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First Lesson: Engage Everyone, Measure Everything
Small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) typically use marketing companies, like Dex Media and Reach Local, for online and sometimes offline promotions. These companies employ sophisticated campaign management practices and technologies that allow them to arbitrage traffic from large search players like Google and Yahoo. These players can often justify the cost of paying per click by providing every means possible to engage the consumer and to measure such engagement. It's not about brand recall, although that is a major benefit. It's about interactions, whether it's a phone call, an email, a filled out form, a coupon or a visit to a dynamic Web site. It's foolish to assume all consumers want only one way to engage with a business. I hate talking on the phone, so I order online. My mom hates to order online, so she calls a live person. And my dad prefers to go to the store. Knowing that, local advertisers provide every opportunity to interact with the consumer. In addition to typical impression and post click behavioral tracking, online video advertisers might also want to consider the following tactics:
Second Lesson: Optimize, Re-optimize, Then Re-optimize Again
Local search advertisers employ a constant cycle of measurement and optimization. Better performing sources of traffic get prioritized, while wasteful sources are automatically pruned from the plan.
While video advertising isn't as automated as some would hope, some networks and exchanges will allow you to optimize your campaign on the fly as you measure conversions. For instance, one company did a campaign for an auto parts store in a small suburb of Minneapolis. After targeting the Minneapolis DMA coupled with contextual targets of local news, sports, and automobiles, the campaign did OK, but the performance would not justify a sustained campaign. The advertiser optimized the campaign to target only automotive content and to target the neighborhood where the auto parts store was located. This dramatically lowered the number of video impressions served to just 1,000 in one month. However the campaign drove a significantly higher percentage of Web site visits, filled-out forms, and calls to the store at a lower cost to the advertiser.
Third Lesson: It's the eCPM, Stupid!
The arbitrageurs of local advertising are remarkable in that they will work with any traffic source regardless of the payment model-CPM, CPA or CPC. By understanding and attributing a value to certain interactions with their consumers, whether they are phone calls or filled-out forms, they can always assess the value of a traffic source to quickly determine if it's worth it to them. If a cost per click campaign doesn't offset the cost to generate their desired engagement metrics, then they will shift ad budget somewhere else that can, even if it means paying on a CPM basis.
We've found that local video ads can even outperform branded campaigns paying on a CPM basis when these campaigns are properly targeted, measured and optimized. For instance, in the above auto parts store example, those 1,000 impressions generated 40 visitors to the site and four phone calls, thereby generating traffic worth over $50 eCPM to them.
So what can brands learn from local video advertising? No, not to move to performance-based advertising. I don't think anyone is going to buy a box of mac and cheese online. However inviting consumers to interact on multiple fronts can help easily quantify which traffic sources are most engaging and cost effective. For mac and cheese, potential measurable interactions could be downloading a recipe, printing a coupon, or participating in a survey.
Perhaps if the industry were to more widely adopt the sophisticated tactics found in local search advertising, one could actually argue that local online video advertising could be much larger than the Kelsey Group has projected!
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Have I received simular types of feedback for replies that I have posted that were self serving in the past? YES!
Be careful of ShopNTown's patent. I know they are preparing to enforce the patent they own with new management, capital and support.
Pretty low blow on the "self serving' thing. I always repsond to Video Insider articles when I think my response and company is relevant to the content. Yes I promote my company whenever I have the opportunity--especially when the message I am sending is that there are other options for the Video Advertiser out there.
Your type of post just damages your own company's reputation as obviously we are in similar lines of work. I've been to your site and see that it also will make a contribution--I would never follow a post of a potential competitor with such negativity!
Don't take it personal "W Austin from ShopNTown,com, Inc."
Notice the first response is some self serving guy claiming to have all the answers with his "first ever vid thing" portal.
How sad.
Hot Pluto may be the balck sheep of the video advertising market but everyone starts somewhere. It's not just about "local advertising" as many of the small to medium business want a national or global presence--they just can't afford traditional video advertising.
Hot Pluto separates itself from the video advertising market as we all know it and bascially stands it on its head. The non-intrusive methods and low fixed monthly rates will soon bring advertisers of all sizes as content and traffic to the site increases--this is not done over night.
Add coupons, direct interation between consumers and advertisers, the ability to post multiple ads under the same account and put it all on one site where advertisers and consumers meet and you have the Hot Pluto model.
With the unknowns surrounding the economy, businesses are looking to get more bang for their bucks! Would it make more sense for a small company to put their premium ad on YouTube for an entry point of $50,000 over 90 days or place (3) ads on HotPluto.com where it's non-intrusive and the entry point is $19.95 a month? Advertisers on Hot Pluto can even get 200-400% more exposure on the site for $99.95 a month Featured Listing--a drop in the bucket compared to YouTube.
In time we will see how the Hot Pluto model takes hold. Currently there are over 300 video advertisers on the site.