An Advertising On Other Websites

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

This section will explain how to best place your keywords throughout your site and the social media outlets that you may have used. First, we will explain the different types of SEO there are and how important it is to use both.

On Page – This refers to SEO that is used within your company’s website. This type of SEO uses keywords to help improve its ranking within search engines. Keywords are placed strategically in different spots, like your content or your web pages’ titles. SEO of this type is important because it gets people to come directly to your site.

Off Page – This refers to SEO that is strategically placed outside of the company’s website. This could include social media outlets, blog posts, written articles, etc. Backlinks are what make up this type of SEO, and this is highly considered the most important kind of SEO. SEO of this type if important as well because it gets people to find your site through multiple outlets.

Additional Kinds of SEM

SEO is very beneficial because of how cost effective it is. After all, it is free if you use the right tools and proper techniques. We will now turn over to additional kinds of SEM techniques that you can use in your Internet marketing strategy. These SEM techniques will require more advanced knowledge, more application of software, and more investment.

Advertising on Other Websites

If you look at some websites, they will have banners on the top, bottom, and/or sides of the pages. This is one way of investing some capital into advertising. It is one way of bringing in traffic to your own company’s website. To do this, find a link on the website that says "Advertise with Us" or "About Us." Ads on another website can vary widely in price. Some of the factors that will affect what you pay include:

The size of the ad you choose - the larger the ad, the more expensive it will be

The location on the page where you want your ad displayed - ads at the top of the page will cost more than ads at the bottom

The amount of traffic that the website receives - the more popular the website, so the more people that will see your ad, the more you will need to pay for that ad

The competition for ad space on that site - the more people that want to have an ad on that site, the more you will need to pay for that ad

The percentage of the time that you want your ad to appear - your ad won’t necessarily appear every time that the site is loaded by a visitor. Instead, you can pay less if your ad "rotates" in display with other ads

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

When you want to only pay for Internet advertising that gets a response - a "click" - you want Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. In this case, you are usually talking about text ads that appear to the right of search engine results or on websites that have monetized their sites by allowing advertisers to place ads on the site that the advertiser believes that site’s customers will be interested in. This is different from purchasing ad space directly from the website because instead you are allowing the advertiser to choose which site(s) your ad should be shown on. The most commonly discussed form of PPC advertising is Google AdWords, though similar programs exist on all the major search engines. In these types of advertising, you are competing with other advertisers for keyword-based ads based on what you are willing to pay to have your ad shown first.

Affiliate Marketing

The final major category of Internet marketing is affiliate marketing. In affiliate marketing, you get other people to drive traffic to your site in return for a percentage of any sale that is made as a result of that visit to your site. In other words, you allow others to do part of your marketing for you. However, affiliate marketing is not suited for every product. In order for it to work, you need to have:

A high enough profit margin that you can afford a commission for your affiliates

An attractive product or service that other people will be motivated to promote because (a) you pay a good commission and (b) the product is relatively easy to sell

You are able to support the demand in your product that affiliates could bring in

You are able to support the additional customers that affiliates could bring in

You are able to support the affiliates themselves with training, advertising, and other promotional materials

You are willing to pay for a service (or software) to help you track your affiliate sales

You have the time to monitor your affiliate’s marketing efforts so that you know they are representing your company as you would want them to in their promotions

You can register with large affiliate "marketplaces" that help manage your affiliate programs for a fee. Some of the most popular include:

ClickBank

Commission Junction (CJ.com)

PayDotCom

AffiliateMarketplace

Click2Sell

PayGear

Web Analytics

Web analytics is a term that refers to the way you measure your company’s advertising performance through gathered information. There is a vast array of analytic tools and software you can use that are readily available from the Internet. They measure information such as behavior patterns of visitors to a site, show you how your advertising is performing, and provide conversion rates of data. Do not worry if any of this sounds overly complicated. It is actually quite a simple process to begin and a very valuable tool to implement. The amount of information you can gather could fill entire libraries, especially if your company’s website has grown larger. Even better, you can also get a glimpse into your competition. Let’s begin by discussing how to obtain web analytics tools.

