Selling Advertising On the Web To The Impulse Buyer
March 23, 2009 – 8:35 am Selling Advertising On the Web To The Impulse Buyer
Nowadays, it is increasingly commonplace to see an “Advertise With Us” link on many websites.
After all, short of a few paid subscription sites like the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times etc, most web content is consumed for free, and is supported by advertisements.
Therefore, it makes sense to put up a link that helps potential advertisers get started.
Typical “Advertise With Us” pages usually follow one these formats:
1. The Classic Form / Email
This is the simplest approach. Put a form that submits to a script, which forwards the content to your email or dumps it in a database for retrieval later.
Alternatively, you can just provide your email on the page. This is a basic approach but by far the simplest to implement. An example.
Pros: Simple to implement
Cons: Emails may be picked by spammers. Yet another form to fill, can discourage impulse buyers. Provides no promotional material to the advertiser.
Example: DeviantArt.
2. The Media Kit
Write a brief synopsis on the merits on advertising on your site(s). Specify your traffic stats. Describe your target audience. Perhaps, include one or two charts, or even a screen shot and you are done.
Pros: Gives the advertisers a more compelling reason to advertise. Professionally prepared PDF media kits can be very effective with brand advertisers.
Cons: Traffic stats & charts need to be updated regularly.
Examples: BusinessWeek, TechCrunch
As outlined above, both methods have their pros and cons. However, they share one common problem – the inability to convert the impulse buyer.
First of all, what is an impulse buyer. Simply put, someone who is capable and has a strong instinctive motive to purchase a product or service immediately or within a short period of time. The “period of time” is crucial because once it expires, the probability of selling to the impulse buyer decreases exponentially.
To solve this problem, publishers need to provide at the very least, an online method of payment. Generally speaking, if you want to sell something online, you need to provide an online mode of payment. If potential advertisers have to call your phone or send you an email, it is very likely that you will lose a lot of advertisers.
Impulse buying is on an increase. You can observe it in how people purchase ringtones, songs (on iTunes) and increasingly in the purchase of books for the Amazon Kindle. Here is an extract from Fred Wilson’s review of the Kindle:
“Reading is addcitive on a Kindle. If authors and their publishers see that and make buying a book an impulse purchase (like a ringtone or a game on a mobile phone) they will see way more purchasing activity, more reading, and more addicted readers.”
The moral of the argument is that it is sales suicide to slow down the buying process or make it inefficient. It is similar to putting out a “Not Open” or “Not For Sale” sign.”
The common reason for slowing down the ad buy process is to maintain quality control. However, you can still maintain quality control if you use a system like the Trafficspaces Ad Manager. You have an option that allows you freeze any campaign from going out live on your site until you’ve approved all the ads in the campaign.
In summary, to avoid losing a stream of valuable revenue, you need to be prepared for the potential impulse advertisers that visit your website everyday.
To do this, provide them with the tools to make their final decision and act on it without leaving your site.
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