Web advertising

Some of you might remember that a few weeks ago I conducted an online survey to find out if and how paid advertising and sponsorship are used in magazines and newsletters published by universities and colleges.

A total of 110 professionals working in institutions representing more than 1.5 million students completed this online survey between April 22 and May 12, 2008.

The survey was completed by people working in marketing/communications (69%), web (7%), alum associations (3%) and other offices.

43% of the respondents indicated working in private non-profit 4-year colleges, 38% in 4-year public colleges and 6% in public 2-year colleges. The average student population across the data was 14,408 students.

Interesting survey findings include:

• 12% of the print publications published by survey respondents include paid advertising or sponsorship.
• Survey respondents reported that revenues generated by advertising and sponsorship cover an average of 20% of their print publication’s total budget.
• The biggest challenge to launch an advertising program cited most often by survey respondents publishing an ad-supported print publication is the necessary extra workload/resources required for selling, designing, producing and billing the ads.
• Financial issues put aside, 65% of all the survey respondents think higher education publications shouldn’t include paid advertising or sponsorship.

The complete 7-page executive summary is available for free to Higher Ed Experts’ members. Just log in at www.higheredexperts.com and click on the report link listed in the “HEE reports” section.

If you’re not a member and work for a university/college, just join HEE (membership is free) at www.higheredexperts.com/register.

I’ve put together a short online survey to find out if and how paid advertising and sponsorship are used in magazines and newsletters published by universities and colleges.

The results of this survey will be used for a study I’m conducting on this topic and a future article.

This online survey should take you 3 to 4 minutes. The data you provide will only be used for its statistical interest.

If you include your name and email address at the end of the survey (although this isn’t mandatory), you’ll receive an executive summary of the results highlighting some best practices, a way for me to thank you for your participation.

So, please take 3 minutes now to do this survey! I would really appreciate your help.

If you read this blog, you probably understand how important Facebook has become for our prospective and current students as well as our younger alums.

While this new communication channel should always be used with caution by higher ed institutions to avoid “invading” their students’ primary social hang out, it makes a lot of sense to take advantage of advertising opportunities offered by the platform (and I don’t make a dime by writing this – although if Mark Zuckenberg and any Facebook Execs read these lines, chocolates or flowers are always welcome ;-).

One of the cheapest (that could also be the most efficient) way to advertise on the popular social networking website is to use Facebook Basic Flyers. Originally used by Facebook members to advertise parties or other social events on campus, Facebook Basic Flyers don’t require a Madison Avenue budget but can deliver great results.

Want an example?

Reader and HEE member Brad Ward, Electronic Communication Coordinator at Butler University, has used these virtual flyers to recruit student bloggers. Brad shared the results of this initiative on the recently launched team blog: Squared Peg:

I put an ad in 2 places: BLUE, the student employment database on campus, and Facebook, using their flyers. BLUE yielded 8 applications in 10 days, Facebook gave me nearly 40. Total cost for the Facebook ad? $50. We ran the flyer to the right for 10 days at 2,500 impressions per day (25,000 total) for a cost of $5/day. I targeted both genders, age 18-24, undergrads only, in the Butler network. By doing this I was able to reach and get a response from 1% of the entire student body. I’d consider that a success.

As you can see, Facebook Basic Flyers look like a very cost-effective way to advertise something to your student population with great results. Beyond the 40 applicants for the student blogger position, this $50 advertising campaign started to raise awareness about the student blogger program in the current student population. In this age of virtual word of mouth, Butler students can play a decisive role in the promotion of these admissions-sponsored blogs to their younger real (or virtual) friends who are interested in learning more about Butler.

So, how can you use Facebook Flyers for your next outreach campaign targeted to students?

