I’m no expert on advertising. I do tend to be greedier than many advertisers, though, and my approach to advertising has served me well. So think of it as a guerrilla marketer’s guide to advertising.

Advertising Builds Brand Awareness

A lot of folks want advertising to convert immediately. That’s rarely what happens. Advertising should be thought of primarily as a brand building vehicle.

Take for example my banner ads for V7 Inc, our web hosting service. Most users seeing that banner will see it at the very moment that they need web hosting. Most impressions will be wasted, if you think of it that way.

But what the advertising does is build awareness of the V7 Inc brand so that when the time comes, and the consumer thinks, “I need hosting”, V7 Inc may have a place in that consumer’s mind.

To illustrate this point, I will admit to placing affiliate banner ads for LunarPages on V7N’s Hosting Directory. Although the banner ads were removed last month, just yesterday I received notification of a sign up. People do not necessearily act immediately, but if your ad is being seen chances are it is making an impression which may translate into sales down the road.

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Traditional direct marketing theory and testing shows that inquiry returns are often highest when an advertisement has a catchy headline. This is also useful theory to apply to online marketing, when, often, all you’ve got to grab peoples’ attention is a short phrase and/or description.

One book I keep coming back to is “Tested Advertising Methods”, by John Caples. While some of the theory and examples are getting long in the tooth, the underlying theory of appealing to self-interest is sound and as relevant today as it ever was.

Luckily, with PPC, we’re got an excellent environment in which to test ads against one another, and quickly determine the results.

So, what makes for a catchy headline?

1. Self Interest - great headlines appeal to the readers self-interest. What is in it for me? For example: “Make $1000 a day on Google alone”.

2. News - Give news. For example, “Search Marketing Industry Collapses”.

3. Curiosity - Arouse curiosity in the reader. Questions are good. “Are You Using These Top Ten Blackhat Techniques?”

Of the three, it has been found that #1 - Self Interest is by far the most powerful. Curiosity is the weakest, although it very much depends on the context and the audience.

If you’re tweaking an Adwords campaign, try these long-established direct marketing tactics:

• appeal to self interest
• suggest the quick and easy over the time consuming and difficult
• if you’ve got a new product or service, make sure people know it is “NEW!”

Google are testing out Adwords for mobile phones, called Mobile Ads:

“Mobile ads are shorter text-based AdWords ads that appear when users search Google from a mobile device. Send users to your mobile web page, or offer them the option to connect to your business phone after clicking on your ad.“

The available countries are United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Germany. Apparently, it works much the same way as Adwords, in that you choose a maximum cost-per-click for each keyword, but smart pricing does not apply
More at SEW and Clickz.

Interesting argument from Doc Searles on the (near) furture death of Marketing & Advertising (Yes, that includes SEO/M):

“Google has revolutionized advertising by 1) making results affordable to nearly everybody, and 2) moving the waste to where it’s best tolerated, which is by servers pumping out stuff most people don’t mind ignoring. But it’s still waste. The day will come when something new will connect demand and supply directly and efficiently. (Maybe Google will do that too… who knows?). Then advertising as we know it will be a goner”

I disagree. Marketing and advertising have always been around, ever since Grunt built a better club and hit Og over the head with it, witnessed by Ugg. Said Ugg: “Yep, I’ll take two!” Marketing is a strategic process, and that doesn’t just happen merely because a buyer and seller exist, and can talk with one another. How about creating a sense of desire? Of hope? Identifying and solving problems? Demonstrations? Helping provide meaning and context?

And I’m not sure you’ve ever been able to truly separate relationships from this process. I think they’ve always been there, but I agree that they’re becoming more and more important.

Author’s Note: This article was originally written in 2004 by me (John Scott). It was featured and referenced on several advertising-related websites, with both positive and negative feedback. It has been quoted and linked to from several websites with pronounced anti-gay agendas. It is not my intention to endorse and anti-gay agenda, and if you believe this article to be anti-gay, you’re not reading it right.

Expendable Income

The estimated annual value of the gay and lesbian market is $515 billion. It is estimated that 21% of gay and lesbian households have income greater than $100,000 per year, and 28% have income greater than $50,000 per year.

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