A GREAT time for Display Advertising! (?)

Steve Latham — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:27:19 +0000

With everyone professing the virtues of Search, I’d like to take a different view (as is my nature) and go on record stating that now is a GREAT time for cpm-based Display advertising. Why am I going against the grain on this one? Since you asked, I’ll tell you. But before I make my case, let me state that as an agency we have no bias towards any one type of media. We always recommend paid search before display advertising. But if you are suffering from a contraction in daily searches for your brand or products (as we are seeing across the board since 10/08), you probably need more reach, engagement, leads or sales. So here’s something to think about.

First, this recession has forced advertisers to scale back on all forms of advertising and it’s widely reported that display advertising (banners, rich media) has been hit much harder than search, leaving a lot of unsold inventory.

Second, while Cost Per Action (CPA) deals are still competitive (maybe even more so today given the increasing focus on accountability) there is a lot of unsold inventory that is price on Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM). Consequently, it has created a big opportunity to buy cpm media at much lower rates than in the past. This has also been documented in recent months by many sources. The price of display media is faling faster than the bubble teams in the NCAA.

Third, the drop in demand for display ads allows those who are advertising to have a much larger share of voice, and receive much more attention than in the past. I don’t have any stats to back this up, but it stands to reason. If you are the ONLY bank or car maker advertising, you have a pretty good chance of delivering your message now that there is much less competition and clutter.

Fourth, display media is cheaper and you now get greater visibility with your ads, you should see better performance. It may not translate into immediate leads or sales (remember we’re still in a dark and scary place) but those who are in the market today and tomorrow are more likely to be influenced by your ads. And that is the reason you advertise.

So if you are maximizing ROI from search and need more reach to make your numbers, look at display advertising. P.S. – if you add display on top of search you’ll see a 20-30% improvement in conversion rates from Search. So make sure you account for that when you are doing your display media planning.

Comments…. Questions….? To quote the beloved Kramer (Seinfeld, not Mad Money) “Am I crazy or am I so sane that I just blew your mind?”

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Local Search: Yellow Pages vs. Google?

Steve Latham — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:12:10 +0000

This week I was asked by one of our (prospective) clients for assistance in building a business case to shift ad dollars from the Yellow Pages to Google and the also rans (aka Yahoo and MSN). After putting the word out that a $10 Starbucks gift card awaited the first Spur employee to find some good data, I put the question out on LinkedIn Answers (often a great venue for connecting with gurus who can answer tough questions).

I realize I’m a bit spoiled by the immediate gratification I often find online; so after 15 minutes passed without a single no LinkedIn answer, I decided to do some research myself. What I found should be of interest to all marketers who rely on Yellow Pages for local advertising.

According to Search Engine Watch: This year, local advertisers are expected to shift $13.1 billion of their budgeted funds to the Internet, according to Borrell Associates. The number is up 50% over last year. In 2009, local online ad spending is projected to grow another 40% to $18.2 billion in 2009″… “Online advertising is cheaper than traditional methods of marketing and is thought to be the reason for the change. According to Borrell, internet CPMs average $3.65, the lowest of any media, while an offline Yellow Pages ad carries an average CPM of $9.29.”

My take: In addition to lower CPMs, search is much more targeted, actionable and measurable. And it’s increasingly becoming a preferred way to find local vendors quickly and easily by people of all ages.

I also found some interesting info at RBR.com that compared the fate of Yellow Pages to that of newspapers in recent years: “…the recession is forcing small-business advertisers to be more careful with their ad budgets. Over the next five years, Borrell is predicting 39% of the ad spending on print yellow pages revenues will vanish as small businesses shift marketing budgets online… The key drivers of these changes are broadband penetration and the growing sophistication of search engines and interactive directories. Between 2005 and 2007, 10.4 million adults stopped using the yellow pages “during the past month.” Assuming Borrell knows what they are talking about, those are some compelling stats!

Since I started writing this blog, I have received a good response from LinkedIn! Chris Reyes from Chicago cited an article that are worth a look. According to Merchant Circle those that don’t find YP effective allocate 45% of their ad budget to online. While this isn’t surprising, I thought the next finding was: even the most satisfied YP customers allocate 30% of their budget to online.

So it’s clear that dollars are shifting away from YP to the Web. What I’d REALLY like to know is how they compare in terms of ROI. If you have info on the comparative performance of each channel, the same Starbucks gift card offer holds – if you have good data please share it!

If you’ve read this far, I’d like to pose the question to you: where do you spend your dollars for local advertising? And what would you need to know in order to convince your CEO it was time to adjust your media mix to meet the needs of today’s consumers?

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Spur Interactive » online advertising

A GREAT time for Display Advertising! (?)

Local Search: Yellow Pages vs. Google?