Introducing Afternic Boost: More domain visibility, more domain sales

[GoDaddy]

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Afternic Boost, the new program that can contribute up to a 10% increase in sales performance for participating portfolios!*

We have been experimenting with how to drive more exposure for Afternic domains on GoDaddy, and we're thrilled to announce that these experiments yielded impressive results. As a result, we're rolling out Boost as a standard inclusion for all Afternic sellers starting September 4, 2024.


Why Afternic Boost Works:
We listened to your feedback and developed Afternic Boost to address your need for greater exposure on GoDaddy. Here’s what Boost provides at launch:

• Suggested search results: Your domains will gain higher placement in GoDaddy’s suggested search results, making them more discoverable.

• Verified Badges: Boost Fast Transfer domains will feature "Verified" badges on exact-match searches, aiding visibility.

• Verified Lander Badges: Eligible domains using Afternic’s Buy it Now and Custom Landers will display verified badges. Boosted domain names that aren't opted into Fast Transfer will display a "Premium" badge on Afternic's Buy it Now and Custom Landers.

• Targeted Email Marketing: Our targeted email campaigns will match your domain names with potential buyers at GoDaddy.

As the world’s largest domain registrar, GoDaddy offers a massive, continuously growing audience of domain shoppers. Afternic Boost leverages this vast customer base, ensuring that your domains are seen by a motivated, pre-qualified audience.




What You Should Know:

• • Boost begins on September 4, 2024. All Afternic sellers will be automatically opted in to Boost, ensuring your domains gain maximum exposure.
  • Additional Commission: To support this enhanced service, an additional 5% commission will apply for Boost customers from September 4, 2024.
  • Flexibility: We understand that one size doesn’t fit all. Therefore, you can opt out of Afternic Boost at any time from today (August 7, 2024) if it doesn’t align with your strategy by heading to afternic.com/account/boost.

Investing in Success:
Think of Afternic Boost as an investment rather than an expense. Online marketplaces, such as Amazon, Facebook, and Zillow, offer sponsored listings to increase sellers' exposure in search. Similarly, Boost allows domain investors to enhance their visibility in a digital marketplace, and the results are that Boost can contribute up to a 10% increase in sales performance for your portfolio*.

Next Steps:
Experimentation with Boost will continue through the month of August. On September 4, Afternic Boost will be automatically activated at the account level, optimizing your portfolio's visibility.

If you decide Boost isn't right for you, you can easily opt out. We recommend remaining enrolled to continue benefiting from enhanced visibility across the GoDaddy platform.


If you have any questions, read the launch blog post, or head to Afternic’s Help Center, where we’ve got you covered.

Want to learn more about what Boost offers? Head to our blog.

*Individual results may vary. Based on internal data of GoDaddy aftermarket sales from January 2024 through June 2024.

 

[Future Sensors]

This is what domainers should be seeing with the new Boost program.

Show attachment 262302

That's just from today, am I right?

 

[NameGroove]

Now, let's take this from another angle. Let's see what is being boosted against one of my non-boosted names.
MendHomes.com. Nice name (I think anyway). So I typed MendHomes into the GD search bar. No TLD.

Here is what was boosted:
MendHomes.com appears #1! (yay!!! Note I did NOT type the TLD and I also did NOT pay for boost).

Next up:
mend-homes.com (my name hyphented)
9 exact match TLDs including .sucks
Mandahomes.com (a boosted name but it does not show verified, also clearly not competitive to MendHomes)
MendHomz.com (a playful spelling, but not better than MendHomes)
MendHom.com (garbage)
TheMendHomes.com (my name with "the" before it)
MendHoms.com (garbage)
MendHomesuae.com (Ai loves UAE for some unknown reason)
MendedHomes.com (past tense of my first keyword)
MendRooms.com (not a bad cross promotion from an ai bot)
21 more exact match TLDs

Now, I did not pay an extra 5%. And others did. Seems to be I should be worried that their names will be promoted against mine. With verified badges and listing right next to mine. Scary to think what the ai is going to show! But ha!!! It showed nothing that was better than my, non boosted, non verified name. Only one name of the millions of registered boosted names was shown. MandaHomes.com, listed #11. Clearly not competitive to MendHomes imo. And interestingly it doesn't show the verified badge in the search results (meaning at #11 it looks identically premium to my MendHomes.com name). Only when you click on the name does the "verified" badge show.

