Contextual advertising for beginners. Contextual advertising - a guide for beginners

One of the most effective types advertising - contextual. Thus, according to Yandex, the volume of this market is increasing annually by 40%, the client response to search ads reaches 5%, while in display and banner advertising this figure on average does not exceed 0.5%. To achieve a good effect, you need to know the rules for using contextual advertising and follow the technology for its use. Let's talk about them.

Kirill Samoshonkov,

General Director, Novatika, Moscow

In this article you will read:

Effective contextual advertising can seriously improve the situation of any company. Online advertising platforms offer several placement options - text ads, media-contextual (text and banner) and simply media banners. Most experts rightly believe that media and media-contextual banners are more suitable for image campaigns (they work on visual memory and are an analogy to traditional advertising: the client saw and, even if he didn’t go to the site, remembered you), and for advertising goods and services it is better to use text ads - effective contextual advertising.

Contextual advertising - ads with search results that are displayed in the most prominent places on the Internet page. This is usually the top left corner (the first one to four links) and the right margin. The main sites (more than 90% of the volume of contextual placement), as you might guess, coincide with popular search engines - Yandex, Google, Rambler, and services for advertisers are called Yandex.Direct, Google.Adword and Begun, respectively.

The principle of contextual advertising is inherent in its very name: advertisers' ads are shown when there is a contextual match with keywords in the user's request. Thus, advertisements for the installation of plastic windows will be displayed upon request “installation of double-glazed windows” or “plastic windows prices”, and an advertisement “40% discount on LG vacuum cleaners” will appear upon the request “buy a vacuum cleaner” and “promotions on household appliances LG".

What makes contextual advertising effective?

Due to reaching directly the target audience, only those users who are looking on the Internet for information about a specific product or service, effective contextual advertising has a very high response and is considered one of the best promotion tools. That’s why it’s very popular: there are millions of advertising campaigns a year on major Internet platforms. The advantages of contextual advertising are that it is accessible (promotion on the Internet through context can be started with a minimum budget) and the fact that the client himself can regulate the intensity of promotion in accordance with specific tasks.

The main task of contextual ads is to get a potential client to click on your ad and go to the site. An example of contextual advertising is considered very good when the share of customers who go to the company’s website reaches 5–7% of the total number of people who saw the contextual ad. Although in our practice there are examples when this share reached 30%.

Caution doesn't hurt

Despite its apparent simplicity, this method of promotion requires the advertiser to take himself very seriously, knowledge of the theory and tools of performance management. Moreover, now the sphere of Internet technologies is in a stage of rapid development and it will be difficult for a non-professional to keep track of the latest innovations for competent online promotion. Therefore, as part of large campaigns in highly competitive markets, planners, writers, and analysts are brought in to develop contextual advertising.

If the resources to complete a task are limited and do not allow you to use the services of promotion specialists, you need to prepare as much as possible to independently conquer the peaks of the context. At a minimum, so that due to ignorance of the specifics of the tool, the company’s annual advertising budget is not wasted in just a week.

For those who have decided to launch a contextual advertising campaign on their own, without the help of intermediaries and advertising agencies (and there are already more than 2000 of them on the RuNet), there are now a huge number of tips in the form of detailed and clear instructions on the websites of context providers, and you can also find advice on the Internet from professionals in this market.

Designed for everyone

Almost any business, even the most niche one, will find its consumers through context. Whether you work in the b2c or b2b market, there is no difference. If buyers of your goods and services are online, then one of the shortest ways to reach them is contextual advertising. The modern tools here are so flexible that you can find your client, even if there are very few of them on the Internet.

For example, one of our clients is a manufacturer of mobile and prefabricated concrete plants. It is clear that there are few buyers of his products, but the settings that the sites provide allow you to bring a stable number of target consumers to the client’s website. Moreover, the advertising campaign budget remains low, and the results are effective.

Site selection

As I said earlier, today there are three main providers of contextual advertising - Yandex.Direct, Google.Adword and Begun. The audience is more or less balanced everywhere, the only difference is in the nuances. It is believed that the Google platform is chosen by the younger generation with a technical bent, Yandex is used by people of the middle generation, and the older generation prefers Rambler.

In addition, advertising opportunities are actively developing in in social networks VKontakte and Facebook. An undoubted advantage of social media is its approach to reaching an audience. If the advantage of contextual advertising is that customers are identified by their queries, which they enter into the search bar, then here, thanks to the personal data voluntarily provided by participants, it is possible to target the display of ads by gender, age, marital status, position, interests and many other parameters, up to the mobile operator you are using.

So, today I have for you an introductory article on contextual advertising. I’ll tell you what this type of advertising actually is, what types of contextual advertising there are, platforms where you can advertise, and I’ll also write about the advantages of contextual advertising. This is currently one of the most effective sources, so you need to give it due attention.

It turns out that contextual advertising acts selectively and is shown only for specific requests, therefore, if the ads are configured correctly, the advertisement will have a high quality score, which means there will be customers and sales. Therefore, you need to understand that contextual advertising is a tool aimed at increasing sales and attracting new customers via the Internet.

The main feature of contextual advertising is information and the uniqueness of the sales offer. If these two factors are correctly aligned and skillfully presented to potential clients, then there will always be a large number of sales. That's why there are so many on the Internet who make little money, and few who make big money. And on the basis of this I place mine main task so that readers of this blog begin to skillfully use their online advertising, thereby increasing their profits.

What types of contextual advertising are there?

1) Banner advertising is a still or animated image. This type of advertising occurs quite often because it is noticeable and has a high conversion rate, which has a positive effect on the result of placing a banner on the site;

2)Video advertising is a type of advertising that uses video. Today, it is a very common method of promoting goods and services and is gaining even more popularity every day. Most often, this type of advertising can be found when watching regular video clips, when at the beginning of the video a 15-20 second video with advertising pops up. There are also various kinds of viral video clips, when some large company, using its product or service, creates a short video, and within a few weeks it becomes a hit on the Internet.

3) Text advertising is the most common type of advertising that is found absolutely everywhere. This type of advertising is a regular text ad, sometimes with a picture, and a mandatory link to the advertised resource. There are two types of text advertising: search and thematic. Search advertising is shown in search results on a website when there is a specific search query specified by the user. A search query can be carried out both on search sites and on regular sites that have a search bar, so the search can be carried out both throughout the Internet and on a specific site. An example of search advertising is shown below.