Beginning Web Analytics

The term "web analytics" may sound like something reserved for the occupation of someone in computer science. In actuality, it is a valuable tool for Internet marketers and is as simple as pasting a single, coded line into your website’s source code. Simple, right? Implementing the tools will not be a problem in the process. Later on, we will look at how to interpret data and what you can do to improve your marketing strategy. First, let’s take a look at where to begin in web analytics.

Where to Find Web Analytics Tools

As we mentioned before, there is a vast array of analytic tools and software you can use that are readily available from the Internet. Some are free, while others are paid services that require you pay a fee. Here are some of the more popular tools you can use:

Google Analytics

Yahoo! Web Analytics

Crazy Egg

Compete

Google Website Optimizer

Optimizely

Webtrends

Omniture

Kissinsights

4Q

Clicktale

Facebook Insights

Twitalyzer

Before You Start

Before you sign up for any accounts, come up with a strategy concerning what you want to accomplish with these tools. Here are a few good tips to consider for carrying out your web analytics strategy:

Think of the data you need – Think of the information you need to know to improve your website or social media profile’s performance. Are you looking for page views? Traffic? Amounts of clicks?

Focus on what matters – When you log in at first to an analytics tool profile, you will get information about your site. There will be a lot of information, some of it being trivial. Do not get sidetracked, and focus only on what you predetermined to be important.

Ongoing Analysis – This process of analyzing data does not stop the first time you use the tools. Check your numbers frequently and record them. You will need them for improvements and if there is ever a time to present your data to you company. Also think about contextualizing your data in the form of graphs for an easy grasp.

Taking Action – These points of data are not just for record keeping. Remember that you are gathering them for a reason. Take action when necessary and always suggest new ways to improve your numbers.

Now that you have come up with a strategy, go ahead and sign up for multiple accounts with different tools. The bulleted list in the previous section contains many tools to use when analyzing your website. Some others, however, are more specific to certain social media sites. Web analytics tools can be used by a company for both its website as well as its profiles in social media websites. Since your Internet marketing strategy employs social media sites, it is a good idea to use tools like Facebook Insights and Twitalyzer for Facebook and Twitter, respectively. They are both free to use. Finally, you should sign up for a website analytics account. Whether you use a free or paid service, remember to use multiple tools to gather more data. An additional option to consider is to hire someone to read and interpret the data for you.

Analytic Tool Data

When you have your code pasted into your website’s source code, the web analytic tool will run the code and analyze data about the traffic you have gathered. There will be data such as page views, website visits, average number of page views per visits, etc. The different types of data could go on and on. So what does it all mean?

The Basic Data Points

There are a few key points of data that may immediately catch your eye on first view. Let’s take a look at a few of these.

Page Visits – This indicates the amount of sessions that occurred on your site, whether they were new or returning customers.

Bounce Rate – This is the rate of people who visited by left immediately. If this number is high, it is not a good percentage.

Page Views/Visit – This number indicates the average amount of page views that were requested on each session.

Average Site Time Visit – This is the average time a visitor stayed on your website.

Percentage of New People – This number is valuable, and measures the percentage of first time visits from new people.

Traffic Sources

Another point of data that the analytic tool will show you is where users have come from before reaching your site. This is important because it helps you see what marketing efforts or links may be the most effective. Some of these sources might include:

Direct traffic

Referring URLs

Search engines

Other

Using Data to Save Money

You already have the basic data points as well as traffic data points. Let’s take a look at how to fix these things, improve your marketing, and save money.

First, analyze the highest bounce rates of particular pages. You can also look at the keywords that people used to look for these pages. This will help you understand if your keywords are fully optimized and if people are getting what they are looking for. If the bounce rate is high, consider changing your content, or even the form of your content.

Next, get a website optimizer such as Google’s Website Optimizer and create different versions of the same page. Try to vary these different versions as much as you can and then put them to the test. You may find that certain keywords are working better than others, or that certain content formats are unappealing and unnecessary.