So nothing to fear here. Opting out did not put me in a competitive situation. I am no worse off than before and had I opted in, I would only be out 5% if this name sells via Afternic... cause it doesn't appear when someone types "mend" and nothing overly competitive comes up against it. See for yourself. I'm #1. If you were me, would you be scared of the following "boosted" names reducing your chance of selling? Would you pay 5% extra to... well, I'm not sure what I'd get. Oh yea, my name would have badge next to it. I'll discuss this in my next post

Show attachment 262301

Now let's talk about this "verified" badge you're all so worried about. Here's the thing. Did you notice how MandaHomes.com was boosted and showed competitively in the listings? #11. Notice anything? There is no "verified" badge or term next to it. It looks no worse (or better) than my name. So where is the badge and term? You actually have to click into the word to see it. At that point you are not looking at the two comparatively and it'd be hard for me to imagine a small business would go back and forth between my name and that one and identify "hey, once says verified and the other does not". I better buy the verified one even though I searched for Mend Homes (ya know to fix homes) and Manda has nothing to do with fixing or mending.

The only time the 'verified' badge appears is when the name is clicked into - and if your name appears first then it doesn't matter. if you're not boosted it won't matter since you're names won't appear as cross marketed. And finally, if you are boosted - like the domainer who owns and pays an extra 5% to boost mandahomes - you don't even get the pleasure of showing your badge at #11! I'd be one upset domainer paying 5% extra only to show at #11 (or more likely not at all). and to have my promotion look the same as all the crapola above or below me.

I find it VERY hard to believe GoDaddy found an increase of up to 10% STR on their test, assuming their test was anything similar to the rollout. In fact looking at their rollout, the only thing that could be boosted up to 10% is the hand registration of exact match TLDs. Because those are the only things that appear and are similar to any searching I did.

I hope this helped everyone. I'd love to hear from the 20% who remained opted in. Why? What are you seeing that I am missing. Can you show an example of a search term where your word appeared? Was it higher than #11? Did it show your verified badge? Can you show any specific examples where and why you're happy with how your name is being boosted? (and no answers like "well it can't hurt"). Cause it does hurt... 5% off the bottom line. When you pay from your bottom line you want something of value in return. I'm honestly searching trying my best to find this value

 

[Future Sensors]

The idea that every Afternic domain with Boost enabled should always be presented to SMB customers is highly debatable. Even with Boost enabled, a significant portion of the Afternic inventory will never meet the high standards required for naming SMBs. This alone makes it incomprehensible why Afternic is following this path, as it benefits neither SMBs nor Afternic sellers.

 

[NameGroove]

But, they are not giving up the placement for that 5%.

GoDaddy just wants us to pay an extra 5% on every sale to get non-premium slots.

It's not like our domains are in the first or second slot.

You have to scroll down to like 12th - 20th position under all the promoted nonsense that is occupying any potentially valuable shelf space.

Brad

Are you even showing in slot 12? Can you give me an example so I can see? I'd love to see a search term that shows an appropriately cross marketed name that even shows at #12. Search after search and I find no appropriate boosted names. The few appropriate names I find ares simply hyphens, "my" or "the" before the keyword and are avail as hand reg.

 

[NameGroove]

The idea that every Afternic domain with Boost enabled should always be presented to SMB customers is highly debatable. Even with Boost enabled, a significant portion of the Afternic inventory will never meet the high standards required for naming SMBs. This alone makes it incomprehensible why Afternic is following this path, as it benefits neither SMBs nor Afternic sellers.

