Congratulations on taking the next step
in promoting your business online with a
subscription to Bestinsurancequotes4u.com The
Basics of Online Advertising is designed
to help you understand how to use our
paid online advertising tools to get more
customers and build your business. If
you haven’t already, be sure to read our
Getting Started Guide to get a solid
understanding of the features and
functionality of www.bestinsurancequotes4u.comThe
Basics of Online Advertising will help you
use the advanced features that come
with your subscription service.
What does it mean? A
glossary of frequently used
terms
You have probably heard these terms
before and might have an idea of what
they mean. Here is the “readers’ digest”
version of key online advertising
terminology.
Banner Ad: an advertising graphic image
or animation displayed on a website, in
an application or in an HTML email.
Click Through: clicking on an
advertisement by a user (also called “ad
click”).
CPA (Cost Per Action): the amount an
advertiser is willing to pay for a user to
click on an ad and subsequently perform
an action, such as filling in a form,
submitting a survey, or subscribing to an
E-zine.
CPC (Cost Per Click): an advertisement
may be displayed many times, but the
advertiser pays based only on the number
of user clicks (also called Pay Per Click
(PPC).
CPM (Cost Per 1,000): the rate that
reflects the cost per thousand ad views for
a particular site. For example, a $2 CPM
means the advertiser pays $2 when their
ad is viewed 1,000 times (regardless of
the number of clicks on the ad).
CTR (Click-Through Rate): the
percentage of users that click on an
advertisement. For example, if an
advertiser gets 10 clicks from 1,000
impressions, the CTR is 1%.
Impressions: the number of times an
advertisement is viewed by users.
Keywords: specific words or phrases
used to identify a web page; they are
used by search engines to retrieve
relevant web pages based on a users
search criteria.
Open Rates: an indication of how many
people "view" or "open" an email sent out
by a business.
Page View: the viewing of a page by a
user.
Spiders, Crawlers, Robots (bots): A web
spider (also called a robot or crawler) is a
program which browses the web in a
automated manner. Search engines use
spidering to provide up-to-date data, and
to create a copy of all the visited pages for
indexing so they can provide faster
searches.
Unique Visitor: a statistic which counts
each visitor to a web site only once in the
timeframe of the report. This removes the
impact of repeat visitors and allows
advertisers to count both page views and
unique visitors.
For more detail definitions, search for
“online advertising” on Wikipedia
(www.wikipedia.org).
Online Advertising: Create an Ad on Google
and Yahoo!
Search Engine Advertising with www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com is an easy
way to place ads on search engines like Google and
Yahoo! The placement of the ad is based on specific
characteristics of the customer you’re trying to target.
These characteristics are identified using keywords that
you believe your customers will use to find your business.
These could include search words entered by the
customer, as well as geographic location or a profile of the
customer.
Your paid subscription allows you to publish your ads on
major internet sites like Google and Yahoo! We use our
experience with search engines to buy the most effective
keywords for your business. Generally those keywords will
include business type, location, and your business name.
For example, if “Andale Taqueria” in Los Gatos is a paying
subscriber, we would include keywords such as “Andale
Taqueria” “Los Gatos” “95030” “Mexican restaurant” and
“restaurant”. Then we measure the results of the ads and
figure out the most effective keywords. It is helpful to get
input from you, the local business owner, when picking the
right keywords – our system lets you provide
recommendations so we can factor them in when picking
the best keywords.
If you haven't created your own online ad yet, this is the
perfect time to get your business's name out there (see our
Getting Started Guide to create an ad on Google and
Yahoo!) It takes approximately 3 days for our ad optimizers
to configure your advertisement for the best possible
performance. After that, you ads will show up and
customers can see them and click on them. You can track
how many people see your ads and how many people click
on them using your www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com dashboard.
Building the perfect ad takes time. So we’ve made creating
and managing your ads on www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com easy. You can
track click-through rates and learn what works. You can
change a headline, or text, or an offer until you find
something that works for you. Here are a few tips on
creating a great ad for your business.
