So, if I buy this TV spot what kind of increase in sales will I get? This is a classic advertising conundrum. I know what my GRP will be (gross ratings points made up of frequency and reach). And yes, I'll pay you lots of dollars per thousand impressions (CPM) to get my message out. If I'm paying so much, it means I have a high GRP so lots of people will see my message. That translates to lots of sales my advertising manager tells me. Great, and how are you calculating that?

Therein lies the challenge. Whenever someone asked - so what kind of increase in sales can I expect from this TV ad? - the answer included calculations based on audience demographics, promotional considerations, past data, time slot, sunspots, tea leaves, and perhaps a wee bit of speculation. Prediction of business impact from advertising expenditure was mostly art and little science.

Now advertising on the Internet has arrived with a vengeance. It started like traditional advertising, with advertisers being quoted CPM for banner ads placed strategically on content sites around the Web. No longer. Keyword advertising, a.k.a. paid listings, a.k.a. cost-per-click is becoming the choice product of savvy advertisers.

Keyword Advertising
The beauty of this type of advertising is that you pay for it only when someone sees your keyword advertisement and clicks on it. When they click on it they click right through to your website. Best thing is, this whole process is most often a result of keyword searches. The clicks to your site are then, in fact, highly qualified leads.

Take a corollary in the "real world" as we know it. Think about the Yellow Pages. When we are looking for a particular product or service we go to our local Yellow Pages, search under the product or service, and out pop a whole bunch of advertisements and listings for us to choose from. Then we call, or stop by, to find out more. And, if we like what we see, we buy. Imagine if you only paid for that Yellow Page ad when someone called or stopped in! That is what keyword advertising is all about.

What is a Keyword Ad?
In its simplest form, you create your keyword advertisement that is comprised of: a catchy title (kind of like a headline in a traditional ad); a description (body copy); a URL link (embedded "call to action"); and keywords and keyword phrases that, when typed into a search box on a website, will reveal your ad amongst a list of other advertisements related to that keyword or keyword phrase.

How Much Does a Keyword Ad Cost?
There are different pricing models for this service. At FindWhat.com we believe in the simple-is-best principle. You determine the price you are willing to pay for your keyword advertisement. If you happen to bid the highest price on that particular keyword, you will see your advertisement first within the FindWhat.com results. All keyword advertisements are then listed in descending order of bid price. At FindWhat.com, the average keyword bid price for Q2 2002 was $0.18. The range of bid prices is a moving target and varies by industry, however, at FindWhat.com there is no minimum bid price - even penny bids are accepted.

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Where Are Keyword Ads Seen?
So then what? Companies offering keyword advertising then distribute your ads to numerous other websites, large portals and search engines where everyday users are executing billions of searches. FindWhat.com has hundreds of these distribution partners where your keyword advertisements are delivered. The FindWhat.com distribution network includes high quality sites such as: CNET's Search.com, Excite, Webcrawler, NBCi, Dogpile, MetaCrawler, and Go2Net. In Q2 2002 there were, on average, 600,000
click-throughs each day on the FindWhat.com network.

What Makes Keyword Ads so Special?
So let's get back to your question. So what kind of increase in sales can I expect from this advertisement? Well, that challenge has been answered with keyword advertising. You can actually track the conversion rates directly for each and every ad dollar spent through each advertising outlet for each keyword advertisement. How's that for keeping control of your advertising dollars?

In order to really capitalize, you must monitor your sales conversion ratio to make sure you are not just paying for tire kickers. The simplest way to do this is to use a tracking feature that allows you to know that the referred click-through came from a specific service
(i.e. www.yoursite.com/?FindWhat). By using a specific URL, you can tell which click-throughs came from your marketing effort and how well they converted for you as you follow the interested party through to an on-line sale. This will allow you to monitor your spending in accordance with your success. It also allows you to focus on the keywords/campaigns that are most effective, further reducing your time investment.

How to Get Started
There are several options available to you to help you to create and manage your keyword campaigns, ranging from doing-it-yourself, to hiring a firm to manage several keyword advertising campaigns among several companies.

FindWhat.com offers a whole set of tools, features, and report options that help the do-it-yourselfers. There is the keyword suggestion tool that helps you to find keywords relevant to your business. There are numerous ad hoc reports available outlining keyword positioning, advertisement change history, account activity overview, account deposit information, and keyword costs. Also, there are special features, like BidOptimizer™, that allows you to set your bids to the number one, two, three, four, or five position up to your maximum bid amount.

We offer the FindWhat.com Business Builder™ program for those who are unfamiliar with keyword advertising on the Internet, or just don't have the time to put together their keyword campaigns. With Business Builder you get one-on-one consultation with a FindWhat.com customer solutions consultant, strategic advice on how to maximize your keyword advertising campaign, two titles and descriptions customized specifically to attract targeted prospects to your website, fifty relevant keywords and keyword phrases that will put your keyword advertisements in sight of the millions of users performing searches each day throughout the FindWhat.com distribution network, industry-leading returns on your advertising investment, and peace of mind knowing that your keyword advertising strategy is in expert hands. All this for as little as $25.

Still others prefer to select a company to manage their keyword strategies that span across their FindWhat.com account and other keyword advertising services. Bid Optimization firms offer this service. There are many out there who serve FindWhat.com clients.

Take Control of Your ROI Today
The Internet revolution has given advertisers absolute freedom and control over their advertising efforts like never before, allowing advertisers to constantly monitor and maximize their ROI for their on-line marketing campaign. Advertising is no longer about generating millions of impressions. It's about how many people actually enter a keyword to start a search, read your site description, click on your link, and purchase your product.

Planning, managing for, and tracking ROI while de-emphasizing pure reach buys will be an increasingly important success strategy for advertisers in the coming years.

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About The Author
Karen Yagnesak is Director of Marketing at FindWhat.com. FINDWHAT.COM (NASDAQ: FWHT) distributes keyword-based advertisements throughout its network of hundreds of high traffic distribution partners. Generally lower prices for keywords along with highly relevant traffic through FindWhat.com and its partners gives FindWhat.com's over 17,000 advertisers industry-leading returns on their advertising investment.

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