Agreed. I guess my point is, that at least what is Boosted should be somewhat close in style/meaning etc to the searched term. To show toohhh when I type "mend" is a complete joke. You're telling me there aren't 3-5 names within the Boosted Afternic universe more appropriate to show than toohhh.com? Even if only the top 10% of afternic names are shown (ya know only the best and most appropriate) that'd be one heck of a step up from what is being shown now (toohhh.com shows you where we are currently)

 

[bmugford]

Are you even showing in slot 12? Can you give me an example so I can see? I'd love to see a search term that shows an appropriately cross marketed name that even shows at #12. Search after search and I find no appropriate boosted names. The few appropriate names I find ares simply hyphens, "my" or "the" before the keyword and are avail as hand reg.

I am not even talking about cross marketed names.

Even with exact term search, terms in far more desirable extensions are almost always listed way below the promoted crap like .sucks and others.

So, if the top slots are always occupied with these bad options, what's the point of paying for "Boost"?

I am sure the cross promotion listings are even worse.

It's basically that GoDaddy's "AI" sucks and/or the "promoted" stuff is blocking more desirable options.

Brad

 

[Garet]

Which Came First? (Or Which Actually Happened)

A. We have some great ideas to boost results for Afternic sellers.

B. We want higher commissions. How do we justify it?

 

[bmugford]

Which Came First?

A. We have some great ideas to boost results for Afternic sellers.

B. We want higher commissions. How do we justify it?

I have to say normally when it comes to these dubious changes, I will at least get some outreach by someone at GoDaddy to explain why the changes are so great.

In this case, I am not really even seeing that.

I don't understand what you are really getting for the extra cost.

Some badge and "suggested" slots that are in a terrible position? Wow!

And in exchange for that I should pay an extra 5% on sales via any method, that have absolutely nothing to do with "Boost".

Brad

 

[Future Sensors]

And don’t overlook the risk of your domains encountering UDRP issues due to Afternic’s email marketing efforts promoting your Boosted domains. This risk remains a fundamental aspect of the Boost proposition, with no modifications made to address it so far.

 

[boziffous]

In the GoDaddy search results, below the exact match result, they should divide it up into two columns. On the left side premium domains and on the right side unregistered domains.

 

[Future Sensors]

@GoDaddy

https://www.namepros.com/threads/you-know-a-domain-is-worthless-if.1008200/page-13#post-9244073

 

[bmugford]

I have questions about how valuable the "suggested" area is in the first place.

I mean .sucks features prominently in who knows how many millions of searches, and the extension currently has 1,590 total registrations at GoDaddy.

I have seen .foo several times. That has 179 regs at GoDaddy.

Either the space is not valuable in the first place, or the options GoDaddy is pushing are so bad they are not converting.

The amount of promotion .sucks is getting compared to the results is embarrassing.

GoDaddy also has to know customers are not looking for .sucks domains, so they are pushing it against their customer's best interests.

Brad

 

[DN_Hunter]

I opted-out a few days ago, and just tried the same thing with one of my names.
Interesting that my name also showed up in the 11th position

New results today -- my names no longer appear in the 11th position. So perhaps the Boost would have kept me in the suggestion list? Just like "Tech Temp" still has TechTemps.com showing in the 11th position (I believe that owner is Opted-In).

 

[bmugford]

Just searching for some random terms.

Let's say "Plumbing".

Among the top 5 you see Plumbing.baby, Plumbing.gay. WTF?

Scroll down more you see Plumbing.sucks then Plumbing.love right before an actual decent combo with the extension - Plumbing.biz. It is in the 14th slot.

Now .biz is not amazing, but it makes sense. It is far more likely to sell than the term in .baby, .gay, .love, etc.

When I searched for "Madison" the top result was Milwaukee.Solutions one time and the other time it was madison-s.com, above Madison.co.

Brad

 

[rh2000]

That's just from today, am I right?

It's fake. I said that is what we should be seeing if you have Boost. No one has posted any positive results yet.

 

[Future Sensors]

Here are the results of some quick tests with my own non-boosted but FT domains on the main GoDaddy.com website, accessed from Europe with “United States - English” and “USD” selected in the footer.

