What is a mid-tail publisher site?
May 20, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
A while ago we talked about Mid Tail Advertising and we specifically talked about the audience makeup and why it is important to reach these highly engaged audiences. The Mid Tail Advertising blog has stayed in the top ten blogs since we published it.
However the team at Gourmet Ads are still frequently asked by advertisers and advertising agencies, what is a mid-tail publisher site? With that in mind I thought we’d discuss that in detail and delve a little deeper and talk about what we look for when searching for sites to join the network.
So what’s a Mid-tail publisher ? It’s a premium niche site which produces great content. So in the food space think of food blogs, food video sites, niche recipe websites and even web 2.0 applications like a recipe application for your iPhone. Some of the food sites in Gourmet Ads network are just about a particular topic like baking or cuisine like Mexican. They have dedicated and active audiences which participate in the conversation.
Many sites in the Mid-tail that Gourmet Ads represent have a cult like following with audiences visiting regularly throughout the month to read new content or participate. Some even attract users multiple times per day and bring them back by using site features such as RSS to deliver new content throughout the day.
So what does Gourmet Ads look for in Mid-tail publisher? Well from our perspective, a mid-tail publisher site is assessed from 4 separate directions, these being; Branding, Audience, Traffic and Content.
Branding
Does the website have a brand? Is it recognizable? Is there are personality behind the brand? Does it ad value to the entire Gourmet Ads network? Well it continue to grow?
Audience
It’s important that the sites which are part of network have a consistent audience to the rest of our network. We typically reach Women aged 27 -55 years old and are considered the main household grocery buyer. Does this audience fit our overall audience makeup?
Traffic
Using a variety of tools we look at metrics from Google PageRank to Alexa, through to Quantcast and even the website itself to identify possible traffic volumes. We look for sites that are doing between page views between 50k to 10 million pages per month. However if the website or blog is quality they need to be doing just 5k in pages a month.
Content
Is the site producing quality content? Is it original and unique? Would our clients like to advertise beside the content? Other things we look for is Email Newsletter as well as a strong RSS audience (ie Feed Burner Metrics).
The advantages of advertising on a Mid-tail publisher site:
- Highly engaged audiences
- Sites are frequently visited
- Many sites have a cult like following
- Inexpensive CPM rates compared to large portals
- Audiences range from 50k to 10 million pages per month
So if you looking at running an advertising campaign and would like to include Mid-tail sites in the media plan, contact Gourmet Ads and we’ll develop a customised digital media plan for your consideration. Start by downloading the Gourmet Ads Media Kit or Request a Proposal from us.
Removing Websites
March 18, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
With campaign performance and return on investment high on our focus for advertisers, we’ve today removed two publishers (a blog and a website) that just haven’t been performing for our advertisers. It might sound peculiar for an advertising network to remove sites, but we felt it was in the best interest for all our advertisers.
It isn’t unusual for Gourmet Ads to remove sites from a campaign because they are not performing. In fact that’s the way we optimize campaigns by removing either an ad unit from a campaign or a publisher from a campaign. However this is the first time we’ve decided to systematically remove publishers from the Gourmet Ads network.
In the current economic climate, many advertisers are now looking for a combination of both branding and performance campaigns. With this in mind, it’s not only important for us to provide a relevant vertical in the food or wine space, but a platform that is geared for return on investment.
If you’d like to explore some of our advertising options, download the Gourmet Ads Media Kit or Request a Proposal from us.
Mid-Tail Advertising
March 17, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · 1 Comment
Take a quick think of where you visit on the Internet these days. Sure you visit Top 100 sites like CNN, ESPN and MSN but apart from those where else do you visit?
If you’re like most other people you’ll spend the majority of your time online on niche content sites and blogs. Why? Because this is where a great deal of content you’re interested in is being published these days. Its not in the large portal like sites, and it’s generally created by real people and not corporations. Online advertisers have started referring to these sorts of sites as the Mid-tail.
So what’s the Mid-tail of the Internet? It’s a collection of premium niche sites which produce great content and typically have between 50k to 10 million pages per month. So in the food space think of food blogs, food video sites, niche recipe websites and even web 2.0 applications like a recipe application for your iPhone. Some of the food sites in Gourmet Ads network are just about a particular topic like baking or cuisine like Mexican. They have dedicated and active audiences which participate in the conversation.
