James runs a book store and has been thinking about advertising his store in order to increase his business. When I met him at the park the other day, he discussed some advertisement ideas with me. We discussed his advertising strategy and I was surprised to know that he had not even considered advertising online. He said that he had been with his online advertising initiative and that he ended up losing a lot of money in the process. I asked James to meet me in a few days with his advertising account. When I had a look at the account, I saw the biggest mistakes advertisers make when they start using online as a medium for advertising. Two hours of effort on my end and we ran a trial for a couple of weeks. I am happy to note that James advertises online today and is very happy with the performance of his business.
To help many others like James, I have tried my best to compile a few tips to help you achieve success with your advertising campaigns.
1. Set advertising goals: The most important task is to set an advertising goal for your business. Every business has its own advertisement needs and you will only benefit if you are able to fulfill that need. Person X may have opted for online ads for fulfilling a business need for branding as internet caters to a larger audience than any other advertising medium. On the other hand, Person Y may just be looking for upscale customers who could buy his product. This is why it is important to choose the right advertising goal before you start advertising.
2. Organize your account: The better structured your account, the easier it will be to manage it effectively. Organize your campaigns by topic or categories. Within campaigns, divide ad-groups by different products or services and make sure that your keywords are tightly themed within each ad-group. For example, In James' account, I created one campaign for his best selling author. Under that campaign, I created different ad-groups with names of various books written by the author. Each ad group had tightly themed keywords related to that particular name of the book.
3. Target the right audience: One common mistake that advertisers make while running an online campaign is to target as large an area as possible. Please make sure you target only those areas where you can ship. James' business is located in Delhi but he is able to ship books across India. Therefore, it made sense for him to target his ads to all regions within India. If you have a business that targets a small location or region, make sure that your ads are targeted to that particular region only.
4. Be careful with keywords: A keyword is the query that you expect the user to type to search on your ads. As all search engines value relevance while delivering results, it is important for you to have specific and relevant keywords that relate to your product or service. Try to think like a user who is looking for your product. Ask yourself, “what kind of keywords would a user type in to buy my product?” Make sure that you use singular, plurals and synonyms of those keywords and even include common misspellings.
5. Create catchy ads: As your ad will be competing for a click with many other ads on the page, you will have to write a catchy ad text to attract the attention of the user. Your ad should set your business or service apart from many others offering the same product or service. What is it that can attract any user looking to make a purchase? I would say, a discount maybe. If you offer a discount on any product, highlight it in your ad. If you have a 24 hour shipping guarantee, make sure it is a part of your ad text. It always benefits to use the USP of your business in your ad, because only after a user clicks on your ad will he land on your website. Use a strong call to action that prompts the user to take a decision. Words like 'Buy now' and 'Register with us' tend to make an ad effective.
6. Website Website Website: I cannot stress enough how important it is to pay close attention to your website and improve its quality as much as you can. Be creative, yet mindful of the user. Attractive sites that are easy to navigate and informative are more profitable than ones that are confusing and complicated to navigate. You must concentrate on user experience while designing your website.
Don't be scared to be creative and test various designs over a period of time to see which works well for you. Make sure that your ads lead to a relevant landing page. If your ad talked about a discount, when a user clicks on your ad he should be directed to the appropriate page with the discount information. Help people get what they want in as fewer clicks within your website as possible. Online merchants should try to make transactions as hassle free and simple as possible for a user. Remember, a good user experience is your chance you acquire a loyal customer who would return each time to your website for a purchase.
I hope these tips help you achieve your desired advertising goals. Again, feel free to be creative and measure your advertising performance at regular intervals. If something does not work, find out the cause and work to fix the issue. Internet is the easiest way to reach a large audience and in this world of competition and aware users, go put your best foot forward in the world of online advertising. For any newbies reading this article, welcome aboard and hope you have a great advertising experience on cyberspace.
Happy Advertising!
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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in May, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.
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—About our writer:
My name is Swati Rai and I am an online advertising professional with Google India. I studied English literature at Delhi University and went ahead to do my post graduation from Mudra Institue of Communication in Advertising and PR. I work on search engine marketing and online advertising. I blog and love to read and write on various subjects like advertising, writing, book reviews, software, gadgets and more.
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