Thematic advertising is shown on the page of a specific website if the topic of the advertisement matches the user's needs. Such advertising is not shown in the search results of search sites, but on the most ordinary sites and is an addition to the content of the site pages. Thematic advertising is also called behavioral advertising because it corresponds to the interests and requests of users.

What platforms are there for contextual advertising?

In order to host a search or thematic platform, there are quite a few services, but all of them are mainly aimed at working through two Internet search giants - Yandex and Google. These two search engines have special services for contextual advertising, namely Direct and Adwords, respectively (I will describe them in detail in subsequent articles). Everything that appears in search results on these two sites is search advertising, and everything that is posted on partner sites is classified advertising. All advertising is configured through the interface and after moderation and account replenishment, your ads begin to be displayed.

I will not write why you need to use these two sites to advertise your products or services. Firstly, Nikolay has already written about this, and secondly, you should understand perfectly well that these are the two most leading search engines on the Runet, which means that the entire population of our country uses these sites when searching for something they need. Therefore, it is when working through these two sites that all the main traffic is concentrated.

How contextual advertising works

Contextual advertising is quite simple. There is always something that needs to be advertised (a product, service, website or something else). There will always be those who need what is advertised. And there is always an intermediary - in this case, these are online advertising platforms. The person who advertises, himself or through specially trained people, places advertisements on these sites. The final result in the form of applications or calls will depend on how well the advertising is set up. Therefore, I constantly tell everyone that if there is no knowledge in this area, then it is better to entrust your advertising to professionals, thereby saving not only time, but also money.

After the advertisement has passed verification, it is launched. And as soon as the user’s query in the search bar matches the key phrase of your ad, the potential client will see your ad (although it very often happens that ads are not shown in the right positions, but I will talk about this in other articles). And if your ad is of interest to a potential client, he will definitely go to your site. Then everything depends on the quality of the site, the sales offer and, of course, the price. A lot depends on the price of a product or service. Therefore, when the ads are set up well, the website is well made and the USP (unique selling proposition) is well developed, then I am more than sure that your business will always go up.

Benefits of contextual advertising

1) Attracting only the target audience - as a rule, ads are shown only to potential customers who are already interested in your product or service. Based on their requests, your ads are displayed, thereby bringing visitors to your site who will definitely buy a product from you or use your service. At the same time, only you decide for which queries your ads will be shown and for which ones not. And I’m not talking now about complex advertising setup schemes that are aimed not only at the absolutely target audience, but also at those who are not particularly looking for what you offer. This is a separate category of clients, the so-called “warm” and “cold”. For them, setting up advertising is of a completely different nature (I will definitely write about this in subsequent articles).

2) Geotargeting - when running ads, you can choose countries, regions and localities where your ads will be shown. And here it doesn’t matter that you are in a completely different region or even country. Thanks to this, boundaries are erased and you can easily scale your business.

3) Pay only for users - it doesn’t matter how many times your ads are shown. You only pay for specific ad clicks to your website. This is very beneficial for your business, as it only increases efficiency. I would also like to note that advertising platforms have a system of protection against invalid (unfair and erroneous) clicks, the so-called clicking of ads, thereby your budget is safe. And if the system notices that there was a click, the money will be returned to your account.

4) Full control of advertising - the entire advertising process is under your personal control. All detailed daily statistics are available to you. You are always aware of how much was spent for each transition to the site, how much each application cost you, how many users came to the site, what was the conversion of advertising and the site. And if you are suddenly not satisfied with something, then you can stop advertising and make adjustments to improve efficiency and re-launch advertising, thereby saving your advertising budget. It turns out that advertising completely depends on you and the tasks that you set when launching this advertising.

5) Small budget to start – running advertising does not require multi-thousand dollar infusions of funds. Sometimes 500 rubles a day is enough to receive daily applications that flow into clients. Of course, the budget depends on the goals and objectives that you want to achieve from advertising. But the big advantage of contextual advertising is its accessibility. This is especially important for beginning entrepreneurs. The only thing I want to note is that it very often happens that people, having no experience in contextual advertising and limited by budget, begin to create an advertising campaign themselves and after 2-3 weeks they have neither money nor clients. This, unfortunately, happens quite often. Therefore, approach setting up advertising very responsibly.

6) Quick results - you can create and launch an advertising campaign within 24 hours, provided that the advertising is not large in volume. All you need is to create advertisements competently and efficiently and replenish your personal account, and already on the first day after the start of displays, receive the first visitors to the site and applications. Therefore, this type of advertising has an immediate effect. If the advertising campaign is large in volume (usually online stores), then creation and launch can take up to 3-4 days. In this case, you will receive your first visitors within 4-5 days.

Conclusion

Contextual advertising has huge advantages over other advertising tools. Currently, without contextual advertising, you are losing a large flow of potential customers, which ultimately affects your profits. And it doesn’t matter whether your business is online or offline. Contextual advertising is ideal for any type and sector of business. Advertising is the engine of trade. And the performance of your business will depend on how you use it. But the final decision is always yours.

I wish everyone a large flow of clients and huge profits. To be continued.

Every entrepreneur who aspires to successfully conduct business is required to know the features of modern business promotion. As they say, the engine of progress is advertising, various forms which today are capable of turning any boring product into an object of desire for millions. One of these is contextual advertising, which became widespread with the advent of the Internet. Let's talk about it in more detail.

Contextual advertising is special kind promoting products or services on the World Wide Web. It represents advertising messages that seem to respond to the interests of the network user, expressed in the search queries he makes. The subject matter of such advertising messages coincides with the internal mood and needs of the buyer, which is where its strength lies - it does not impose a product, but rather helps to find the desired product.

This type of promotion is the most effective tool that helps organize a powerful flow of new clients. Each of us has more than once observed how a search engine offers to view contextual advertising after you enter a certain query. Marketers working with limited budgets increasingly prefer contextual advertising messages that show good results with active use.

Let's look at the difference between traditional types of advertising and contextual advertising. So, in the first case, advertising messages are placed on:

• television;
• radio;
• pages of the press.