Many sites in the Mid-tail that Gourmet Ads represent have a cult like following with audiences visiting regularly throughout the month to read new content or participate. Some even attract users multiple times per day and bring them back by using site features such as RSS to deliver new content throughout the day.
Mid-tail Advertising is important for any advertising campaign because it brings your message to a wider audience than just advertising a top 100 site. Mid-tail sites deliver valuable audiences, and it’s these audiences which are generally much more engaged than those on major sites. What’s more they are more active and are often looking for the next big thing in their space. As more and more internet users are moving away from the portals and large top 100 sites, Mid-tail sites will be crucial for advertisers to include in their media plans.
From a financial perspective, advertising in the mid tail is often less expensive than advertising on a major site, and when running a campaign with Gourmet Ads, you can choose the sites and even ad placements. By doing hand selected ad placements your click though through and return on investment will be increased.
The advantages of Mid-tail Advertising are;
- Highly engaged audiences
- Sites are frequently visited
- Many sites have a cult like following
- Inexpensive CPM rates compared to large portals
- Audiences range from 50k to 10 million pages per month
So if you looking at running an advertising campaign and would like to include Mid-tail sites in the media plan, contact Gourmet Ads and we’ll develop a customised digital media plan for your consideration. Start by downloading the Gourmet Ads Media Kit or Request a Proposal from us.
Increasing Cooking Magazine Subscriptions
February 26, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
While in New York recently I walked into Hudson News and was amazed to see all the major food and cooking magazines were half the size they were 12 – 18 months ago. All of them Gourmet, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit and Savuer were all smaller. This trend isn’t limited to just American cooking magazines, walk into any newsagent anywhere in the world and the chances are the size of the magazines are reduced.
The reason is simple, print advertising is dramatically down because of the economy and there isn’t the return on investment compared to online advertising. So the publishers of cooking magazines need to increase magazine subscriptions to survive. Sure cooking magazines can go back to past subscribers with offers to renew their favorite monthly cooking magazine, but that’s really only a smaller percentage of the total readership. The growth has to be to find new consumers to become subscribers and a great place is advertising on food blogs and recipes websites on the internet.
Gourmet Ads global advertising network allows Cooking Magazine publishers the ability to reach a new target market of possible subscribers, quickly and cost effectively. It’s all about performance and we have a variety of advertising models available to suit any budget. We can also run different campaigns concurrently to promote different cooking magazines and drive subscriptions. Add to this our advanced campaign targeting options allow you to reach new international markets quickly.
Its important to note that it isn’t just cooking magazines which would perform well in the Gourmet Ads vertical network, as the majority of our audience is female from 27 -55 any women’s magazine would also be ideal. Our audience is highly educated and does spend on kitchen appliances, cookbooks and premium wine.
Some campaign ideas on how to Increasing Cooking Magazine Subscriptions include;
- Value Add campaigns, i.e. Subscribe to this and get this magazine free
- Targeted subscription campaigns aimed at international subscribers
- Reduced annual subscriptions prices
- 1 month trial subscriptions
So if you’re looking for a solution to Increasing Cooking Magazine Subscriptions, request a proposal from the team at Gourmet Ads.
Optimizing Advertising Campaigns
February 6, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
There are two important parts to every online advertising campaign and both being equally important when it comes to Optimizing Advertising Campaigns. So what are they?
These are ;
1. The “where” refers to websites and blogs that are relevant to your target audience.
2. The “what” refers to your actual advertising creative you provide.
First off, let’s talk about the “Where”. No matter the campaign, there will always be a publisher where your advertising gets plenty of impressions, but attracts very few click throughs. So, instead of wasting your advertising dollars, the trafficking staff at Gourmet Ads can, mid duration optimize your advertising campaigns to maximise clicks and performance. Optimizing Advertising Campaigns is an important part of every campaign and a simple cull of non-performing sites can significantly increase the aggregated click through rate of the campaign.
