“I have nothing against Facebook but, for a lot of businesses, Facebook is not the appropriate place to advertise. They are wasting their money there.”
Armand Morin
Let’s talk about what I call “Selective Advertising.” It’s similar to “selective hearing” where you only hear the things you wish to hear.
With selective advertising, you only advertise in the places you choose which, of course, are appropriate to you.
I think this topic needs to be addressed because when I talk to people about the advertising portion of their business, they say they are just advertising on Facebook. I have nothing against Facebook but, for a lot of businesses, Facebook is not the appropriate place to advertise. They are wasting their money there.
Why are they advertising there? They are advertising there just because other people have told them that it’s the place they need to be. Another place that businesses advertise, even if it’s not correct for their business, is on mobile devices. They justify advertising there because “everyone” has a mobile device.
But there are some places to advertise that are steadfast—they are always going to be there. You need to master advertising in these places. But there is a problem with advertising in them. Most people think these tried-and-true places are boring, outdated, not used anymore.
It just kills me when I hear people talk about them like that. I just feel like grabbing them, shaking them, and asking them what they are talking about.
Let’s take advertising on Google. I hear people say, “no one ever advertises on Google anymore.” Or “people never go to Google anymore.”
All I can say is, “really, is that what you think”? It’s not true!
I don’t care what’s going on in the rest of the world or what social network is here or there…the fact remains, Google is still the going to be the most effective form of advertising there is.
Let me give you an example.
If I run a Facebook ad, I might get a 0.1% to 0.3% conversion into an actual click. On Google, I’m averaging 2% to 5% on an ad.
Just think about that—on Facebook I’m doing, let’s say 0.1% to maybe 0.3% on a click-through rate, but on Google I’m getting like 2%, 3%, 4%, 5%. Sometimes we’ve even gotten up to 10% depending on the kind of ad that we’re running.
That goes to show you how much more targeted the Google market actually is.
There are some steadfast places that we want to focus our advertising on, Google happens to be one of those. What you may not realize is that on Google there are multiple places to advertise. I can probably think of at least 10 or 11 different ways to advertise on Google and all of them are actually good.
What we need to focus on is, are they targeted for our market? Just because it’s Google doesn’t mean it’s good for our market— you have to find what’s best for your business.
The question always is—is it targeted for the market that you’re going after? With Google standard ads, the answer is yes. Google display ads, absolutely!
One of my favorite kinds of advertising is banner advertising on YouTube. It’s one of the most incredible things that you could possibly do.
For example, let’s say I wanted to learn how to sew. I go to YouTube, type in “how to sew,” and I look for a video that teaches me how to sew. And then in the middle of the video, as I’m watching it, a little banner pops up that says, “Hey, would you like to learn how to sew, click here and we can show you how to sew in just a few short minutes”. I’m thinking, “that’s awesome!” Think of how powerful that is if used in the right way!
Banner or advertising on YouTube is one of the easiest things that you could possibly do. But at the same time, you have to
see if it’s going to work for you. I like it. I think you should like it, but the reality is, will it work for you? We don’t know yet, so you have to try it. Just like with Google, it’s one of those places you want to learn to advertise on.
Bing is another place that you want to advertise. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “Armand, no one uses Bing.” The fact is that a lot of people do use Bing.
Here’s the interesting thing about Bing and Google…they are both far less expensive than advertising on Facebook. For the same amount of money, you can get 10 to 20 times more targeted traffic on Bing and Google than on Facebook. It’s just crazy. It’s ridiculous!
We can add Yahoo to the mix. People also say no one uses Yahoo but when you break down the amount of search traffic, 30% to 35% of all the Internet search traffic is on either Bing or Yahoo.
Think about it, people are searching for what you have, and you place your PPC (Pay Per Click) ad in front of them. That’s it. If your ad is good enough, people will click on it. And if your landing page is good enough people will give you their name and email address, or people will buy your product and, or service.
Let’s get back to my point in the very beginning of this article, which is, you have to advertise only where you need to be. In other words, in front of an audience that is willing to buy your product or service, i.e., selective advertising.
Selective advertising…think about that for one second. Think about where you’re advertising, why you’re advertising there and are you getting the results that you want? If you’re not getting the results that you want, stop immediately and then go onto someplace else.
Think about Google, YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo. Think about the standard methods of advertising and go old school. Old school works. That’s the bottom line. Put your ads where people want what you have. It’s that simple.
There are numerous trainings in Marketing University for these modes of advertising. Do a search and try something new and tell me about your results.
