Online Advertising
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008Welcome back!
How to Make the Most of Your Online Advertising
Mention the word “advertising” and it sends a shudder down many online business owners spine. In order to be successful with online advertising there must be a number of key elements. A winning advertisement will appeal to your target audience, it will be positioned in a place where they will see the advertisement and it will have a measurable outcome.
Make the most of your advertising by appealing to your target audience. To appeal to your target audience you must invest time doing some research. To understand your audience it’s important to know not only what their problems are but what their fears, desires, and passions are. This means demographic and psychographic analysis. You can do this through keyword research or asking surveys to your consumers.
Once you understand your audience then you can craft a compelling internet advertisement which will address their concerns, needs, and desires. A successful online advertisement doesn’t need to capture your audiences’ imagination and sell them your brand image. What it does need to do is capture their attention, make a compelling promise, back it up with some proof or credibility and then provide them some means to act – a measurable call to action. “Purchase now.” “Visit this site to claim your free report,”
The second phase of online making - the most of your advertising is by placing your advertisement in a location where your target audience will see it. This involves both research and trial and error on your part. Locate sites that are complimentary in your niche to advertise on. Consider what your customer might do before or after they make a purchase from you.
Also look to find out where your competition is advertising. If they’re advertising on certain sites then you know you may have success there too.
The closing element in making the most of your advertising is to make sure you can track and calculate results. The only way to know if your advertisement is hitting the mark is to make sure you have data to compare. One excellent way to make sure you have a call to action.
A call to action is a statement which tells your reader what to do next. It is the “call now,” “buy now,” or “grab your etc” command.
Couple that with the data from the number of people who have viewed the advertisement – this data is usually provided by the place you buy your advertising space – and you have a percentage to compare with other advertisements.
For example, if you place an advertisement in a internet marketing magazine with a readership of 100,000 and 500 people respond to the ad then you have a 5% response rate. Compare that to an ad that runs for 10 days on a website that has 10,000 views a day and 1000 click through or results in a 10% response rate. If the ads cost the same then you would likely repeat the website advertisement more frequently for a bigger return on investment.
Online advertising can be a huge way to build your income when it is approached strategically and you keep these factors for effective advertising tips on hand.