Now comes the “What”. Depending on the creative, some ads will perform better than other within the same campaign. We regularly receive from advertisers, multiple advertising creative for a campaign. A week after the campaign has launched, Gourmet Ads can optimize your advertising campaigns by removing the creative that isn’t performing. Of course you have to try different things once in a while to see what works and what doesn’t, but once you find out that a particular creative isn’t performing it is time to pull it and focus on the ads that are working to maximize your advertising campaigns effectiveness. When this happens we simply shift the budget from the non-performing advertisement across to the performing creative.
Optimizing Advertising Campaigns is all about increasing their performance and the return for advertisers, so if your advertising network isn’t optimizing your campaigns, contact Gourmet Ads and book your media with us.
Competing with Major Brands Online
January 14, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
It can be easy for a smaller company to assume that they will never be able to truly compete with the big brand names online. There is no doubt that the big companies are going to be able to outspend on display advertising on popular websites, but is this type of spending something that small companies should envy? Would it create results for them even if they could afford it? The likely answer is no. The best strategy for a smaller company is to target a particular niche and then focus your advertising campaign on them.
Take for example a small boutique brewery. It doesn’t make sense to try to compete with a mjaor brand like Budweiser or Heineken by placing ads on sites that have nothing to do with beer. This tactic works for the big boys because they have the budget to throw their nets out wide and see what they can pull in. But for the small brewer a more narrow focus is much more cost effective. Placing ads on sites where a beer connoisseur is likely to see them makes a lot more sense.
The focus should be as specific as possible. For instance, you would place an ad for a low carb or light beer on a food and wine website and possibly even next to online recipes for lighter, healthier meals so that the people most likely to buy a low carb or light beer will see your ad. For a new lager or stout you would want your ads to be focused on sites for beer enthusiasts on beer websites and blogs. By placing your beer advertising in front of a highly targeted market you are going to get the biggest bang for your advertising buck. After all, your goal isn’t to compete with the big companies; it is to get as many consumers as possible interested in your product to generate brand awareness.
If you’re a smaller business and want to reach a niche market that will offer long term growth, contact us for a digital media plan.
Your New Year’s Resolution
January 3, 2009 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
If you’re a marketer, advertiser or media buyer at an agency, then your new year’s resolution for 2009 needs to be about spending your advertising budget where you can measure the return on investment and advertise cost effectively. So what does this mean?
Well unlike all other advertising mediums, online advertising is the only medium which can provide clear metrics on the performance of your campaign. This means that you can quickly and accurately measure the return on investment, and increase or decrease the advertising budget as required to ensure performance.
For TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazine Outdoor Advertisers
If you don’t advertise online, then now is the time to start dipping your toe into some sort of online advertising. Online not only allows you to measure the return on investment, but compared to other mediums is not only cheaper, but much more cost effective to run your campaigns.
Online also allows you to target your user in ways that other mediums just can’t do. For example Gourmet Ads can target by Vertical, Geography (Geo Targeting), Time and day targeting, Bandwidth, Browser & Operating Systems, Language or even Frequency capping; allowing you to reach your target audience and completely control the conversation with your consumers.
New Year’s Resolution – Dip your toes into online advertising instead of spending it on advertising you can’t measure.
For Online Advertisers
If you are advertising online, where are you buying your advertising? Are you buying advertising in a vertical network which is related to your products or services? I.e. if you are selling gourmet foods or premium wines are you advertising on quality food sites or wine review sites? Or are you advertising on large portals which don’t really allow you target your audience?
New Year’s Resolution – begin advertising in vertical advertising networks online instead of large portals
So, no matter if you’re an existing online advertiser or new to online advertising, Gourmet Ads can help deliver your message online and on budget. Contact us for a digital media kit and we work with you to deliver your New Year’s Resolution in 2009.
Wine Selectors Video Campaign
October 14, 2008 by Benjamin Christie · Leave a Comment
We don’t always blog about every online advertising campaign we run on Gourmet Ads, but because this is one of the first fully integrated video ads we’ve run I thought it might be interesting.
Gone are the days of basic banners, this campaign run by Wine Selectors is a Island size advertisement (300×250) which has an embedded video within it. Viewers can engage with the advertisement which launches a video in the space. The viewer can then watch a short video on how wines are selected. At the end of the video users are prompted to click to order a discovery dozen or the chance to win a luxury rail and wine adventure.
View the Wine Selectors Video Ad
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.
