The article was published in a weekly «Business Newspaper the South» №46 (30.11-06.12.2010)

The Internet: advertising potential and secrets of monitoring

Lately the absence of a company's web site could only say about its not being modern enough, today not having a web site means to miss a considerable quantity of potential consumers.

The global network develops in the prompt rates, the quantity of users grows from year to year, e-commerce and Internet advertizing develops more and more. For many companies the use of the Internet as the advertising and marketing tool from the category of experiments has passed recently in necessity. The increasing number of advertisers resorts to services of media and contextual advertising, SEO and SMM. Except obvious advantage before traditional kinds of advertizing – small cost, its online form has a set of other features. Perhaps, a possibility to trace a campaign course, make changes operatively and quickly estimate their influence on behavior of consumers and results of the whole campaign are among the main differences.

The Internet opens wide opportunities for advertising monitoring, in particular, it is possible to get the following information:

• Number of displays of your advertisment.
• Quantity of transitions to a site from the ad, link or banner.
• CTR – the relation of quantity of transitions to the site to number of displays of the ad or  banner. It is an important indicator. It not simply shows advertising efficiency, but also influences a campaign course. For contextual advertising with high CTR search engines offer more favourable conditions of placing and the price for 1 click. Inefficient ads (with low CTR) either become more expensive to the advertiser (for example, Yandex rises the price for clicks) or just cease to be shown to users (as it's done on Rambler).
• Data about dynamics, changes in a campaign course.
• Current rates for transition to your site. The price for clicks in contextual advertising is formed on a principle of auction and, as a matter of fact, the advertiser himself exposes a ceiling price for 1 transition from the ad. It can be changed depending on CTR, actions of competitors and other factors, but the advertiser always has possibility to watch this process.
• The budget expense: how quickly and on what money are spent, does everything goes according to plan etc.

The most remarkable thing is that you can not only get the data on all these parameters online, but also can operatively make changes. For example, it is possible to change key words (to get rid of inefficient words and add new ones), texts of ads and banners. You can change rates for transition and links in order to direct users to a certain section of a site. Moreover, it is possible to estimate quickly how these updates have affected a course and indicators of e-advertising campaign, behavior of consumers, and if it is necessary to correct something else without any damage to the budget. Such trial and error method is impossible for TV, radio and other traditional advertizing . But for the Internet it is a common thing.

Attention, monitoring!

How does it go in traditional advertising? They take photos of outdoor advertising, turn on radio or television at a certain time, search for the advertising block in the printing edition to make sure that they got what they have paid for. That is how the advertiser know that everything is on the right place.

The situation is different in Internet advertising. Take for example contextual advertising with payment for clicks. Some advertisers choose an apparently obvious way of monitoring: come on the search engine site, enter key words and find out the announcement in the corresponding block. They  check all or the most important, according to the advertiser's opinion, key words and it repeats every day or even several times during the day.

But it is totally wrong! Remember such indicator, as CTR – the relation of clicks to number of displays. As it was already told, the higher the CTR of the ad, the more favorable conditions of placing are given to it. Systems as Yandex.Direct and Google. Adwords reduce rates for clickes so your ad takes place on former positions, but for less money.

By checking the ads the way described above again and again, the advertiser increases number of displays of the announcement, thus quantity of transitions remains invariable. So indicator CTR falls and there is a following. Yandex.Direct still display the ad, however the price for a desirable position is rising. Begun (system of contextual advertising from Rambler) defines announcements with low CTR as inefficient and ceases to show them on each contact to a target audience so the  part of it is lost. Rates for clicks thus remain invariable. Google. Adwords uses own indicator of quality of the announcement which depends on set of factors. The high indicator means that the announcement will appear on higher position and at the smaller price for clicks and on the contrary. The ad with a low indicator of quality will be similarly shown not on each inquiry of the user.

