February 24, 2009 at 13:17Contextual advertising for small online stores
In RuNet, a large number of different online stores. For some, this is the main business with millions of sales, and for someone it’s another sales channel for their small family business. Today we’ll talk about such online stores. Usually, they don’t have a serious budget for advertising on the network, and in such conditions you need to think about the effectiveness of each ruble invested in the promotion, and even a penny. A properly configured contextual advertising campaign can be a good solution to the problem.
Let's see how to do it.
Now, in the contextual advertising market in RuNet, there are three main players: Yandex.Direct, Google AdWords and Begun. Each has its pros and cons. However, now they are of interest to us solely in terms of prices.
A visitor who comes through Direct will cost 30 kopecks, through AdWords - 27, and through Begun - only 10. Obviously, in the conditions of austerity and a total crisis, Begun seems more attractive in terms of price, because in fact it is a difference of 3 times! You say: “What is this Begun, it appears on the garbage sites, and almost no one is looking for it in Rambler!”, And you will be wrong. Firstly, those visitors who, in search of a product, fall into the trash can click on your ad with a much higher probability, because they will not find what they are looking for on such a site. And Rambler, one way or another, still has some share of the search.
All that I will say here is equally applicable to Yandex.Direct, and to AdWords, and to the Runner, so even if you choose an ad network more expensive, these tips can help you.
Over time, your store will grow, the number of products will increase, and tracking ads will become more difficult. Here the API of the contextual advertising system, which all the major players have, can come to the rescue. For example, you can make a plug-in to your store script that would automatically create or delete ads when updating the assortment.
Above all, do not be afraid to experiment.
And, yes, I will say it again: evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign all the time .
Let's see how to do it.
Counting a penny
Now, in the contextual advertising market in RuNet, there are three main players: Yandex.Direct, Google AdWords and Begun. Each has its pros and cons. However, now they are of interest to us solely in terms of prices.
A visitor who comes through Direct will cost 30 kopecks, through AdWords - 27, and through Begun - only 10. Obviously, in the conditions of austerity and a total crisis, Begun seems more attractive in terms of price, because in fact it is a difference of 3 times! You say: “What is this Begun, it appears on the garbage sites, and almost no one is looking for it in Rambler!”, And you will be wrong. Firstly, those visitors who, in search of a product, fall into the trash can click on your ad with a much higher probability, because they will not find what they are looking for on such a site. And Rambler, one way or another, still has some share of the search.
Aimed fire
All that I will say here is equally applicable to Yandex.Direct, and to AdWords, and to the Runner, so even if you choose an ad network more expensive, these tips can help you.
- Use “product” inquiries
Naturally, you should not think that for 10 kopecks for your bookstore you can buy an ad for high-frequency or mid-frequency queries: “books”, or “online bookstore”. But, see for yourself, there are a bunch of keywords free from advertisers that contain the name of the book, the name of the author, etc. For example, in the words “say no first” or “jim camp” ( D. Camp book ) you will certainly buy an ad. For an online store selling mp3 players, these can be words containing the full (or close to full) name of the product, for example, “explay m20” or “explay m20 4gb”. - Use stop words.
For a bookstore (as well as a music, video, software store), users looking for freebies will be excess traffic. So, it makes sense to add various options “download”, “free”, “free then” to the stop words. - Use targeting
If your store is small and you do not deliver all over Russia (or the world), and really do not want to pay for those who do not buy, turn on targeting to your city or region. So, you do not have to explain to the visitor from Vladivostok that your Moscow courier will arrive no earlier than 7 days later and delivery will cost like a small publishing house. - Keep track of your ad performance.
It would seem like such a simple and obvious thing. But some online stores do not have a large staff and in the bustle of increased sales may forget to do this, or do not do it regularly enough. In principle, checking the indicators once a week will be enough. Use your statistics system to understand which ads come from visitors and which buyers come from .
Prospects
Over time, your store will grow, the number of products will increase, and tracking ads will become more difficult. Here the API of the contextual advertising system, which all the major players have, can come to the rescue. For example, you can make a plug-in to your store script that would automatically create or delete ads when updating the assortment.
Above all, do not be afraid to experiment.
And, yes, I will say it again: evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign all the time .