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Lisa Kelly (from Media Run) reports on how to maximise your online marketinq returns.
While some market segments have allocated large portions of their marketing budgets to online for some time now (i.e. travel and employment), many marketers remain ignorant of the accountability of online marketing and its potential. According to ABVS figures, online advertising expenditure in Australia totalled $778 million for the 2005/2006 financial year, an increase of 59.4 percent on 2004/2005. This was characterised by growth in all expenditure types and, in particular, general advertising and search and directories advertising. Search and directories advertising experienced the highest percentage growth increasing by 74.2 percent on the 2004/2005 financial year. Marketers need to get their heads around online advertising and start maximising their strategies if they want to stay ahead in their field. With internet revenue expected to exceed that of TV within 15 years (according to Frost and Sullivan’s Darryl Nelson) and online space predicted to make up 15 percent of the total advertising market by 2009, online should be considered an integral part of any marketing mix. Online advertising is so accountable because there is zero wastage and all campaigns can be tracked — an advertiser buys a campaign based on particular performance metrics (CPM/CPC/CPA) and can track expenditure right down to the cost of sale. No other medium can offer this. Three very popular strategies for advertising online include display-, contextual- and performance-based advertising. DISPLAY ADVERTISING (CPM) Display advertising can be integrated within a mainstream marketing campaign when the creative is highly ‘visual’ and when the primary objective is branding. Display or ‘premium’ online advertising campaigns often appear on the most popular websites. One of Australia’s fastest growing networks in this space is Soush Pty Ltd (www.soush.com). CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING Contextual advertising should be integrated within a mainstream marketing campaign when the objective is to control expenditure and guarantee a customer response. Contextual advertising is text-based advertising on the web — either text-based ads that appear alongside relevant content on the most popular websites (for example: www.mumsweb.com.au) or as sponsored listings in search engine results (for example:www.anzwers.com.au). Search advertising is still considered to be relatively new to most marketers, although a clever few are utilising its effectiveness and reaping the rewards. ABVS figures show search ads were the biggest and fastest growing part of the $778 million online advertising market in the financial year 2005/2006 and the Australian search market is predicted to grow to at least $800 million in 2010 as increased demand from marketers drives up the cost of ads. Contextual advertising works by marketers bidding for relevant keywords in an online- based system to appear within the top results of a search query or on a website of relevance to their product or service. STEP 1 Choose keywords, categories or specific sites across which your ads will appear from any of a range of contextual providers; for example, Ads Value. Most providers have a ‘keyword’ assistant who will work with you to ensure your keywords are the most appropriate and will generate you the highest response rates and revenue. STEP 2 You select the maximum amount you want to bid for a particular keyword and you only pay when a targeted prospect clicks on your ad. STEP 3 Write and customise your ad in minutes. You can edit the size, colour, font and format for perfect integration. STEP 4 Set any targeting parameters. Through accurate and precise targeting methods, you can deliver ads to the most relevant, motivated and most prospective customers, in real time. Contextual advertising is so effective because advertisers can set their maximum bid price and target their message exactly to users searching for their product or service on premium websites of choice. Even more impressive is the fact that the advertiser only has to pay when a user actually clicks on their ad. Both advertisers and websites alike love contextual advertising because ads are only served alongside relevant content, which results in higher conversions and happier users. PERFORMANCE ADVERTISING (CPC/CPA) Performance-based advertising guaranteesthe advertiser a desired response based on predetermined campaign KPIs. Performance-based networks sell previously ‘unsold’ inventory on premium websites, in bulk units at reduced rates. This model gives advertisers mass market exposure and performance is optimised throughout campaigns to increase response rates and maximise reach. Best of all, advertisers only pay for users that respond to their ads giving the marketer 100 percent accountability and zero wastage. With models such as these, establishing an exact cost per acquisition or cost per sale or cost per customer is simple. One of Australia’s fastest-growing networks in this space is Ads Alliance Pty Ltd (www.adsalliance.com). So whether it’s one or all of display-, performance- or contextual-based advertising that meets your marketing objectives, now is the time to stay ahead of the game and integrate online advertising into your marketing mix, if you haven’t done so already. GLOSSARY ONLINE ADVERTISING METRICS CPC: The terms pay-per-click (PPC) and cost-per-click (CPC) are sometimes used interchangeably, sometimes as distinct terms. When used as distinct terms, PPC indicates payment based on click-throughs, while CPC indicates measurement of cost on a per-click basis for contracts not based on clickthroughs. CPA: The cost-per-action (CPA) online advertising payment model is that in which payment is based solely on qualifying actions such as sales or registrations. The actions defined in a cost-per-action agreement relate directly to some type of conversion, with sales and registrations among the most common. This does not include deals based solely on clicks, which are referred to specifically as cost-per-click or CPC. The cost-per- action (CPA) model is at the other end of the spectrum from the cost-per-impressions model (CPM), with the cost-per-click (CPC) model somewhere in the middle. In a CPA model, the publisher is taking most of the advertising risk, as their commissions are dependent on good conversion rates from the advertiser’s creative units and website. Marketers looking for cost-per-action deals have several options. Publishers with considerable excess inventory may be willing to consider non-standard offers. Sites specialising in incentive programs are in a position to offer CPA pricing on various types of leads, although the usual caveats concerning traffic given incentives still apply. Perhaps the most widespread use of performance- based pricing is affiliate marketing, whereby merchants/advertisers determine what actions they want to reward and how much they are willing to pay. CPM: The CPM (cost-per-impressions) model refers to advertising bought on the basis of impression. This is in contrast to the various types of pay-for-performance advertising, whereby payment is only triggered by a mutually agreed upon activity (i.e. click-through, registration, sale). The total price paid in a CPM deal is calculated by multiplying the CPM rate by the number of CPM units. For example, one million impressions at $10 CPM equals a $10,000 total price. M |
