Quick question that I've thrown out on Twitter over the last couple of days but I'd really like your feedback as well:
In your market, how do you sell online ads? Do you find more success selling impressions by CPM or do you set the number of ad avails per spot and then rotate clients (ie. sell 1 of 6 available leaderboard placements).
I will re-post findings from my other conversations but I'd like to hear what works best for you.
Cheers.
Dale
Dale:
We recommend to our clients to sell the impressions, not the click-throughs. You know the impressions are the number of times the banner ad is displayed on the site, like the number of times an ad is played on the radio. And like a radio ad, we do not recommend clients guarantee a click-through rate (to the advertisers URL). Most stations don't have final say on the audio content of the radio ad, and also don't have final say on the display content of the banner ad. Our clients simply sell by impressions.
We also recommend that the ad space on the site rotate several different advertisers. This reduces the times the ad will appear, but helps keep the site fresh as the visitor browses page to page. And we recommend that stations occasionally sell page specific ads (school closings, weather, etc) to a limited number of their clients (usually 3) so you still get a rotation, but the impressions are higher (and so is the rate). Your insertion software should be able to track the number of times an ad was displayed (and even click-throughs).
To increase the number of times a banner ad is displayed, your website content needs to keep people coming back to your site - updated format specific news, great contests to enter, jock blogs, (This is why Facebook is so dangerous to radio, jocks talk about their facebook pages when they should be putting all that info and encouraging listener interaction via their station website). Keep it local and build your 'friends' on your station site to grow on-line revenue.
Anyway, hope that helps.
Neil
Dale,
If you haven't yet read this discussion thread, you might like to check it out: Internet Pricing.
Looking forward to reading the new replies here!
~ Rebecca
Hi Steve - thanks for your reply.
While we do have the ability to sell by impressions, what is the argument to do so? I've found that impressions based sales generally confuses both reps and clients.
Cheers! Dale
We have three locations for internet ads on our sites and price them individually. We sell them based on what the average number of views and clicks are on that particular "piece of real estate." At the end of the month, I email my clients the number of views and clicks they received. Also, it's very important to make sure you can offer them more than just a logo on your website. We have internal people who create specific web ads. It's a great way to enhance their on-air campaign.
Hope it helps!
Greg
I don't understand why we in radio make it so difficult for people to say YES to a proposal. We tend to develop our own lingo, pricing, sales methods, etc.
Newspaper has been kicking our tail when it comes to selling the web. The typical method is cost per thousand impressions ROS. The buyer either wants a specific monthly budget or a specific number of impressions each month.
Think about it. There are only a few pieces of prime real estate on your entire web site. Once they are gone, the rest is left unsold regardless of price.
Newspaper has laid the groundwork for us. If we speak the same language, it's much easier to reap the harvest.