Accordingly, each display of the contextual ad which have remained without a click, reduces the  efficiency of an advertising campaign and increases its cost. It doesn't mean that it is necessary to neglect all and not to check a campaign course. It is necessary to do it correctly! There are tools for the monitoring in the Internet, that do not influence negatively on CTR.

Any system of contextual advertising gives to each advertiser access to the detailed statistics and reports in which it is possible to look at number of displays, clicks, time of transition and other details of a course of advertising campaign. So, Google. Adwords offers the special tool of previewing ads and allows to get the unique data about what key words users have seen your ad by. In Yandex. Direct it is possible to get e-mails about changes of positions on keywords. Use of the given tools not only allows to carry out monitoring of contextual advertising without damage to its indicators, but also considerably simplifies this process.

Don't forget about media advertising – it also has its own features of monitoring. It is necessary to keep in mind that there are two models of placing: a statics and dynamics. If it is a question of a statics the advertiser pays for time of placing of a banner, and on its place no other banner can be seen. So the monitoring can be carried out the same way as it does in the outdoor advertising – at any time and with any periodicity. If we speak about dynamics each thousand of displays is paid, and each your check will cost you money. Besides restrictions of quantity of displays of a banner to one unique user in a certain time interval (days, week or month) are often adjusted. So during wrong monitoring the advertiser can not only spend money for nothing, but also come to not seeing the banner. Therefore in case of dynamics placing it is expedient to check up presence of the banner on the Internet platform in the first day of campaign in order to be convinced that all started in time, and then simply to rely on decency of a platform and to trace displays according to the statistics.

Actually, advertising monitoring shouldn't become an aim. It is much more important to define in advance what you wait from advertising, and give more attention not to the process of monitoring, but to estimation and analysis of efficiency of your advertising campaign on the Internet. The Internet with its tools will allow to collect easily all data necessary for it.

Internet advertising really has a bunch of advantages and, the most important thing, potential. When there is something new almost every day, and the information is transferred for seconds, online advertising possibilities become almost boundless.

SEO: the analysis and search engine optimization

Was published in “Business magazine” (November, 2007)

«I want my site to be on the first place in Yandex!».

Recently custumers often address such words to web studios. And where there is a demand, there is also an offer.

SEO (Search Engines Optimization) appeared in Russia in 2000, and since 2002 have begun actively developing as a kind of Internet business.

*** SEO is a work on internal and external factors of the web site, which result occurrence of this site on the first page of search results in search engines. People who are engaged directly in SEO are called optimizers.

 In Russia optimizers are focused on 3 basic search engines - Yandex, Rambler, Google.
 The sector of SEO-services grows and develops, that is caused by growth of demand for them, constant development of search engines and increase in audience of the Russian Internet.

Only 8 years ago in Krasnodar a very few number of companies had web sites. And those who had usually  came to an end with filling of sections «About the company», «Services» and «Contacts» and, certainly, placing a photo of the director on the main page of a site.

But eventually, value of the Internet has increased in life of people and business of the companies. Customers and owners of web sites not only have considerably advanced in the field of requirements to the web site, but also have understood that the site is more than the picture – it is the tool of sales.

For a long time already users have been coming to a network not only for chatting and games, films and music. They come for the information on the goods and services and are ready to buy what they are searching for from those whom they WILL FIND.

More than 80 % of users search for the goods and services necessary to them through search  systems. And about 70 % from them don't look through more than one page of search results.

Therefore, the conclusion is unequivocal: if company's web site is on the first page of search engine results on key words about the goods or service offered by it, it will get the greatest quantity of clients.

Today the fact of presence of a good site is insufficient for being among first 10 results of search engines. They have algorithms of search which define what the user will see in reply to the search phrase. Therefore the site should be not only interesting and user-friendly, but also optimum and correct from "the point of view" of search engines.

 If the company wants to see the site on the first page of search results by the key words, the most correct way is to go the company rendering services of search optimization.

*** Key words are a phrase, having typed which in a search line, the user should see a company site in results.

Three basic services which will be offered the customer by the SEO-company are the analysis, internal optimization and search optimization of a web site by key words.

