No Budget! Just ROI
December 16, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Recently a prospective client said they had no budget for online advertising. I immediately thought he was trying to be misleading as this company’s advertisements appear on a number of sites on the internet. So I said to this to the company’s marketing manager that I’d seen there ads on sites on the internet and they said, we have no budget, just ROI. At the time their strategy wasn’t clear to me, but after learning and seeing it action, I now understand it backwards. Since that first conversation, I’ve heard this a number of times after talking with prospective clients and thought its worth sharing with you.
Most professionally run online stores know their conversion rates when a particular audience visits their store, ie a 5% conversion rate means that for every 100 people that visit the site, 5 actually make a purchase. Apart from conversion rates, most ecommerce managers know how many times consumers visit the online store before they purchase, how many pages they’ll look at, where they are located and how much they usually spend. Most of this intelligence can be sourced from various web analytic tools like Google Analytics or Web Trends as well as custom reports and metrics.
So after they know the kind of customer that spends, the challenge is how to find these consumers online, and then drive them to the store. Savvy advertisers will generally run a short trial campaign for say 2 – 4 weeks with a budget of say $5000 to see what kind of audience an advertiser like Gourmet Ads delivers and if they are actually buyers. Some channels drive traffic, but they don’t buy.
Once these savvy advertisers know the conversion rate, they can work out the return on investment (ROI) on the advertising costs. Once they’ve got a return on investment in mind, they’ll book ongoing advertising over multiple months, monitoring the return on investment and not the budget. As long as the sales continue these savvy advertisers purely monitor the sales and renew the advertising. The key here isn’t to get complacent; it’s essential to continually change the advertising message, branding and look and feel of the advertising as well as the deal to ensure that audiences continue to be engaged with the advertising.
Because the quality of the click in vertical advertising networks is much more qualified than horizontal networks, we can continue to drive the same levels of return on investment for advertisers over time. See a recent post titled Vertical Advertising Increases ROI.
If you’d like to learn more about the Gourmet Ads vertical advertising network, request a media kit.
Advertising Online Competitions
December 11, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
One way of engaging with your brand is with online competitions or giveaways, especially if your product is a high value, sought after product like a cooking appliance or chef’s knife. When ever there is the chance to win a $1000 blender or wine fridge, you can often get some very useful information from respondents. Have consumer intelligence can be a very powerful asset. Consumers are burned out from so many spam emails and they don’t sign up for email lists with reckless abandon like they once did. You have to show significant value if you want their details and everybody loves the chance to win free stuff.
If people are signing up to win your product, there’s a good chance they’re interested in it and that they would make good prospects for future customers. Getting these people on your mailing list helps you create your own super-targeted audience to advertise to. Once the competition ends you will have a nice list to market to.
So once you’ve set up your competition, how do you get people to see it and enter the competition? Gourmet Ads can position your online competition next to recipes right where your target audience lives. Food news stories and even short cooking videos attract your target market and are a great place for your contest to be advertised. Gourmet Ads provides companies running online competitions a platform to target respondents such as females between 27 -55 years old who love to cook - see Our Audience.
These days if you aren’t hitting your target market with your advertising you are basically throwing money into the wind and hoping it lands somewhere useful. It takes a carefully planned strategy to find your customers, introduce yourself, brand yourself and make the sale. Advertising an online competition next to recipe ads and food news is the perfect way to reach your target market and build your list.
If you online competition isn’t on target and you’d like to give it a boost, contact us and we’ll quickly develop a Digital Media Plan to start driving entries.
Geo Targeting Advertising
December 9, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
No matter if you are an international, national or local business, when advertising online it’s important to book a campaign that specifically targets your audience. One such way is by using geo targeting as part of your online advertising campaign.
Geo targeting uses the IP address of the visitor to determine their actual location and then serves a relevant advertisement by locality. ie, so if you are from San Francisco, you’ll see an advertisement relevant to San Francisco, California or the USA depending on the campaign and advertiser.
Every campaign that Gourmet Ads runs, uses some sort of geo targeting to ensure that visitors are served not only a specific ad, but a geographically correct advertisement. For us, geo targeting is really the second level of targeting, because Gourmet Ads is a vertical advertising network, meaning we run relevant advertising in a relevant vertical.
We allow clients to choose geo targeting by the country; state; city; suburb; postcode or the area code you want to focus on (as well as out other campaign targeting options available). This ensures that your advertisement is only being viewed by the people who are most likely to become customers and maximizes advertising effectiveness, providing a higher return on your investment. Geo targeting can make all the difference in the world to your budget.
Unlike Gourmet Ads, many large well know recipe websites have the ability to undertake geo targeting but choose not to. I’ve even heard of some publishers demanding an extra 10% to invoke geo targeting for campaigns. This means if an advertiser doesn’t choose to have geo targeting (to save the 10%) as part of their campaign their advertising dollars are being wasted on the wrong audience. So advertising relevant to San Francisco would be served right around the world to non-relevant audiences like in India, the UK or Australia. A simple waste of money if your products are not available in these locations.
So if you’d like to preserve your advertising budget and only run advertising to relevant audiences, contact us for a media kit and we’ll develop a digital media plan that targets your audience to increase sales and profit margins.
2009 Media Planning
November 18, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
For many food and wine companies 2009 media planning is well underway and the trend we’re already seeing is increased online budgets across the board. Many of the companies we deal directly with in the food, wine, beer, tourism and kitchen appliance industries are all looking at online as a cost effective channel to achieve growth in this economic downturn.
It seems that this increased online trend is rather consistent around the globe, especially in both our major markets of the USA and Australia. We believe the increased activity with 2009 media planning is because many companies are reducing their outdoor, print, TV and radio campaigns and are finally shifting over to online.
