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Advertising Buying Primer
NOVEMBER 2002
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- PPV,
PPC or Pay-Per-Action? 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.
Pay-Per-Action campaigns are also known as "affiliate" campaigns. Basically, you are willing to pay a specific amount of money based on someone showing your ad at their site AND the person who clicks on that ad completing an action - fills out an inquiry form, places an order, etc. These types of campaigns have been around for quite awhile, the success of them is limited. A quality site that would be relevant to your products isn't likely to want to advertise your product and chance losing a sale of their own. These campaigns are used primarily by sites that expect to make all of their money off the advertising.
- 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.
- 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 monies spent.
- 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: Yahoo Search Marketing (formerly 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 Yahoo and Google AdWords do.
For PPV ads, like banner ads and pop-ups, you'll want to talk
to quality sites within your industry - associations can be a good place to start..
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Need help with your Internet campaign?
Web-Kare, LLP
74 Main Street
P.O. Box 959
Raymond, NH 03077
Call 877-351-1769 |
