Using
Affiliate Programs to Test Your Advertising Strategy
Advertising
is an investment in your company. Why do companies advertise?
To improve their image, to increase their customer base and to
make sales. Why do most companies "really"
advertise? To increase sales!
Think of how much money your company spends on advertising in
a year. A three-month contract in the local newspaper can cost
about $2000 for an 1/8-page ad. A campaign on your favorite
radio station can run up to $3000, an ad in your state
magazine can run up to $7200 and cable TV advertising can cost
even more.
Let's take a look at the world of online advertising. If you
are advertising on a major portal, the minimum amount you
would invest is about $2000. Advertising on smaller targeted
oriented sites can still cost you anywhere from $60-$500 per
month, depending on the site's traffic.
Whether online or off, unless you have an effective ad
campaign in place, your advertising dollars are going to
waste. Your ads have to be in the right place, at the right
time, with the right sales message.
The Internet provides you with so many effective measuring
tools that can't be found in the offline advertising world.
You can actually tell how many people have viewed your ad,
clicked on it and if they purchased something from you, and
you can track it all in real time! You can test! And you don't
need an ad agency or a web "techie" to do it!
Another way to advertise online is through Performance Based
Marketing, also known as an affiliate program. Performance
based marketing is taking the industry by storm!. You can
actually advertise your products and services across thousands
of web sites while only paying for results! You can test which
ads increase traffic, which ads sell and which ads are a total
flop!
Investing in an affiliate program can drive traffic to your
site, increase your audience reach and increase your online
revenue, but probably the cost overlooked factor of an
affiliate program is that it allows you to test your ad
campaigns effectively, saving you time and money.
Affiliate programs provide you with the vehicle and a captive
audience to do just that. Investing in an affiliate program,
even if you don't make one sale can be the most important
investment your company will make in it's online
advertising strategy!
Why? Because affiliate programs allow you to test what works
and what doesn't!
The key to any online advertising strategy is to "fail
quickly", so you can then test what really works.
Affiliate programs provide you with the vehicle and a captive
audience to do just that, and the crime of it all is you can
do it without paying any up front advertising fees. You only
pay for ads that perform well enough to give you a qualified
lead or generate a sale.
If you could do this in the offline world, I know a lot of
newspapers and magazines that would be out of business right
now! Chances are very good that while you are doing all that
testing, you are going to make some sales as well!
-------------------------------------------------
Thom Schlip, CEO
http://www.plugingo.com/
PlugInGo Affiliate Network
Win a Porsche! March 17 we choose!
http://www.plugingo.com/rd.cfm?pc=A9jY47&tx=283
-------------------------------------------------
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Read
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