The analysis (audit) is held to find out if a web site is convenient for users and optimal for search engines.

At times, getting on a site, the user sees not interesting information and simply doesn't understand, where it can be found, because site structure is inconvenient and the kind of information giving  isn't correct.

It means that the site is made not competently enough from the point of view of usability -  conveniences of the user interface.

*** Usability is the concept of developing interfaces of the software, focused on the maximum psychological and esthetic convenience to the user.

Usability plays an important role for the owner of a site because the lack of it can cost the company  lost real clients.

Except the analysis on convenience to users audit of a site is about "correctness" for search engines. Here purely technical moments are investigated: site structure, text filling, a program code, reference structure, etc.

On the results of the analysis, the report with recommendations about change (web resource optimization) is made.

Internal optimization is a work on modernization of technical and user characteristics of a site which is held on the basis of the report on the analysis. Also, during optimization, key words on which the company wants to see the site in the TOP of search results are considered. After optimization, the site is ready for search engines.

Search optimisation is, generally, work on external factors of a web site - a rating in search engines, quantity of external references to a site.

If works are done competently the site starts to rise in search results by key words in 3-4 weeks. And attendance of a site by target audience - those who comes by key words - increases.

As a rule, the SEO-companies don't promise purpose achievement - the first page of search results - less, than in 3-6 months.

Terms of search optimization depend on competition of subjects in whole and key words, in particular.

Drawing up of the Semantic core, or otherwise speaking, selection of key words is an important stage in SEO.

*** The Semantic core is the set of key phrases for a certain web resource that is made on the basis of the text information presented on a site, and client's wishes about key words.

Company's vision on how users can find it and statistics of existing search phrases can differ a little.

Therefore, the first and main thing is to to choose key words and phrases competently, having typed which, the user should get on a company site. Optimizers, as a rule, having received a set of key words from the customer, analyse them and offer their own list, being guided by specificity of activity of the company.

The most competitive subjects in the field of SEO are furniture, real estate, finance, tourism, plastic windows, cargo transportation, conditioners.

The companies spend thousand dollars monthly to be on TOPS of search results on the certain subjects. And you can't tell that these are unreasonable expenditure. If such budgets are spent they are being repaid

Why? What of advantage of this kind of promotion of the company?

First, the user comes to search engines to find something necessary for him. Accordingly, in results it receives what he SEARCHED himself. Search results are not the advertising and  imposed information, it is the answer to the question. Therefore, the user concerns search results loyally and attentively as much as possible.

Secondly, we will remember statistics - 70 % of users won't go further than the first page of results.

As a result, the company, which site is on the first page of results by key words receives the maximum quantity of users interested in its goods and services. And if the site "meets" users with a  pleasant design and convenient structure the company also receives the maximum quantity of real clients which the visitors of a site become.

How is the budget on SEO formed?

After the customer's definitive approval of the list of the key words, the budget on SEO starts to being formed. The budget is influenced by some parameters:
Frequency of references of users to search engines with the chosen key phrases;
Competition level in chosen subjects;
The budget on SEO of the subject leaders;
And others.

Optimizers define the cost of SEO on each key word, then all values are summarized and the net value of SEO is formed, taking into account parameters at the moment of calculation. To this sum the sum of possible risk and cost of SEO-specialist service is plused.
The total budget sounded to the client includes the foreseen possible risks.

If, coming to the SEO-company, the customer designate the prospective budget on SEO right away the offer on key words is made according to it. It considerably simplifies negotiations anout the definitive budget and key words.

The budget of SEO is also influenced by a regional attributes of key search phrases. For example, if the company wants to move ahead on key phrase "real estate" the cost of search optimization on it  will exceed search optimization cost on «real estate Krasnodar».

Why? Because in the first case the web site of the customer should compete with all companies of a Runet which promote the site by this key phrase, and in the second case - most likely only with the regional companies.

