What Does 2007 Hold For Small Business Advertisers?

With the dawn of the new year, I've seen quite a few articles and blog posts touting the continued growth of online advertising. There's no doubt that 2007 will be another year or growth and opportunity as more and more advertisers try to crowd their way into the market. We're also starting to hit the point where ALL of the big advertisers are coming to play online, and with budgets like theirs, its going to be hard for the little guy to compete. So what should small businesses be focusing on this year?

Well, I've got some thoughts for small businesses on both the buying advertising and selling advertising front. As with any other small business related advice, it really boils down to creativity that will get you more bang for your buck. While it's easy to focus on the fact that big business has more money to play with, you can't forget that they also have more red tape to wade through, which makes it hard for them to play the game creatively.

When it comes to buying advertising...

Think small. After all, you ARE a small business...why would you expect (or event want) to go head to head with the big guys in terms of buying up advertising space. If big businesses are pricing you out of your positive ROI range for your favorite keywords, stop getting angry and start getting creative. While big business is slowly catching on to the idea of the long tail, they're still pretty far being the curve in terms of implementation. Most industries still have TONS of low priced keywords from the long tail that delivery maximum conversions at minimum prices. Take the time to fine tune your campaigns by clearing out the more generic phrases that give you low ROI and by adding in the money terms that send less visitors, but more buyers.

Think about options for advertising on blogs as well. While big advertisers are starting to see the value of advertising on blogs, they simply don't have the time or interest in seeking out anyone but the major players. Ignore the top ten, twenty or even thirty blogs in your industry and focus on the ones that fall into the middle of the pack. They often have enough traffic to make advertising worth while, but little enough traffic (and interest from advertisers) to make ad prices affordable. Take the time to contact bloggers and ask about your options. Many bloggers will be happy to work with you to come up with some pretty creative ways to advertise on their site. No one ever said that banner ads were the only way to go. Pitch a few creative ideas and see what they have to say.

When it comes to selling advertising...

So you aren't the biggest traffic draw in your industry...big deal. That doesn't mean that your site and your visitors aren't worth something. You don't have to limit yourself to AdSense and affiliate revenue either. Know some small to mid-sized vendors that would be a great fit for your site? Take the time to contact them yourself to see if they'd be interested in advertising with you. Keep your rates affordable for your industry and you'd be surprised at what you can sometimes work out.

Even for larger sites, it's a good idea to keep small business with limited budgets in mind. That's exactly what we've done here at Search Engine Guide. While we enjoy having larger advertisers like adCenter, we also like to make sure that small businesses have the opportunity to buy space on the site. To that end, we put together a rotating ad package that includes five different ad options at a CPM that rivals any site you'll find. Advertisers pay just $150 a month and we limit the number of packages we sell to make sure everyone gets good exposure. Offering up a similar option on your own content site can get you in on the advertising game without making you rely too heavily on any one advertiser. Again, creativity is the name of the game.

So head into 2007 with confidence. Online advertising and marketing isn't always about how much money you have to spend. Quite often, it's about how well you spend what little money you have.