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Why Pay-per-Click is better than other Advertising

I can’t believe that I haven’t blogged on this subject before!  It’s so simple, yet can be so complicated to explain to potential clients.  Heck, it can even be difficult asking for more funding within an organization with a good campaign track record.  Let’s examine a day in the life of an average Joe, such as myself, to see what kind of advertising I can remember seeing, and which are truly memorable.

6.45 AM - Get up, prepare the coffee (Melitta by the way) and see a contest insert in the canister.  It probably would have made a bigger impression had I actually been fully awake first.  Prepare breakfast, the same old bowl of Vector with Joe Thornton and Martin St. Louis on the box.  Why are they on the box?  I’m not sure, didn’t have my cup of Joe yet.

7.15 AM - Turn on the TV to check the sports highlights, weather, and road conditions in Toronto.  There are always ads on television, but nothing really stands out today.  Except something was new on the morning show, the hosts actually had a coffee cup with Maxwell House printed on it.  I took refuge in knowing my coffee would taste better than Maxwell House.

7.30 AM - See my wife out the door to work, and right onto the computer, bright and early.  Alexander Ovechkin had a nice goal last night in a losing effort, so I know my fantasy pool team didn’t do all that well.  Yahoo serves up the pool for me and the other 15 guys in our pool, and this morning I remember seeing banner ads for Monster.ca Job Board, and Blue Host Web Hosting.  Not really interested in either while I ponder trading a few players on my team though.

7.45 AM - Check my e-mails — all 10 accounts (I’m a slave to e-mail).   The usual viagra ads, Facebook notifications, a few client questions, and my usual list of blog post notifications and comments.  Follow links in my Facebook notifications, post a few birthday greetings online to friends and notice a banner ad for Monster again, and one for University of Phoenix online.  Don’t really need another Master’s degree, but that’s the second time I’ve seen an ad for Monster.  My job doesn’t suck, does it?

8.00 AM - Turn on the radio, hop into the shower and get dressed for work.  The usual radio ads that play everyday are getting rotation: a posh dentist office, laser eye surgery, cosmetic clinics, and traffic ticket paralegals.  Nothing really that stands out as being something I’d like to look into further.

8.15 AM - Leave for work.  Listening to a different station in the car, I hear concert listings, what’s new on DVD at Blockbuster, a cell phone commercial, and an ad for Workopolis.  Huh, that’s strange, Workopolis is a competitor of Monster, and that would be the third time I’m thinking about Monster today and it’s not even 9AM!

9.00 AM - Get into the office.  Nothing really to note aside from our own advertising for the bulk of the day.  Our building does have Captivate Network LCD screens in the elevators, but I only noticed the quirky (slightly outdated) news for the day.  Wait a minute, there’s Monster again!  Is someone giving me a sign?

Let’s skip ahead…

6.00 PM - Check the mail in my mailbox (the physical postal ’snail-mail’ mailbox).  The usual array of garbage, credit card pre-authorizations that don’t spell my name correctly, bills, and account statements.  Yay!  Guess where all that direct mail went?  You guessed it, straight into the recycling bin.

Which ads do I remember from those that met an untimely demise?  Pizza Pizza now delivers fresh (read ‘from frozen’) fried shrimp.  Out of the 15 or so pieces of direct mail, Pizza Pizza shrimp is all I can remember.

So seeing as it’s quarter after 6 right now, what other advertising could have possibly met my gaze that I clearly remember and made an impression throughout my average day?

• Monster.ca - maybe I should take a look at the positions that are available?  It’s -5 celsius in Toronto with a strong north-westerly wind and icy snow.  An online advertising job in California or the Caribbean sounds fantastic right now.
• Pizza Pizza delivers shrimp! This one stays with me because it’s just plain weird.  If I want a pizza, I doubt that I’d consider ordering shrimp at the same time.  Plus the thought of shrimp being delivered in a box, in a plastic bag, in a delivery bag, for any driving time longer than 10 minutes makes me nervous.  This one is memorable for all the wrong reasons, and proves that direct marketing is ineffective.

What tactics did Monster use to get my attention today?

• Pay per click advertising on Yahoo’s Partner Network
• Pay per click advertising on Facebook’s CPC Advertising option, or through Google Adwords Placement Targeted campaign option
• Visual imagery that attracted my attention and made me think
• Day-parting strategy to catch my attention in the morning, before work but more importantly after the thoughts of hunger and the dreariness of pre-coffee bed head wore off.
• CPM advertising on the Captivate Network to support their PPC efforts on the elevator ride in
• Domination in the impression game: Monster 3, Workopolis 1.  And Workopolis’ ad on the radio actually made me think about Monster instead, because at that point in the day I already viewed 2 ads for Monster.

It’s far from scientific, but we can all learn from Monster and Pizza Pizza, or even other companies in our everyday lives that make significant impressions on us.  Why did those ads work, why didn’t they work?  Coincidences are rarely that, I didn’t see or hear ads about job boards or career opportunities on my way home from work, or surfing the web prior to writing this post.  There is a reason for that.

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