In addition to advertising, it also contains entertaining or informative content, which users of all three types of media study in everyday life when accessing broadcast media, that is, when reading a newspaper, watching TV or listening to the radio in the car, for example. The purpose of advertising placed in traditional media is to directly distract from this content and interrupt the user’s activity. This causes terrible irritation to users, creates an aura of obsession and raises all the worst feelings, sometimes not benefiting the business, but, on the contrary, setting the enterprise back.

Advertising that stands out according to the direction and context extracted from search queries does not work as a switch of user attention, but, on the contrary, as a relevant semantic message, new idea, necessary or additional information, the request for which was generated by the user independently.

What types of advertising of this type exist?

Advertising in search engines

The message issued corresponds 100% to the user request. In order for you to see everything that the company wanted to show, contracts are concluded with advertising networks of search engines that are responsible for placing advertising messages. We are talking about the popular Yandex in Russia, the Internet giant Google, etc.

The cost of placing contextual advertising on the search query results page varies depending on the prestige of the specific area of ​​the page where the message is posted. Prestige is determined by the effectiveness of promotion, in other words, visibility. The less noticeable the location, the lower the cost, as well as the effectiveness of the impact.

Typically, contextual ads are placed in next parts the search results page that opens.

1. At the top, as if embedded in the search query. This demonstration method is called " special accommodation" The position is considered one of the most profitable, since at first the user will pay attention not to the standard search queries, but to advertising and will most likely follow the top links.
2. On the right side of the page, the so-called guaranteed demonstrations, are placed by search engines. It is believed that this position is less profitable, since the user will pay attention to it only after the top lines of the search engine, in addition, according to statistics, the level of user trust in them is lower. However, the area to the right of the search results is in demand; placements on it cost a lot and are readily used for promotion.
3. Below the area to the right of search queries, guaranteed demos are dynamic demos, their number can reach five units. Their demonstration is carried out alternately, the cost is not high compared to other types. Of course, they will not be able to show results such as special placement or guaranteed demonstrations, however, their result is the high efficiency of promoting the company’s advertised product.

Choosing dynamic display makes the most sense for companies that want to increase their traffic electronic resource. This is about news portals And similar organizations, which need to constantly generate traffic to operate.

Thematic advertising

A distinctive feature of this subtype is the divided cost of transitions. She literally shares. If search advertising was paid to advertising systems and the dividends were paid in full, then in the case of thematic advertising, the amount of the transition payment that “falls” into the account is divided in half: one part to the advertising system, the second to the platform that broadcasts the advertising message - the website.

According to the rules, advertising messages must correspond in topic to the resource on which they are posted, but in practice there can only be closeness to the context or even a lack of similarity. This phenomenon is officially called “behavioral targeting.” The setting for displaying messages that are not similar in subject matter can be configured by the customer, having discussed this point in advance with the performing system.

Thus, visiting a site with recipes for proper nutrition, you may unexpectedly stumble upon an advertisement for the sale of roller skates.

Disabling the ability to set targeting behavioral nature, you exclude the display of advertising messages that differ from the direction of the site; impressions will continue only for those that are similar. Returning to the example of a website for recipes about healthy nutrition, let’s assume that the advertising message on its base will be similar in theme to the sale of immersion blenders, multicookers, spice sets, etc.

Development of the sphere

Since the advent of this promotion technology, the contextual advertising market has continued to expand and develop, gaining well-deserved popularity. The dynamics of development are very noticeable. On average, the contextual advertising market grows by 50% per year compared to last year’s figures; if translated into monetary terms, this figure can be estimated at tens of billions of units of Russian currency.

Earlier large companies used the services of traditional promotion channels, giving preference to television. As you know, the cost of serious promotion on TV is exorbitant, despite the fact that the effect from it does not always pay off as expected. Now this method of promotion is considered outdated, and also not as effective as before. Today, the solvent and active part of the population is increasingly abandoning television, throwing “zombie boxes” into the trash. Their refuge is the Internet, which promptly provides all the necessary information that modern man used to absorbing in huge quantities.

• articles with key queries;
• reference links;
• banners;
• teasers, etc.

Clients willingly perceive the advertising flow on the network, turning intentions into targeted actions that are so desired by advertising customers. Contextual advertising is the most preferred way for customers to present their goods. According to statistics, by 2015 it accounted for about 40% of the entire online advertising market, while banner ads accounted for only 10%. In comparison, the remaining directions are losing ground and becoming less popular. This is especially true for teaser advertising, due to its use to promote sites with false or vulgar information.

Internet advertising systems

• Google
• Rambler;
• Yandex.

It must be said that the Rambler system is practically not used today; preference is given to the Google network (for the entire Internet space) and Yandex (mainly Runet). Their effectiveness and fame influenced the displacement of rivals who had no chance of success.

The service from the Internet giant of the planet is called Google AdWords. The platform is high-tech and provides a huge number of functions for use. The settings are so subtle, and the budget required to achieve efficiency is so small that the platform has gained a certain level of popularity literally in one blink.

Contextual advertisements are displayed using Google AdWords both on the search results page and on partner sites of the advertising network. Let's look at the list of benefits offered by Google AdWords to users.

1. It's easy to manage advertising promotion and track the progress of the campaign. The site's interface is intuitive and does not require specialized knowledge of working with the program. Despite the fact that beginners are advised to initially work with a similar platform on Yandex, it is quite possible to figure it out the first time.
2. Attracting users who are members of the target audience to the advertiser’s website occurs literally in the first minutes of the launch of demonstrations. Yes, the work of the site is so efficient. In addition, a certain flexibility in setting up a campaign, which takes no more than 40–60 minutes, also saves time.
3. Setting the budget available for launching work on a daily basis is set independently by the advertising customers. The boundaries are so flexible that even with a tiny budget you can achieve some success. In addition, no one forbids adjusting it during the campaign, increasing or decreasing it.
4. The more clickable the ad, the more profitable it is for the resource to place it in positions that are profitable for display, even if you did not pay extra for them and your competitors pay a higher price per click.
5. You can also select sites among those offered by the network that are most suitable for advertising in your opinion, either independently or with the help of network consultants.
6. The cost per click compared to a similar action on the main RuNet search engine is lower, which makes Google AdWords incredibly popular. Attracting traffic becomes more profitable, as does product promotion. However, be careful, this option does not apply to all business areas.
7. There are no “empty” payments. This means that standardized payments for the period of use of resources are not required; payment is made exclusively for completing the target action - a click. Otherwise, the system does not withdraw money from the advertiser.

