Not seeing the paid advertising returns you were expecting? Try placing pre-qualifying verbiage in your ad text such as the price or the number of users a software download is valid. A large number of advertisers focus on writing compelling ad text that attracts the largest number of clicks with out thinking about the quality of that click. By adding pre-qualifying ad text, you will likely see a big drop in clicks but will almost always see a decrease in cost per conversion and often times an increase in the number of conversions since more of your budget is going to more qualified visitors. Paid advertising is all about the numbers and thinking in terms of click quality is really important to maximizing ROI.
I just posted some tips on pay per click optimization and the dangers of "set and forget" when managing campaigns over at CaptureTheConversation.com. While the post focused specifically on PPC, many of the principles can be applied to all online marketing campaigns. Companies often spend a lot of time and money on setting up online advertising campaigns but don't do the regular maintenance, testing and optimization crucial for success...
iGetzit just forwarded me a great blog that is probalby going pretty viral right now: www.thingsyoungerthanmccain.com. Basically a long and somewhat surprising list of things younger than John McCain. Some of my favorites on the list are McDonalds, The Golden Gate Bridge, and both of Barack Obama's parents... dude is seriously old. Don't get me wrong, no ageism here, I totally respect my elders. It did remind me of one of my favorite SNL skits.
Google recently announced that its T V commercial advertising service was now out of beta and available to the masses. I've managed a ton of online pay per click advertising with Google Adwords and always viewed TV advertising at a whole different level of big money - high stakes - new york city - adman game. Now that any joe schmo with a commercial can bid for top placement, I was really curious how the process worked and particularly how much $$ we were talking about for getting into the game.
First off, the interface is similar to Adwords very intuitive to use. There are a number of options in terms of selecting networks (looks like almost all major cable networks are offered) days of the week and blocks of time. Lets say I have an online bicycle store and I wanted to run national advertising on both ESPN and Versus on Monday in the mornings and evenings:
So for $500 bucks a day and a bid of $5 per 1000 impressions, Google estimates I get close to 100,000 impressions on ESPN prime time and Versus. Not bad, but I really wanted ESPN A.M. for the Sportscenter crowd:
No dice, even at 100 grand a day and the max CPM of $150 the ESPN in the morning is still not available. While gaining the prime TV ad spots may still rely on the NYC admen, the average small time advertiser may have a great opportunity for targeting and testing some smaller niche networks such as Versus where the cost is relatively low and the auidience much more likely to take an action from your message.
Actually it is great to see some moisture in some form. It has been pretty dry and windy here lately with high fire danger. Should help green things up a bit here on the front range.
pay per click
Actually it is great to see some moisture in some form. It has been pretty dry and windy here lately with high fire danger. Should help green things up a bit here on the front range.
