Media Buying Series (Introduction to Media Buying) – Part 1
Introduction to Online Media Buying
With all of the resources available today for marketers to broadcast their message…why would one choose the medium of online advertising? Wouldn’t it be more conventional to place an ad in the yellow pages? How about taking out a full-page block in your local newspaper? Well, it all depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and how much of your marketing budget you are willing to drain. Since the beginning of online ad placement in 1994, advertisers have sank billions of dollars to entice, influence and convince consumers why Company A is superior over Company B. It’s estimated in 2009 alone, advertisers in the United States will drop over 25 billion dollars in online advertising, and it’s expected to climb over 42 billion dollars in 2013 (source: eMarketer.com).
It’s also a proven fact that the cost-per-response for online advertising can be as high as 90% lower vs. using traditional means of marketing.
For the reasons stated above, it’s important (as online marketers) we understand all of the facets online media buying has to offer. With that said, lets start by exploring:
Is Online Advertising Right for Me?
To really understand whether you should launch off an online media buying campaign, you need to start by asking yourself several hard questions. I heard someone say “A problem is never solved on the level it was created.” The first question: What am I really trying to accomplish by starting an online ad campaign? Most people would say, to increase traffic. That’s a good answer, but WHY are you trying to increase traffic? There are a variety of reasons to bring traffic to your site. In a direct response campaign, you may want the visitor to call a 1-800 number or fill out a form for a free e-book. The goal could be to increase brand awareness for a new product line, or to take immediate action on an affiliate offer. The options are limitless. But to avoid making the wrong decision, and having to reverse it later (after your hard earned money is gone), you need to ask…Why?
Is My Site Ready for an Advertising Campaign?
Let’s be honest with ourselves. The majority of websites do not meet the design and usability qualifications necessary to run an effective marketing campaign. Again, we need to ask the right questions…what will the visitor do once he/she gets there? When dealing with a poorly designed site, most visitors become “casualties” of the online marketing war (leaving the homepage without spending time browsing around). Some landing page optimization companies call this Unsupervised Thinking…not being able to guide the audience. The same principals of optimizing your site for action oriented traffic should be applied, whether you are spending $5.00 or $5,000. Just because your site is informational, or your product is cool does not mean the visitor will want to have anything to do with it. Remember the words I used at the beginning…entice, influence and convince. That’s the goal. When you invite me into your house; you’d better give me a good reason to stay. First impressions are everything.
Who Are My Ads Targeting?
If you’re planning on making any type of media buy, I pray you’ve been doing a couple of things, actually a number of things; but let’s start small. What information do you have on who’s visiting your site? If this data is available, how will you use it to determine your target audience? Let’s say you have some type of stat tracker installed (such as Google Analytics) and you have a descent idea of who your visitors account for. If you don’t, please install one before running any paid campaigns (we’ll talk more about tracking and optimizing your campaigns as this series progresses.) Like I’ve recommended in the past, it’s best to create an account with a site like Quantcast.com to effectively view deep demographic statistics. If you don’t have this, it’s Ok. Were not going to dive too much right now into the best methods for tracking site visitors. More importantly, the best way to know your target audience, is to know WHAT product your offering. The more you know about Widget A…the easier it is to get inside the heads of those buying it. For instance, you probably won’t sell too many hairdryers to 21-year old males looking for football cleats. That’s an extreme case, but you get the point.
Another way of going about this, is to find out what competing (related) sites are doing to reach their audience. Getting back to the hairdryer example….do you see hairdryers advertised on woman’s blogs? A quick way to find out would be to Google “hair dryers” and see what methods are being used to entice the consumers. Also, for a more targeted example try “hair dryers for sale.”…etc. Again, all of these methods will be explained in detail later on.
If You’re Willing to Agree With Me…
I think we are ready to talk about what media buying is, and how do you get started. Even if you don’t agree, I asked you to come along for the ride to find out how you might be slightly miss-guided (that’s the nice way of saying it). In the coming sections, we’ll be nailing down some of the specifics you need to understand to run a successful paid advertising campaign…I hope you’re ready; I am.
