The basics: Online advertising (in sports)
November 16, 2009 by Megan Hueter
Filed under Marketing and Advertising
Photo credit: dotperformance.com
This blog post is part of my ongoing weekly series discussing the role of social media and female athletics. It’s also a class requirement for a course I’m taking at John’s Hopkins University.
This week, we read Best Practices for Political Advertising Online by the Institute for Politics, Democracy & The Internet. I know I’ve said this before, but although this document (and other readings discussed here) are politically focused, their insights can easily be applied to the sports space as well, particularly those who work on or discuss grassroots issue efforts. This piece is no exception.
It provides a unique (and thorough) overview of online advertising from consultants in the political online world. Although most of hte up-front data is now old and therefore unuseful, two chapters I find most useful are chpater 4 – “Search engine marketing (SEM)” and Chapter 5 – “Online Display Advertising.”
Overall idea with online advertising:
“You can reach people with extraordinarily targeted precision, and measure success and failure in real time.” (p. 5)
While this publication (rightfully) advises you consult SEM experts when you have a substantial budget for your campaign, if you’re on your own, you have time and your budget is limited, you can actually figure them out for yourself through Google’s Adwords tutorials (there are also many books on this subject).
Here’s an overview of some useful main points:
(Step 1) Search Engine Marketing – Pay per click (PPC) advertising – “gives your campaign a visible presearch above organic search results” (which is a competitive space). You choose keywords, bid on them, add text to an ad, create a relevant landing page, set a budget, and monitor your results. Google Adwords is by far the best tool for such marketing.
(Step 2) Online Display Advertising – “Display advertising can include static, flash, or video banners in varying sizes and formats, the standards for which are governed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). I have online display advertising which I serve through WomenTalkSports affiliate program (see ad to the right). You can also serve these ads through Google’s Ad Planner tool.
So, how are you reaching your target audience?
