rafe VanDenBerg, marketing director at Crucial Technologies, is amused by negative press about banner advertising. Crucial uses banners to help sell almost $500 million of computer memory modules a year to businesses and consumers.
“I hope the media keeps reporting that banner response is down,” says VanDenBerg. “It helps in negotiating lower advertising rates.”
Crucial, the direct marketing arm of computer semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technologies, uses both online and offline media to generate traffic to its Web site (www.crucial.com), but banners are the most important tool. Approximately 1 million targeted banner ad impressions are delivered weekly by Worldata/WebConnect, Boca Raton, FL.
These ads normally draw a click-through response ranging from 3% to 6.5%, although it has gone as high as 18% with some sites. The conversion (based on the total number of online ad impressions) usually runs around 1%, although it has hit 26%, says VanDenBerg.
The banner ads are distributed in response to keyword searches initiated by shoppers looking for information about computers or computer memory. The best Web sites are those that attract comparison shoppers, says VanDenBerg.
Although they cost less, general Web sites tend to generate the lowest response.
“One of the biggest things we’ve been burned by is broad-based targeting,”says VanDenBerg. “New marketers on the Web get sucked in, drawn into large advertising packages with low CPMs that don’t perform.”
Crucial lifts response by integrating online links and pull-down menus in banner copy. It also tests copy, offers and price points in split-runs; the tests are rotated in online newsletters and various Web sites offering computer products.
“We try to position banners as close to the point of sale as possible,” says VanDenBerg. “We’re trying to find people when they are ready to buy, who are comparison shopping.”
Once an inquirer has clicked through, Crucial asks for additional information such as product categories of interest.
But banner ads are hardly the only medium used by the Meridian, ID-based firm. In addition to Web site selection and online response tracking, Worldata/ WebConnect also handles e-mail campaigns for Crucial.
Most of Crucial’s e-mail goes to subscribers of various online newsletter or to its in-house organ, which is sent to 23,000 customers. The firm typically advertises in two or three newsletters per month; this includes advertorial copy. The company’s largest weekly e-mail circulation was 600,000 pieces.
Response to e-mail has run as high as 12%, but overall the firm finds that “e-mail typically doesn’t work as well as banner advertising for us,” notes VanDenBerg.
As he sees it, newsletters subscribers are more receptive to e-mail because they opted-in in the first place.
VanDenBerg still tests e-mail lists hoping to find one that works well, but feels there aren’t many good ones available. Crucial limits its e-mail tests because of concern about spamming.
The firm also does some advertising on cable TV and in computer trade magazines. It sends little print direct mail, but it does insert coupons in package shipments to promote Web site traffic.
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