Do Business Well

The first step in designing your ad campaign is to define your customer. You need to be very specific about the age, gender, marital status, geographic location, religion, political affiliation, occupation, educational level, and so on so that you can buy the proper ad placement.

If you’re selling games for children, you don’t want to advertise on a site or in a newsletter that sells apparel. So, knowing your customer is of prime importance. The more accurate you can be in defining your most likely customer, the easier it is to refine your message and select the appropriate media to reach them.

Speaking of refining your message, identifying your customer’s specific wants and needs is necessary to write the proper copy to get them to act on your message. Sure, you sell computers. But different people use computers in different ways. Do you craft your advertising message to consumers who need a computer for the home, their business, or just to surf the Web? Your customers‘ different wants and needs will dictate the message you send them.

Finally, be sure that your ad message includes who you are, what you do, and why the consumer should buy from you. Then tell them what they should do next—the call to action—if they are interested in what you are selling.

CPA, CPT, and CPS

The last group of abbreviations in this advertising alphabet soup is CPA, CPT, and CPS. All three of these fall, more or less, under the same umbrella. Using these schemes you are paying only for an actual response to an offer, not just a view or click-through.

CPA (Cost per action) This is the number of times the desired action takes place on your site, such as a sale, a registration, or a download. Here you want to pay only for those people who actually take action. They’ve viewed your ad, clicked it, and responded by actually buying something or downloading a piece of software. You can expect normal direct mail response rates from 1% to 3% of those who respond to your ad. If your offer is targeted and on a targeted site, the response could go as high as 5%, 10%, even 25%.

CPT (Cost per transaction) This is the cost per lead. This type of banner ad is similar to CPA but you are paying only for those people who click your banner ad and either fill out a registration form or are sent to a page on your site where they can view the full offer.

CPS (Cost per sale) Like CPA, you are paying only for leads that generate a sale.

Not every one of these approaches is perfect for everyone. You need to decide what type of action you are willing to pay for, and then negotiate your best deal. Just as there is room on the Web for more than one successful business model, what might suit one content site might not suit another, and what might suit one advertiser might not suit another.

It’s good to keep in mind that the number of sites are accelerating on the Web and there is now an overabundance of sites and ad serving companies that are selling ad space. There is literally a glut of ad space on the Web. So be patient. Check out each opportunity against the objectives of your ad campaign. And remember that what might work on one site—impressions or responses—might not work on another.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Online Advertising Strategies and Placement

• Banner Ads and Ad Networks Aid Online Website
• Five Predictions for trends in Internet Marketing : WEBPROMOTE
• Where to run for help? Email Marketing, Web Hosting Providers
• Does Advertising have a Future?
• The Language of Net Advertising
• Categorizing Internet Direct Marketing Players continue...
• Expenditure on Advertising: Would I have made more Profit if I had Spent less on Advertising? (10-18)
• I Made My Own Advertising Work part 3
• Who will Handle Commercial Marketing Integration?
• Expenditure on Advertising: Would I have made more Profit if I had Spent less on Advertising? (1-9)

6 Comments »