It is important to determine where and when your ads should appear when it comes to online media buying. This requires strategic planning to ensure that you do not waste your resources – time and money. So, I am going to be discussing with you some ways to research and analyze your media buying process.
Reverse Engineering
One form of research you can do here would be reverse engineering.
Reverse engineering here simply means that you work backward. Instead of crafting a brand new plan for your media buying campaign, you should make use of the available information and resources. The key here is to model your campaign after what has been proven to work.
Let me give you an example. How do you drive traffic towards your ads campaign via a specific site, when you do not have any traffic, to begin with?
Most ad campaigners do not realize that the source of traffic is already there. Online users are constantly navigating from site to site every minute. It is your job to figure out which site or page that they are constantly visiting, and how would you redirect them to you?
One effective way to go about it is to reverse engineer from your competitor’s campaigns. Identify their offer, as well as whom their audiences are.
Have you ever come across a website where you can see a banner promoting a specific benefit, such as slimming ads or supplements? These ads are from affiliates or business owners just like you and if you ever stumble upon an ad which has already served the site for quite some time chances are, the person behind the ad is making a boatload of money!
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Therefore, it is important for you to work backward and pinpoint what exactly are their secrets in managing profitable campaigns. All you need to do is find where the existing traffic stream is at, and get your messages across.
Identify Direct And Indirect Competitors
When you venture into any business, you have to acknowledge that there will always be competition. Therefore, you have to take a strategic step by conducting an analysis on your competitors.
By getting an idea of whom you are competing against, you will take the initiative to step it up a notch. You can use the information that you have to improve your business’s performance when you compare it with your competitor. You are also able to identify if there are any gaps in the market that you choose to exploit. Most importantly, you can leverage your competitor’s traffic source as you now know what the audience is willing to pay for.
There are two types of competitors:
- Your direct competitors
- Your indirect competitors
Your direct competitor refers to the company offering the same product or service as you are. For instance, if you are selling health supplements you notice that company A is also selling health supplements.
Your indirect competitors, however, are those who are offering an entirely different product or service than you are, but they are catering to the same demographics. This means they have the same target audience as you do.
Let’s look at this scenario. Your company specializes in health supplements, aimed at elderly folks. Your competitor – company B, caters to the exact same audience. However, the difference here is that they are offering a different product: a comprehensive fitness course for the elderly.
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In this case here, you can make use of sites or applications that allow you to track your competitor’s performances. One of such sites available out there is SimilarWeb.com, which is entirely free and is practical for those who would want to have a rough idea of how their competitors are doing. If you want a more comprehensive description of your competitors, you can instead opt for WhatRunsWhere.com or Adbeat.com; subscription to these sites can set you back almost $200.
These sites will provide you with useful information regarding your competitors, like:
What is their niche?
Where are they generating their traffic from?
Which referrals/advertising platform are they using? (e.g. Taboola.com, Alternative Daily)
Which site are they purchasing their ads from?
How many visits do they have on their landing page?
When you have gathered the information required, you can then figure out ways to adjust your campaign accordingly. To be more innovative, you could add in more value to the products or services in the gaps that you have identified.