoDaddy website, and I have not been able to re-view the banner with numerous refreshing. When I try to manually search for those domain names as I am writing this, I see “Sorry, you.fitness is taken.Still want it? Here’s what you do.” I think the company should make it a bit easier for a customer to buy domain names that are in a banner in case the customer didn’t click the banner but remembered a specific domain name.
Whois searches for these three domain names show that they are registered at three different registrars. From what I can tell, only one (You.Coach) is listed for sale via Afternic/GoDaddy and the other two are not listed for sale from what I can see. Strangely, when I searched for You.Coach, I received the same “sorry” message even though it is listed for sale via Afternic and GoDaddy.
I would be interested to know who is paying for the advertising. I would imagine it might be a promotion between a registry and GoDaddy, but since I don’t see the landing page with messaging beyond the banner, I can’t really speculate. I wish I had clicked on the banner to see where it took me.
It’s interesting that GoDaddy is using Adwords to talk about the new gTLD domain names. I would be curious to know how widespread this is. Perhaps someone from GoDaddy can comment and shed some light on this campaign.
Its a bit confusing for potential customers.. I would add a www prefix or http
I agree, will the potential customer understand that it’s a destination?, my own website is dot cloud and I always add www so customers are aware it’s a website address, most people are not yet aware of these new gTLD domain names in my opinion.
Many of these new gTLD operators find that paying the registries to promote their new domain names represents their most successful spending on new registrations. This is exactly what I heard on a panel from one of the new operators. Out of all their ad spending, they tend to see the most measurable ROI with registries. Sponsored results on name availability checks, premium domain suggestions, and I would not be surprised if Godaddy sweetens the deal by offering a portion of ad serving efforts which helps both parties. As far as the ad following you, your phone knows your interests and being that your interests involve domains, you’re a perfect candidate for this ad. If you didn’t click it the first time, they may not waste an impression on your again. Years ago I said: “Google knows you, your friends, your likes, what entertains you, where you are in the world at any given time. Google will soon predict your next action, your next thought, based on a collaboration of thoughts past.
I also invest in new gTLDs so I’m glad to see these domains getting more attentions.
Since people are able to get accustomed to .net and .org, I find no reason that they can’t get accustomed to new gTLDs. It only takes time.
How are New GTLDs doing now? There was a big push before but I wonder if people are willing to pay for them. They are still very new and I am sure some will have value down the road but is there any benefit in selling them now?
– Will
Why waste your first meal out of jail on a McDonalds?
Just saw the banner again tonight and clicked on it. Surprisingly, it took me to Donuts’ website:
https://twitter.com/dinvesting/status/1106375703451324422?s=21