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Question 1:
What’s your budget?

For the past 12 years I have been advising businesses on advertising and marketing. I recommend a budget of around 7-14% of gross turnover. (Depending on what stage the business is in) which is then split up over the 12 months dependent on the goals you want to achieve. I would recommend a fair percentage of online advertising be around at least 4% of your budget. So rather than pluck a figure out of the air, or launch into guerrilla marketing, set your budget. Let’s say you have allowed $5000 over 3 months, which equals to around $1670 per month.

Now you have comfortably made that decision, the next step is to decide on what you should expect. The obvious expectations are phone calls, increase in sales and hits on your website. But how many? A good benchmark is to at least cover your costs, so each month, if your advertising $$ are covered in sales, you have done well.

As well as covering your expenses, your brand has been seen by 1000’s of other potential customers, which will set the benchmark for future advertising and brand recognition. A fair call would be to sell at least double of  what you have spent  and all above that is cream on the cake. If your advertising is sales focused (i.e., to drive sales as your primary objective and brand awareness as your secondary objective), you would expect no less. If by the end of the campaign you have not reached this objective, it is fair to say that your choice didn’t give you the best ROI (Return on investment).

And don’t count online advertising out as ‘not worthy’ if this is the case first time round, you have to learn from your experience and by doing this you will be in a better position to make your next online adverting decision.

Question 2:
What kind of ad do you want to place?

Online advertising is offered in many forms. Different shapes, different methods, different sizes. Banner ads, cube ads, ad-words through to rotating ads. Ensure the company you have decided to buy online space from is specific in size, location etc and get them to direct you to their site so they can show you what to expect - what size and where your ad will appear. They will talk about size in pixels and to most of us we may not know what that means. So ask them what size in cm’s that is so you have a clear picture.

I strongly recommend using a marketing agency to design your ad, rather than rely on the supplier of online space to do this for you. Your marketer will have the best sales and marketing objectives at heart and understand how to portray this in a perfectly designed high quality ad. You’re spending big $$ on advertising so don’t take shortcuts. Give your ad the best opportunity to work.

Position is extremely important and the number of ads on the site is also just as important. You don’t want to advertise on a site with a blur of other advertisers. But if there is no advertiser then its likely that it may not be a good site to advertise on. 2-5 ads on a site is more than acceptable. Ensure your ad is on the homepage and if you can get right hand side position that would be optimum. Using a little flash or animation on your banner ad for eye-catching appeal is also recommended. Your message should be short and impactful and most important, what’s your offer? It should be good enough to make a potential client click on it. Your marketing agency can work with you to ensure you receive the best impact.

Question 3:
So now your potential customer is clicking on your ad, what happens now?

Does it turn into a pop up box, does it get directed to your website or a new page? Obviously you will need a design that is developed based on your objectives and offer.

Some people like pop ups, some don’t. some people have pop ups de-activated on their site . So a pop up may not be the best way to go. We would suggest the click links through to a new fast loading page, which provides the customer with more information to help close the sale. We can build a new page on your website that’s directly about the offer that can also lead to other pages on your site. Now you have the interest of a potential customer, you should try to keep them on your site for while. The benefit of a new page is that you can also monitor the number of clicks rather than relying on whether the supplier of advertising space is being honest about the number of clicks on your ad.

Another point to consider it’s a good idea to collect your customer’s data. Maybe a competition with a form to fill out may be the way to go. But remember, you must provide a privacy statement.

Question 4:
How do I pay for advertising?

Different online advertising suppliers will request different methods of payment. Some may expect a one off payment, some may offer a 3-month contract, some may offer pay per click where you are offered a ‘click price’. For example, you can set yourself a budget of $1,500 for 1 month, the click through price may be $2 per click and you receive 250 clicks. However those 250 clicks may be used up in 4 days. You may swap and change till you find what provides the best result so you may increase your budget.

Question 5:
How do you know where you have chosen to advertise is reputable?

I mean, lets face it, anyone can sell ad space on their website, even make it look like they have big brand advertisers by simply uploading a fake site. Look for sites that have been around for a while with reputable advertisers. Ask them for a copy of the web statistics. Its easy for anyone to say “we got over 1 million clicks per month” but proving it is another thing. Another point to consider is the website you are thinking about taking an ad on, are they actually marketing their website.