offline classified ads response rates discussion

You might do better using yard signs and craiglist ads for your area. As far as that goes, just do a geo adwords campaign for your local area. You can get some cheap TARGETED traffic.

I was hoping to get some comments on my math and response rate assumptions. I am already doing adwords but am wanting to expand and make extra profit.

This is an aspect of marketing to off line clients that I have addressed in a report I have written.

I am surprised that the same expensive mistakes are being made even now when it is even more important to maximise returns.

If I ever find anyone to help me launch it, I think you will be surprised at what you have not seen, even though it is right in front of your eyes.

As for your figures, it all depends on what your digital product is and how many people sort their mail into 'read' and 'throw away' before it even gets to the table. Since you have blanketed the area and got 5 sales, what do you do for an encore?

Your arithmetic is fine.

Hard to judge anything about your assumptions with only the information you have given.

For example, are the test households concentrated in one geographic area? An ad that might be effective in New England might not be as effective in the Midwest, flop completely in the South and pull like gangbusters in the UK. If you test in one location, you could roll out to others using misleading results.

Since you say you are already using Adwords, are you using ads similar to the most effective online ads? Are you running the same ad in all publications? Are they running at different times or on different days?

Since it sounds like you're already committed to trying it, use the results of your test as a baseline. Then run another smallish test to see if the results stand up. Once you are confident you have a winner, then it's time to cowboy up and go all in (10,000,000). Not before, and likely not on the basis of a single test.

Last thing, I promise...

Running classified ads in newspapers is not the same as running Adwords. With Adwords, you are showing your ad to people who are specifically searching for something related to your offer. Even on the content network, the ads are served based on the context of the surrounding content.

Not everyone reads the classifieds in the paper. That's your first hurdle. Out of your 399,000, how many are likely to read the classifieds? Unless you are using a Penny Saver type paper that is all ads, the number is likely to be much smaller. So you first need to make an assumption of how many people will actually see your ad at all. Then you can try to calculate response rates.

Good luck to you...

From my experience with classifieds, many years ago, the response rates are lower than what you estimated.

Additionally, 399,000 homes may be the 'circulation' but many of these magazines are trashed before read or remain untouched on supermarket stands (or where ever they are displayed).

Remember that this approach is painting with a broad brush, so when a reader finally opens to the classifieds, he may be looking for autos or apartments for rent instead of your niche - and that reader is lost to you.

As JohnMcCabe just mentioned, this is the benefit of a*words. A*words can laser point to your niche and buyers so you only get clicks from interested parties. That's why g**gle is doing so well.

All this being said, the very best way to determine response rates in classical media is to run small tests, sometimes you will hit a homerun, most of the time you will save money from being wasted in a major campaign.

Can you explain what is my mistake I am open to hear your thoughts?:confused:

If I ever get my report to market and you read it, you will know that the mistake you are making is so elementary that to say any more will give too much away.

To put it in perspective, a client I am working with at the moment is saving €74.55 per month out of an original spend of €110 (after paying my costs) and in the first week has made 15 additional sales. No smoke. No mirrors. No SEO. No listing customers who already exist. Just a plain, simple, bloody obvious way to create sales and save money.

When I was performing this service five years ago (I had to stop because of ill health) my best performance was to save one client €3,575 per month and increase sales by about 12% in a very tiny, specialised market. The person who took over from me is still earning the residual income that was in my contract of €29.95 per month and has absolutely nothing to do but collect the money.