Cheap and Effective Advertising On A Tight Budget

Online Advertising

Depending on your perspective, advertising has been one of the more spectacular failures of the Internet boom.  Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent by hundreds of companies without measurable gain.  Most of the original online ad pioneers have merged and consolidated and still have ultimately failed.  So why would you want to join the list of those who have spent so much on Internet ads?

There are at least two good reasons.  First, because service and media costs are way down.  And second, because the growing trend in online advertising and promotion is that the largest companies in the world have begun spending more dollars online.  They and their agencies are the most savvy marketers in the business and they are forcing the kind of fundamental change that is bringing discipline to the market.  They may have tried - and erred - but they learned along the way, and they are passing those lessons on.  What do they know about online advertising that you may not?

Have a Goal, Create A Plan

One thing that online advertising has taught - the same lesson taught by decades of print and TV advertising - is to have a goal before you launch a campaign.  Decide what your company wants to get out of its online advertising.  Are you looking for increased revenues through online sales?  Then try dangling specific discount offers in front of the most targeted audience, maybe through email.  Capturing new customers?  Make sure your message is short and sweet, solving everyday problems known to your customers.  Building brand awareness?  Keep your logo and contact information prominently displayed and cast a broader audience net.

No matter your goal, be clear on your expectations and outline a plan.  Then measure each step of the process against the end goal.

Know Your Customer, Know Your Audience, Find Your Target

How many years have you been in business?  Ten, fifteen, more?  You know your customers pretty well - and you know your next customer almost as well.  With that in mind, put together a list of the type of customer, some of their characteristics and where you have located them in the past (directory, trade association, industry magazines, mailing lists).  You can be certain there is an online equivalent.  Online advertising also offers the option of search engine advertising where your paid link shows up next to the search results for the key words that you select.  Yahoo, Google and Overture are some search engines you might consider.  TIP 1:  Share your goal and targeted audience demographics with your selected online publisher or search engine - try to get an idea how many potential customers they estimate in their current audience.  TIP 2:  Also "test" the site(s) by seeing if any of your competitors advertise; it is easy to do with search engines - simply search on the keywords that best describe your audience demographics and business description.

Building Ad Creative

If you are planning on going online with an advertising campaign, you are in luck.  All costs are down dramatically, but ad creative methods have become proven, very focused - and very inexpensive.  Basic HTML or Flash ads that used to cost $1,000 or more from designers can be had for $100 to $200, assuming that you already have the design.  (If you don't have a design in mind, the costs will go up substantially because of hiring a good designer.)  If you do have a design sense or even just a sense of what you want by looking at your existing print ads or seeing other ads on the Web, engage a web designer to put together a package of ads.  TIP 3:  Make sure your logo is on the top portion of the ad media and that you also give a web site URL and phone number.  Give your audience every opportunity to contact you wherever they are and however they may choose.  TIP 4:  Keep the ad "weight" (the size of the ad creative is measured in kilobytes) down.  Many networks have restrictions on ad file sizes and some may even charge a premium (disguised as a setup fee) for various formats or sizes because of the higher bandwidth cost of transmitting your ad across a network.

Keep The Message Simple - Very Simple

Keep your messages distinct and simple.  You have a fraction of a second to catch someone's eye with your ad.  Let your message "solve" a typical customer problem in one "sound byte."  If they recognize the problem / solution your message and brand are now joined.  If they have the problem, the chances are good that your message will resonate.  Either way, your logo, your simple message each tell the customer that "this is your business".  TIP 5:  For B2B advertising, avoid the pop-up and other offensive ad formats.  As annoying as you find those ad formats is about how annoying others find them!  Let your message do the talking for you.

Ad Purchasing

Most small businesses are more than happy to pay for ads based on success, measured in the number of 'click-throughs' (to your web site) or even the dollar volume of sales made (CPC-based - cost-per-click).  Most site publishers, however, sell their ad inventory based on the number of ad impressions generated during a campaign or time period (CPM-based - cost per thousand impressions).   When you are speaking with a publisher, find out what their ad programs are based on and what is their audience make-up that most closely resembles your targeted group.  Then negotiate!  TIP 6:  If you are running an online store and your ad goal is to increase sales, you will want to speak with BizRate.com or other shopping services about their CPC programs.  BizRate's VP, Business Development, Gary Ervin, is among the sharper and more reasonable development managers in the Web space.  He and his company understand that your goal is to increase online sales and they do an excellent job for their merchants, including a number of them whom we have referred.

Whatever your goal, online advertising can work for your company.  It is relatively cheap, it can open new channels for you and, above all, it can build market awareness about your company.