• Go to the flyer page on Facebook
• Choose a theme for the layout
• Indicate if you want to include a photo or not (you should add a graphic as this will attract the eyes of your audience far more than just text)
• Enter your title (25 characters max) and text (200 characters max) for your flyer
• Don’t forget to add a link to a landing web page (it’s optional, but make sure you do it as this will help you track the ROI of your flyer)
• Choose the demographics of your target audience (gender, age, network affiliation – that should be your institution network in this last case)
• Select the budget and the schedule for your campaign
• Read the terms of service (the usual provisions about copyrights as well as some disclaimers: on some small network, Facebook might not be able to reach the targeted number of impressions. They can also stop running your campaign if the content is offensive or for any other reasons, but it seems — have I already told you I’m not a lawyer? – that they will give you a refund in the last case.)
• Proceed with the credit card payment (no check unless you buy a $20,000 campaign)

My advice is to start small, run a $10 or $15 test, and make sure you set an external landing page to track the click-through rate. If you use Facebook Basic Flyers for an event or something including a call to action, track the conversion rate as well.

If you run (or have run) a campaign using flyers, share your results with us by posting a comment.

If most of your advertising budget is spent on newspaper and magazine ads, probably not. That is if JupiterResearch, an independent firm providing research to the online industry, is right.

According to one of its recent reports, published last week, “Media Consumption Patterns: Online Vies with TV As Primary Medium,” online users spend as much time online as they spend watching TV, while users under the age of 35 spend more time online than on TV.

The press release also points out a mind-boggling fact about advertising spendings:

Despite this trend, however, advertisers continue to spend disproportionately on print, with newspapers garnering nearly three times the expenditure of online. Money spent on television advertising remains the clear leader among the marketing mix with advertisers spending four times as much on TV advertising as all online advertising.

For JupiterResearch Analysts, the medium of the future for advertisers could be social networking websites. That is if used properly.

So while online social networks might seem like the ideal mix of media and communications, advertisers must use them appropriately. Brand advertisers should rely on sponsorships, widgets, or branded microsites within the networks.

“Sponsoring personal-page themes and widgets that entertain or offer exclusive access to content also makes sense for reaching potential brand advocates,” said Emily Riley, Analyst at JupiterResearch. “But it takes a light touch. Marketing can’t be so intrusive that it risks creating negative brand associations.”

Obviously, the report is targeted to companies (and not higher ed institutions), but it definitely confirms the need to rethink some marketing and advertising tactics and start spending more time and money online.

What do you think? Is it just wishful thinking? Anybody spending more money online than offline when it comes to marketing to prospective students? Post a comment!

I’m currently working on a Google Ad campaign for my institution. The last Google ad campaign for the college’s adult education programs was run in 2005. It was really successful for some programs (accelerated certification for teachers), less for others.

As a result, it has been a while since I spend some quality time in the Google AdWords interface and… it shows as I didn’t know Google was offering many more options than the regular text pay-per-click and image banner ads they did in 2005.

Among the new formats you can use for your ads on Google or its network, the pay-per-play video ad caught my eyes right away — given the interest around online videos these days you can understand why. This option seems a natural move since Google’s acquisition of YouTube and the recent announcement the company has started to run ads on popular YouTube channels while sharing revenues with their authors.

Here is how Google defines this new option:

Video ads are a new ad format that will appear on the Google content network. Your video ad will appear as a static image until a user clicks on it and your video is played.

[...]

The video portion of your video ad will be played when a user interacts with the video. The video will not automatically replay; the user must click the play button to initiate a replay. Since videos are user-initiated, there are no frequency caps.

So, what are the requirements to use this new format?

You need a static capture of your video or a photo and a video following the following specifications:

Video ads must have a maximum duration of 2 minutes.

The format of your video must be:
AVI, ASF, Quicktime, Windows Media, or MPEG
Minimum 14 frames-per-second (prefer 30 fps)
4:3 aspect ratio (recommended; other aspects will be accepted but letterboxed)

Your video ads will run on the Google network composed of third-party websites displaying keyword-based Google ads.

Google video ads can be charged following the familar pay-per-click model (however if a user plays your ad many times in a row, you will be billed for every instance) or a more traditional web ad model, CPM, cost per thousand impressions.

I don’t plan to use this ad format for my small campaign, but this is probably an option you should keep in mind to present when it’s time to discuss web marketing options at your institution.

If any of you already use this video ad format, please let us know by posting a comment below or send me a note at karine@collegewebeditor.com