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Promotion On A Budget
by Michael Bloch
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
The introduction of "pay per view" entries with major
search engines and indices has created yet another challenge
for the web master with a tight budget. It has been difficult
enough to get our web pages a decent ranking and now we are faced
with the prospect of having to spend more money in order to get
noticed. The multinationals may have huge reserves of funds for
this type of marketing, but most of us tend to rely on more manual
means to promote our web sites. This is extraordinarily time
consuming. So, is the "pay per view" method worth it for the
little guy?
First, let's understand exactly how "pay per view" works.
Go to a search engine such as Google and type "web" into the
search box. It will list over 85 million entries. Pay per view
would allow a company to be at the top of the list. But notice
that on the results page there is little or no sponsored (pay
per view) advertisements based on this search term. The reason
is simple. It would cost an absolute fortune as this word is
too generic and it costs x number of cents every time the ad
is displayed. The cost of the ad needs to be offset by the number
of click throughs resulting from it. Each click through is a
potential customer.
Now try typing in "web site design". On Google at present, it
will return around 1.8 million results. That's still a lot of
competition. A number of sponsors ads will appear at the beginning
of the results. They are targeting a specific group, so these
ads will prove more profitable. The ads entice consumers to visit
the advertisers site. But because this is still a relatively
common search phrase for this target market, the ads will be
expensive when taking into account the display/click through
conversion percentages.
When using pay per view (ad impressions/displays) campaigns with
search engines and indices, it is important to "buy" very well
defined keywords or phrases. The term "buying" actually means
renting. For the period of your campaign, any time a customer
types in that particular word or phrase exactly, your advertisement
will show up in the results. You can also narrow your target
market by specifying the language and countries of your focus.
In the "web site design" example, there is competition between
the paying sponsors. Try to think of a term that people may use
in conjunction with your product. Then type that in to the search
engine and see what comes back. If there are no other sponsors
for that term, you have virgin territory! Even if the use of
that keyword or phrase is lower than a more generic one, the
click-through rate will probably be higher. Most of the major
search engines can give you statistics on particular keyword
searches as you are running through the "buying" process. Study
those figures carefully and experiment with different keywords
and phrases.
Recently, I carried out two mini campaigns.
The first campaign in summary looks like this:
Keyword/Phrase: free web tools, free web content
Countries: UK, USA, Canada, Australia
$ spent so far: US$20.00
Impressions: 1394
Click throughs: 21
Click through Percentage:1.51%
Each potential customer sent to my site under this campaign cost
me an average of US$0.95
The second campaign (which is still running - rarer keywords
and phrases):
Keyword/Phrase: free site tools, free site content
$ spent so far: US$1.40
Impressions so far: 91
Click throughs so far: 7
Click through Percentage :7.53%
Each potential customer sent to my site under this campaign has
cost me an average of US$.20
Both of these campaigns were started on exactly the same day.
While slower in gaining click throughs, the second campaign is
definitely the better deal as the conversion rate is a great
deal higher. This is something that is very important to consider
when choosing your keywords. Also remember that not all of the
potential customers that go to your site via the ad will purchase
your product. So the actual cost of advertisement against sale
is a great deal higher. Examine your profit margins before spending
the advertising money - it may not be worth it. For the webmaster
with a small, light traffic site, viral marketing techniques
are probably a better way to go. It is more effort, but better
results at a lower cost.
In the next article, I'll examine the "pay per click" options
now currently on offer from major search engines and indices.
Further information on viral marketing, web design, implementation
techniques and other concepts mentioned in this article can be
found on my site, www.tamingthebeast.net. (This paragraph and
in fact this entire article is an example of viral marketing!).
Promote, promote, promote - that's what it's all about!
Michael Bloch
Taming the Beast.net
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
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