Get More from Online Advertising

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1 ONLINE MARKETING OPEN INSIGHT GUIDE Get More from Online Advertising In This Guide Learn how to lead customers to your business by adding targeted, cost-effective display ads to your online marketing mix in a matter of hours. This guide can help you get started creating display ads and offer tips for optimizing your campaigns. Sections include: With Display Ads, pg. 1 Advertising, pg. 3 Advertising Fee Structures, pg. 4 Display Ads, pg. 5 pg. 6 Advertising With, pg. 8 Right for Your Business, pg. 8 pg. 9 pg. 14 Display advertising an online ad that uses text, logos and imagery is a powerful tool to grab the attention of your prospects and customers. Ninetyfive percent of internet browsing time is spent on THE JOURNEYMAN PRESS Steven Silverstein Member since: 1983 sites that feature display ads. Placing your display ad on sites like Google and Yahoo!, and combining it with search marketing, can dramatically increase the number of leads your business receives. Recent innovations have greatly diminished the cost and complexity of using display advertising. This means that small and medium companies can use this powerful sales tool the same way big companies do. EXPAND YOUR REACH WITH DISPLAY ADS Display ads can help your business easily and inexpensively entice customers with words, images, audio and/or video. Because your display ad can be targeted to prospects based on the sites they visit, what they purchase and where they live, you can deliver very customized and relevant messages and offers with minimal cost to create different versions of your display ads. Display ads, also called banner ads, let you connect with prospects in the way they like to shop. pg. 1

2 help with future offline sales, according to market research firm comscore 1. Display ads can increase when used in tandem with search advertising search ads alone. New tools for creating, targeting and placing display ads mean that small and medium businesses can now easily and expensively use this powerful your plan and start on the path to using display ads. Set a goal A clear objective can help ensure that you can more easily make decisions about the copy, graphics, offer and other key components of your display ad. Your objectives can also help you measure the performances of your display ad campaign. With the proliferation of blogs, social media and other web sites, the number of banner ads and of internet users exposed to them is growing swiftly: U.S. internet users saw nearly 1.3 trillion display ads during the third quarter of 2010, an increase of 22% over that same period in think about what you hope to achieve. For example, do you want to increase brand awareness or drive visitors to your web site? Do you want to entice viewers to take advantage of a special offer, download a white paper or watch a video? If you have multiple goals, consider putting together several campaigns. For example, you can simultaneously run one display ad campaign to increase awareness of your offerings while another provides offers that encourage prospects to buy. Define your target audience While your company likely serves a variety of audiences, a campaign can be more successful if it targets one particular segment. Be sure you are clear PREFERRED SOLUTIONS Marie Seipenko Member since: 1998 on who your target is, and then use that identity to define your message, graphics, offer and where your display ads will run. Display ad can be limited to particular audiences by demographic (age, gender, etc.); location (country, region, zip code); online behavior (sites visited, searches made); and context (in other words, your display ad can be placed on web sites related to your offerings). Be sure your display ad includes a good reason for someone to click on it. People who see display ads may be busy, or may not be in shopping mode right at that moment, so you need to give them as strong an incentive to take action as you can. For possible, review what has worked in your past sales efforts. For example, an offer of Schedule a free consultative, while Register today for a three-month offers to be the most compelling. Narrow your message to prospects the more successful your display ads pg. 2

3 with too little (boring copy or colors) or too much (lots of images and/or lines of text) going on can result in fewer clicks. Select the right format IRENE SMALLS & ASSOCIATES Irene Smalls Member since: 1988 are likely to be. Remember, internet users will see your display ad in the context of a web site with other display ads, images and content. Your task is to deliver a message that stands out. Display ads Online display ads come in seven standard sizes, down the side of a web page. You can determine the of display ad formats and see which ones get results. You may find that different formats work best on different sites. Once you have enough data, focus your budget on the best performers, continually ahead of time that you know what format will work best. 1 comscore research, December 7, comscore press release, November 8, 2010 Who s Who in Display Advertising your display ad is placed and how your display ad budget gets spent. The online display market involves three main players: Publishers run web sites that support ad serving. These include traditional media outlets (such as nytimes.com), blogs, e-commerce sites and many others. You can buy advertising space directly from publishers, though this can run into the tens of thousands of dollars for the most sought-after sites. Ad networks resell it to advertisers. They piece together ad space from many small web sites and from the less-visited pages of large sites. Ad networks allow you to reach large audiences at a fraction of the cost of placing display ads on prominent pages of major web sites. For instance, if you sell sports-related goods and hoped to place a display ad with espn.com, an ad network could potentially help you reach just as large an audience, but dispersed across many web sites and at a lower overall price. Ad exchanges selling of ad space through a technological platform. Publishers set a price for their space, and advertisers and agencies bid on inventory that meets their needs. Some ad exchanges allow pg. 3

