Shift Dollars – Shift Sales
Remember the age-old saying “Location, Location, Location…”?
It’s a phrase that applies to a lot of things, from Real Estate sales to Military might. It is also central to advertising, as your ad placements are crucial to the success of your business.
When looking deeper into advertising budgets, we see just how present dealers are in different locations and advertising platforms. From Traditional spending to Digital spending, the lists get long very quickly. However, that age old phrase, “Location, Location, Location” might be more important than ever on digital platforms today due to the litany of options, sales pitches, and statistics given to managers who have to make a decision.
How on earth do you make that decision to spend the right amount of money on the right “Location” online? Think of the options out there: 3rd party inventory hosting, display, video, SEM, social media – where do you need to be, and how much do you spend? The easy answer is to say you need to be everywhere and spend as much as possible. But many times you can’t afford to be “everywhere”. You need what works and what works affordably. In the digital age, the equivalent to “Location, Location, Location..” is “CPM, CPM, CPM..” – Cost Per Media.
Versus traditional options, digital marketing is dirt cheap. It allows you invaluable opportunity to be in front of your customer at different stages of the buying process. You’ve got with the times, it’s 2016. Most decision makers know the realms of digital marketing and what options are possible. However, I’ve come to find that many decision makers do not follow one of the most important variables to their digital marketing budgets. This variable determines how far their dollar goes, and it is directly related to the overall success of a campaign – I’m talking about CPM Rates.
Many managers do not understand what to look for when presented CPM rates by marketing companies and media reps. They hear, “this fits your budget”, “this will get you in front of your customer”, “this is a GOOD deal”. Is it? Have you taken the time to understand what the base cost of those media units are and what the markup is? You’d be surprised to the amount of people who agree to pay over 100% markup on CPM rate for video, because versus television rates, its still DIRT CHEAP. News flash.. you’ve still getting taken to the cleaners.
Next time, ask your media rep to expand upon the CPM or CPV rate they present to you. See if negotiations can be accomplished. As you know, there is a direct correlation to increasing website traffic and increasing sales. Secure a lower CPM rate to increase your impression share online. Increase your impression share online to guarantee a higher CTR volume to your website every month. Guarantee an increase in sales due to a significant increase in website traffic to your store. Don’t spend a dollar more. Make those working for you reach more customers with a competitive CPM rate on the online media you buy.
Don’t just shift dollars in an effort to shift sales. Shift how those dollars work for you. Understand what a competitive CPM/CPV rate really is. Nobody $aves themselves into profitability – they work smarter to become more profitable.
