MySpace MyAds After A Few Months

A couple months ago MySpace launched their advertising platform. Since then (and since my local PPC marketing guide), I have received a TON of email with questions about the platform - everything from getting better click through rates to what offers to pick. I thought I would do a new post about my experiences in the past couple months and also provide you with some techniques that will help you do better in general. First of all, much like I talked about in my local PPC marketing guide which focused on social networks, right now there is a massive dislocation in the advertiser's advantage... very much like the main search engine advertising dislocation from years ago. People are making a TON of money right now with MySpace's ad platform. The reason there is SO much money to be made is because it is so new and there is a ton of testing that needs to be done. Most people will not put in the work it takes to test the platform and play with all of its options... or else they have a small budget to test. And at this point, there is little documentation at this point to hold your hand through the process. This scarcity is what creates the huge dislocation... for now. But let me tell you - this dislocation will not last. Mark my words, in a short amount of time it will no longer be possible to make such an amazing return off of an advertising network. Okay, back to MySpace MyAds. MySpace has a huge audience. I mean HUGE! I know you are like, "Duh!" Right? But look at this:

When you think about the fact that MySpace has almost half of the impressions per day as Google AdWords and almost twice as many as Facebook... MySpace is pretty impressive! Plus, its audience is very unique.

Compared to the other advertising platforms, I personally love MySpace MyAds' ad creation flexibility. At one point, Google AdWords sort of convinced the advertising world that the only way to do display advertising was through deceptive text ads (i.e. Google AdSense) in order to trick the user into clicking on the ad as if it were part of the site's content. Well, I think people are wising up to this scheme and once again, creative banner design is working. (And if for some reason you want your ad to stay looking like text - there's still this option.) It's just that we have found good looking, well-thought-out banner designs do much better on MySpace.

On the other hand, the biggest beef I had with MyAds was their run time. In a couple instances, I would start running a campaign, the ads would run for about 30 minutes, and then they'd abruptly end only to never run again. What was going on? There were no messages explaining why they had stopped or what I could do to increase the impressions. After contacting the MyAds team, they basically told me this was due to my low CTR (click through ratio). I strongly advocated that they explain this to the user and I suspect they will in the future.

When running a campaign on MySpace MyAds - the big thing to always look at is the click through rate. CTR is king. (But you probably knew that.) So how do you get a better CTR? Targeting!! Here are some of the ways you can really target your ads.

Geographic Targeting:

• Are you advertising a local business? Then target ONLY your area.
• If you are running affiliate offers, then using Google Trends can help you isolate cities that have a history of being interested in the offer you are trying to promote. For instance, if you were promoting Acai Berry products then you might be interested in this. Then, target ONLY those cities.

When beginning a new campaign, start very small and work your way up. Remember CTR is your best friend. With a higher CTR, you will get lower priced bids and ultimately more impressions on the MyAds network. Demographic Targeting: On MySpace, you can use the following criteria for demographic targeting.

• Male/Female
• Age
• Education:

• High School
• Some College
• College Student
• College Grad
• Grad Student
• Post Grad

• Relationships:

• Single/Divorced
• Recent Breakup
• In a Relationship
• Recently Engaged
• Engaged
• Recently Married
• Married

• Parental Status:

• No Kids
• Expecting
• Just Gave Birth
• Proud Parent

Plus, you can target based on categories of interest. A good combination of all the above is where the secret sauce is right now.

Ad Copy Targeting

When designing your banner ads, you should always use pictures of the things you are selling or who you are selling to. For instance, if you are trying to sell Acai Berry weight loss products then a good ad for this would be a picture of a pregnant lady with an "after" photo of a thin lady. You would then target the ad to "Women" who "Just Gave Birth" who are also interested in "Working Out". This matches 1,346,660 people.

Do you think that will have decent click through ratio?

I'll say it again, the real secret sauce to killing it with the MySpace MyAds platform is all in its targeting power. Play around, don't get frustrated and remember to start small and grow your audience slowly.