4 Understanding Online Advertising Fee Structures you decide which make the most sense for your campaign and how to measure your Not all publishers, however, will make all of these options available. an ad network. your business and may be more likely to respond to a display ad in the future. advertisers trying to draw viewers to their web site or entice them to take advantage of an offer. The drawback to this type of pricing is that your display ad could generate many clicks that do not lead to business, potentially draining your ad budget. You pay only when someone viewing your display ad takes a desired action, such as making a purchase or registering for a webcast. This may be the ideal scenario since you assume no risk and simply need to know what you are willing to pay for a particular action. Few publishers offer this pricing model, though, since they take on all the risk. rate per 1,000 impressions, but pay different amounts for individual impressions based on how effective they might be, depending on the web site the display ad is running on, the day and time the display ad appears, and other variables. shifting resources toward impressions that may offer more of a payoff. pg. 4

5 Best Practices: Optimizing Display Ads Display advertising can deliver new customers and increase your revenue, and the more you try, measure and modify your approach, the more successful you may be. These time-tested best a leg up: Pair display with search Search marketing and display advertising can be a particularly powerful pairing. If you know how to boost the way your company is presented in search results, you make it easier for consumers who have seen your display ad to find you. Research the competition While your display ad campaign should be based on your own objectives, you may benefit from looking at what display ads your competition the details of their successes, try to assess how working, because non-performing display ads are usually discontinued. Measure Assess the performance of your display ad campaign by monitoring clicks, online or offline purchases, or other metrics. Depending on your three months before monitoring its success. Manage placement Be sure the web sites running your display ad a terrific display ad with crisp copy and standout to focus your placements on one major publisher, keep in mind that multiple media placements may yield better results. In a recent study by comscore, internet users spent significantly more time on the web sites of companies with multiple ad placements than they did on the sites of companies with just one or two 1. Be open to trying out different placements, then shifting your budget to those that prove most successful. Optimize your campaign It may seem like your job is done once the campaign is created, but continual refinement or optimization is actually the most important step because it allows you to systemically improve results over time. Once you collect sufficient data (a minimum of 100,000 impressions per site or display ad is considered a reasonable standard), look at underperforming display ads or placements and discontinue everything below the average. Then, you can test each individual element of your highperforming display ads, trying out minor copy variations or a different background color or font to see which gets the best response. Optimization is an ongoing process that takes times and patience, but the investment can pay off. In addition to boosting return on advertising spend (ROAS) for your current campaign, you can apply this information to subsequent programs. 1 comscore white paper, September 17, 2010 pg. 5

6 Help Maximize Your Online Sales with from OPEN This customizable advertising solution helps to manage the complexity of display advertising and allows small and medium business owners like you to create compelling display ads and place them where your audience is most likely to browse. can also help marketing or advertising agencies manage display ad campaigns for multiple clients. process, can help you engage new customers and increase sales, easily. With its tools at your disposal, you can place your first campaign in just a few hours and optimize your efforts with Save time and money (as well as mobile ads) or upload existing display ads. images or logos, adjusting fonts and more. changes across all size display ads. Pro Designed for businesses that need a simple, intuitive display advertising self-management tool, Pro lets you: pg. 6

7 Help Maximize Your Online Sales with from OPEN, cont d. Premium opportunities, Premium features all the benefits of Pro and more: Geared toward businesses with specific needs for ongoing maintenance of display ad efforts, the for Agencies Designed for advertising and marketing agencies that manage display advertising campaigns for multiple clients, for Agencies streamlines the production process by offering all the benefits of Pro and more: multiple account structure. Specialist who is ready to help you optimize your campaigns and maximize ROAS. New to display advertising? Let us get you started by talking to a Display Specialist today about your display ad campaign.