So how can we help your 2009 Media Planning? Gourmet Ads can help you or your advertising agency develop your 12 month plan to target your audience online throughout the year. By booking media in advance (either 6 month or 12 months) allows us to offers significant discounts on CPM rates, increasing your return on investment.
If you have a Request for Proposal (RFP) or just want to learn more about Gourmet Ads, then simply request a media kit and one of our sales team will be in touch.
Vertical Advertising Increases ROI
November 13, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
Times are tough, economically speaking, and most people are being more aware of their spending habits. Everyone wants to make the most of their money and advertisers are no exception. Advertisers want and need to get the highest ROI (Return on Investment) possible for every ad they purchase. The latest statistics suggest that the best way for advertisers to increase their ROI is through vertical advertising online. Gourmet Ads is a vertical advertising network for food, wine and beer. Its all we do!
Vertical advertising is actually the internet advertising world’s name for the most highly targeted and effective advertising you can get. When using a vertical advertising network to market a product its all about relevancy; such as wine is advertised specifically on websites about wine. A food product, such as low-fat cooking spray would be advertised on a page that specializes in low-fat cooking or even just food in general. Overall Vertical advertising provides a highly qualified click.
Every advertiser knows that with traditional forms of advertising you basically throw your ads out in front of a large group of people and hope that a certain percentage of them are in your target market. But, with vertical advertising all of your advertising dollars are being focused directly on your target market. Vertical advertising provides significant ROI because only people who might be interested in your product see your advertising.
With consumers tightening their belts and decreasing their spending, it is more important now than ever to get a good ROI and create a strong brand image with consumers. Advertisers need their product to be at the forefront of the consumer’s mind every time they make a purchase in order to survive the tough economic times ahead. Historically it has been the companies that understood targeted advertising and the importance of branding that not only survived, but thrived during the worst economic times. In this day and age, vertical advertising is the best way to get a good ROI and increase brand awareness.
To find out more about how vertical advertising can work for your product? Contact us today for information on developing your vertical advertising campaign.
FMCG Advertising Online
November 11, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
For many years FMCG advertising online was virtually non-existent because these products could rely on a combination of print and media ads coupled with in-store promotions to create brand awareness and maintain their market share. But, with so many supermarkets selling their own private labels (house brands like Woolworths Select ) that compete with the top name brands, they are less likely to give fair advertising space in-store for these products. These days, FMCG advertising online helps products like toothpaste, breakfast cereal and dishwasher detergent find alternative ways of branding their products. Highly targeted ads that appear next to recipes are a great way to get a message out to the person who does the majority of the grocery shopping in a home.
FMCG Advertising Online Targets Your Specific Audience
With FMCG advertising online the ads can really focus in on the people most likely to buy particular products. For instance, turkey cooking bags can appear next to recipes for roasting the perfect turkey. A toothpaste that fights tooth stains might do well next to a recipe for blueberry pie or cranberry sauce. And since everything that is cooked means dishes to do, dishwasher detergent can be placed next to just about any recipe with great results.
The reality in this day and age is that if a product isn’t online it almost doesn’t exist in the minds of most consumers. Smart placement of FMCG advertising online where people in the target market are most likely to see it, can have a strong influence on the brand a customer chooses when they walk into a store and are faced with the choice of a brand name or the house brand.
For more information on advertising your FMCG products online or to request a digital media plan for your FMCG campaign, contact us
Online Branding Campaigns
October 12, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
Many online marketers believe that the only metric to measure the success of an online campaign is the click through rate. This can certainly be true for advertising campaigns which need to take viewers to their website or landing page to engage with them, i.e. download a coupon or register for updates. But click through rate isn’t the only metric for measuring the success of an online advertising campaign.
Branding Campaigns tell the audience about a product as well as how they can buy the product and are in many ways very similar to a traditional print, radio or TV campaign. The key concept in running an online branding campaign for your food, wine or beer brand is that if you put a positive message about your company in front of enough people for enough time, they will think about your company when they’re ready to buy.
Online Branding Campaigns especially suit products in the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) space like beverages, groceries, tea/coffee, frozen products, spreads, cereals, pasta and kitchen cleaners to name just a few. In just a few frames of a flash advertisement you’ll need to get across the unique selling point of your product, which could be that it’s cholesterol free, organic or even easy to prepare. You’ll also need to mention where you can purchase the product.
So what’s the ultimate metric for a successful online branding campaign? That’s easy. Sales of your product.
You’ve got your targets to make, so why not undertake a wide reaching online branding campaign for your food, wine or beer brand. Contact us for a proposal.
Christmas Advertising
October 12, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
Christmas is not only a great time for sales of gifts, but is also considered the peak season for sales of retail products such as beer, wine and food products in supermarkets and liquor stores. To ensure that your product stands out on the shelves it’s important to book a Christmas Advertising campaign which reaches consumers, engages with them and creates a relationship well before they reach the store. The campaign could even talk about the price or specials that you are running.
The ideal Christmas Advertising strategy is a two month campaign starting on the 1st of November and running till after New Years day. This will give maximum exposure of your product in the market place and if booked early enough will be cost effective as media often books up quickly or becomes expensive at this time of year.
Looking at Google trends from last years festive season, searches for Christmas related recipes absolutely peaked during this time driving increased traffic to recipe websites and food blogs. The same can be seen in the wine space
with grape varieties being highly searched.
Here is a search for turkey recipes which shows the intense amounts of search during this time.
There is a similar trend for “Champagne” searches around Christmas and New Years Eve.
These are consumers that are looking for products and haven’t made a decision on the brand yet. So it’s a great time to run an advertising campaign to capture, influence and engage this audience online.
If you are looking at having your products advertised to our Food Audience or Wine Audience, and haven’t yet booked your Christmas Advertising campaign yet, contact us for a proposal.
