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CHALLENGE
Every spring the marketers at Citrix Systems
Inc are required to come up with one new advertising idea to test
intensively. (Don't you wish you worked for such a cool company?) Last
year it was radio (link to Case Study below). This spring, marketers
for Citrix's GoToMeeting service decided, why not RSS ads? "RSS
networks, podcasting, bloggers, these new channels all tie in together,
and seem to be growing pretty rapidly," says Senior Marketing Manager
Cailin Pitcher. Slapping up some ads onto RSS ad networks isn't
that hard anymore (links to four networks below). The challenge comes
in making them pay off. Every Citrix experiment is dictated by CPA --
cost per new customer acquisition. The marketing team had to
prove RSS ads could produce new customers at a cost just as low as
already proven media such as email, search, and radio. Could they? CAMPAIGN
The team launched tests in March across a variety of RSS ad networks (most of which also repped ads in blogs). Step #1. Media buying for RSS Just
as with any other media, list selection is the number one most
significant factor for success. RSS ads can work or fail completely
based on which lists you choose to run them on. The team naturally
tested a variety of networks, and niche buys within networks. Their
target market was small business leaders who were early-adopters in the
technology community -- a good match for today's RSS reading community
(although much like the early Web, it's rapidly growing to include
broader demographics). RSS ads are generally sold on a CPC basis
(although we've heard some networks toss them in gratis as a test cell
with a CPM blog ad buy). The CPC - cost per click - may range from
fifty cents to one dollar. Because the number of feeds
accepting ads is relatively limited now, and some smaller publishers
only publish one content story every day or every week, media buys must
watch frequency like a hawk. If your ad shows up on the same feed too
often, to the recipient it might feel akin to getting too many pop-ups
from a Web site. Pitcher worked with the ad networks to tweak
frequency. She also rotated creative more than she would with other
forms of online advertising. Step #2. Creative for RSS (Link to samples below.) While
you can put graphics and longer copy into RSS feeds, you can't be sure
all readers will receive them properly. (For example, some show text
only.) Also, the early adopter demographic online is well-known for its
hearty dislike of anything that smacks too much of blatant
commercialism. With these two factors in mind, Pitcher had the
creative team produce ads that were based on best-performing ads in
other media, but not too overtly promotional or long. The average ad
was just 40-50 words of text with a simple headline that was hotlinked
to a landing page. (Link below to creative samples.) Because many
RSS feeds taking ads currently are published by individual bloggers
versus major media, Pitcher decided to test more personal-sounding ads
to match this environment. For example, one ad featured a personal
testimonial from well-known tech guru Chris Pirillo. Step #3. Integrated RSS + Blog Campaigns Some
RSS feeds contain the full-body of a blog entry or article online,
while others are just summaries with a hotlink to read more on the Web.
In the case of the latter, Pitcher explored options to run
matching ads on those Web sites as an integrated campaign. It's a
one-two punch, you see the ad in the feed, and then you click through
and see the same copy on the site. Step #4. Podcasting sponsorship experiment Thousands
of bloggers have started podcasting in the past nine months --
producing their own audio shows available for free download to iPods.
(Link to basic info about the podcasting phenomenon below.) Pitcher
decided to take campaign integration one step further by testing
sponsoring, among others, The Chris Pirillo Show. The live show
currently has more than 8,000 listeners, with hundreds more listening
to archived editions. The cost was $10,000 for a one-month, four-show
sponsorship. Since, just like blogs, podcasts have a strongly
individual and even do-it-yourself content flair, handing over canned
audio ads was not a creative option that would work well with the
media. Pitcher also felt she couldn't give the podcaster a specific
script because that might sound too promotional. "It's not direct
advertising; we decided to look more like product placement." In the
case of The Pirillo Show, GoToMeeting set up a test account for
listeners to play around with, and asked Chris to mention it during the
show. In addition, any listener who wanted their own trial could get a
30-day trial (twice the normal length of GoToMeeting's typical offers) if they went to a special landing page online. Step #5. Tracking response based on common metrics As
the campaign proceeded, Pitcher spreadsheeted results, breaking down
various media pricing (CPC, CPM) into one common number -- CPA. Her
definition of "acquisition" was a final count based not on accepted
trials but on the number of trials that wound up converting into paying
customers. This way she could do apples-to-apples comparisons with all other media channels GoToMeeting ran campaigns on. RESULTS
Good
news -- although Pitcher couldn't give exact response data she could
reveal that based on CPA, RSS ads were definitely matching other, more
established media including search. "These are really promising
channels with a nice audience for us, and they respond well. We're not
going to discontinue tests, it's one of our stronger points." Podcasting sponsorships have done very well. "Response was overwhelming. The CPA leveled out to about the same CPA metrics." Her
main frustration is that the audience, while growing rapidly, isn't
nearly big enough to roll out immense campaigns to yet. "Obviously we'd
like to scale it, but there's a threshold to how much money we can
spend and still get the same CPA." That said, there's also an
inherent risk to investing more as a niche media grows toward
mainstream. General consumers may respond differently than passionate
early adopters. Plus, once you're firmly in the mainstream, you can
lose that "influencing the influencer" evangelist campaign
afterglow. MarketingSherpa's advice - if you
are trying to reach that niche audience of super-cool early adopters,
run (don't walk) to test RSS, blog and podcasting ads this summer.
Otherwise, hold off until Summer 2006 by which time the mainstream may
be there waiting for you. Useful links related to this article Creative samples from the GoToMeeting campaigns:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/gotomeeting/study.html Pheedo - the RSS, Blog & Podcasting ad network GoToMeeting worked with for their campaign:
http://www.pheedo.com Three more RSS ad networks:
http://www.feedster.com
http://www.laredogroup.com/imediasales.htm
http://www.google.com/support/adsense/bin/answer.py?answer=20012 The Chris Pirillo Show:
http://www.thechrispirilloshow.com/ Podcasting info:
http://www.ipodder.org/whatIsPodcasting Past MarketingSherpa Case Study:
How to Test (and Reliably Measure) Radio Campaigns to Reach Small Business Buyers
http://library.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2804 Citrix's GoToMeeting:
http://www.gotomeeting.com Sponsor: New!
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