Powerful, Affordable Advertising...

[Norri]

Used properly, these advertising resources can REALLY help a small business or entrepreneur catapult an idea into mass-acceptance / -usage.

Of course, used improperly, they'll just be expensive

1. Google AdWords - This one almost doesn't count anymore. It's very expensive for a "beginner" and you're likely to lose a coupla R1,000 here before you figure out the right keywords, right ad, the right offer, etc. But this is the grandaddy of "Powerful, Affordable Advertising". These dudes were the first guys to make it possible for a small business to advertise for R100-R500 a month and ACTUALLY make some sales / money. I love Google but I won't play here until I've figured out an ad, keywords and offer that already works.

(Realistically, upward of R2 per visitor)

2. Facebook CPM Advertising - Awesome if you have an idea of what demographics you want to market to. Their CPC turns out to be a tad expensive so, unless you have a product and sales-process that works well, I wouldn't experiment there. Once you do, it could turn out much cheaper than CPM. Depends on your industry, product, etc.

(As little as $0.10 per 1,000 ad-views)

3. StumbleUpon - You fund your account, you pay for visits. That's it. If your site turns out to be popular (many thumbs-up, good reviews, etc), then the viral aspect of this baby kicks in and then you KAK yourself :P Most sales-sites won't work well here but forums, image galleries, article sites, etc can do quite well. CAPTURE the visitor by offering a newsletter / RSS feed to keep 'em coming back!

($0.05 per visitor. Period.)

Definitions

CPC - Cost per click. Someone clicks on your ad, you pay.
CPM - Cost per 1,000 views. 1,000 people view your ad, you pay. Clicks or no clicks.
Daily Budget - Self explanatory but CRUCIAL to succeeding in online advertising without breaking the bank

Add your suggestions / definitions / experiences below!

PS: Complain about bad advertising experiences in a separate thread!

[Norri]

Does no one here advertise?

[Dave A]

Does no one here advertise?

Yes.

The only question now is, is that yes - they advertise or yes, no-one here advertises

I know this much, everyone here tends to take their weekends seriously (which I kinda enjoy nowadays ).



OK then. Maybe I'd better get back on topic.

Norri, you've covered major online methods - can I include offline?

Some of this is affected by exactly what line of business you are in. For example, if you are a wholesaler, direct marketing to retailers via sales reps and catalogues would probably be the most cost effective.

It is when you are trying to reach the general public that things start to really get interesting. To my mind the most cost effective method of marketing in the service industry is vehicle signage. Retail - shop signage.

But there is also an issue of scale. If you are big enough, TV adverts must surely work, otherwise washing powder, soft drink etc. manufacturers wouldn't be spending their money this way.

[Norri]

Thanks Dave

I'd actually love to hear more about offline methods. I know a few people who have had decent success with dustbin ads. They plastered them all over the city and kept them running for 2 years or something. Got plenty of business through that. I reckon if you choose your bins well, it's a worthwhile strategy.

[Ryan S]

At the moment almost my whole blog is on this topic. Traditional advertising has never been less effective in history! The new consumer is becoming more and more immune to TV ads, magazine ads etc. More and more big companies are moving their advertising budget online. I have pages on this topic on my blog. go check it out http://digi-business.blogspot.com. On the recommended reads section there is a book called Doing Business Digitally by Godfrey Parkin. It is a great book and will really change the way you think about business.

[Dave A]

The new consumer is becoming more and more immune to TV ads, magazine ads etc.

Is it really that different online? Ad blindness is a known phenomenon amongst online publishers.

More and more big companies are moving their advertising budget online.

Is there any quantative evidence that big business is actually spending less on offline advertising?
My feeling is that, just like any new medium, it is attracting a budget, but has it really taken away from the old medium spend, or is it just attracting some new money?

For example, what is Coke's budget for online advertising? I can't recall seeing any paid Coke ads online - but maybe I've been looking in the wrong places.

[duncan drennan]

Ad blindness is a known phenomenon amongst online publishers.

Or even better, just get Adblock Plus along with a suitable filter (such as Easylist) for Firefox and then you really are blind to the ads.

[Ryan S]

you are thinking of traditional advertising, just online. That isn't what I'm talking about at all. I'm talking about interactive marketing. 'marketing 2.0'. Things like social networks like facebook or my space, competitions, youtube, google, del.icio.us, digg. things like that. Ill give you an example. I'm actually stealing this from a book I just read

Honda was one of the first companies to use social marketing. Car companies try to capture the youth because they believe the first car you own will very likely establish you as a brand loyal customer for at least a couple more purchases in your life. So the aim for all car manufactures is for their entry level cars to be desired by the youth. In the US Honda's entry level car the Honda CRV wasn't popular at all. So, after a lot of research, they changed the name of the car from CRV to Crave and created a microsite to host a competition that challenged people to submit a picture of their 'favorite crave' along with a few lines about why they craved it. The top half of the page was filled with thumbnails of the entries. viewers could mouse over the image and vote on how good the entry was. Now the cool thing was people that submitted an entry told their friends and family to go to the site and vote for their entry. When they did they were inspired to upload their own entry and tell everyone they know to go and vote for it. They wrote about it in their blogs and on their myspace page, they put links to the site and tagged in on digg and del.icio.us and the site got top ranking with goggle. The traditional media found is very interesting and wrote stories about the site (not adverts). it was even talked about on TV. The micro site cost Honda a few thousand $ but brought millions in free publicity. Over a very short period the CRV went from nowhere to one of the top 10 selling cars in the us.

Thats the power of web 2.0. 'Marketing 2.0' is basically a way to tap into the the best form of advertising. Word of mouth.

[Norri]

Ryan, that's exactly the kind of stuff I'm talking about. Far too many people in SA are still doing things "the traditional way". Which is fine for big companies but has never been a good idea for small businesses. It's the very reason guerilla marketing was "invented". Coz small businesses need low-cost, high-return advertising. It usually means paying in TIME instead of MONEY.

Checking out your blog now.

Won't you post a few more examples here and link back to your blog? I'd really like to see this thread becoming an important resource on the forum.

[Dave A]

Are we going to differentiate in this thread between advertising and marketing?

There is a substantial difference.