Last week, I wrote a
three-part series on internet marketing. Many readers wrote in asking additional questions, which has drawn out this series. This is the unofficial sixth – and last – installment.
Today's topic is how to place and ad – not the mechanics of it, but the factors you should consider when you want to place an ad that will draw traffic and increase sales.
Internet Marketing: Guidelines to Think About BEFORE Placing an Ad
Run Time: As I said in
yesterday's post, you should place an ad for a long enough period of time to accurately judge results, eg, one month instead of one week.
Where many new advertisers fall short is they expect to place an ad for a week and have the sales roll in. It just doesn't happen that way. Most prospects have to see your ad a number of times (7 to 28 times according to most marketing experts) before they will take action.
So, for example, if you place an ad on a blog for only a week and a prospect visits only once a day, that means they'll see your ad only five times (taking into account a M-F work week).
Then, you get exasperated and say, "Well that was a waste of money."
WHERE, if you had placed an ad for a month, they would have seen your ad 20 times. This is much more exposure/familiarity. Familiarity breeds comfortability, which leads to trust, which leads to sales.
This is the normal sales cycle. And, this is how marketing — online and off — tends to work. If you can't afford to advertise for a chunk of time on a site, wait until you can. Otherwise, you'll probably be wasting your ad dollars.
One of the great things about online advertising is that ads are usually sold in 30-day increments, at a minimum.
Ad Composition: Sell the benefits, not the features. As in, tell prospects what your product/service will do for them (ie, save time, lose pounds, make money, grow hair, remove hair, etc.).
Don't tell them about all the freebies you throw in, what ingredients are included and/or how the product/service works. They could care less!
People buy solutions to problems – they don't buy products or services. Remember this distinction when writing your ad.
Niche It: If you're selling dog items, advertise to a site that targets dogs and dog owners, NOT cat owners.
I don't care how popular a site is, how much traffic it gets or how cheap the ads are, if it doesn't target your primary audience — your primary niche — don't advertise on it. It will be a waste of money.
Should You Advertise Again On a Site If You Only Break Even?
At the end of
Monday's post, I talked about how to tell if an ad is successful. It's simple, if you make your money back, then the ad is successful. But, sometimes you might want to continue advertising on a site where you only break even.
You may be thinking, "But I don't advertise to break even; I advertise to make money." In advertising, if you don't lose money, you make money because you're getting exposure.
This is why when you market, you should place your ad for a good length of time, as explained above.
Ideally, I like to place ads in quarters (every 3 months) – particularly on sites that get a lot of traffic. These are usually the more expensive sites, so it means laying out a chunk of money at one time. But if you do the calculations right (eg, target the right niche with a benefits-oriented message), it should work out in your favor.
Here's to marketing frugally – and smart!
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