Therefore, the companies offering the goods and services only within one region are recommended to select regional key phrases for SEO.

How to choose the SEO-company correctly?

With demand development on services of SEO in Krasnodar, the quantity of offers in this area grows as well.

It is necessary to mention that the majority of the companies in Krasnodar are already ready search engine optimization of own web resources, but still not ready to those budgets which are necessary to spend for SEO.

It is caused by insufficient awareness on efficiency of SEO. Though, Moscow and St.Petersburg companies have already been promoting the goods and services by means of the Internet for a long time.

SEO services in Krasnodar offer: web studios, the companies which are engaged in Internet advertising and also freelancers.

Choosing the optimizer you should consider some factors:
Possibility of conclusion of the contract on rendered services;
Presence of guarantees (terms, positions, financial guarantees);
Experience and results of work in this area;
Reputation of the company.

 As it was told above, if terms on purpose achievement - the TOP in search results — are not less than 3-6 months the first results from SEO are visible in a month after the beginning of works on a site. This includes: increase in positions of a site by key words, increased traffic at a site by key words, increase of a rating of a site in search engines.

If it doesn't occur in a month-two after the beginning of work on SEO it is necessary to think of quality of the services given by the optimization company.

Internet advertising: ways of placing, pricing and efficiency of campaigns.

Was published in «Business magazine» - September, 2007

1. How can the company check up the efficiency of the Internet-advertising?

If the advertising campaign purpose is attraction of visitors on a site, efficiency can be estimated on changes in the statistican of site visits: by the increased quantity of visitings of a site, increase in total of visitors, on input points on a site, conversion (achievement by the visitor of the definite purpose set by the owner of a site – for example, viewing of the page with contacts, viewing more than 5 pages on a site).

If advertizing carries image forming character and transitions to a site aren't necessary (for example, Coca-Cola banner) it is possible to estimate the efficiency only on the general increase in quantity of sales of the company.

Besides, it is possible to interview new clients — how did they learn about the Company.

If the advertizing campaign purpose is increase in sales of a certain commodity position or service, efficiency is defined, also, on increase in the quantity of clients comming to the Company for the certain goods, service.


2. How to learn how long will the recoupment of investments in the Internet take?

Initially, it is necessary to note that the expenses on one person from target audience in online-advertising are several times less, than the expenses in offline-advertising. It is connected with greater hit accuracy of Internet-advertising in target audience, and smaller cost of it.

The time of the recoupment of investments in the Internet depends on a kind of company's activity, features of the advertised goods and services.

For example, the advertising campaign is started for the client who offers building of aquaparks. And, its cost doesn't exceed 300 dollars a month, so even if it's just 1 client from the Internet in 1 month, it is possible to say that expenses on advertising have paid off, if the purpose of the advertising campaign was the increasing of sales.

 *** Targeting is focus of advertising  on the user by different criteria.

If campaign's aim is to increase the recognition of a brand - image forming advertising - here, in general, sit is not necessary to estimate the time of recoupment of investments. The main thing in such case is to plan an advertising campaign competently to capture maximum of the target audience at optimum expenses.

 *** Targeting is focus of advertising  on the user by different criteria.

3. What kinds of Internet advertising exist and how much do they cost?

One of the very first kinds of advertising on the Internet is banner advertising. Its cost depends on placing platforms - their attendance, subjects, audience, and also from the size of the banner, its arrangement on site pages. On the average, cost of 1000 displays of a banner varies today from 120 to 300 roubles

Today the most popular advertising kind in the Internet is contextual advertising in search engines, on sites-partners of search engines and also in other networks of contextual advertising. This kind of advertising is convenient at adjustment of parameters - it is possible to set geographical, time and thematic targeting.

Contextual advertising can be in the form of text advertising blocks or graphic - in the form of banner advertising.

