On web pages, users constantly see text ad units that focus on a specific topic. This phenomenon is called contextual advertising. It brings income not only to advertisers who get targeted customers this way, but also to web developers. In addition, it is earnings for resource owners. They get paid for clicks on their website. Conversions are charged by the advertiser. In the article, we will talk about types of contextual advertising, on which its cost depends and on intermediary companies that organize it.
Varieties
There are several types of contextual advertising:
- search engine;
- thematic;
- media
- with personal targeting.
You see search ads when you ask in the search bar. The following is an example of contextual advertising.
Blocks with it are constantly located under the search bar or on the page to the right.
Thematic Advertising
The most interesting type of advertising on which bloggers and well-developed sites earn. These resources contain ads that are similar in content to the site’s content.
Display ad
The most "elegant" representative, which is a graphic or text-graphic block. Below you see an example of contextual advertising called display.
Photo display advertising
Ad units can also be divided into the following groups:
- personalized ads
- designed for a specific region;
- advertising that is shown at a specific time;
- designed for language settings;
- Mobile advertising with access to the Web.
We divided the reviews on contextual advertising into the pros and cons that most advertisers highlight.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of contextual advertising?
It is already clear that the placement of contextual advertising is beneficial both for those who advertise the product, and for those who are looking for where it is more profitable to make a purchase.
Now let's analyze its main advantages:
- Advertising itself finds a buyer. This is called target audience search.
- You get the first responses (sales) immediately after the launch of the advertising company.
- It does not require large expenses. You can try to advertise your product even with a budget of 300 rubles.
- Complete with different types of contextual advertising, you can use other means of promotion: SEO articles, teaser advertising.
- You can customize your advertising campaign depending on the amount of money, location, time of day and night. You yourself set the parameters that are of interest to you to achieve the effect.
- After conducting an advertising campaign, you will receive information about the effectiveness of the methods. Then you can choose what gives the maximum result.
- Contextual advertising meets the user's needs and helps to navigate the sea of the same type of goods, compare prices, quality characteristics.
- Unobtrusiveness. Nothing pops up or flashes. Ads are neat blocks that do not interfere with the user. If advertising nevertheless brings inconvenience, then you can safely hide it. In the parameters, the user may indicate his unwillingness to see ads of relevant content.
- This is an informative form of advertisements, despite its small size and unobtrusiveness. Contextual ads, as a rule, have everything that a prospective buyer needs: a headline, image, explanation, link to a site that sells goods.
Disadvantages of contextual advertising
- Short duration compared to SEO promotion. The effect of any type of contextual advertising is quick, but short-lived. Seo articles, for example, can drive traffic not so fast, but for a much longer time.
- Cost overrun due to incorrect settings in contextual advertising services. If you use the settings incorrectly, then the risk of losing all profits is great. For example, you sell school desks. The cost of one desk is 7000 rubles, and your profit is 2500 rubles. If you set up the advertising campaign incorrectly and one click will cost 4000 rubles, then, of course, you will not receive income, but will go to minus.
- In some areas of trade, contextual advertising is money down the drain. This applies to products that people are used to purchasing offline.
How to take advantage and deal with the disadvantages of contextual advertising
If you do not have much experience in this matter, then you should not rely on luck, because the matter is about your money. Experts advise you to definitely turn to automation services.
These are great helpers in setting up contextual advertising for beginners and more. The service will help not to make mistakes and not "drain" the entire budget at once. They will also tell you how to maximize the possibilities of a particular type of contextual advertising.
Further in the article we give a list of services that provide support for advertising companies.
Contextual advertising services:
- MyDuMedia.com;
- Advmaker.net;
- PropellerAds.com;
- Contema.ru;
- Google AdWords
- B2BContext.ru;
- LimonAds.net;
- AdvertLink.ru;
- Market PLACE;
- Nolix.ru;
- AdvMagic;
- ApiShops;
- Runner;
- MediaTarget;
- People-Group.su;
- Google Adsense
- Facebook Ads
- Advertur.ru;
- Youlamedia;
- Click.ru;
- Yandex.Direct;
- RORER.
How much does contextual advertising cost?
The cost of contextual advertising depends on:
- The minimum amount that must be put on the balance in the system.
- Money to be paid to the contractor or freelancer who will be involved in the setup.
We’ll look at the first paragraph using the popular Google AdWords contextual advertising system. The amount here will depend on:
- niche industry of your goods or services (your subject);
- geographic reach of the audience (geo-targeting);
- Impressions per day (temporary targeting).
Now we will analyze what the cost of contextual advertising depends on, in more detail.
Theme. Here the run-up is very large, because in some industries you have enough budget of 5,000 rubles. for a month, and in others it’s the price of one click. To determine the budget, as a rule, professionals first make a list of keywords.
Geographic coverage of the target audience (geo-targeting). Everything is simple here. Small region - some money. If you decide to cover the whole country, then the budget should be appropriate.
Temporary targeting. Here the amount will depend on what time your advertisement will be spinning. For round-the-clock work you will have to pay a tidy sum. Analyze what time your target audience is most often online. This will save a lot.
Budget Impression Losses
Again, back to your AdWords account. Here in the parameters there is a tab “Quick statistics”. By clicking on it, you will see “The percentage of lost impressions on the search network due to the budget. The function is incredibly useful because it shows whether you have enough money on your balance sheet to fully cover the demand for your goods or services.
It happens that after you have launched an advertising company, you need to allocate more funds for promotion, because you lose profit due to the fact that you can not grab all the users who are interested in your services.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to say right away how much money needs to be put into the budget. This will be clear only after testing the advertising campaign.
Pay for what?
What exactly you need and can pay for on the service:
- Clicks. (PPC - pay-per-click). This is very convenient because the funds are removed from the balance only when the client clicked on the link.
- Impressions If branding is your priority, then you should invest in impressions. For every 1000 scrolls of your ad, money will be taken off the balance. This is only available for the display type of contextual advertising.
- Pay for conversions. The most interesting form of payment. Money is debited for the specific action of the target audience: phone calls, applications, user registration on the site, payment for the purchase. Many entrepreneurs are attracted by this opportunity.
If you are hiring an agency or freelancer to promote your brand that can customize the main types of contextual advertising, then, of course, you are laying its commission in the budget.
It usually consists of:
- percent of the budget of the advertising campaign;
- monthly agency fee (freelancer salary) or payment of a specific amount of work performed.
Director - contextual advertising specialist
In order for your money not to be wasted, and you get the maximum profit from contextual advertising, you should turn to the pros in this field. A directologist will help you. The word appeared from the name of the Yandex.Direct advertising network, which is the most popular in Runet.
You can search for a director among freelancers. There are many exchanges where they offer their services and immediately voice the cost.
What criteria should you choose? What to look for when flipping through a specialist’s portfolio?
- A directologist (targetologist) with experience should have completed projects with detailed calculations and positive feedback. Such reports are called cases.
- This person must be well-educated. Watch his reaction when you talk about your industry. If a person frankly does not understand what is at stake, then he does not suit you
- The director is ready for contact. Immediately describes the principle of operation and voices where your funds will go.
Is it worth it to work with contextual advertising
Any type of contextual advertising is not a panacea, and you should not place too high hopes on it. Best of all, if you use it in conjunction with other online and offline methods of promotion, because using only this tool, it is unreasonable to cover the entire target audience.