How to sell ads: step by step instructions, tips and secrets

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The business field has become very popular. It is even hard to believe that literally some fifty years ago in the CIS countries no types of earnings were welcomed, except for the standard professions of a doctor, teacher, turner, and so on. At the same time, almost all Western countries, and especially the United States of America, have made great strides forward in business.

Now people are learning to think like entrepreneurs, including adopting the experience of the West. Questions about how to sell ads can be rephrased something like this: "How to make a profit out of thin air?". And if the goal is achieved by honest means, without deceit, fraud and fraud, then now this is not only not condemned, but also approved.

What is advertising

Since the fact of selling advertising was used as an example of the production of money out of thin air, let's figure out what this "product" is.

The phrase "advertising is the engine of progress" is probably known to every second person. The purpose of advertising is to attract the attention of the consumer toproduct or service, to encourage him to purchase this product or use the service. Depending on what type of this advertising, different ways of conveying information to the consumer are used. If literally about ten to fifteen years ago, the main ways of expressing advertising information were television advertising (video), radio advertising (audio) and print advertising - newspapers, leaflets, outdoor advertising, and so on (visual), now there are much more of them thanks to the development Internet.

Main types of online advertising:

• Social media advertising.
• Banners on websites.
• Affiliate programs.
• Promotional email (what is often called "spam").
• Contextual advertising.
• Sponsored advertising.



• And many more

Who needs advertising

If you follow the logic, then you can answer this question more than simply - the advertiser needs advertising. Or rather, an entrepreneur who needs to advertise something.

In fact, the target audience of people interested in advertising is much wider. Since the scope of advertising has expanded significantly, and the variety of goods and services offered is huge, it is necessary to focus not on advertisers in general, but to describe a portrait of a consumer who may be interested in a particular type of advertising.

For example, it makes no sense to tell an entrepreneur who sells handmade toys about the opportunity to advertise his product in a publicmotorcycles. Most likely, there are not very many people interested in his products, so this offer is unprofitable for him.

Since you need to sell ads to a client wisely, let's look at how this is done.

Features of selling advertising

In fact, advertising can really be perceived as a product in this context. Since in order to sell an advertising platform, the owner or sales manager must convince the client that it is their offer that is the most profitable for him.

Many managers understand that they need to be able to convince the client, but do not know how. You can sell advertising in approximately the same way as any product or service. How to do it so that the client does not refuse the manager at the first minute:

1. Precisely define the portrait of the target audience. Advertiser is too broad a concept.
2. If your organization reaches out to the customer first, make sure your offer is relevant to them. For example, if a person has a product for sale, this does not mean that he needs advertising. And if you need it, it does not mean that you need advertising from you. Calling and sending messages to everyone in a row, and especially spice it up with some phrase like: "Sorry if I distract you," you will resemble a standard spammer or consultant from a network company. Do you need this kind of reputation?
3. If you answer the client's question about the possibility of buying advertising space, then the situation becomes easier. Your client is already more or less friendly to you, since he was the first to write. But keep inmind that he may well, as they say, "price the price" and choose the best offer. After all, he could ask about the price or terms of accommodation out of curiosity. As a result, he may well choose another platform for advertising. But this does not give you the right to be rude to him or refuse service the next time on this basis.
4. Don't force your opinion on the client. Correctly and competently describe the benefits of advertising on your site. People don't like being pressured.
5. Keep in mind that the advertising space is not the final product that the customer purchases. He needs advertising to work: to attract the target audience to the advertised product. This is influenced by many factors: the text and visual design (if any) of the advertisement, the quality of the product, the general preliminary interest of the consumer in it, the level of the advertising platform, and so on. For your part, you cannot guarantee that it is your site that will raise the level of customer sales, since it is not in your competence to control and be responsible for all the factors that affect the success of advertising. A smart advertiser will be repelled by statements like: "Yes, we guarantee you a 100% result, sales will grow by 27% at least!" - because he understands that not everything depends on the advertising platform. And if he believes you, you give him the right to blame you in case of failure, even if the designer, copywriter, or just an unpopular product is to blame.

The nuances of effective advertising sales

About howcorrectly sell advertising, it was said a little higher. Surely the tips reminded you of the standard recommendations for selling any product. No wonder: advertising is the same product. However, it has its own exceptional features that are important to consider when choosing how and where to sell ads.

Many marketers say that selling ads is money out of thin air. In fact this is not true. Usually, such a service is offered either by the owners of marketing agencies, or by organizations specializing in the preparation of advertising, or by the owners of fairly popular advertising platforms: websites, blogs, newspapers, publics on social networks, and so on. All of these people have invested time and money in growing their business and eventually got to the point where they can offer you ads on their site. Simply creating a VKontakte group, filling it with a thousand subscribers and offering advertising is not a very smart move, since such advertising will not work, and the "business" will quickly come to naught. Moreover, social networks are now monitoring whether the group is promoting honestly or dishonestly.

