I am advertising again, and I think I have got it sussed

[GordonH]

Hello
I decided to restart some advertising on overture, which was always one of our biggest sources of new business.
It got to the stage the ROI was dropping alarmingly.
However, I think I have got it working better now.

I started by experimenting with our Overture UK account.
Here is what I did:

1. I deleted all of our listings! (5 years worth of fine tuned ads).
2. I set up new categories (web hosting, domain names, cheap hosting etc).
3. I added listiung under a small number of general keywords and turned on broad match for them.
4. I turned on content match for the same keywords.

Now I have a few categories where I can control the bids easily and not hundreds of listings which got hits but did not seem to convert well.
I am also turning the ads on and off so they only show at times of day I know customers are more likley to make buying decisions.
e.g. I am not showing ads in the middle of the night....

The result is a substantial increase in ROI and sales.

It has been a fairly huge job because of the time it takes overture to approve new ads and their weird habit of not approving apparently OK ads, which I then have to resubmit.

Now I need to do the same for Overture US over the weekend and hopefully it will have a similar effect.

[GordonH]

Actually I am just writing the ad copy for Overture US and decided to look at other peoples ads.

Here is one:

Why Pay over $3 Per GB for Web Hosting?
Host 5000 Web sites. Only $50/month. Each Web site has 750 MB of storage and 20 GB of data transfer at under 2 cents per GB. Unlimited e-mail, CGI, PHP, FTP, stats and control panel.

OK, I think I am possibly wasting my time trying to compete with that.

I am now thinking laterally, but Overture don't like off the wall ads.

Idea I will get rid of my servers and get one of those guys reseller plans!
Will save me $20,000 a month.

[GordonH]

I wonder if Overture would go with something like this?

We may not be the cheapest or the biggest but we provide a fast, reliable web hosting service. User friendly systems and true 24/7 technical support. A family run business since 2000.

Might appeal to a certain part of the population.

My bet is they would reject it, but lets see what happens.

Anyone got any overture rejection stories?

[ldcdc]

As always, Gordon shares true, valuable experiences, that we all can learn from. Thumbs up and good luck with your experiments!

[GordonH]

Well, the Overture system would not even let me type "biggest" or "cheapest" into the form because its a superlative comparing us to other companies (even though the phrase was "we are not the biggest").
So much for automation.
I changed the ad a bit and we will see what happens next week once its approved.

I am confident this general bidding strategy will work in the US if it works in the UK as its hitting the search terms that convert best and only hitting them at times when they work.

[asp-hosting.ca]

How is it going, Gordon? Any luck?

[GordonH]

I was meaning to post an update.

Yes, its working much better than previous campaigns and is making enough money to make it worthwhile.

[asp-hosting.ca]

I'm glad it's working for you. Are you listing any price figures in your Overture ads? Have you tried AdWords?

[GordonH]

I tried ad words again and it was a total disaster.

The problem with adwords (and I can't find a way round it) is that to get your ads shown you do have to pay silly amounts of money, therefore its impossible to make them pay.
There does not seem to be an way round this.
I tried running a big campaign with lots of keywords but the less popular ones got no clicks and ended up being disabld anyway.

I am analysing my US overture figures later on and will give an idea of the results here.

However, based on what I am spending and the increase in turnover it is paying for itself plus a litle bit more.
In the past it was effectively costing money.

Oh and another trick I am using (important) is that I am only showing ads during business and evening hours in the US and UK.
I am not showing US ads during the night or in the early morning US time as this tends to be when people in south east asia are clikcin on them and not buying.

[asp-hosting.ca]

Thanks Gordon,

Just curious, how do you define "paying for itself plus a little bit more."?
What is your criterion for "paying for itself"?



Peter

[GordonH]

Thanks Gordon,

Just curious, how do you define "paying for itself plus a little bit more."?
What is your criterion for "paying for itself"?



Peter

If I spend $100 and it brings in sales of $100 thats paying for itself (not out of pocket).

So far we have been spending approx $200 per day and turnover has been up by about $300.
Its not huge figures but over a year it ads up, plus if it keeps working there will be a bt of a snowball effect as thrse new customers buy other things from us.

[asp-hosting.ca]

Thanks Gordon,

Maybe I wasn't clear asking my question though. If you bring in $100 in sales this might be 1 yearly paid plan costing $100, or this might be 10 monthly hosting plans costing $10. The ROI would be quite different for both. That's what I meant when asked what is your criterion.


Peter

[GordonH]

Cash in hand....
Can't be sure a monthly customer will keep paying.
Most last less than 6 months in my experience.
Thier cards start bouncing and thats the last you hear of them.

[asp-hosting.ca]

I understand. I guess it all depends of the type of customers you get.



Peter

[GordonH]

Most of our customers pay annually anyway as we charge a lot less for annual hosting.

[asp-hosting.ca]

I don't have many yearly customers, but I might try it in the future.

[GordonH]

There is a problem with doing that:

You get all the money up front and it appars in your accounts as profit even if you are having to provide the service in the next financial year.

Also, it means you have to have lots of servers for those customers so you wil be adding lots of machines, then once some don;t renew you will have to have a strategy for filling the machines back up with new customers.

It takes a bit more forward planning than 100% monthly hosting.

On the good side, it gives you money up front and don;t get the monthly customers who claim they cancelled two years ago and then charge back all their monthly payments.

[asp-hosting.ca]

That's true. Don't you get any charge backs for the yearly paid plans?

[GordonH]

Rarely, because a year ago is too far back.

However, if its monthly paid they can go back many years because the last payment was within 6 months.
Annual is more secure from that perspective.

[asp-hosting.ca]

It makes sense now :). All my yearly customers pay by cheque, and I never thought of this.


Peter

[theprimehost]

I prefer a nice mix of monthly and annual. Good article, Gordon. I like the way you've stretched your brand out over many markets.

I'd be nice if you could set Overture to target specific countries, similar to Google.

[GordonH]

I prefer a nice mix of monthly and annual. Good article, Gordon. I like the way you've stretched your brand out over many markets.

I'd be nice if you could set Overture to target specific countries, similar to Google.

You can to some extent by having seperate accounts with them for certain markets, but the ads get shown to anyone of course.
Its just the sites they get shown on that are different.

[theprimehost]

Thanks Gordon!