The minimum cost of text contextual advertising -is 30 copecks, but the real cost depends on a competition in an advertised theme. Cost of 1000 displays of a contextual advertising banner varies from 1000 to 1700 roubles.
Large systems of contextual advertising in the Russian Internet are Yandex. Direct, Begun, Google Adwords and Rorer.

There is still an advertising in mailings of news, information portals - for example Subscribe.Ru.

Mailing according to the theme is made to subscribers of portals - to the addressees interested in a certain theme. In mailings it is possible to buy banner places, text advertising, references.
Cost of such advertising varies from 40 to 1500-3000 roubles for information placed in 1000 letters - depending on a kind of placing, an arrangement of advertising, targeting possibility.

Article marketing is placing of articles of the Company on thematic portals of a network. Cost of such advertising depends on platforms and terms of placing of articles. The price can also include  expenses on a writing articles about the Company or certain goods and the service advertised by the Company.

There are also other kinds of Internet advertising:

• Weekly placing of company news on thematic sites (from 1000 roubles a month);
• Placing of the information on the Company in popular Catalogues, such as Yandex.Catalog,  Catalogue Mail.Ru, Yellow Pages, etc.;
• The organization and carrying out on-line forums, conferences;
• Placing of videos of the company;
• Advertising in games, etc.

4. Is the presence of the own web-site is obligatory for Internet advertising campaign?

There is a set of variants of ad in the Internet for the companies that do not have their own site:
Creation of the web office in the Internet — a page where the basic information on the company takes place;
Registration in Internet catalogs;
Image advertising that does not demand transitions to a site;
Contextual text advertising - allows to look through cut-away of the advertised organization, not only redirect to a site.

It is necessary to understand that the Internet advertising is focused not only and not so much on attraction of attention of audience to the company's web site. It is directed, finally, on increase in a stream of clients of the company, as well as any other kind of advertising. And taking into account constant growth of Internet audience, value of advertising grows in the Internet.

5.How much more effective is Internet advertising and what are its obvious advantages?

The main advantage of Internet advertising is the greatest accuracy of hits in target audience. It comes from the possibility targeting  - on interests, time, geography, behavior of the user. Besides, expenses on Internet advertising, at the same efficiency, are much less than on offline advertising.

For example, advertising video on TV covers huge audience, but thus, the target audience can make only shares of percent. Cost of such advertising is measured in thousand-tens thousand dollars.

Advertising on the radio is cheaper (500-1500 dollars), but still hit in target audience isn't guaranteed.

Talking about outdoor advertising, expenses on it at times are unfairly high, in comparison with effect.

Besides, it is necessary to notice that efficiency of Internet advertising is traced better, than efficiency of any of any other kinds of advertising. There are tmany Internet statistic services which analysis can help with formation of marketing strategy of the Company.

Efficiency of any advertising, including Internet advertising, depends on competent planning of the campaign. First, it is necessary to set accurately the purposes of campaign expected from it results. Secondly, it is necessary to define target audience to which advertising will be addressed. Thirdly, it is necessary to chose kinds of advertising and a platform for its placing. And, certainly, it is important to issue advertising materials according to the features of target audience.

6.How long ago have Krasnodar companies started to advertise actively in the Internet and how popular is it now in Krasnodar?

Active interest to the Internet advertising the companies of Krasnodar have started to show about a year or year and a half ago.

Last 6 months the tendency of growth of interest among Krasnodar companies to it has considerably increased. It is proved by the statistican of search engines (quantity of users' requests on «Internet advertising Krasnodar», etc. is constantly increases), statistics of telephone directory inquiries and also personal experience of  web-studio “Voodoo” emploees.

Now, even companies, that use offline advertising, are interested also in Internet advertising. There are already a lot of examples on how the Krasnodar companies carry out full-scale advertising campaigns for the new goods and services on the market online and offline at the same time.

According to Yandex Krasnodar is on the sixth place in Russia on Internet activity. The audience of the Krasnodar Internet grows, its activity raises, the area of its interests extends.

Therefore the urgency of Internet advertising for the Krasnodar companies grows!