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Thread: Effective Advertising?
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10-28-2000, 07:11 PM #1Web Hosting Guru
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Boy, banner ads sure aren't cutting it anymore. Can you say .01% click-through?
Anyone have any experiences with some more effective advertising methods? How much are you paying to get a customer to your site, and what kinds of conversion rates are you getting?
It seems hard to afford advertising without charging setup fees... so *that's* why they're there...
[Edited by Travis on 10-30-2000 at 01:51 PM]
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10-30-2000, 02:44 PM #2Aspiring Evangelist
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It is true, regular banners have become ineffective. I do know that there are some alterntives to this - bluestreak.com makes ads that work. Although I have no idea where they run because its not standard.
Tcoy~
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10-31-2000, 09:37 PM #3Web Hosting Master
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adv.
You will find that your best form of advertising is word to mouth or customer referals, your advertising dollars should first be spent insuring current customer loyalty, them you may wish to look at other sources, such as offline advertising.
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10-31-2000, 10:47 PM #4Web Hosting Guru
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That's definitely true regarding word-of-mouth - as a matter of fact, it's where most of our business comes from.
QWK.Net spends a tiny, tiny fraction of its revenue on advertising. Most revenue has gone toward infrastructure and customer service, and that's always a good investment.
However, a business does need to grow over time, and adverising is a necessary evil. Maybe offline advertising is an option we ignore at our own peril - it just seems most likely go to looking for our customers online, given the nature of the business.
With all that said, I revert to my original question. For those who don't mind sharing a little wisdom, what have you found to be your most effective forms of paid advertising?
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11-06-2000, 03:28 PM #5Newbie
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I am curious how much traffic comes from those "find-a-host" search engines. Will you get any referrals from just adding your site to the database or do you actually have to advertise on those sites?
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11-06-2000, 04:32 PM #6Web Hosting Evangelist
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You might be getting a low click thru because of non-targeted audience.
Our click thru is usually a little higher than 3%.
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11-10-2000, 12:51 AM #7Junior Guru Wannabe
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Search Engines are a very good if you know how to put it in high rank
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11-10-2000, 09:28 AM #8Web Hosting Evangelist
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There is no way to really do so, except for paid ones, of course. (ex. goto.com)
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11-10-2000, 11:38 AM #9Web Hosting Guru
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Since August most of our clients have started focusing more on the actual cost per click (CPC) than the rather meaningless click through rates. At the end of the day you really need to know two things:
1. How much does it cost to get someone to my website?
2. How often does someone by after visiting my site?
Once you've got these figures you can calculate your cost per sale, and choose the appropriate marketing channels.
We've recently started talking to hosts about sharing in the sales revenue from their initial sign ups, as a way of reducing their advertising costs. I think the move will be towards minimising the fixed cost proportion of advertising budgets in exchange for revenue sharing sharing with partner sites.
James
BTW: This wasnt meant as a plug for our site, so i deliberately havent quoted our average CPC's and CT rates.
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11-10-2000, 01:02 PM #10Web Hosting Master
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I personally don't think banner advertising is dead.
We ran a campaign on MSN for a charity last year that got an 18% click through and more than covered its cost.
Our web hosting ads usually get about 1%.
Whats more important is how you turn those clicks into sales and how much it costs you to acquire a customer.
I know that we pay about $5 per sign up from advertising which is well worth it, but we are also in the fortunate position of getting thousands of free banner impressions through a number of our other projects.
Its also not a good idea just to link to your front page.
Our ads link to special pages which lead people through the sales process through a simplified sign up form (if appropriate).
Here's a couple of examples:
Banner:
http://www.hudson.nu/banners/sheep1.gif
Page it links to:
http://www.hostroute.com/adex/sheep.html
This then links to a simplified sign up form with no external links which could take visitors away.
Banner:
http://www.hudson.nu/banners/trapped.gif
Page it links to:
http://www.hostroute.com/adex/trapped.html
There is also the encouragement for people to bookmark the page, but you could use an e-zine sign up pop up to similar effect.
Gordon
[Edited by GordonH on 11-10-2000 at 12:05 PM]Formerly: Managing Director, Hostroute.com Ltd & Marketing Director, Ultraspeed UK Ltd
View my Professional Profile: www.gordonhudson.com
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11-10-2000, 01:15 PM #11Web Hosting Guru
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Banners
I agree with your point that banners are't dead, there will always be a place for Banners as they offer "branding" in addition to a click through percentage.
But as I commented earlier companies are focusing more and more on the actual cost per click than the click through rate. I think the traditional CPM models are showing their age, as more and more advanced visitor tracking software becomes available marketeers will have access to much more acurate data on how their money is being spent.
James
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11-19-2000, 04:03 PM #12Disabled
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GordonH,
Are you really paying only $5 per sign-up for your hosting service?
Arnoud
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11-19-2000, 04:25 PM #13Web Hosting Guru
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That's what I was thinking... I target $30-40 for a typical final cost per sign-up.
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11-19-2000, 05:03 PM #14Web Hosting Master
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Yes,
Honestly its working out at about $5 per sign up if I divide the monthly advertising costs by the number of sign ups in total.
A lot of those are word of mouth though, so that distorts the figures, but it averages out at about $5.
Trust me, I have no spare cash for advertising.
I started the paid hosting business with an investment of $100 per month, being the profit from my free web hosting service.
The paid hosting business covered its first months costs in its first five days of trading and its been in profit ever since.
GordonFormerly: Managing Director, Hostroute.com Ltd & Marketing Director, Ultraspeed UK Ltd
View my Professional Profile: www.gordonhudson.com
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11-19-2000, 05:42 PM #15Web Hosting Guru
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I guess the rest of us would like to know where you're advertising that it's doing so well, then. That is, if you don't mind sharing such information.
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11-24-2000, 10:53 AM #16Aspiring Evangelist
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I don't think there's any one magic bullet for promoting a hosting company or any e-commerce business. If promotion was so easy why do companies like Amazon, Travelocity, Priceline etc. have to make expensive TV ads?
A little here and a little there and it all adds up. You just have to do what you can to monitor it all, drop those that don't work, expand the ones that do and try new ones also.
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11-25-2000, 04:27 AM #17Web Hosting Master
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Hey, if it's good enough for Amazon, it's good enough for me. After all, I want to be just as profitable as they are.
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11-25-2000, 05:19 AM #18Web Hosting Guru
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Tongue stuck in your cheek there, etLux?
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11-25-2000, 03:37 PM #19Web Hosting Master
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Yeah, I guess, Travis... my way of pointing up, though, that advertising, however intense the campaign and no matter how much expense is put to it, is only one component of the game.
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01-06-2001, 10:48 AM #20Junior Guru
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I think Gordon gets the customers simply because of what he`s offerering for a realy cheap price.
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02-28-2001, 06:11 AM #21Web Hosting Master
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It all depends on the locatio, banner design, and targeted traffic, mostly banners are here to show your presence - it's important for the company's reputation!
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