| Like a
good informative web page, the ad needs
to first of all catch their attention,
and compel them to click on it. There should be
more focus on the benefits of the
software than the features, and the ad
should really push the download or sale.
It should also be as compelling and
striking as possible - not easy when
you're limited by a number of characters,
file size or space to work with!
Bear in
mind that like any strategy, your
advertising will only be as strong as its
weakest link. Don't spend thousands of
dollars on good placement, only to use
some awful home-created banner that you
knocked together with Paint Shop Pro 4
three years ago.
If
graphic design is not your strong point,
then get a firm to design some decent
graphics for you. The same goes with
writing the ad copy. Most people can
write, but few are writers. Try to make
sure that someone with more than a
thesaurus-dictionary gift set writes your
copy for you.
Aside
from the wording, the basic market
principles apply. Grab their attention,
tempt them, and compel them to act.
"50% discount" is eye catching,
as is some form of "only valid
today" type of offer.
But when
the potential customer clicks on your ad,
you're only half way there. You now need
to make sure that the page they land on
carries on the good work. Realistically,
many will click on the ad out of idle
curiosity, and very few (if any) will
have made up their minds to purchase
already.
You
should therefore use a separate landing
page, as opposed to your regular main
website page. It should contain the same
information and use the same language,
tone and focus of the ad, but now you're
not restricted as to what you can do, or
how much space you have to work with.
Here, you have all the space you need to
go all-out with the sales drive.
On a
technical level, make sure that your
landing page is not linked from anywhere
in your website, so as to ensure that
everyone coming to this page has been
driven there by the ad.
If
you're sharing a landing page, then at
least make sure that you use a unique
referral string. To be able to evaluate
the success of the ad, it's critical that
you can distinguish these visitors from
the regular site visitors.
This
brings us neatly onto the subject of
tracking, without which you are
effectively deaf, dumb and blind to the
effects of the ad. A unique landing page
on your website is ideal, and if
possible, make this point to a separate
payment page as well. You can also use
cookies or referral strings in order to
sharpen the accuracy of the tracking.
Usage of
decent web log analysis software should
let you see how many people came to the
landing page, how long they spent there,
which links they then clicked on, who
downloaded from there, who purchased, and
perhaps even who came back to the website
later.
The
analysis and follow-up of the campaign is
surprisingly often completely overlooked.
This is a great loss, as in some respects
this is one of the most important stages
of the whole process.
When it
comes to gauging the level of generated
sales and registrations, you need to take
into account the final date of the ad,
plus the full length of the trial version
and then add a little extra time. Some
may view the ad, click, download the
software, but may not install it for a
few days or even longer.
As an
example, a company may choose to run a
series of ads in a newsletter that is
sent out from Monday to Friday of a given
week.
Some
people may not respond to the ad until
the following weekend (or later), and
only then download your thirty day trial.
So we're already looking at 35 days after
the ad was first run, and that's assuming
that they install the software as soon as
they download it. Some people may even
register after the trial has elapsed. So
don't go writing it off as a failure on
day two of your advertising campaign.
To
accurately evaluate the success of the
campaign, you need to go back to your
original goals.
If your
primary goal was to achieve a higher
level of sales, then it should be
reasonably easy to see how many were
generated by the ad. As with everything
related to advertising, your data won't
be 100% accurate, but it should give you
a good idea.
If the
primary goal was increased exposure, then
you should be looking at how many people
were exposed to the ad, how many viewed
the landing page content and website, and
perhaps even downloaded and purchased the
software.
At this
point, there are four possible scenarios.
(1) The
ad appears to be successful.
Your
goals have been achieved as a direct
result of the ad, and more advertising
with this vendor may be considered for
the future. Even with this success, don't
rule out the fact that your figures can
be further improved, but don't forget
that they can worsen too.
You
should also be careful not to immediately
engage in a long-term contract with this
vendor. Not only because there are other
advertising options out there, but also
because any ad has a certain lifespan
until it reaches its saturation point. At
the very least consider trying different
products, wording (or graphics) or even a
different type of offer or discount.
(2) The
ad doesn't appear to be successful.
There
has been little generated in terms of
exposure or sales, and you can't help but
feel that the venture has been a failure.
The
first thing you have to do is to try to
determine the reason for this.
It may
be the product itself, the ad copy, the
ad, or perhaps the targeting was off. It
may even be as a result of the ad
placement, or the offer or discount not
being generous enough.
If the
ad failed, it is very important to
ascertain exactly why. Don't just dismiss
it as a failure, or a "bad"
place to advertise, and don't be afraid
to go back to the vendor for feedback. If
you explain that you're interested in
making this work, as opposed to
complaining that they didn't deliver the
results you expected, you'll usually get
a positive response. See what they can do
to help, after all, it's in their
interests that you walk away satisfied by
your experience.
(3) The
ad appears to break-even, but little more
than this.
Go back
and read number (2). Not being a success
counts as a failure.
(4)
You're not sure whether the ad was
worthwhile or not.
There
has been some response, but it's
difficult to see whether it was a
worthwhile experience or not.
It's
very important that you get to the bottom
of this. Go through your statistics
again, and filter through your logs to
see exactly what the visitors did, where
they clicked, and why they behaved as
they did.
It is
extremely important that at the end of
the process, you know whether it was
worthwhile or not. Failure to do so will
result either in a wastage of money or a
wastage of opportunities.
It's all
too easy to throw money away on bad
advertising. It's just as easy to be
scared-off by risks, or for that matter
throw potential opportunities away. Like
any form of marketing, there are no
guarantees that you'll achieve the
results you hope for. But by failing to
try, you're absolutely guaranteed never
to reach them. The best you can do is to
prepare the ground and cover all options
as thoroughly as possible, take a deep
breath and then take the plunge. Be seen,
be sold.
Copyright
2005 Dave Collins
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