Now let's talk about the Yandex advertising service, called Yandex.Direct. According to statistics, the impact of this search engine is comparable to the same number of people as the largest channels in the country. These are the benefits of using Direct.

1. Determining the budget framework, as in the case of the service from Google, is determined by the customer independently, therefore, unpromoted companies and popular products, and even small enterprises just starting to conduct commercial activities in the market.
2. The demo setup is flexible; for this purpose, the developers have created a functional program interface. Customize the region you want to display, the time of day, day of the week, in general, everything that your entrepreneurial soul desires. It may seem that some functions are pointless, however, delve deeper into the research and you will understand: each one works to your benefit.
3. Viewing promotion statistics is available at any time, night and day, with various statistical “angles” available regarding viewing the work of just one element of the company or the entire mechanism as a whole.
4. Payment for the service is per click, not for displaying the message to the network user. Transferring money for real clicks makes working with the site much more profitable than if you had to pay for each impression. Setting the price is also determined independently by the advertiser, but, as in the previous case, the area chosen by the resource for displaying the advertising message on the website or search query page depends on it.

Impressions on the advertising platform based on the Yandex search engine are selected according to the auction method: who will give the most. If the cost per click is higher, the location is more conveniently given to a generous advertiser. When the amount is the same for several companies, the evaluation and selection of the leader is determined according to the “clickability” of the link. This is beneficial not only for the campaign customer, but also for the service that receives payment for clicks.

Direct ads are displayed on the following platforms:

• search results pages;
• Yandex advertising and external network;
• map search results;
• issuing blogs;
• on the Market.

The minimum cost of transition at Yandex is thirty kopecks; an order is placed by depositing an amount of one thousand units of Russian currency. Divide the second amount by the first and get a pretty good result.

Some features and advantages of such a phenomenon as contextual advertising have today made it possible to conduct a business remotely, while the owner can be located in absolutely any populated area or not. locality planet, the main thing is to always have a device with Internet access at hand. The geographical remoteness of the market from the enterprise is no longer a myth, but a reality that allows development without having solid capital to launch and promote the company’s activities.

Let's discuss the obvious benefits of this tool for promoting and attracting traffic. Interestingly, many of them apply not only to business owners, but also to ordinary people surfing the Internet in order to find the right information or the right products and services.

1. Working with contextual advertising allows you to achieve attraction specific people, making up the bulk of the enterprise's target audience. The fact is that Internet users help the advertising company on their own by making search queries. He receives the most relevant, fresh and interesting, as well as relevant responses to the request in the form of advertising messages. It turns out that this is beneficial to both: the customer and the user, since one makes a profit, the second realizes his own intentions as efficiently as possible.
2. Short deadlines for obtaining real results. The return after launching contextual advertising is almost instantaneous, because for each Internet request, in each time unit, a search is performed by multiple different people. It turns out that already in the first seconds of displaying the message, the first potential client will visit the customer’s website, and literally in 40-50 minutes you will receive the first order and payment for it. Incredible, right?
3. No need for a large advertising budget. Using the above services, you can start an effective advertising campaign for a thousand units of Russian currency. In addition, contextual advertising can work both solo and in conjunction with other means of online promotion offered by search engine services:
   1. articles with key queries;
   2. banner ads;
   3. teaser links, etc.
4. Setting the parameters for a future campaign to promote a product or service is very flexible; ads are configured according to all the parameters necessary for the advertiser:
   1. geographical boundaries;
   2. the high cost of a single transition;
   3. time of ad display;
   4. age restrictions for users, etc.
5. The analytical tools of the sites are so powerful that they allow you to get the entire necessary information, which will further assist in further promotion and increase its effectiveness in general.
6. The absence of annoying contextual advertising is the main and most important advantage in terms of user reaction to messages. He was waiting for him and wanted to see him. For example, when making a search query about the best multicookers of our time, you will probably see at the top or side of the search page an offer to purchase an ultra-fashionable and functional kitchen item that can fry, steam, bake, pickle, ferment, stew, etc. The benefit of displaying messages of a contextual nature is that it helps to orientate in hitherto unknown areas of a person’s life.
7. In addition to the lack of intrusiveness, contextual advertising offers the user an easy perception due to the convenience of the demonstration format. So, half of the screen is not blocked by a window with an advertising message that jumps out from behind its borders, on the sides of the site with important information Constant teasers with pictures in .gif format do not blink. Contextual messages are not at all overloaded with unnecessary paraphernalia, for this we give them an additional plus.
8. Extremely informative. Contextual advertising messages are short but succinct, and this is a very strong advantage. They provide enough information to convey it to the user, while consisting of:
   1. a title with the main semantic content;
   2. a brief explanation;
   3. link to go;
   4. pictures (sometimes).

As you can see, it’s impossible not to appreciate the merits of contextual advertising. Reading about it, it seems as if this is a real panacea from the world of advertising, working for the instant and most effective promotion of goods. However, despite all the advantages and real uniqueness of contextual advertising, it also has some disadvantages. To get a complete picture of this promotion tool, they also need to be studied.

Disadvantages of contextual advertising

We would like to immediately reassure the wary entrepreneurs. The disadvantages of this type of promotion are so insignificant compared to the advantages that they will not seriously affect the impression of this most effective tool. However, in order to conduct successful activities, it is necessary to keep them in mind in order to promptly regulate the emerging consequences and eliminate advertising “gaps”.

1. Short working period. Simply put, the duration of the effect arising from contextual advertising does not last long, due to the constant need to replenish the budget, which is depleted during the campaign. In addition, constant reconfiguration of campaign parameters is required to improve its effectiveness. Compared with others, short term less in effective ways promotion on the Internet, for example, articles with key queries, you can notice that in the long term without changing the settings, contextual advertising of a product or service cannot exist.
2. The risk of not recouping the investments made with further profits. It turns out that when you set a certain budget for promotion using contextual advertising, you are likely to overspend it. An investment in contextual advertising will pay off only when the profit exceeds it several times, preferably 5-6. For example, you are selling certificates for cosmetologist services with a nominal value of 1000 units of Russian currency. Getting one real client costs you 200 rubles. The benefit is obvious, because you get 5 times more than you spent. You can continue to use this tool. Otherwise, you shouldn't do this. That is, if an advertising system charges a company 700-1000 rubles for attracting a client, sooner or later the company will go to the bottom.
3. For some business niches, promotion using contextual advertising is not profitable. Most often, this tool is used in Internet marketing and outside of that it may be useless. We are talking about the sale of goods offline, which are not usually sold on the World Wide Web. Of course, in 2017, some of them are starting to conquer the online space, such as food. Previously, cakes were ordered directly from pastry shops, now they are looking for private customers who can create masterpieces of stunning beauty and taste at home. However, areas such as oil and gas entrepreneurship, for example, will forever remain non-virtualized, therefore, they will not be able to make a profit with the help of contextual advertising.