8 OPEN INSIGHT GUIDE SIMPLIFY DISPLAY ADVERTISING WITH ADMANAGER provides a turnkey solution that eliminates the pain points sometimes associated with display BEWFSUJTJOH $PNQBSF DSFBUJOH BOE QMBDJOH ZPVS EJTQMBZ BE PO ZPVS PXO WT VTJOH "E.BOBHFS On Your Own Lead Generation &YQFOTJWF VODFSUBJO SFTVMUT Leads and quantifiable results $SFBUJWF 1SPDFTT 5JNF DPOTVNJOH BOE DPTUMZ UP create, manage and test display ads $PNQMJDBUFE NFEJB QMBOOJOH process; expensive &ïdjfou DSFBUJWF BOE UFTUJOH QSPDFTTFT Media Sourcing Gain access to thousands of local and national publishers; manage media planning from one location CHOOSE A SOLUTION THAT S RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS For Businesses Pro Offers a turnkey solution for small and medium businesses to get started with display ads Provides functionality for advertisers already doing display ads &MJNJOBUFT OFFE GPS BE BHFODZ Premium For Agencies &MJUF for Agencies NA NA $POOFDUT UP UIPVTBOET PG QVCMJTIFST through a single location Provides access to Display Specialist Quantifies results of each campaign Offers status reports by phone, or live chat $BNQBJHO PQUJNJ[BUJPOT XFFLMZ PS more often Provides access to any web site or media source using third-party ad-serving technologies Offers multiple account structure for managing clients and their campaigns QH

9 Worksheet Thanks to geographic, behavioral and other types of targeting, display ads have the power to reach and waiting for sales to start rolling in. You can use this worksheet to help create and execute a display ad campaign that can help deliver on your digital marketing goals, whether you hope to attract new customers, reconnect with existing customers or build brand awareness. SET YOUR STRATEGY The correct strategy for your display ad campaign may vary depending on your campaign goals, so the first step should be defining those goals. 1. Define your goals. Think through what you would like your campaign to accomplish, whether it s improving brand recognition, generating sales for your latest product, promoting downloads of your new mobile app or some other objective. Determine one goal for each campaign. Put your notes on goals on the lines below. A strategy that integrates paid search and display ads is typically more effective than display ads on their own. Think about how you might integrate the two and note it here. pg. 9

10 Worksheet Think about the types of targeting that would most greatly benefit your campaign, remembering that it s best not to get too narrow in the beginning. Are locals most likely to buy from your business? Do you need to reach people involved in a certain activity (for example, skiing, if you own a ski equipment shop)? List the types of customers that give you the best returns and note any other groups that you would like to branch out to. 4. Refine strategy as you go. Remember that you can refine targeting and other strategies as you develop your campaign and begin collecting data on what works. Once you have ad performance data to review (later on in the process), note any changes to strategy that you need to make here. DEVELOP YOUR CAMPAIGN Armed with your goal and strategy, you can start developing the copy and images for your display ads. 1. Match visuals to your brand. Remember that the colors, fonts, images and other visuals used in your display ads should be consistent with your landing pages and your overall brand personality. For example, bright colors and cutesy copy don t make sense for a company whose web site is more conservative. These inconsistencies could alienate customers or create confusion. List the images and other elements you might include in a display ad and think about how well they match your web site and marketing materials. pg. 10

