Great advertising can make you feel on top of the world! A successful advertising investment should return 4-5 times your initial investment and drive increased business from both new and existing customers. Unfortunately, not every advertising campaign is created equally. Sometimes, you make an investment and never see that money again.<\/p>\n
While you can\u2019t predict the future, we\u2019ve devised a way to easily RATE advertising mediums to determine if you are following best practices to protect your investment.<\/p>\n
What does RATE stand for?<\/h2>\n
RATE stands for R<\/u><\/strong>epetition, A<\/u><\/strong>ppeal, T<\/u><\/strong>argeting, and E<\/u><\/strong>xposure. These four elements are central to generating profits with your ads. RATE helps you invest the least amount of money in the most effective advertising mediums.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n How often will people see your ad?<\/strong><\/p>\n Customers need to see your ad more than once. Advertisers have known this as far back as 1885, as shown in Thomas Smith\u2019s guide, Successful Advertising<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> Smith believed customers needed to see an ad twenty times before they purchased a product! While the exact rate of repetition is debatable, there are a number of research papers that propose that a good number to target is 7-8 views per customer to ensure they take action.<\/p>\n When it comes to repetition in advertising, more is more.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n What will entice people to use your business?<\/strong><\/p>\n Ads are a bit like spaghetti, businesses throw them on the wall to see which ones stick. We\u2019ve all seen that one \u201cspecial\u201d ad. The one you\u2019d think someone, anyone<\/em>, would have opposed before it was published. The one with so much text you can\u2019t tell what\u2019s being advertised or the one that just makes no sense!?!<\/p>\n Design is important because it catches the eye of prospective customers, but a great ad consists of more than just pretty colors and fonts.<\/p>\n An appealing ad connects with the customer and commands an action.<\/strong><\/p>\n For direct-response ads, command action with a coupon offer!<\/p>\n FREE or a Buy One Get One 50% Off<\/strong><\/p>\n These simple messages are sufficient to connect with the audience and drive action (use the coupon). Add a little color and a small supporting image, and you have design quality as well.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n For brand ads, appeal takes shape by building trust through an obvious message.<\/p>\n Buying a home? Better call Paul!<\/strong><\/p>\n This simple message connects with customers (homebuyers) and drives action by telling the customer how to get in touch. By playing off a popular TV show through both the text and design, this ad evokes feelings of humor, warmth, and connection.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n To create an appealing ad, ask yourself these questions:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Does your ad reach the right people?<\/strong><\/p>\n If your advertising campaign isn\u2019t seen by your target audience, how could it possibly generate an ROI? Successful campaigns will be distributed to your target market. If they hit more people (as long as you aren\u2019t paying for the extra) that is okay.<\/p>\n Targeting occurs by persona or geography.<\/p>\n Sometimes you can find both types of targeting in a single medium. Grocery stores, for example, offer a combination of persona and geo-targeting. Statistically, they pull 85% of their customers from a 3-mile radius of the store. By knowing the demographic information from sources like the census, you can target by persona and have some of the best hyper-local targeting.<\/p>\n Will your ad actually be seen?<\/strong><\/p>\n How your ad is delivered and actually presented to the customer is called Exposure.<\/p>\n Think about visiting a website and getting a pop-up ad that covers the whole page versus the subtle distinction of a sponsored ad in your Facebook news feed. Exposure needs to be a little intrusive to make sure your audience doesn\u2019t dismiss it as background noise. However, if the ad is too invasive it can have real consequences for your advertising campaign.<\/p>\n Too subtle and your customers won\u2019t bite. Too aggressive and there can be a backlash.<\/p>\n The best exposure is when it is a natural part of the consumer\u2019s activities. Some of the subtlest examples are in content marketing. For example, the author highlights a specific product or service, like coupon advertising<\/a>, within an educational piece. (See what I did there?) Another example is where the ad is pervasive but doesn\u2019t interfere. Imagine an ad that sits just a few inches from your prospect\u2019s hands for about 47 minutes at a time like it does when you advertise on a shopping cart<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now that you know what the necessary elements of an advertising campaign are and what to look for in each, you can compare each element across potential advertising platforms.