Proper use of contextual advertising

As you can see, the promotion tool under discussion has an overwhelming number of advantages and some disadvantages. Let's discuss how to deal with the negative aspects and make the most of the positive ones.

Having little experience with advertising a product or service through the context of user-requested content, it is quite natural to feel some uncertainty. However, this does not mean that you should definitely turn to the services of professionals in this promotion industry and pay not only to advertising systems, but also to them. Think for yourself, such budget overruns are absolutely not profitable. By working with automated services for conducting advertising campaigns using context, you will benefit much more.

The services themselves help you avoid getting caught up in common user mistakes by telling you in pop-up guides how to maximize your benefits and efficiency using settings. They actually take over the full functionality of professional agencies, doing it free of charge.

How is the cost of an advertising campaign calculated using the advertising tool discussed?

When a businessman decides to resort to contextual promotion of a product or service, the first question that interests him concerns the method of generating the cost of a click. We have already said that the two most popular platforms for conducting advertising campaigns on the Internet, Google AdWords and Yandex.Direct, require the advertiser to independently determine the cost directly, taking into account the minimum installed by the system. So, for a service from your favorite Russian search engine, this minus is 1000 units of currency.

A click is a transition to the customer’s advertisement, clicking on a link leading to a site demonstrating the promoted product. It is for this transition that the advertiser pays; more precisely, the cost of clicking is subtracted each time from the total amount in the entrepreneur’s account on the server.

The price of this transition is formed based on the following components.

1. The advertiser's area of ​​business activity is, simply put, a market niche. Clicks that transfer users to the websites of financiers, businessmen, private medical organizations, construction companies, etc. are expensive. For them, the transition price starts from 50 rubles and ends at around 600 rubles. It costs much less to target an action in a campaign to promote ordinary things, for example, household and kitchen appliances, cosmetics, sports equipment, and, in general, consumer goods. It should be noted that demonstrations in any niche are of an auction nature. Those who paid more are shown in the best area of ​​the page, plus the frequency of impressions increases when we're talking about about the dynamic demo under guaranteed impressions on the right side of the page.
2. Method for setting parameters for displaying advertising messages. When you start using the advertising services described above, you immediately receive default display parameters from them, which are considered the most effective, but also expensive, since they imply that the message is located on expensive place page that increases the likelihood of completing the target action. This means that the cost per transition will also be as high as possible. Thus, in order not to get into trouble with automatic settings, carefully set the parameters that are relevant for the company manually. Since the service interface is intuitive, you can easily handle this task yourself.

This method can reduce click costs even in the most expensive market niche, while maintaining the level of quality of display and obtaining visible results.

By the way, you can find out the cost per click for different areas of activity of entrepreneurs using various online services. For example, the Mutagen web page knows Yandex.Direct prices very well.

In addition, the search engine itself will be happy to provide information on the estimated cost of promotion using a budget forecasting service, which allows you to obtain an estimate and calculation of the cost of a month of operation of the service.

Let's sum it up

Do you want to get clients quickly and cheaply, being confident in the final result? Contextual advertising is the ideal way to achieve what you want. Of course, its cheapness is relative for some areas of business activity, however, all costs will certainly pay off in the process of using the tool.

When starting to work with promotion services, remember that contextual advertising does not work equally effectively for all existing market niches. If you doubt your actions, we advise you to hire a professional - a director who is responsible for the correct setup of contextual advertising and its subsequent adjustment.

If your company is promoted exclusively on the World Wide Web, you can use contextual advertising alone or in combination with other popular means. Read the article carefully to learn all the features of this tool and decide whether to use it. We wish you good luck in your development and success in your business!

Video - How to attract only interested audiences using contextual advertising

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. If you are a business owner and you have a website (an online store, a service website, etc.), then you will most likely have to attract visitors to it either with the help of SEO or with the help of contextual advertising. And most often, using both of these channels.

We will talk a lot about SEO in detail within this section (in relation to a commercial site), but general issues Let's look at working with context right now.

Well, in future articles, perhaps we’ll touch on the details of creating and setting up campaigns in Yandex Direct and Google Adwords.

Contextual advertising opportunities and secrets of success

Contextual advertising in Google AdWords

Let's start with possible places placing your ads when using this contextual advertising system:

Google Adwords allows you to use several ad formats:

Yandex Direct

First of all, Direct is chosen for its huge reach of the target audience (this will be true for most commercial sites). If you need to get real large influx of targeted visitors, then often there is simply no alternative to this contextual advertising system (there may simply not be so many users interested in buying something in Adwords).

Direct's ability to fine-tune a campaign is somewhat poorer than that of its competitor from Google, and the cost of attracting a client is slightly higher, but you have to put up with it. Let's see where your ads placed through Yandex contextual advertising can be shown:

Runner

Honestly, I didn't even track it Lately, where their ads are shown (probably still in Rambler mixed with Direct and in the affiliate network). A market share of contextual advertising of 1.5 percent does not greatly encourage such research. You can try it yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Hello, dear readers of the online magazine “site”! Today we’ll talk about contextual advertising - what it is and how it works, how to set up contextual advertising yourself, create a semantic core and much more.

After all, in the modern world you cannot live without advertising. This was, is and will be the inexorable truth of human development. Something sell, offer, on something earn money, introduce yourself (product, service)- all this requires advertising.

Contextual advertising today is considered most popular , effective And cheap . Since users learn most of the information from the Internet, it is quite reasonable to advertise their products or services on the Internet.

From this article, readers will learn:

• What is contextual advertising and what are its types?
• How and why advertisements are created;
• What is a semantic core and how to create it yourself;
• What contextual advertising services exist and how to work with them;
• What are the features of contextual advertising on social networks;
• Where and how to order the creation of an advertising campaign from professionals, and also how much it will cost.

