Have you ever heard the phrase, fun is winning and winning is fun? Yeah, I have to admit winning is a lot more fun than losing, especially when it comes to gambling. There is one particular scratch-off ticket, which I am bound and determined to win on, but the problem is I keep losing! Why? Because the odds are stacked against me.
Today I want to talk about why online ads can be more of a gamble like a slot machine, maybe less like a scratch-off. The difference between scratch-offs and slot machines is scratch-offs have a definitive number of tickets and a definitive number of winners and that way they can actually print how many are going to win on the back of the book.
In some of those, it ends up being one in three, and other times it's one in eight. And of course, now I'm playing the one in eight tickets. But in a slot machine, your odds are way better. Now slot machines are the most popular thing in casinos. Why? Number one, they're easy. Number two, they're fun. And number three, they make noise when you win. We all like to get attention, right? That's part of the fun. But if you're going to put $100 into a slot machine or scratch-offs, the odds are better on the slot machines. If you put $100 in, you would get $90 out. With scratch-offs, you generally get around $50 for every $100 you put into it. Not great odds.
Blackjack has a much more predictable outcome because you control whether you get cards or not. Yes, there is luck involved, but there is also skill. And that too tends to be one of the most popular games after slots, because you do have some control. But when it comes to advertising with online ads, are you in control or not? That's always the question.
It's In The Mail
Now when it comes to traditional print mailers, you actually have a lot more control than you can imagine, but the results usually aren't that good. With mailers, coupons, and ads, you can target who's going to get them, but it's random. You can't pick and choose unless you have your own mailing list.
You can target mailing areas. Say you want to target a specific subdivision or city, you can do that. But you cannot predict who gets them and you can't predict who needs your product when they get the mailer or coupon.
Generally, they will create a 10-20% interest, meaning that people may need what you have and about a 1-2% response or sales. You can track what's happening with those through a phone number tracking service, by putting different phone numbers on different areas.
There are lots of different ways to do that. But generally speaking, this spray and pray methodology does have a little bit of a gamble to it. Online advertising is similar in certain ways, but very different in others because we cannot predict or even know who gets our online ads.
I want to explore the differences between Facebook and Google advertising or sponsored ads. I'm using Facebook as the main example, because you can do ads on Instagram, on WhatsApp, and on many different platforms. But the two 800 pound gorillas (or shall we say Kong versus Godzilla) in the room are Facebook and Google.
I think of Google more like a blackjack table and Facebook more like a slot machine. Let me explain.
The Slot Machine
Facebook is more like a slot machine because it is more random. You don't generally know who is going to see those ads and you have less control, but more targeting than Google. There is less reporting. As a matter of fact, Facebook just killed its own analytics program.
And when I say there's less control, what I mean is there's no verification of who gets them and there's no verification of the ads data. So you have to basically go by whatever Facebook tells you. And there is no direct tracking of who is getting your ads. You may want to target a specific audience, let's say dog owners, but Facebook is making the decision for you that this person is a dog owner and this other person is not. You have no idea whether they actually have a dog or not.
The Blackjack Table
The next online ad platform is Google. And I consider this to be more like a blackjack game because Google Analytics changes the game. It gives you data and it's built around the fact that they want you to be able to verify the data they're sending you from AdWords into Analytics.
Now, there is a big difference between Google Analytics and what you might see as web stats from your web hosting company, but there are ways to correlate that data. Meaning if you see a big rise in your analytics and you're not seeing a decent rise in your web stats, something's off. But generally speaking, I've looked at both and they tend to correlate.
What makes Google better is the fact that web stats can be cross-referenced between the two. You have more control, but it's less targeted than Facebook. You can pick and choose which locations you want this to promote to. And you can target keywords, which means that the user is searching specifically instead of making the decision that, “I think this person might be interested in what you have” as Facebook does.
The other thing you have is analytics. These give you a more accurate way to check between the ads clicked and how much traffic you've gotten to your website. That's one of the things I've been able to garner by working with some fairly big companies and being able to cross-reference the two, the ads and the analytics.
Counting Cards
Both of those can be a gamble because you don't generally have 100% control over what's going on. This is where content marketing comes in because you have the ability to deliver the content that you create through organic search.
You can also gamble with social media because again, they pick and choose who sees your stuff and when. And anything that takes people off of that social media platform without paying for advertising generally ends up being hidden. You also have the ability to deliver your content like mailers via email. And it can be more like Google because you can control what's sent when it's sent and who it's sent to. And you have the ability to actually see if it was opened and acted upon.
Closing Thoughts
With that being said, think about your online ads as more of a gamble where content marketing tends to be a little bit more of an investment. What do you want to do? Do you want to gamble on the fact that maybe your business might get a return on investment or would you rather create assets and know that at least you have something to build upon that you can use over and over?
Let me leave you with a couple of closing thoughts. Gambling is recreational. It's meant to be fun. Use only what you can afford to lose. Winning is a bonus. And have fun while doing it. But when it comes to business, business is business. Spend based on results. Winning is mandatory and it's fun to be successful.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about online ads. Have you had to overcome any of the presented concepts? What worked and what did not live up to expectations? Do you have any ideas or advice you could share?
To learn more about this and other topics on Internet Marketing, visit our podcast website at http://www.baconpodcast.com/podcasts/
