Search Advertising Buying Primer

If you're a media buyer for a company or ad agency, you are probably considering new media and search buying.

• What is search buying? It's buying a high ranking position for your company's web site in the various search engines.
• What is new media buying? New media is Internet advertising in the form of banner ads or pop-up ads.

Here is some information you should know to plan a successful Internet ad campaign:

1. How large is your audience? Your audience size is fixed. There are only so many people looking for your product or service on the Internet in any given month. Therefore, the competition for those people becomes quite fierce. You and all of your competitors are vying to capture the attention of the same people at the same time. Since most search advertising is determined by auction (highest bidder gets highest position), this can get costly, unless you take into consideration point number 2.
   
   
2. People use different terms when searching for the same item. This is important to note. You need to research the terms used and bid on a variety of terms for maximum site exposure. Most search advertising firms will supply you with a tool to complete this research. If the price is too high on your most generic term, consider bidding on more specific terms. While there may be fewer people searching for those terms, chances are they are more qualified prospects. For example, let's say your firm sells "tools." Tools is a very generic term, so there will be tons of people searching for that term. Now, let's assume that your firm specializes in "electronic hand tools." Research on that term shows that only a few thousand people search for that term. Chances are the high bid on that term will be much lower than the high bid on "tools" and you know that people entering that search term are qualified prospects as opposed to those who may be looking for other types of tools.
   
   
3. PPV or PPC? In a PPV (Pay Per View) environment, you will pay an advertising fee based on the number of exposures your ad has. This is typical for banner ads and pop-up ads. This does not mean that people are clicking on your banner ad - just that your ad came up on X number of screens X number of times, thus producing a view rate of X (there is no way to calculate whether or not the viewed ad was actually read.).
   
   PPC (Pay Per Click), on the other hand, means that you only pay for those people who click on the link to your site to visit your site. Providing that your site is setup to convert visitors to customers, most buyers will find a higher Return On Investment with a PPC model and can calculate results easier than the PPV model.
   
   So why use a PPV model? PPV advertising is a great way to establish "brand recognition." People who see your banner ad all over the Internet will consciously or subconsciously begin to recognize it in conjunction with certain products or services. This is comparable to TV advertising - but more economical. Even so, it is not for every company.
   
   
4. Budget Considerations. How much should you spend on an Internet campaign? First, I think you need to ask yourself, "How effective is my web site?" From the number of visitors your site is currently receiving (even if it's only 100 or so), how many are actually contacting your company or placing orders? This is vital information. There is no use in spending money to promote a site that can't sell for you. If your site is not currently producing inquiries or sales - get it redone. Analyze it to determine what your site visitors wanted to know when they visited your site, why they didn't inquire further, etc.
   
   Once you're sure that your site is an effective selling tool, then consider how much of the pie can you afford? If there are 20,000 searches conducted on the terms you'd like to bid on - how many can you afford to have visit your site? You can start with a small budget and adjust it at anytime. That's one of the great things about Internet search advertising. The numbers can be adjusted immediately and you can cap your monthly spending. I would suggest trying a modest budget for a period of 3 months to determine if there is any return on the investment. Remember, too, that you don't pay for repeat visitors if they don't come through your PPC program. So a site that may not sell the visitor on the first visit, may sell him on the third or fourth visit, assuming he has bookmarked your site as a valuable resource for future consideration.
   
   
5. You don't have to be number one. When bidding for placement, remember that typically the top 3 to 5 bidders appear at affiliate sites, so you don't have to be number 1. Position #3 will have just as much exposure as position #1. Below position 3, your exposure may lessen as some search engines will only show the top 3. But other search engines will continue to show the top 5. Below position 5, you're not likely to get much traffic, but this is a good "cooling off" area as you recoup your budget moneys spent.
   
   
6. Finally, we have to ask, "Where do you place your ads?" This can change at any time, but at the time of this writing there are only two major players in the PPC arena: Overture and Google AdWords. While there are many other lesser known PPC search companies like Kanoodle and Sprinks, none of them command the audience volume that Overture and Google AdWords do.
   
   For PPV ads, like banner ads and pop-ups, you'll want to talk to Yahoo, Infospace, and Iwon.com. You'll need to contact their advertising departments for particulars.