I understand the thought process and the simplicity of just paying for ads. Exchanging ads is a bit archaic, a bit of a throwback to the days of bartering. People used to exchange what they had in excess for what others had in excess—milk for wheat, wheat for wool, and even cows for wives, etc. Over time there was a migration from trading to the use of currency. Currency makes transactions simpler, faster, and more efficient…as long as there is plenty of cash to go around. When cash is tight, people get a little more creative.

Tough economic times are good for everyone involved, even though it doesn’t seem like it sometimes (I don’t wish them on anyone…well, maybe I do). Difficult financial times spark a new level of creativity, once you get yourself out of depression. Financial stress forces people to get back to basics and make better use of the things they’ve been given: talents, abilities, relationships, and assets.

A business’ website is an asset, often times a much underutilized asset. Traditionally, smaller websites are used only to help market the goods and services that the business is offering. However, through the Ad Exchange Program, we are helping business owners with websites of all sizes better utilize their website and grow their business. We are helping smaller guys use their website to monetize their website and generate free advertising to drive more traffic to their site and increase revenues. The larger sites, those with more traffic, already perhaps have advertisers on their site—however they know that it is difficult to monetize their site below the “fold”. With our system they are able to take advantage of the real estate below the fold and put it to good use.

I love the fact that this ad exchange program is set up to help businesses of all sizes get more exposure without having to increase their budgets. And if they do want to buy advertising, they will do it once they know they have a campaign that will deliver the desired ROI. Through good times and bad, we’ll be able to help businesses grow.

Technorati Tags: business owners, business website, economic times, exchange ads, exchanging ads, free advertising, roi

Big Money. Come on, Big Money!

Many business owners that I have spoken with view advertising is often looked at as a necessary evil…something they know that they have to do, but there is inherent risk…sometimes the ad campaign works (or they think it does)…sometimes it doesn’t (or at least it seems that it didn’t).  Either way it is often hard to quantify the returns–sometimes other factors cause business to go up or down regardless of the ad campaign, and the business owner has no clue. 

Even amongst advertising professionals, there are differing opinions as to what gets results–ROI. I have found it to be tricky to get the right medium, the right message, the right promotion, in a way that hits the right audience in the right way.  I have been wrong, more than I have been right with ad campaigns, just like anyone else who has done a lot of advertising.  In traditional advertising they have all of their standardized methods of calculating the “value” that has been delivered, but it is all rediculous.

In online advertising and marketing, it is different.  Everthing can be tracked–impressions, “views” (we’ll talk about this more later), clicks, leads, sales, registrations, subscriptions–they all can be tied back to the campaign, the website that the ad was on, and much more.  With all of the measurements out there, I just have to find the best measurement for a specific campaign and business.  I pay per lead on some campaigns with certain businesses, pay per acquisition on others, and views on still others.  With things tightening, I tend to go more with the per lead and per acquisition more often than not.

The other beautiful thing about online advertisements is that if something isn’t working, I can change it.  I can make changes quickly at little to no cost.  That cannot be said for a billboard, tv commercial, or other traditional media.

With the Ad Exchange Program, I use my exchanged “views” to try out new concepts, sometimes I roll out a few at a time.  Then after I can see the performance, I make adjustments or drop the campaign.  When I have a winner, I buy more ads than the ones I earned through the exchange, and sometimes use the campaign in traditional media.

The most exciting part of it all is that I am able to know my ROI before I invest advertising dollars.

Technorati Tags: ad campaigns, business owner, business owners, campaign works, Online Advertising, roi, traditional advertising, view advertising