Advertising

It's no surprise that Google offers preferential treatment to it's top publishers, but word has leaked out about an exclusive new ad network so secret that Google hasn't even acknowledged it's existence. John Chow reports that the Google Display Advertising Network was launched to allow Google to go after Fortune 1000 advertisers who are interested in building their brand, rather than simple click-thrus. 

The new network has a CPM (cost per thousand) cost structure, instead of the CPC (cost per click) structure of Google's successful AdWords offering. The ads themselves are video and display ads, and each publisher negotiates their own rate with Google.  Sound interesting?  Too bad.  From the article:

How do you join the Google Display Advertising Network? You can't. Google won't even acknowledge it exists... The only way to get into the display network is if Google invites you.

So for the moment, it looks like the little guys will have to stick with AdSense. But if this foray into CPM advertising turns out to be popular with advertisers, perhaps we'll see a similar offering for the rest of us soon.

There's certainly no shortage of bloggers writing about the new compensated review service, ReviewMe, which officially launched on November 9th. In a great example of a company "eating their own dog food", ReviewMe is paying bloggers to write reviews of their new service. In fact, this is a paid review.

I must admit to feeling a little dirty being paid to write a review of anything. However, there are a few things that set ReviewMe apart from their competition in the paid review arena, and I believe these differences are the reason that so many bloggers have been willing to give the service a try. ReviewMe requires its reviewers to disclose that they are being paid, so it's clear to readers that the reviewer has been compensated. Also, reviewers are not required or even encouraged to write positive reviews.

The truth is, I've been wanting to mention this service anyway because a lot of people have been talking about it, many of them bloggers excited about the opportunity to earn some income from their posts. However, I think the real opportunity here is for advertisers, because ReviewMe offers an interesting alternative to link buying and traditional pay-per-click advertising.

Advertisers can choose to advertise on a variety of blogs, and there are already some high profile publishers signed up for the service. Right now, the top blog listed in the Web Development category is Search Engine Journal, which covers news in the Search Engine Marketing sector. ReviewMe lists the rate for a review from Search Engine Journal at $250. Compare this to regular advertising on the same site: $300 per month for a graphic ad on the right side of the screen with other advertisers. A ReviewMe ad seems like a better value in this case, since a review is far more likely to be noticed by readers than a traditional ad. Also, I'd assume that most reviewers will continue to keep their paid reviews archived along with their regular posts, so your review will be around much longer than a one month advertising spot.

Assuming, of course, that your product or service is good enough to garner positive reviews, ReviewMe looks very attractive next to traditional online advertising. With reviews available for a little as $30 (for smaller sites, of course), I expect to see more companies testing the waters of the paid review market as a means to generate buzz.

A report on internet traffic released yesterday by comScore reveals that some of the top internet properties in the United States receive a majority of their visitors from overseas. During the month of September 2006, 14 of the top 25 sites had more visitors from abroad, including all of the top 5 (Yahoo, Time Warner, Microsoft, Google, and eBay).

US vs. Foreign Visitors - Top 5 Web Properties

For web site owners, this news is more than just an interesting statistic. It's a reminder of the importance of geographic targeting of our online advertising. If you're not seeking these international visitors, a large portion of your advertising spend on major web sites may be wasted on visitors that you're not looking for. But you are paying for them.

Geographic Targeting

Google AdWords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft AdCenter all offer various options for targeting your online marketing to specific cities or regions.  Targeting is well worth the extra effort required to set it up, since every time your ad is clicked by someone outside your target area, you're throwing money away. If you're running pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns, take special care to understand the tools that let you limit your campaign to the areas you really want to reach.

Advertise Locally

An alternative to geographic targeting on the major PPC networks is advertising on local web sites that specifically serve the market you want to reach This option can be especially appealing to small local businesses. When you run ads on local web sites, your audience is targeted for you, so there's no additional work required on your part. As an added benefit, spending a portion of your advertising budget with local publishers may build some goodwill within your local business community, since your ad dollars probably mean more to a small local site than they do to an internet juggernaut like Google.

Keep Your Ads on Target

To maximize the impact of your marketing dollars, some sort of geographic targeting is essential. Advertising networks such as AdWords have made it easier than ever for a small business to start advertising online, but unless you're willing to learn how to reach only audience you're seeking, you may be wasting a significant chunk of your marketing budget.

I'd just finished designing a half dozen Yellow Pages ads for a client when a timely blog post caught my eye. It was Geoff Wilson at PseudoFish heralding the coming death of the Yellow Pages. While Google Local and other web sites may be taking business away from the offline directories, there are still plenty of reasons for small businesses to continue advertising in their local directories:

Offline Customers

There are, of course, still a great many people who use the internet only occasionally or not at all.  Robert Scoble thinks this will only be an issue for another 20 years, and he may be right, but I know an awful lot of people in their 20's and 30's who rarely even check their email, much less use the internet to find local businesses. Many of these folks will eventually come online, but I suspect it will take more than 20 years for the number of infrequent internet users to shrink so small that they can be disregarded completely.

Offline Businesses

Those of us already online may still find ourselves turning to the Yellow Pages to find local businesses.  It may seem strange to big city dwellers, but in small town America there are still an enormous number of small businesses that have no internet presence at all, while others are just catching on to the need for at least a basic web site and email address.  Here in Sutter Creek (population ~3000), I still need to reach for the yellow pages if I want to find a local plumber or electrician.

Tourists

Some people may shudder at the thought of a week without internet access, but a lot of folks like to stay unplugged while they're on vacation.  And while many hotels now offer internet access, it's not nearly as ubiquitous as that other book that you'll find in nearly every hotel room (not the one that the Gideons put there).  Most of my own Yellow Pages usage comes when I'm away from home, looking to get some food delivered or to call a cab.  Businesses that cater to out-of-towners may never abandon the Yellow Pages, at least as long as every hotel room is stocked with a copy.

Motivated Leads

People who find your business in the yellow pages are actively looking for someone to do business with, and they are ready to make a call. Those who find you via the web may be doing a bit more research on their own before they get in touch.  These are potential customers as well, so you need a web site that satisfies the "researchers," but you can't neglect the people who just want to pick up the phone and talk to you.

Price

Even as more and more consumers turn to the internet to find local businesses, the printed business directories are still one of the cheapest ways to reach local customers. Just try taking your annual budget for Yellow Page ads and put that money instead into an AdWords campaign. You might be disappointed.

Online is still the future...

Yellow page advertising is not going anywhere; it's just too cheap, easy, and accessible for small businesses to ignore. The internet will certainly continue to command a larger share of the market, and businesses will have to adapt to the realities of the online world in order to survive, but that doesn't mean abandoning proven forms of offline advertising.

The yellow pages will not die just because some consumers claim they don't use it. It's going to stick around until businesses stop seeing a return on their ad dollars.