• Include a keyword in your headline. A keyword
describes your advertisement, business, or offer, and is
used by search engines to deliver relevant results to
customers searching for related topics. For example, if
you run a bakery that specializes in pies, related
keywords could be apple pies, pies, coconut pies, and
yummy pies. MarketingSherpa, a market research
organization that runs extensive studies on maximizing
online marketing says, “Including one of your keywords
in the headline of your ad has the single greatest
impact on generating returns.”
• Highlight your core differentiator. What makes you
special or unique? You need to let the world know! For
example, if you're the low priced leader, include that
information in the body of your ad. If you offer a unique
service like in-home delivery and pick-up, include that
in the ad.
• Test creative copy. Test different phrases in the body
of your ad or headline. One recent example came from
an ad campaign for stock management software. The
company ran multiple online ads with different
headlines, varying between sensational and
informational. They found that the headline "Don't bring
a knife to a gun fight" resulted in a 15% increase in the
click-through rate over any other ad.
• Include common misspellings in keywords. This
may sound wrong at first, but you want the search
engines to know what customers might type in to find
you. Customers want to find relevant results and it's a
rare person who runs their Google searches through a
spell check first. So, use as many relevant keywords
you can think of for your ad campaigns, exclude
keywords not directly pertaining to your offer, and think
about how customers might misspell one of your
keywords.
• Test different options and adjust when you see what
works. Try building multiple ads with different
headlines and offers. You can track the results of
individual ads by the number of views and clicks to
monitor which ads perform best. Once you know what
works with your customers make sure to include the
winning strategies in your next online ad.
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Coupons: How to make them work for you
Internet coupons have become quite popular because the
cost of offering the coupons is so low. For example, with
online coupons there are no postage or printing costs.
Internet coupons also have the potential to reach a much
broader audience.
Lisa Bradner of Forrester Research says “Half of coupon
users who go online use Web coupons as well. [These
coupon users] make more money, shop online more, and
talk about new products with peers more than offline
coupon users do.” So, people who get your coupons online
are worth more to you in referrals and word-of-mouth.
With your paid subscription you have access to multiple
coupon templates to create a variety of coupons depending
on your offer and your customers. Using coupons to attract
new customers and to influence their opinions is a very
powerful way to expand your business. If you haven't
created your own coupon, here’s your opportunity (see our
Getting Started Guide to create a coupon for your
business).
Just like ads, there are a few tricks to building a great
coupon. Here are some things you want to remember
when you’re building your coupons.
• Make the discount count. The most popular coupons
offer a fixed discount, such as $10 off a purchase of $50
or more. These coupons tend to attract more clicks and
have a better conversion rate for sites whose average
order totals less than $100. Alternatively, sites with an
average transaction size of more than $100 find that
coupons offering a percentage discount, such as 10% off
a purchase of $100 or more, often perform better.
• Make it different. Many online merchants now try to
attract first-time buyers by offering them greater
discounts. Repeat customers may expect 10% off their
order, new patrons might need an extra incentive, like a
20% discount for their first purchase.
• Make it generic. Apply the offer to all orders or all
product categories. If your coupon is too specific you
run the risk of not attracting a broad enough audience.
However, you still want to put some boundaries on the
offer like “15% off purchases over $50
• Make it end. Set an expiration date to create a sense
of urgency. This allows you to control the outstanding
impact of the coupons you send out. Using an
expiration date will create a deadline so you can remind
your customers to hurry up and take advantage before
time runs out.
• Make it simple. Don’t put exclusions, caveats or
special circumstances on the coupon. If customers
can’t figure out what the offer is, they are not going to
use the coupon.
Newsletters: Adding value to the
discussion
Newsletters are a great marketing tool for small
businesses. However, newsletters are not oversized ads.
A newsletter should contain valuable information that is
considered interesting to your audience. It should give
them a positive sense of your business, what you do and
how you can help them.
Use newsletters to create a longer term relationship
based on value rather than on a specific transaction.
This longer term relationship takes time to build but will
create more loyal customers. As a paid subscriber you
can deliver newsletters from as little as 1 customer to as
many as you like (see our Getting Started Guide to start
publishing your own newsletter).
Here are a few tips to help you write a great newsletter:
• What do your customers care about? Once you've
answered that question, you can then consider the
most important question: what does my audience want
to know about my business? Keeping customers
aware of your products and services (particularly new
ones), as well as any special offers, is important to
most of you. On the other hand, what your customers
want to know is how your products and services help
them.
