Small to big: How to package a site with just 200,000 page views

Making small things big: The art of monetizing a small site.

One of our members has just 200,000 page views on their small-town media site, and runs fixed ads on all pages. This allows them to say each ad gets 200,000 page views. But is this the best solution?

Here's an analysis that includes some pricing theory for small sites, plus a look at extra services that can help expand the audience and digital opportunity. 

As this media's executive noticed, a typical $10 per cpm translates to $2000 per month. But that means finding a steady supply of five $2000 a month customers; unrealistic for this small community.

So the team explored discounting. At the range most merchants were comfortable paying - $300 a month. But that means a sold-out inventory would generate just $1500 a month instead of $12,000. Also not a good solution.

To both maximize revenues, build packages that optimize clicks for advertisers, work on teh concept and offer, and add services. Here are 7 key strategies and vendors that support them efficiently: 

 1. Share of Voice (SOV). One answer is to go for monthly SOV. That is, at a cpm of $10, each advertiser can get 1/4 of the impressions (50,000) for one position, monthly, for $500. Or 1/6 (30,000) for $300 a month.

We don't recommend slicing the pie too thin; for this size site, 1/6 SOV is the absolute limit and probably too small. A great advantage of Share of Voice is that it's simple, works well as a standalone buy for small advertisers who can't afford traditional media, and pairs with other digital services they may already be investing in.

 2. Time-based packaging with onair/print. A new method taking hold in some small markets is time-based packaging, that is selling the fixed unit for one day, three days, or one week, instead of a month. The benefit of this approach is that it can match the frequency of the on-air/print buy, and still sells the total audience by the day and week. The bigger buys get more reach and frequency; in this case reach may mean onair/print, email, mobile, etc.

The advantage of this buy is that it pairs well with traditional media, and  trains advertisers to think in terms of the size of  the total audience, rather than its component parts. Some media argue this increases the value of the digital audience by training merchants to see audiences as equally valuable. 

A danger is in devaluing the online buy if the perception is that an additional audience has been added on free (instead, use a total number that includes online and do not differentiate), or making the digital audience just small for interactive ads to show results.

Most advertisers need to buy enough days or day parts or weeks to overcome "The thin market concept". Think of a hair salon; it does no good for the salon to buy all the inventory for one day  when not all their buyers are "in the market" that day. Over the course of a month, they have a significantly better shot at reaching more  customers when they are ready to buy.

Optimizing helps get more results for less inventory.  For example, running all the ads on the  three best days and day parts a week, can even monthly campaigns perform two to three times as well - as much as if the site sold two to three times as much inventory. 

Other advertisers who have, say, weekend sales, big events, or seasonal upticks should be buying big for just a few days to optimize their reach when buyers are in the market (political ads anyone?).

So inventory management is key. Place the daily/weekly buys first, and run the monthly buys "around them." Or, consider dedicating part of the inventory (an ad unit, for example) for customers who want to "buy out" a few days or a week in conjunction with a traditional media package that matches that time period.  

What's the minimum buy? 

For digital only buys, we recommend  blocks of 50,000 a week. The bare minimum is  30,000 for five days, which would be $300, well within the whole dollar tolerance and sufficient to kick off a weekend sale or other campaign in a small town.

For a digital-only buy, some managers still hold that 30,000 impressions is too small: At .1% STR, that's only 30 clicks. If ad runs 50,000 impressions, it will (typically)  get 50 clicks or 2/3 more response from that same audience.

So to review our 200,000 impression site: A one week fixed position delivers about 48,000 impressions, sold for $480, expecting 48 clicks for that week; 30,000 at $300 a week.

3. Have a great offer. Every digital ad that gets turned in should include a form with the clients objective, and how results will be measured. Are they buidling data? Selling product? What's the offer? Where does the customer go and what do they do after the click?

Once you have this form, fill in the measurable results, ad a screen shot of the creative and share with the team as training. 

A sales rep can help make 50,000 clicks perform like 200,000 with a compelling offer or call to action. To put this in perspective, 200,000 is four times more, just by going from .1 to .4 % Ctr. And if the customer captures that in fans, emails, or coupons they are more likely to be happy with the results.

Simple "Free," two for one, offers work well;  you don't need to be Groupon to do this, but you do have to be able to build a landing page with a coupon, email capture and/or call tracking number (if its a call in type of business like a doctor, salon or lawyer) if the small merchant does not have this (most will not). 

Some of these tools are easy and inexpensive, such as  CallSource or TruMeasure to track phone calls, Facebook to capture fans, or a simple  directory  page/coupon. But too often organizations are hampered by the inability to create a simple landing page that addresses what the client does after the first click. Which leads us to our fourth recommendation for small markets.

