The Customer Service Survey
VocaLabs' weblog providing news and commentary on the challenges of providing good customer service.
Is Googlizing a Word?
Friday - November 11, 2005 03:00 PM in
I've been using the term to mean the creating of an advertising strategy based on Google searching and other electronic media versus traditional print advertising. All the research indicators I uncover are pointing to this newer medium as more effective in trying to reach a Net savvy market. But boy, can the subject get complicated quick. Hits and impressions and click-thrus take on new complexity. Pricing strategies cover the gamut of possibilities, and fading fast are the days of ad placement where you confirm the readership matches the type of customer you wish to reach; pay the going rate for placement of the advertisement, and sit back to make up things to say to the boss like: "You can't directly relate advertising costs to sales. We are making marketing impressions about our services, and X number of magazine readers are going to remember our ad and call us when the time is right." Uh Huh, sure.
I'm a long way from making any firm pronouncements as to Net marketing versus more traditional methods; but I do have some observations to share.
Point three leads to the new Google pricing model where you pay for "clicks" rather than a flat advertising fee. In this mode, you now have tool to assess the impact of your advertisement and unlike a print place and hope ad, you pay only for the actual attention your ad draws. Unfortunately, as traditional print magazines realize they need to compete and so offer Web options, many have carried the traditional pricing model forward. In doing so, they put themselves at a sales disadvantage versus pay for click pricing models. (Example: The most expensive Googlized pay-for-click number for our target audience I could uncover worked out to less than $4 per click-thru. Yesterday a flat price e-zine ad cost was presented to me which along with a follow up on click-thrus others have seen on this particular site showed the cost per click averaged out to nearly $40.00! Hmmm, pay $4 for a click from an individual who went to Google for information on what they need done and hopefully what we offer, or pay 10 times more for a click from someone who may only be surfing around the Net?) Wow, is that a tough choice.
Lastly, an added caution. As print ad sales people also attempt to sell "e-zine" space, they don't get it either. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the difference between "hits" and "clicks" and "click-thrus" as their definition may not match yours, and odds are they themselves don't know the differences.
Posted by Rick Rappe
- Humans filter "clutter" from a Web page. That is to say, if they click on a link for some message to read, my sense is they filter out advertisements in the margins or banners across the top or bottom of the screen. Flashy graphics are usually ineffective in that rather than attract the eye, they alert the viewer as where NOT to focus their attention.
- As a corollary to the above, wordy text is also visually avoided. (Tough for a sales guy like me to admit since words are how we sell stuff.) Instead short snappy tag lines that grab attention are the way to go. Once attention is established, the reader clicks through for more information.
- The above leads to another point. Unlike print advertising where, in general, one places the ad and hopes readers pay attention, Web advertising offers the promise of data as to how many readers saw your ad and pro-actively indicated interest.
Point three leads to the new Google pricing model where you pay for "clicks" rather than a flat advertising fee. In this mode, you now have tool to assess the impact of your advertisement and unlike a print place and hope ad, you pay only for the actual attention your ad draws. Unfortunately, as traditional print magazines realize they need to compete and so offer Web options, many have carried the traditional pricing model forward. In doing so, they put themselves at a sales disadvantage versus pay for click pricing models. (Example: The most expensive Googlized pay-for-click number for our target audience I could uncover worked out to less than $4 per click-thru. Yesterday a flat price e-zine ad cost was presented to me which along with a follow up on click-thrus others have seen on this particular site showed the cost per click averaged out to nearly $40.00! Hmmm, pay $4 for a click from an individual who went to Google for information on what they need done and hopefully what we offer, or pay 10 times more for a click from someone who may only be surfing around the Net?) Wow, is that a tough choice.
Lastly, an added caution. As print ad sales people also attempt to sell "e-zine" space, they don't get it either. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the difference between "hits" and "clicks" and "click-thrus" as their definition may not match yours, and odds are they themselves don't know the differences.
Posted by Rick Rappe
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