You will learn about this and much more from this article if you read it to the end. So, let's go!

1. What is contextual advertising and how it works - overview of the concept + principle of operation using an example 💻

Newspapers, radio, TV, and now also Internet are under the influence of advertising. There are advertisements literally everywhere on the Internet. Search engines, forums, sites, social media, chats– all this is an excellent basis for advertising.

Contextual advertising is different high efficiency , since it appears (shown) only to those people who are purposefully looking for specific information about a specific request.

Ads that are more effective are shown in search results, since visitors who are looking for information are easier to motivate to purchase.

contextual advertising– this is a tasty morsel for advertisers. Advertising is sold based on the number of clicks. That is, the advertiser “pays” only those users who visited his resource, and not the number of people to whom the advertisement was shown.

To better understand what contextual advertising is, it’s worth breaking it down into step by step example:

1. User (potential client) in search

Let's say the user wants to purchase hanging chair for living room. He enters the simple phrase “ hanging chair" and presses the search button.

2. Search result

After a few seconds, the search engine produces results that match the request. 70% links will lead to sites that contain information about hanging chairs and to online store resources.

30% - This is contextual advertising. It can be located either on the right side of the main search or above it.

Often, offers in contextual advertising are more interesting to users, so they follow the corresponding link. Moreover, this helps save time, since the link leads not just to the online store, but directly to the product page.

4. Successful purchase

Advertising on web pages works in a similar way. While the user is studying the topic of the site, contextual advertising brings to his attention advertisements that correspond to the information presented. And if he is interested in an advertising offer, he will go to the advertiser’s website.

To summarize, we can obtain the following definition of the concept:

Therefore, contextual ads always correspond to the user’s request or relate to his area of ​​interest. Most are created based on key queries.

2. Why is contextual advertising needed and in what cases is it used? 📌

Contextual advertising follows users with every mouse click. Therefore, it is quite reasonable to think that if these were simple blobs of text, they would not be present on the Internet in such quantities. Means, contextual advertising is needed.

contextual advertising is a well-thought-out marketing move that guarantees “hot” transitions with a high level of conversion (performing targeted actions). Only those who are unfamiliar with its capabilities can doubt its necessity.

This type of advertising is the most powerful way, which allows you to directly promote the interests of the client. Help in quickly finding the necessary product or service, unobtrusively providing relevant information and then making a profit, that’s what contextual advertising is for.

• Sale of goods;
• Advertising of services;
• Increased sales level;
• Presentation of new products on the market;
• Advertising on the Internet or an additional source of traffic to the site.

This ad is a great choice. unobtrusive interaction seller And buyer. It brings profit to sellers, and saves clients a lot of time, which they could have wasted aimlessly searching for a store, a product and a suitable price.

Main, what you need for a good advertising campaign- is to choose the right ones keywords and anchors that will attract buyers to the site. These manipulations will save money for the employer and attract really interested visitors.

To identify the main key queries on a certain topic, experts in their field recommend using services such as Wordstat, Yandex.Metrica And Google Analytics, Adwords.

For increase popularity of a particular brand contextual advertising is used very often. This represents the brand on several levels:

• Recognition. Due to frequent “flickering” in search results or on websites, the brand becomes recognizable among the masses. Social consciousness is structured in such a way that if there is a recognizable element, then the majority of individuals position it on the positive side.
• Confidence. This point is quite controversial and depends only on how competently the advertisement was made. If the advertising worked and the client was satisfied with the purchase, the likelihood that he will return increases significantly.
• Innovation. Promotion of new products or services to the market, constant promotions, discounts and advantageous offers have always attracted customers. And what if not contextual advertising of the site will help the user learn about a tempting offer.

There are two payment options for such a service:

• Pay per click. The advertiser pays only for the number of visitors who follow the link.
• Payment for impressions. The advertiser pays for the display time spent on a specific target audience.

Depending on the product or service being offered, you need to think carefully about what kind of advertising is best to pay for. But in any case, both the first and second will give long-awaited results.

3. Types of contextual advertising - TOP 4 main types 💎

Although it exists on the Internet large numbers varieties, among which the contextual one is considered advanced, even it has its own varieties.

Type 1. Search advertising

One of the most popular ads contextual advertising those that are shown to users along with search results are considered. This most effective tool to attract clients .

Important! Such ads are optimized using headline and text. During development, popular key queries are used.

Each webmaster can create his own contextual ad, since access to resources with which you can learn about popular “keywords” is open to everyone.

With the correct use of a keyword and a good sparkling table of contents, you can get high level conversions.

View 2. Thematic advertising

For example, if the site is dedicated to growing mushrooms at home, then frequently encountered advertisements will concern the sale of soil, fertilizers or mycelium.

1. The customer selects key queries to which his ad will respond.
2. Advertising parameters are configured; the cost of the entire advertising campaign depends on them.
3. Placement of advertisements on thematic pages and search engines.
4. The advertisement responds to the user's request.

Thematic advertising allows the advertiser to target his work exclusively for the target audience. That is, take into account the interests of people with the same needs, requests, hobbies and social status.

Type 3. Contextual media advertising

The media context is focused not only on attracting customers, but also on solving other problems:

1. Image. A bright banner strengthens the image of a brand or company.
2. Demand. These advertisements are able to attract more attention than plain text, therefore significantly increasing the demand for the product or service.
3. Association. Businessmen who occupy a specific niche in the market often worry about their visibility. Contextual media are capable of creating an association between goods and the manufacturer (seller).

The banner always has a call to action. The user is encouraged buy, look, call or just go to the site and learn more, and the product image facilitates this action.

View 4.

Choose different words and phrases based on the topic of your advertised resource.

Stage 2. Analysis and monitoring of competitors

Stage 3. Compliance with the rules for creating contextual advertising

Let's consider the main and general rules to create advertisements in contextual advertising services:

1. Do not place contact information (tel., e-mail, etc.) in the headlines or text of advertisements;
2. observe the permitted number of characters in the text and headings of advertisements;
3. do not make mistakes in ad blocks;
4. do not use third-party brands, trademarks, abbreviations;
5. comply with your country's advertising laws;
6. do not compare your products and services with competitors;
7. use standard symbols and punctuation.

Now we move on to the stage of composing the title and text of the advertisement.

