Budgeting For Your Ad Campaigns
by Abe Cherian,

Creating a budget is a task that requires time and effort, but once you establish a budget and put it on paper you'll be amazed how easy it will be to maintain a campaign budget.

First, you must decide how much money is available. The success of a business is determined by the number of its customers and how much they spend. And that's determined by what they think, feel, and believe about the business. In other words, budgeting for ad campaigns, it's not what you make, it's what you spend!

Saving Money When Placing Ads

Most classified ads are charged per line online or characters, so you want to keep your wording precise. Once you have written your ad, take a closer look at it. Can you eliminate certain words without changing the meaning?

You might be able to delete conjunctions such as "and", articles like "the", flat and "an", or prepositions like "for", "with" or "from." Perhaps you can contract your company name into initials or use just one word.

Each part of your address counts as one word: the number, the street name, the street aspect (boulevard. avenue), the key (if separate), the city and the state. Use figures instead of words for numbers, but don't use contractions or abbreviate. 

Calculate Profit

Total the amount of cash sales. That is your gross profit. Subtract the cost of the product, mailing, and conversion of the ad. That is your net profit, the one that counts. Just stick with it, and you can watch your profit grow bigger with each ad.

Over the years, ad buyers purchase many times your initial investment in ad space. A first buyer indicates a second sale. After that, you have a regular customer that may purchase for years. Even if you now own the rights to an incredible list of products that you can market to your prospects and clients over and over again, over time, that can lead to large profits and greater financial success.

Promote the field of interest you've selected. Don't expand into separate areas. Cultivating your prime customer list takes patience and testing, but you'll find it rewarding. Perhaps you started with one product to offer and are ready to try another. You can run new, separate ads in publications that you have tested successfully to your other offer. 

Studies show that 80% of all people who inquire about a product buy that product within one year, but not from the company that made the original contact. The reason they don't buy from the company that made the original contact is because the company did not follow-up! Statistics show that you must make at least five contacts with a prospect who expressed an interest in your product or service before they'll buy from you. Very few Internet marketers realize this. It's extremely important to set aside an estimated amount to cover an unforeseeable cost associated with any campaign.

Pay Per Click

Due to PPC pricing is based on keyword bids, it's a little difficult to budget ad campaigns because the actual bids are constantly fluctuating. Often times, seasonal demands for products or services find a decrease in average keyword bids, but generally will increase over time.

Over the years, advertisers shifted ad spending from other types of marketing. This technique was widely used because of it's value and advertisers didn't have a reserve budget for search bids.

One way is to estimate a budget by calculating the percentage of money earned and then base your PPC ad campaign budget on that percentage. In other words, spend a little more as your sales increase.

It's fascinating to find that Google's PPC optimizer for their AdWords specifically aids advertisers who receive the highest number of clicks possible within a specified budget. Although it doesn't help with positioning, CPC (cost per click) analysis help with monthly budgets. This is not for measuring conversions or the value of ad click-throughs.

Your object in all advertising is to buy new customers at a price which pays a profit. You have no interest in centering trade at any particular place of business. A person who desires to make an impression must stand out in some way from the masses. And in a pleasing way. Being eccentric, being abnormal is not a distinction to covet. But doing admirable things in a different way gives one a great advantage.

Remember, effective advertising is not about building your "image" or being cute. It's about persuading your prospects or customers to take the action you want them to take - now!

More related topics