In tough times like these, Ad budgets tend to get cut across swathes of industries and company sizes. “Tough times get the tough going,” is the old adage- so what can tough advertisers do? Some money on search advertising may be a good bet.
As David Ogilvy said “Ninety-nine percent of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything,” and Ogilvy was referring to traditional advertising like TV, print,billboards and so on. Traditional advertising identifies target markets and then follows a media plan that matches media to target market. Beer ads during the Super Bowl is a good example where the target audience and product match and sales spikes occur. However, other than Super Bowl where people actually watch the ads we have TiVo, channel flipping that really diminishes “push” traditional advertising.
Things change during Internet searches, you are no longer sitting in front of the TV passively but actively looking for specific stuff. At this point you will click through on ads that are directly relevant to whatever your search is. The technique of writing effective Internet search ads is tough business – if you want to precisely match your ad to what an individual may be looking for. Search Ads like Google AdWords , Yahoo Search Marketing or Microsoft Search advertising typically charge the advertiser when someone actually clicks the Ad.
Imagine only paying for those prospects who saw your TV or print ad ! The Internet allows two way communication and is much more effective than an expensive 1800 number on TV when you want a prospect to contact you and you want “action.” In these difficult times, you need to get “action” from customers and do so with cut Ad budgets. Trying search advertising may not be a bad idea…..
In fact, my students in my B2B Class at University of New Haven are trying just that , as part of the Google Online Marketing Challenge. Will report more on this as things develop….(Published January 28, 2009)
About StratoServe.