Two Market Conditions Make for Great Ad Buys!

With the end of the year fast approaching and 4th quarter budgets pretty much spent, you’d think it might be the time to sort of slack off on your advertising efforts, right? Wrong!! Actually, there are two important market conditions going on right now, one of which is unique, that makes right now, December 2000, the perfect time to get out there and buy, buy, buy. Let’s tell you why.

The first market condition has to do with sales quotas. For those media reps who make a living meeting sales quotas month after month, the end of the year is an even more looming imposition. They’re up against double deadlines and in an effort to make their goals, they’re more than willing to negotiate with you. And I’m talking in both price and in what you get for your money.

To give you an example, the popular women’s web site, iVillage, is offering cost-per-click (CPC) buys for ads run before the end of the year, whereas before it almost exclusively sold cost-per- impression (CPM) buys. The funky news site, Salon.com, is offering to bulk up impressions for the same CPM, essentially then lowering your CPM overall (not that this tactic can’t be negotiated throughout the rest of the year, but the pickings are pretty darn good right now).

Web sites aren’t the only place bargains can be found either. Newsletters and e-zines have some great buys — as low as $2.00 CPMs, again, a greatly reduced rate on average. Finally, we should mention ad networks like Engage, whose average CPM is even below $1.00 now. Hey, the yard sale is not going to last forever, so get cooking!

Another thing you can do with these great ad rates is negotiate and secure buys now for next year. Don’t book too far out or commit to too much, of course, but if you think a site is worth running a 3-month trial campaign on, why wait until next year to make the deal when you can get it now for a steal? It’s kind of like the stock market theory: buy low, get high value.

Speaking of the stock market, that’s the unique 2nd market condition I mentioned earlier. As we all know, the market is suffering from a major dot com fallout right now. Weak and unprofitable dot coms are shutting their doors by the dozens and pink slips are being handed out coast to coast. That’s leaving the survivors scared and shaken, and I hate to sound like a circling vulture, but this scenario is not a bad thing for online media buyers!

To find these falling dot coms, one does not have to venture much farther than one’s own PC. Of course, there are the news sites, which lately seem to relish in describing the latest dot com demise. But if you want to have a little more fun with your research, you might want to check out some of the more acerbic sites like f–kedcompany.com (I’m respecting the PG rating of this list), iTulip.com, or Ad-Rag.com.

I do warn you of this when considering these year-end buys: proceed with caution. Don’t over-commit and certainly don’t pay up-front since those sites might not be around in 3 months or more. But heck, if they’re a good, solid site and their normal advertisers are pulling the plug on their previous commitments, step up and get them at bargain basement pricing. When things go south, many companies pull their advertising budgets first (which, as any true study of marketing will tell you, is the most foolish thing they can do), so again these online publishers are left with a whole lot of unsold inventory. Take advantage of the opportunity now, because if Christmas is good and things swing around quickly, you might not be able to do so in two months or more. It’s all got to do with the law of supply and demand.

Visit these past marketing tips for more helpful information on successful online media buying:

Successful Media Buying Strategies
Online Ad Buying: Beyond CPM

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