• It's a newsletter - the key word is "news." Include
information about new services (“We now offer sameday
service if you call by 9 am”) or products (“We have
Nintendo Wiis in stock!”) so customers have good
reasons to visit your store after reading the newsletter.
Use bullets, short sentences, and short paragraphs. If
the topic is complex, suggest a reading list or invite
readers to check your www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com page or your
business website for more information.
• Keep a list of potential “ideas”. When an idea
comes to you, write it down so that you capture all the
cool newsletter topics and so you don’t forget about
them. After a while you’ll have a collection of creative
ideas that you can use to fill out the newsletter. This
can be as simple as a Word document called
“newsletter story ideas.” When it’s time to write your
Newsletter you have a place to start.
• Ask your readers for their ideas. The best way to
cover topics your customers care about is to ask them.
You can setup a contest with a prize for the customer
who submits the “best” idea or the “most” ideas. For
example, if a customer suggests carrying a new type of
accessory (i.e. new type of carpet cleaner for a carpet
cleaning service), let your other customers know you
added it in response to a customer suggestion.
• Interview an expert. You can share their expertise and
knowledge with your customers. Or, find someone well
known locally and ask them to share their ideas with
your customers. This makes the newsletter more
interesting and it gives you an opportunity to network
with other local business owners.
Newspapers: Advertise in top publications
in your area
Some people think that local businesses can’t advertise
in major national newspapers. With www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com that
isn’t true. For our paid members only, we also distribute
your Google and Yahoo ad content to appear in local and
major newspaper sites online. Some of our top online
newspaper sites include Chicago Tribune, USA Today,
ABC News, and Fox News.
Best of all, it requires no additional steps. Once you
create your Google and Yahoo! ad, the team at
www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com will handle the distribution for you. We
use the keywords you have identified and setup the
infrastructure so you get the increased visibility you need
to find more customers online.
411 Advertising: Create a customer
message on local 411 service
One of the newer media outlets is “411 advertising”.
When you call “411” on your cell phone, you often hear
short ads for local businesses. For our paid members
only, we also distribute your Google and Yahoo! ad
content to the 411 directory assistance system. You get
exposure to all sorts of customers when they call looking
for a business like yours.
Like all of our online advertising tools we make it super
easy. In fact, you do nothing more than what you are
already doing with your current account. Once you
create your Google and Yahoo! ad, the team at
www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com will handle the phone submission for you.
We use your current ad copy or available coupon copy at
request to help you find more customers through 411
directory assistance.
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Manage your online reputation
How your business is displayed on the web is a critical part
of your overall reputation. Your www.bestinsurancequotes4u.comWeb
Reputation Score helps you understand the different
elements of your online presence. Your score is compiled
from all the listings that are associated with your business
on the Internet. We take into account the accuracy of your
contact information, the number and quality of reviews
given to your business, and the great content you create on
www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com to tell customers about your business.
For our paid members only, we offer a dispute feature in
which we help you contact 3rd party listing sites in the event
your information is wrong or you feel you have unfavorable
reviews out there. We do our best to help you correct
information, but we can not guarantee the removal of
information on 3rd party sites.
Expert Advice: Personal one-on-one
consultation with an online advertising expert
For our paid subscribers, we offer one-on-one personal
consultations with an internet marketing expert. They are
here to help you create the best online advertising
campaign. If you’re not sure where to start, or don’t know
how to write a headline or what type of offer to include in
your coupon – these are the people who can help you
figure it out. All you have to do is ask. You can reach your
one-on-one internet marketing expert at
personalcare@merchantcircle.com.
Helpful Resources
Merchants are having great dialogues on the updated
www.bestinsurancequotes4u.com Forums. In these forums, you can post
questions and learn from other merchants about what’s
working for them in terms of advertising and promoting
their business. There are discussions on general
business topics as well as specific about online
advertising, coupons, etc.
Thanks for reviewing The Basics on Online Advertising.
We hope it helps you find even more customers by
making it easy advertise your business online. If you
have any questions, please contact us at
customercare@merchantcircle.com