The world of advertising is one of constant evolution. Where once television and direct marketing was king, now over 23.6 million Canadians are online – opening up a host of opportunity for those looking to target online consumers (comScore October 2007).
In a time when consumers can simply turn the page past magazine ads or drive by billboards while listening to commercial-free satellite radio, the online space is becoming an increasingly attractive option for advertisers. Savvy marketers recognize that digital advertising solutions present new opportunities to engage online consumers who, according to a recent Canadian Inter@ctive Reid Report, now spend more time using the Internet than they do watching television or listening to the radio.
Search advertising in particular offers marketers clear and compelling ways to reach these consumers and to track the success of their programs. Targeting audience demographics and tracking conversion rates is easy online, making pay-per-click advertising (PPC) accessible and relevant for companies of all sizes.
Despite this, some reluctance remains among marketers to engage consumers online. For those who are ready but looking for the ‘how to,’ here are five reasons to kick-start your online search strategy.
1. Get in the game
Search is the second-most popular online activity after email, with 83 per cent of online Canadians searching regularly (eMarketer Canada Online 2006). Every day, millions of people type keywords into a search engine to find the information, products and services they are interested in. At the same time, online purchases are expected to grow at a rate of 20 per cent in 2007 (Comscore, 2007).1
By adding online search to existing marketing programs, companies can access the growing number of Canadians living online. Specialists such as database management and search engine marketing (SEM) agency Cornerstone Group of Companies have found success online, even for their clients that typically focus on direct marketing and subscription fulfillment.
Recently launched online advertising strategies for Cornerstone clients The Hockey News and Reader’s Digest magazines were a great success, with results including an increase in subscriptions and a decrease in cost per acquisition when compared to direct marketing alone.
2. Get more bang for your buck
A recent Ipsos-Reid survey of Canadian SMBs found that of those currently advertising, half are investing in the online space to drive their business growth. With cost effective pay-per-click (PPC) programs, companies of all sizes are finding it easy to reach motivated consumers interested in their product.
Solutions Credit Counselling Service Inc., a credit counselling and debt management service based in Surrey, British Columbia, recently launched their own web marketing strategy. Working with SEM experts SearchWerx, Solutions Credit was able to leverage online advertising tools to grow their business leads. Today, more than 80 per cent of Credit Solutions’ business originates from the Web.
3. Get to know your audience
Relevance is key to success in PPC advertising. When ads are generated based on carefully selected keywords and online behaviour, campaigns can be optimized to target your ideal market based on specifics such as gender, location and purchasing trends. It is also possible to track how consumers search for specific terms and when they search, which is sometimes just as important. For example, we had a consumer packaged goods clients who was in the process of launching a new bleach detergent and wanted to use paid search as part of the overall marketing plan. We wanted to know who is searching on the keyword “bleach.” We expected it to hit our target demographic but the results were somewhat unexpected. The data showed that it skewed heavily towards younger males online at night—because “Bleach” was the name of Japanese anime character popular with that group.
By building better consumer intelligence capabilities into online search services, companies have greater insight to their audience, are better able to judge the success of a given campaign, and have the tools they need to adjust campaigns on the fly in order to maximize results.
4. Get more
Marketing experts are finding that using search and display together can significantly enhance an advertiser’s marketing efforts, resulting in better conversion rates. Among the benefits cited by brand advertisers is the ability for a consumer to have a consistent brand experience through a coordinated online display advertising campaign that includes rich-media experiences.
In a 2006 study, the Atlas Institute examined groups of consumers divided into three different segments: display only, search only, and search plus display. According to the study, those users exposed to both display plus search advertising converted at an average rate that was four times greater than users who saw only display advertising, and 22 per cent higher than those exposed to search alone.
5. Get over the fear
The Internet can sometimes feel like the Wild West, but that doesn’t mean you can’t strike gold. There are benefits to an online world, such as having customers only one click away from your ad to your retail site. Harnessing all that opportunity doesn’t need to cost a lot either. Pay-for-click programs are very cost effective and can often return significant results for as little as $25 a month.
An internal review of recent analyst projections suggest that the overall spend on online advertising will reach $35 billion dollars.2 While the online share of advertising has been steadily growing over the last few years, it still represents less than 10 per cent of the overall dollars spent on advertising. When you consider how much time consumers are spending online versus traditional media consumption (reading, watching TV, listening to the radio), there is still a large gap between consumption and spend.
This divide can’t last. Eventually it will be imperative for advertisers and their agencies to follow their audiences in order to stay ahead. Your audience is increasingly online. Can you afford not to be?
Source - CMA Articles
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