Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Online Advertising - Help With The Basics?

Posted by Anonymous on 3/5/2009 at 10:29 AM ET 400 Points
Hi all,
I'm planning an online advertising campaign (to the general public on a safety issue) and would love your thoughts & advice on what are (probably) the basics.

Models:
- Flat fee based on X versus Pay Per Click.
Do all websites offer each of these different models? Or is PPC primarily only for Search engine types of sites?
Is PPC best?

- Impressions V's Visitors.
I read on this site (I think) that some ads are calculated something along the lines of.
Impressions = 800,000
CPM = 8
Cost is therefore = 6400
First off, Is that how its determined?
Is an Impression = 'number of times an ad is viewed by a user'?
Is this an accurate way to calculate an ad?
And isn't it more important to base a cost on Visitors?
And isn't it even more important (linking it back to above) to those who click through?

- Google Adwords.
I understand this process as - first of all, identifying keywords, 'buying' or bidding for these words & then the ads get placed.
Is that an accurate understanding of this process?
Is this a worthwhile process to include in an advertising campaign or can they be too easily manipulated?
I presume they do, but do Yahoo have a similar program?


- Measurement.
What is the best way about measuring an online campaign's success?
I read that creating a landing page & using analytics on that page is a good way (I have google analytics)
If I buy an ad on ABC.com will they send me metrics?


Outside of this, I am also looking at SEO for our website, blogs, e-mail/newsletter sign-up but for the time being I thought I had better not overstay my welcome too much by overloading with too many questions. (Perhaps I have already!)

Is there anything else I should look at?

Any advice here is hugely welcome.
Thanks in advance.

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by SteveByrneMarketing on 3/5/2009 at 11:11 PM Accepted
    You have a lot of questions and scenarios. I would start with a PPC program using your best estimates of which keywords might be successful and using google's tools for calculating hits for each specific keyword phrase you are considering.

    1. you will start

    2. you will get immediate feedback

    3. you will learn something

    4. you can refine your program based on real world experience.

    best of luck,

    Steve
  • Posted by Steve Moore on 3/6/2009 at 1:39 AM Accepted
    To give you useful and relevant advice, could you answer the following questions?

    What is the safety issue?

    Are people already aware of the safety issue or is it something most people are in the dark about?

    What does the target market look like?

    Why do you think you need to implement an online advertising campaign and SEO?
  • Posted on 3/9/2009 at 6:26 AM Author
    SteveByrneMarketing & Steve M - thanks for your replies.

    To respond to a couple of q.s:
    The safety issue: We do a number of issues where its really about educating people first e.g. In medical conditions one e.g. is a stroke - what are the key items to look out for & what to do..

    Are people already aware of the safety issue or is it something most people are in the dark about?
    Both + a third group: Some know a little about it; some have heard of it but don't know symptoms or what to do & some don't know a thing about it.
    That is why online will be so useful - it can direct people to a landing page & provide so much more information / diagrams/ images than a press ad or 30 sec radio ad.

    What does the target market look like?
    Key target market is educated &/or working women between 26 - 55; secondary market - all adults

    Why do you think you need to implement an online advertising campaign and SEO?
    We use offline - press, radio & TV - and believe we have a good reach. However, research shows us that 64% of our target market are online so we believe this is a medium we can use.
    Unofficial reasons - By doing so it will offer us some metrics that we have been struggling to get a grip with for some time. Also, part of our budget was given with the sole purpose of going online for the appropriate campaign (research & we believe that this is the first right campaign)

    I hope that helps & hope you can help.
  • Posted by Steve Moore on 3/16/2009 at 3:40 PM Member
    Dave-Sorry it took a bit for me to get back to you.

    First I have to say that I am not very well versed with the "in and outs" of paid online advertising so I can't give you an exact answer but I can give you some thoughts and direction based on other marketing experiences I have had.

    Take every opportunity you have to drive traffic to your website. Print your website address on your business card, make it prominent in all of your advertisements, mention it on the radio. Get something made that you can stick on your vehicle when you want, with the website address and a statement that identifies the safety issue.

    Start a blog or get involved with an online community that would be interested in the safety issue--there must be a million online medical communities you could join. Post responses on forums demonstrating your expertise. A blog may be the only website you really need. Search engines will naturally rate your site higher if you have regularly updated content and a bunch of incoming links. In every discussion in an online community, post your website address, to drive more traffic to it.

    Be careful with website metrics. It is easy to get lost in all of the analytics. What it really comes down to is this. Is the target market taking the desired action? Are they buying, selling, subscribing, etc. That is the ultimate analytic. I am certainly not saying the other analytics aren't important, of course they are but if you have eight thousand visitors to your site and five take the desired action...you get the point.

    Hope this helps a little.
  • Posted on 3/19/2009 at 9:26 PM Accepted
    Let me recommend the book Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, by Marshall and Todd. It is a very good primer on what makes for good online advertising, how to measure, and how it all works.

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