4. Packaging with services

The most important ingredient that goes missing in most banner ad campaigns is a solid concept and call to action after the click.  

If the merchant can capture a fan, email, call or coupon download, 10 conversions a week from a 30,000 buy may be a big story to tell. If it's just "30 clicks to the site,"  not so much.  Since most merchants will not be able to build a page on their site to fit the campaign post-click strategy, third party technology is a key solution. 

Two vendors our members have used to create inexpensive mini-web sites or splash pages for campaigns include  vSplash, and Websplanet.com. But the real money in services is from Facebook first, and secondarily, SMS services. 

Selling Facebook services

Small businesses are increasingly willing to advertise to build their own Facebook brand page, and this allows media to increase the buy by selling services that manage Facebook pages.

Services include Facebook contests, custom pages and posting services; a great fit for a small media company. 

Merchants are more likely to buy annually because they are investing in their own asset.  Here's a list of third party technology resources that have helped our members execute Facebook services: 

SocialMadeSimple.com - Provides a content library with industry based articles that is updated on a regular basis, plus custom pages, a report card against posting, and analytics. 

SecondStreetMedia.com  - Provides custom contest apps behind the tab function. Resource center and free webinars train clients on best practices and contesting ideas. Pre-built national sports contests are plug- and play except for prizes.

GrowthWeaver.com,  sweaver@growthweaver.com,  provides full back-end management for  a full set of social media tools that local media can sell as a service. 

See also this list of which Facebook contests merchants are buying by industry  and 21 tips for increasing revenues from Facebook contests. 

Other services

The client may also just need some basic improvements to their web presence. If this is their interest, sales people can still walk away with an annual sale, even if no traditional advertising is involved. A great way for small media to increase market share given the limited number of traditional media advertisers. 

Like other services, web presence services are now very inexpensive and relatively easy to deploy.  For search  performance, members use local.com, Localeze.com, ubl.com and yext.com to make sure the cleint's listings are distributed across all the search engines.  For reputation management members have partnered with either  Marchex or  Vendasta. The business model is typically cost per client, and can be handled by an administrative person. 

We've also touched on the power of combining ads with text-back offers or building SMS opt-ins for customers. The advantage of these services is that they both result in incremental services income and also require advertising. A provider used by members is  inSequent.

There are many partnerships available - the key is that they know how to work with media resellers to create efficiencies and keep costs low enough to make selling services feasible. Tech partners are your friends. 

5. Introduce rich media options.

Rich media can deliver up 50 times the response of regular banner ads (WalkOutVideos from BIM are delivering this result in several markets). These are video intensive and the COS is 30%, but a good reason to get into video. That is, on even a 6000 a day buy, its possible to get 600 responses.

Another source for posting "wallpaper ads"  is Impact Engine, which allows media to build sliders, push-downs, bill-boards and the like on the fly. A typical production person can build a rich media ad on this platform in about 20 minutes; the cost is about $8 per thousand, and they can be sold for $25 to $50 per thousand on the home page for sales and events. 

Rich media ads not only over-deliver, they also expand inventory, since they create an additional unit. 

 6. Own local events. Local events are top performing banner ads, and typically interested in by-the-day road-blocks and rich media buys. This is a category small media sites should stake out as their own. A great technology partner for ticketing sales is StrangerTickets. 

 7. Train your teams by sharing 'what's measured.'

Part of the sales meetings need to focus on what's measured so that reps can make smarter recommendations. We've already mentioned creating a one sheet on each digital ad campaign with the objective and creative, and having the results posted at the end.

Another technique is to simple circulating CTRs on all campigns to the sales group weekly and discuss in the sales meeting. Why did one campaign do better than another? Are you seeing time-of-day trends?

When reps have useful suggestions to customers, they will be more likely to make better recommendations. 

8. Go mobile. Getting into the mobile space is just an outstanding way to expand inventory. Emergency text alerts (a member uses Textcaster) can be added to browser based programs and apps, adding additional revenue opportunities. Each of these initiatives, when small, sell for in the $300 to $500 a month range, but can be divided into SOV as they grow. Also, merchant opt-in programs can be added on to text alerts or text-back offers, and included as a valuable campaign. 

Conclusion

Every small market is different - with different competitors, strengths and opportunities in the market. However, being small no longer means a media site or company has to be dumbed down. Using some simple tactics to get the sales culture interested in outcomes, and inexpensive technology to provide digital support to merchants can make the difference. Typically, the more rural the area, the more merchant education is required - but the greater the opportunity of owning more market share in the digital space. 

There are many more resources on this site that support these efforts. For more help, please email LocalMediaInsider@gmail.com.

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