<\/p>\n Download this blank worksheet and fill in each row<\/a><\/strong>, just like sample below.<\/p>\n Display Ads: Appear in ad space on websites who participate on Google Display Network.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Display Ads: Full- color ad w\/ coupon<\/p>\n<\/td>\n Display ads: Continuously appear in various websites that the user visits.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n After filling in all your options, look for the advertising with the highest amount of repetition, appeal, targeting, and exposure for the lowest cost. That will be your best option for generating a positive ROI.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Great advertising can make you feel on top of the world! A successful advertising investment should return 4-5 times your initial investment and drive increased business from both new and existing customers. Unfortunately, not every advertising campaign is created equally. Sometimes, you make an investment and never see that money again. While you can\u2019t predict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12023],"tags":[8397,43248,13503,1485],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-224083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advertising","tag-advertising","tag-advertising-101","tag-campaign","tag-rate"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Repetition](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/repetition.svg\"\/)
![\"Repetition](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/repetition.svg\")
<\/strong><\/h3>\nRepetition <\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Magnetic](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/appeal.svg\"\/)
![\"Magnetic](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/appeal.svg\")
Appeal<\/strong><\/h3>\n![\"1000](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/SMI_0139_B_1000DegreesPizza-300x191.jpg\"\/)
![\"1000](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/SMI_0139_B_1000DegreesPizza-300x191.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"sunstreet](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/44317-Sunstreet-Mortgage-1-300x217.jpg\"\/)
![\"sunstreet](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/44317-Sunstreet-Mortgage-1-300x217.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
![\"Targeting](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/targeting.svg\"\/)
![\"Targeting](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/targeting.svg\")
Targeting<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n
![\"Exposure](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/glasses.svg\"\/)
![\"Exposure](\"https:\/\/www.indoormedia.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/glasses.svg\")
Exposure<\/strong><\/h3>\nHow do I RATE my advertising campaign?<\/h2>\n
\n\n
\n \n\n Repetition<\/th>\n Appeal<\/th>\n Targeting \/ Reach<\/th>\n Exposure\t<\/th>\n Cost<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n Google Ads (including map ads)<\/td>\n Search Ads: Appear as someone performs a Google search. Impressions are limited by budget. <\/p>\n Search Ads: Text ads appear as people are actively searching for dining options. Can include text discount offers.<\/p>\n Depends on CPC and budget<\/td>\n Search Ads: Appear directly in a user’s search results. <\/p>\n Less than $1-$5+ per click (CPC= cost per click)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Facebook Advertising<\/td>\n 1-4x per month<\/td>\n Full-Color Ad w\/Coupon Discount<\/td>\n 20K-40K Users within 3-5 miles of your business, narrowed by demographics<\/td>\n Native ad in the user’s newsfeed<\/td>\n $500 – $800\/month<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Grocery Store Receipt Advertising<\/td>\n 4-8x per month<\/td>\n Full-Color Ad w\/Coupon Discount<\/td>\n Approx. 80K shoppers within 3-5 miles<\/td>\n Placed directly into the shopper’s hand<\/td>\n $358\/month<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Newspaper<\/td>\n 1x per month<\/td>\n Black & White ad in Sunday paper<\/td>\n 318,085 Readers<\/td>\n On the driveway<\/td>\n $4,620 per ad<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Radio<\/td>\n 5 spots per week<\/td>\n Audio only, must be memorable<\/td>\n 2+ Million listeners, Adults 25-54<\/td>\n 30 second air time per spot<\/td>\n $3,500 per Week (not including production cost)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Billboard<\/td>\n 7-15x per month<\/td>\n Eye-catching Outdoor sign<\/td>\n 5,391,090 Population<\/td>\n 6 seconds of visibility<\/td>\n $27,050 – $151,800 per month<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n