With the move to performance-based advertising in full swing, Melissa Chang, founder of the Internet incubator Pure Incubation, offers these five steps that media companies can take to make the most of this marketing transformation.
1) Implement more robust measurement tools immediately. With the analytics tools available today, there is a great deal more that media companies can do to provide tracking and ROI data to their advertisers. Google, for example, provides free analytics tools that allow not only the measurement of basic traffic and page view data (impressions), but also the integration with paid search campaigns, goal and conversion data (performance).
2) Use a registration form to “gate” specific premium content areas of the Web site. There is always a great deal of resistance to anything but free content. With impression-based media, the more free content a visitor reads, the more page views that are generated, and the more money the media company makes. With the shift to performance-based media, however, impressions are becoming less important as a measurement tool. By gating specific, premium content areas on a Website, media companies will be able to gather important demographic data about its users that it will be able to use to sell performance-based ad programs, including lead generation and targeted email marketing.
3) Review (and adjust, if necessary) the privacy policy. This is an important, and sometimes overlooked, step to being able to move to performance-based formats. Media companies need to amend their privacy policies to give them ability to monetize their consumer data. Many older privacy policies don’t, for example, allow media companies to provide any personally identifiable data to marketers. (This doesn’t, of course, mean that media companies should start spamming their visitors; there must always be an easy way for visitors to opt-out of providing their personal information.)
4) Talk to existing clients to find out what they want to buy. Media companies must have conversations with their existing clients. When the client shifts money to performance-based ad models, what does the client want to buy? Do they want pay per click? Pay per lead? Are they trying to generate an email list? Would they prefer to send e-mail marketing messages through a third-party and get detailed reporting information? There are many different types of performance-based ad models that companies can take advantage of, and media companies need to find out what their clients want.
5) Add measurable advertising offerings to the media line up quickly. Once the first four steps are accomplished, media companies need to add at least one performance-based ad option to their media kits as soon as possible. There is no reason to not take action quickly. If the media company isn’t ready to begin offering an option such as lead generation or search advertising on its own, there are many third-party companies that will partner to offer performance-based advertising on a split-revenue basis.
The shift to performance is already happening. With a little bit of foresight, it’s an advertising shift that will benefit both marketers and media companies alike.
—–
Melissa’s article is available in its entirety in The Industry Standard. Follow Melissa’s blog at 16thletter.com.
