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How Online Advertising Works
(April 13, 2001) As we mentioned yesterday, there are four
parts to an online ad:
- The ad (button, banner or other tool) itself
(the ad);
- The media outlet that features the ad (the
property)
- The page that the ad points to (the link);
and
- The content of the page (the
sell)
These four pieces
work together to produce branding, sales leads and in some cases, actual
sales. A good ad harnesses all four into a seamless experience for the
user. In other words, the ad attracts the right eyes from the right media
outlet; those eyes are given awareness of the name and the opportunity to
learn more; the link leads to a well constructed sales proposition and the
sell is clearly targeted at the eyes that see it.
The Ad
Graphic Ads appear
as buttons, banners or those new huge things - mega popups. Text ads
appear somewhere in the body of an email or online periodical. Whatever
the size, shape or content, the ad needs to convey the name of the product
or company and (if sales are important) encourage the reader to click.
Given the tiny space, it's not surprising that many ad agencies are
running away from online advertising.
Although advertising agencies and the emerging
companies who claim to be able to help with Branding, all generally have
'creative departments', the work of building an effective graphic ad tends
to have to low a return for their tastes. Graphic ads beg for a company
with rapid turn-around innovation at low cost. Properly positioned, a
recurring ad in a high traffic location produces amazing results.
If the ad is going to encourage a reader beyond
brand awareness, it has to cross an attention span threshold. That is, the
ad that grabs attention will be the one that gets clicked. We favor bright
colors and a clear message to "click here". The bluntness required by the
space limitations often poses a problem.
The
Property
The truth is that you have to understand the property and
its demographics before you engineer the ad and the sell. Each web
property reaches a very specific set of readers. The Electronic Recruiting
News (this site), for example, focuses on issues of interest to decision
makers in the Human Capital Arena (leaders and investors). Other
Recruiting sites reach lots of entry level Recruiters (good places to
advertise for training or purchases in the $300 range). Still others reach
Recruiters as a part of a larger audience (general HR sites).
To our knowledge, there are no advertising
agencies that serve our niche particularly effectively. That means that
you are on your own in terms of figuring out which site works best for you
for which things. You may want the entire community of HR professionals to
know about your company. Or, you may only want to communicate with
interested buyers. Figuring out which property will serve your needs
involves fairly intensive research. In the final analysis, you end up
making a gut judgment and testing it.
The
Link
This is the place in which you can add to your heartbreak by
using the new services of Electronic Ad Agencies like Double click. By
controlling the link, these firms claim to be able to provide accurate
measurement of the traffic generated by the ad. The truth is that the bugs
are not worked out of these systems just yet. They tend to be staffed by
inexperienced personnel who don't understand the point of their own
product.
That said, making a specific link a specific
destination for one and only one specific ad can give you a way to count
much of the traffic associated with the ad. There are any number of
caveats to the idea but at least it can give you something to count. This
should give you the ability to see the relative effectiveness of various
media properties.
The
Sell
This is, surprisingly, the tough part. Knowing what you are
selling and who you are selling it to is the essence of good advertising.
Our industry has been so tiny and parochial for so long that it's hard to
understand just how sophisticated the buyers have become (in spite of
their reputation). When a user clicks on an ad, the page that opens up
should be directly targeted to sell to that user.
It rarely is.
The page that a user reaches when clicking on
an advertisement should be particularly clear about
- Any actions you want the user to take;
- The value that the user will get from taking
those actions;
- The features of your product you wish to
emphasize; and,
- the benefit a user will get from discovering
more.
There are
many additional layers of subtlety beyond these basics. For starters, this
is a simple introduction to the pieces of effective online advertising.
- John
Sumser
Contacting Us:
Call, fax, write, email. We'd love to
talk about your project.
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