Stage 4. Compiling and writing a title

Write a headline that is intriguing, eye-catching, and encourages the user to read. You should include the keyword/phrase in the title as needed.

Stage 5. Compiling ad text

• describe the benefits of the product (product) or service;
• write the text concisely and specifically;
• describe promotions, discounts, special offers with a limited period for your goods/services;
• use words - discount, inexpensive, sale, incredible, easy, simple, free, etc.;
• ask questions in the headlines and give answers to them in the texts;
• enter keywords and phrases into the ad text;

Stage 6. Selection of resource landing pages (landing pages)

It is very important that the potential client who clicked on the advertisement is not disappointed in the advertised offer. You need to set up contextual advertising so that it immediately lands on the page of the web resource you are interested in, and not on the page with contact or other offers.

Stage 7. Setting up targeting

It's important to target your ad correctly. You can configure the display of advertising in certain time(setting by hours and days of the week) or for users from the desired cities/regions (For example, set up advertising only for Muscovites from Moscow and the Moscow region).

• Consider the features of each contextual advertising platform;
• Write effective advertising texts
• Analyze the progress of advertising and constantly optimize the process;
• The pages that potential clients land on should be clear and convenient.

Sometimes it’s easier to turn to professionals (directors, agencies and companies) who will quickly and effectively place contextual advertising for your product or service.

7. Where to order contextual advertising and what is its cost - review of the TOP-3 companies (agencies) providing services 💰

Each agency that offers contextual advertising services has its own characteristics. Let's take a closer look at the prices for creating an advertising campaign and running contextual advertising (what is the cost of contextual advertising services) for each of these companies.

1) iConText

The company is distinguished by having exclusive competence on the platform Adobe Media Optimizer. Also works with Facebook, Direct and Google AdWords. The Adobe Media Optimizer platform is a special way to advertise.

If many systems have an auction “policy” for a key query. In this system, the main key queries can be placed in a separate “portfolio”, which will take part in the auction.

Due to the fact that there are more queries in the “portfolio”, some of them may be more relevant, others less so. The arithmetic mean is calculated, which increases the chances of winning the auction and increases the advertising campaign performance by 20% .

Minimum cost of contextual advertising, with which the agency begins to cooperate with customers, is 50,000 rubles . The price for contextual advertising services is quite justified, especially considering that for some requests the bid price on Yandex is several times higher.

There you can also get training in contextual advertising and provide similar services yourself in the future.

2) Blonde.ru

The contextual advertising agency has developed and launched 2 (two) of its own advertising platforms. The contextual advertising company has existed since 2007 and specializes in contextual advertising. Collaborate with systems Yandex And Google, on which advertisements are placed.

Expenses for contextual advertising This agency's solutions directly depend on the client's needs. The amount from which they begin cooperation is not indicated here. The client who contacted this agency pays exclusively per click, that is, for the number of transitions.

Cost per click is determined using the “ auction " That is, there is no fixed cost; it is determined as a result of bidding.

The auction is carried out automatically, the winner pays the cost per click of the previous user and the minimum step. If the cost of advertising per click suits the winner, the agency begins to cooperate with them.

3) Registration.ru

This company works with many advertising services. In addition to the three main ones, it cooperates with K*50, CoMagic, MyTarget, CallTouch. Every year they give presentations on online marketing promotion. They also offer SEO optimization services for web resources.

8. Features of setting up contextual advertising 📎

Automated resources, of course, simplify setting up targeted advertising, but everyone should understand the basics - from beginners to professionals .

You can find a lot of tips on the Internet that will help you set up profitable contextual advertising. Some of them are great for helping beginners, while others can only confuse the advertiser more.

8.1. Placement strategy

For example, in the Yandex search engine you can see 3 (three) variations of advertising placement:

• "Special". The advertisement is placed immediately above the main search results field.
• "Guaranteed." Advertising is located on the right side of the search results.
• "Dynamic". Advertisements are placed under “guaranteed”, occupying positions from the first to the eighth lines.

Depending on which position the advertiser chooses, the cost of the advertising campaign will vary. Naturally, every advertiser wants to get into “special placement” or “guaranteed impressions” positions, but not everyone can be lucky, because everything is decided at the auction of bids In addition, the quality of the advertising text influences the results.

8.2. Targeting

There are several types of targeting settings:

• Geographical. This position allows you to customize your ad so that it is shown to residents of a specific city.
• Hourly. The advertiser has the ability to set up an advertisement so that it appears at a certain period of time.
• Behavioral factors. This type of targeted advertising allows you to track user interests. By analyzing the browser history, the system receives data according to which it offers a specific product or service.

8.3. Advertising on thematic platforms

When setting up an ad, you can choose which sites you should post ads on and which ones you should avoid.

8.4. Number of ad clicks

However, it may also be that the influx of customers in the first week will exceed the estimated estimates.

There may be several reasons why this will not suit a businessman:

• Limited quantity of goods.
• Inability to cope with the influx of buyers.

If you do not control such a process, then the entire amount that was intended for 10 weeks can be spent much faster. And besides this, if you do not provide such a large number of clients with proper service, you can lose your good reputation.

Automatic budget allocation will help eliminate such misunderstandings and make advertising much more effective.

8.5. "Negative words"

If the ad contains words with a sign «-» , then users who are not the target audience will not be able to see it.

For example, the store offers new laptops and accessories for them. Therefore, users searching for “used laptops”, “used batteries” will be considered a non-target audience.

Important! Requests that do not correspond to the main focus should be written with a minus sign, then they will not be shown to users who are not interested in this.

8.6. Control

Changes are constantly taking place on the Internet, especially when it comes to contextual advertising systems. Every day there is a fierce struggle for high positions. Advertisers raise the stakes, improve their ads, change the pricing policy per click.

These processes should not be left to chance; it is worth delaying a little, as good positions according to advertisements may be lost.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a semantic core for contextual advertising for beginners

9. How to create a semantic core for contextual advertising - collecting synonyms in 5 simple steps 📊

The semantics of an advertisement is its most important component. It is at this level that the advertiser begins to fight for the client. After all, the number of impressions and the level of competition directly depend on the selected queries.

Semantic core is a set of key queries that best position a product or service and are most often used by users.

Creating a semantic core seems difficult to many, and almost an impossible task for beginners, but, nevertheless, there are ways that will help in this matter. There have long been step-by-step instructions for selecting a semantic core.