11 Worksheet 2. Write copy. Keep your display ad s text short and focused on a single message. Too many lines of text or too many different images could confuse the user and detract from your call to action. Make sure this call to action is clear and specific, especially with direct response ads where the goal is to generate sales or clicks. Use this space to write a draft of one display ad, and compare it with display ads that you find effective. Consider showing the copy to a colleague for feedback. 3. Refer back to your goal. Once you develop each display ad, make sure it aligns with your original goal and adjust if needed. Write a new draft of your display ad and be open to continually refining after you place your display ads and begin measuring their effectiveness. PLACE YOUR ADS including news sites, social networking sites, ecommerce sites and more. You have the option to negotiate directly with publishers to place your display ads. Ad networks, which purchase remnant inventory from these publishers and resell the ad space to clients, are another option. Ad exchanges facilitate the buying and selling of ad inventory through a bidding system. As you research specific options, list those that you re considering and any pros and cons associated with them here. pg. 11

12 Worksheet 2. Start broad. Rather than focusing on a single publisher, cast a wide net and use a multiple media placement strategy that can help reinforce brand recognition and ensure that your display ads reach a wide audience. As you continue researching, note the publishers you think your display ad is best-suited to here. OPTIMIZE YOUR CAMPAIGN Optimization is an ongoing process of testing and refining various aspects of your display ad campaign. Allocate a minimum of $1,000 per campaign per month in order to optimize quickly and effectively. 100,000 impressions per display ad is considered a good benchmark for collecting data. Note how your display ad is performing after 100,000 impressions. Have your online and/or offline sales increased? Have you noticed increased interest in your business? 2. Pause underperformers. If you re running multiple display ads, look at their overall performance, pause the display ads or campaigns that are performing below the average and reallocate funds to the better performers. Which display ads do you need to pause? What is it about them do you think was not working? pg. 12

13 Worksheet MEASURE YOUR SUCCESS There are a number of ways to quantify the effectiveness of a display ad campaign, including click-through rates, conversion rates and sales figures attributed to that campaign. To determine your ROAS, divide revenue attributed to the ad source by the cost of that ad source. (The revenue should be higher than the cost of the ad source.) Brand recognition can be harder to quantify than direct response but may manifest itself in more social media followers or keyword searches, so look at those metrics. Brand campaigns should also employ a specific landing page with tracking. What lifts in brand recognition have you noticed since you started your campaign? Continuing to collect ad performance data is crucial, because the information you glean from ad clicks, traffic on a campaign-specific landing page, uptick in social media followers and other metrics can help you measure the campaign s success. It may also be useful in developing future campaigns. Use this space to note any lessons learned from your current campaign. pg. 13

14 Key Online Advertising Terms The more you understand digital marketing concepts, the more effective your display advertising campaigns may be. The following terms can help boost your knowledge of online advertising and improve your results: Online marketplace that facilitates the buying and selling of advertising inventory through a bidding system rather than negotiations between advertisers and publishers. Banner Ad: behavior, such as the sites they visit or searches they conduct, and then displays ads that are relevant to that user. A line of text that urges the user to take a desired action (often clicking to a Pricing model where advertisers pay only when a consumer takes a desired action. Few publishers use this model, because it forces them to assume all the risk. Pricing model more commonly used in search advertising but is also used in Pricing model commonly used in display advertising, in which an advertiser pays per 1,000 times a display ad is shown. Display Advertising: Form of advertising that uses a combination of text, logos, images or other items to encourage immediate purchases and build brand recognition. Geo-targeting: Based on information such as internet protocol (IP) address, zip code or region, geo-targeting delivers geographically relevant display ads to the internet user. Internet Protocol (IP) Address: The unique number assigned to a computer, printer or other electronic device to identify it. IP addresses can be permanently fixed (called a static IP address) or assigned each time the device boots up (called a dynamic IP address). Landing Page: A single web page, often linked to from a display or search ad, created with the goal of converting visitors into customers, subscribers or other engaged parties. tested to determine the most effective combination. Return on Advertising Spending (ROAS): Refers to the dollars earned per dollars spent on a display ad campaign, calculated by dividing revenue attributed to the ad source by the cost of that ad source. pg. 14

15 Notes open.com openforum.com Visit.com for full terms, conditions, and restrictions. is provided by AdReady, Inc., under an account agreement between the customer and AdReady, Inc. AdReady is solely responsible for the performance of American Express Bank, FSB. all rights reserved. pg. 15