When searching for some of my two-word EMD domains with spaces between the words (without the extension), these .com domains are still prominently displayed in the top spot, occupying half of the total screen space. The Buy-It-Now price is shown on the left, and the LTO (Lease to Own) option is shown on the right. The only badge displayed is “Premium”. These domains have a BIN price of around $25k, which may influence their placement, though this remains a black box.

When searching for one of my meaningless, non-dictionary brandable domains without the .com extension, the domain also appears prominently at #1 with a “Premium” badge.

 

[Future Sensors]

It's fake.

I know. Still funny.

 

[NameGroove]

The more I think about this - the more I believe that the "up to 10% lift in STR" is very misleading. There is simply no way the results we are seeing resulted in a 10% lift on boosted Afternic names.

When I worked in marketing and we did tests, we did multivariate testing. Long ago they only did A/B split testing, hopefully with a control group. It is likely what GD did was myriad tests, one of which resulted in a 10% lift and the remainder either had no effect, or a slightly positive effect. So they rolled it out and claimed "up to 10% lift in STR".

Looking at the product - it simply cannot be that the names we are being shown are anything like the control group that garnered the 10% lift.

 

[bmugford]

The more I think about this - the more I believe that the "up to 10% lift in STR" is very misleading. There is simply no way the results we are seeing resulted in a 10% lift on boosted Afternic names.

When I worked in marketing and we did tests, we did multivariate testing. Long ago they only did A/B split testing, hopefully with a control group. It is likely what GD did was myriad tests, one of which resulted in a 10% lift and the remainder either had no effect, or a slightly positive effect. So they rolled it out and claimed "up to 10% lift in STR".

Looking at the product - it simply cannot be that the names we are being shown are anything like the control group that garnered the 10% lift.

Actual testing also rarely yields round numbers like 10%. 0% is also "up to 10%".

You need 6.5% more sales just to break even at 20% commission.

In a best case 10% more sale scenario, GoDaddy collects 70% of the extra revenue and you get 30%.

Anything below 6.5% more sales is a loss. Anything much lower is a massive loss.

The numbers are heavily skewed towards GoDaddy.

Brad

 

[davidc1]

Actual testing also rarely yields round numbers like 10%. 0% is also "up to 10%".

You need 6.5% more sales just to break even at 20% commission.

In a best case 10% more sale scenario, GoDaddy collects 70% of the extra revenue and you get 30%.

Anything below 6.5% more sales is a loss. Anything much lower is a massive loss.

The numbers are heavily skewed towards GoDaddy.

Brad

Imo this 10% comes from nowhere as they did not tested as they said. We never see badges before... Neither on landers.

 

[Future Sensors]

We never see badges before... Neither on landers.

Well, we've seen the badges, and have been discussing them in the Afternic thread.

 

[D Haynes]

It's basically that GoDaddy's "AI" sucks and/or the "promoted" stuff is blocking more desirable options.

Brad

This was my thought.

The fact is that GoDaddy's "AI" just isn't good enough.

 

[bmugford]

This was my thought.

The fact is that GoDaddy's "AI" just isn't good enough.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1823782868944130470

 

[davidc1]

Well, we've seen the badges, and have been discussing them in the Afternic thread.

Oh really, but they say boost is there since january 2024.

 

[NameGroove]

Actual testing also rarely yields round numbers like 10%. 0% is also "up to 10%".

You need 6.5% more sales just to break even at 20% commission.

In a best case 10% more sale scenario, GoDaddy collects 70% of the extra revenue and you get 30%.

Anything below 6.5% more sales is a loss. Anything much lower is a massive loss.

The numbers are heavily skewed towards GoDaddy.

Brad

I understand the metrics. All I'm saying is that one bucket may have gotten 10.2% or 10.342% and their legal said ok to use it to say "up to 10%". When in actuality the myriad test buckets had results of +.00007%, +1.2%, +.7% and + 10.2%. And so they can say up to... but it's really not the case. It simply cannot be with the results we are shown. Those landing pages cannot result in a 10% lift on anything other than cross marketed exact match TLDs.