Step #1. Preparatory

At this stage it is worth preparing to create a semantic core. It is fundamentally wrong to assume that semantics is a matter of minutes and high-frequency queries that Wordstat issues will do.

Step 1. Drawing up a table and distributing words into columns

First What you need to do is create a table with key queries.

In the first column write down a product or service, that is, what the entrepreneur offers. It is worth recording all the word variations that users search for in search engines.

In the second column it is necessary to write down all the words that describe the action that can be performed with a product or service - “buy”, “purchase”, “order”, “register”, “send”, etc.

Third column intended to indicate geographical location. Its users also point differently.

For example, if we take the city of St. Petersburg, then Internet users can indicate it in the search bar as follows:

• "Saint Petersburg".
• "SPb".
• "Peter".

Users may deliberately abbreviate words for ease of use. Sometimes this is not global in nature, but in some cases this point is worth taking into account.

Fourth column is responsible for the characteristics of a product or service. Simply put, it answers the question, “what is it like?” All the options that users can use in search are worth considering.

The variability of keywords should be taken from your head. You need to think about what criteria and queries users use to search for information. If you run out of thoughts, you can move on to services that help in selecting key combinations of words.

Yandex Metrica and Wordstat, Google AdWords and Analytics, – these services should not be ignored, because here you can find not only relevant key queries for “semantics”, but also absolutely incredible search phrases that can be used profitably.

Step #2. List of keywords

When the table is ready, you can start creating the list " keywords».

How to choose keywords for contextual advertising?

Step 2. Select keywords for contextual advertising using the Promotools.ru service

Use conditional " multiplication" to create everything possible options key queries.

Doing this manually takes a long time, so it is common to use a key query generator. Eg , Promotools.ru, a good generator with a user-friendly interface.

The automatic generator is easy to use. The user only needs to enter the keys from the table into the appropriate cells, and the system itself will display all possible combinations.

Step #3. Remove unnecessary requests

After the system automatically generates key queries, there can be about a thousand of them. Most of them can safely be considered " garbage" and delete .

It is difficult for a beginner to figure out which request can be considered good, Which one then bad. Therefore, experts recommend using the Key Collector service, or any other service that helps remove all irrelevant queries.

You need to load a list of the resulting “keywords” into the program and start the process of collecting statistics from Wordstat. The result is a list that consists of all similar queries, that is, “negative words”.

Step 3. Clear all unnecessary requests

“Minus words” in the Key Collector service must be removed. To do this you need to go to " Data» — « Group Analysis" The program will automatically generate words in groups that make up the queries. Groups of words that don't answer consumer interests, it is necessary to mark and save in a separate document - these will be the very “minus words”.

Groups of marked words are removed from the program, and the remaining queries will be the semantic core.

Step #4. Grouping and segmentation of key queries

Step 4. Sort keywords into groups

To do this, the list of key queries will need to be divided into several segments. All “keywords” can be divided into groups to which they will be suitable.

For example, the first group could be keywords that contain the phrase “St. Petersburg”. The second group could be queries with the word “inexpensive”, etc.

Each group of “keywords” should be written down on a separate piece of paper. When all key queries are sorted into their groups, the process of creating a semantic core can be considered complete.

Step #5. Taking into account the features of Google AdWords!

As practice shows, Yandex has less stringent requirements for both resources and advertising. Here, “minus words” can be in one word form (and sometimes not at all). Google AdWords works a little differently.

Firstly, the system wants to see “minus words” in all possible word forms in the contextual ad.

To prevent errors that may occur due to human factors, you can use automatic services. (For example, service htraffic.ru )

Second What you need to know when working with Google – this is the absence of prepositions. For example, if the request sounds like “buy a laptop in St. Petersburg,” it should be changed to “buy a laptop in St. Petersburg.” Otherwise, users who make requests without pretext will simply not see the advertisement. And such users are the majority.

Composing a semantic core is not so difficult. It is much more difficult for contextual advertising services to please your advertisements.

10. What does the cost of contextual advertising depend on - 2 main factors 💸📋

Cost per click – This is the amount that the advertiser is obliged to pay for the user to switch to his resource.

This indicator is influenced by several factors.

Factor 1. Niche (topic) in which the advertisement will be placed

Cost per click in these categories often varies from 10 rubles to 25 dollars. Segments that are rated slightly lower are entertainment, hobby, inexpensive goods(products with a pricing policy from 100 to 1000 rubles).

Factor 2. Advertising setup

Often, services that offer contextual advertising services provide their clients with the opportunity to use ads with “ maximum efficiency " That is, advertising will appear on the highest paying places in search results.

Each ad will be broadcast in the location where the probability higher clique. As a result, the cost per click will be much higher. In some cases this may not be entirely justified. After all, if you set up your ad correctly, you can get a lot more clicks by spending the same amount of money.

To increase advertising effectiveness And reduce cost per click you need to know how to do it right set up an ad. Only then, even in the most expensive segment, can you count on the maximum number of transitions with reasonable financial investments.

Also, the cost of advertising may depend on the so-called auction. This can be found especially often in the Yandex service. Direct. The principle of this auction is quite simple. Each advertiser selects key queries and makes the minimum rate he is willing to pay in 1 click.

Then, among all the key queries submitted by advertisers, the one with the highest price is selected. This request receives the highest positions, and accordingly the advertising campaign will stand a lot more. That is, in fact, the advertiser sets his own price.

It's also not worth it ignore the level of competition when calculating pricing policy. There are special services on the Internet that show the number of competitors by specific request And average price for the transition.

One of these services is Mutagen.ru ( Mutagen.ru). Here you can even find out how much a guaranteed screening and entrance to special accommodation will cost.

You can only check for free 10 requests per day, but after registration you will need to deposit approximately 15 rubles into your account as a guarantee that the user is not a robot.

11. Contextual advertising on social networks - advantages and disadvantages 📄

Targeted advertising is not much different from contextual advertising , which can be seen in search engines or on web resources. The ad can be text or display. When clicked, it leads to the advertised page of the site with the product offered.

“Disadvantages” (−) of contextual advertising on social networks

1) Difficulty tracking

2) Features of creation

Since it is difficult to track effectiveness, creating and setting up targeted advertising requires a subtle approach.

3) Cost