It is also important what kind of advertising the client needs: print, television, outdoor (banners, ads) or advertising on the Internet. It has different areas of activity, and therefore different ways of selling.

What helps sell ads:

• Professionalism, politeness and correct behavior of the sales manager. Nobody likes annoying calls: "Well, buy it!"
• Relevance,compliance of this method of advertising with the client's product. It makes no sense for an entrepreneur who sews youth clothes to order to advertise in a newspaper whose average age of readers is forty years old. It also makes no sense to advertise on a banner (if an outdoor one is ordered) if there are almost no people on that side of the town.
• Attendance of the advertised site. For example, there are two sites. One of them has an audience of more than two hundred thousand people, and the second has five hundred people. Which one do you think will be seen by more people?
• Value for money. We recall the example from the previous paragraph. A site with an audience of two hundred thousand people offers to advertise for fifty dollars a month. The cost of advertising on a site with an audience of five hundred people is forty-five dollars. The benefits are clear.

Where they sell and buy advertising

The very first thing to understand before communicating with clients is where to sell ads. Decide which advertising platforms you offer and find out the needs of your target audience.

Practice shows that the best-selling advertising is advertising on the Internet. As one entrepreneur said: "The Internet is a cool drug, everyone is sitting there." That is, the audience of Internet users is quite large, and it is much easier to find representatives of your target audience. Especially if their age is from 13 to 60 years old.

Internet to help: how to sell ads

If with the sale of advertising in the mediamass media or on radio, television, everything is more or less clear, then in the case of advertising on the Internet, there are still many questions. First of all, they are associated with some kind of "cheating": there are sites and publics in social networks where traffic is collected artificially. There seem to be readers, subscribers, but in fact they are not - fake information is displayed in the statistics, and the feeling of readability is created by bot programs. There can be a large number of subscribers in public social networks, but even there it may well be bots or those who join for a small fee.

Because honesty is also important in how to sell advertising on the Internet. It makes no sense for a client to order and place an advertisement on an Internet site where there will be no one to read it.

If the site is popular, readable, then advertising on it will be expensive. Since only the owner or administrator of the site, as well as authorized persons, can sell advertising on the site, communication must be conducted with them.

Usually, the advertiser is given some small area on the site under the banner. This option is the easiest.

However, there are more difficult options, but they are often more effective. For example, posting an article or other information on the site with a link to the advertised product. For example, this is what the Russian website Adme does.

How to sell contextual advertising

Contextual advertising - advertising in search engines or on websites that is shown based on user requests.

There are two main typescontextual advertising:

• Search engine. Shown in the search engine after a specific request.
• Thematic. Shown on partner sites. The user's browser remembers what queries users entered into search engines. Ads for these queries are then displayed on certain areas of partner sites.

When setting up search advertising, fill in the data in the advertising personal account on the site of the selected search engine: keywords, cost of displaying advertising, demographics of users - representatives of the target audience. The advertiser pays for the action performed by the user (CPC payment model - Cost Per Click) or for the number of ad impressions.

Contextual advertising has a huge advantage: advertising of any goods or services is shown to those users who are already interested in them, so the likelihood of a targeted action increases. Because it is in great demand, and it is easier to sell it.

Features of social media marketing

Social networks were originally created as platforms for entertainment, but now many users use them, including for educational and work purposes. Publics, pages and groups on social networks are especially helpful in this.

To sell advertising in a group, you need to promote this very group enough to collect the appropriate target audience. Otherwise, it makes no sense for the client to purchase advertising in a group where there are no subscribers, or they are, but they are bots (fake pages) or simply inactive in this group(that is, there are subscribers, but they don’t really enter the group).

Telephone advertising sales

Since selling ads over the phone is a difficult task, leading marketers recommend getting creative. The difficulty lies in the fact that the client cannot quickly decide on the purchase of advertising space, since he most likely has not come across your site before. He may listen to your proposal, evaluate the benefits, perhaps even become interested. But in the end, he will probably ask you to call him back later so that he can find your organization's website on the Internet and read the reviews.

It's perfectly normal to ask. However, there are certain risks for you as a seller. The client is interested in the offer, but while he is browsing your site, his interest may fade. And not necessarily because your site does not suit him, this is banal psychology. After a flash of interest in the product, a person begins to argue whether this interest is justified.

Or another option: the client will not have the time or desire to search for information about you. He plans it for later and then forgets.

Because it is better to talk on the phone with customers who came to you through ads, for example from the Internet, and have already decided or almost decided for themselves that they want to advertise with you. In this case, you do not "push" the goods to them, but agree with them on the sale.

Conclusion

In order to accuratelyknowing how to sell ads or any other product is usually not enough just to talk about such an opportunity. Any promotional strategy requires some careful preparation, from collecting marketing data, drawing up a portrait of the target audience, and ending with direct or indirect communication with them.

Difficulties in how to properly sell ads are primarily due to the lack of qualifications of sales managers, who often behave like consultants to a network business or an intrusive online store. Managers need to behave correctly, and ideally, they need to undergo modern training in working with clients.