Once you find an optimal page version with the lowest bounce rate, use it. You want to do this with all pages that have a high bounce rate and you will also want to check back repeatedly to see if this decreases the bounce rate.

Site Overlay

This is a report that shows even more particular points of data, specifically click density. The art of understanding this data lies not only in reading and analyzing trends, but in the analyzer actually using the site himself.

Click density refers to the areas and links that a user most often clicks. The heavier the density, the greater the amount of clicks. This is a good piece of data to look at because it shows user behaviors and patterns. You can use this data to improve where you want users to focus on. Manipulate content and even the design of the site to increase clicks in a particular area. Let’s say that you have a blog post that is readily available to read. Upon analyzing the data, you see there is a small click density. As the analyzer, you go to the page where the link to this blog post is located. Are you using the right keywords? Is the link clearly visible? Is there any crowding of text that might get in the way of people seeing the link? Put yourself in the seat of the user and think the way he thinks. If you are not catching his attention, then your blog post will have little influence because it is not being read.

Pitfalls to avoid in Internet Marketing

Marketing on the Internet is something that many businesses attempt; however, some of these businesses make mistakes that are avoidable. What online marketing mistakes must a business know?

Do Not Ignore Competition

If a business wishes to have a successful marketing campaign, it should be aware of competition. A business that fails to pay attention may be left behind. The business can check websites on a daily basis to ensure that a rival is not dominating in certain circles. It is also a smart idea to research SEO keywords; SEO allows a business website to show up in search engine results.

Do Not Ignore Communication Attempts

Customers need to contact a business if they have questions; if a company chooses to ignore emails that they receive, issues could develop. When a customer feels that a business is not paying attention to him, or her, family members and loved ones may be contacted. These loved ones may be discouraged from using the business; a business that wishes to stay successful needs to answer emails and phone calls. They do not have to be answered within a few hours; however, a reasonable amount of time is advantageous for online marketing gain.

Stay Aware Of Internet Trends

Internet culture can change on a frequent basis; a business that wishes to market online needs to be aware of trends and developments. A certain web design style may hold preference one year, only to be shunned the next. If the business does not change the look of a website, it may be left behind. The business should also visit top marketing blogs to learn of new consumer behaviors. This step requires dedication and commitment; depending on the number of tasks needed to remain modern, it may take a lot of time to look through everything available.

Make Use of Social Networks

There are many social outlets available for people on the Internet. Whether a person prefers forums or social networking sites, he or she has a number of options. If a business wants to market online, it should join at least one of these websites. Employees can interact with customers on an intimate basis; the setting is less formal. The business can also receive feedback from customers about products or sales.

Internet marketing is essential for businesses that want a favorable outcome for profits. Doing a little bit goes a long way towards customer satisfaction.

Classical Case of Internet Marketing – Molson Canada

Utilizing the power of social media has always intrigued the marketers. Integrating mashable has also opened up the opportunity for the companies to have a set of related information in a single location. Mashable take information from various sources like online maps, travel portals, photos etc. and display them in a single place related to a user profile. All these aspects showed potential to the Canadian brewer, Molson.

In 2007, the company decided to target the customers in the age group of 19-24 years. These young people were active on Facebook, were open about sharing their views and flexible to try out new things. They liked to party with friends and post pictures online. The updates done on their profile pages could be seen by all their friends who could then comment and like it. This led to envisage of an online campaign on Facebook called Cold Shots.

Different Facebook pages were created to represent the various Canadian universities. These pages were called ‘Dorm Rooms’. Here the participants belonging to the university could register themselves. Next they could upload their photos in full party mode to this dorm page. These photos could be ‘liked’ by students from the same university as well as others. The objective was to the find out the most happening party school in the country. A panel of judges would then see all the photos uploaded by students and choose one school as the party school of Canada and give an all expenses paid trip to the winning student, a weeklong getaway to Cancun, Mexico.

As the contest progressed, a lot of photos were uploaded to the respective university dorm pages. Many of these photos captured showed participants in objectionable and inebriated conditions. This led to a huge outcry from the university’s perspectives who thought the campaign to bring ill-repute to them. It showed students indulging in irresponsible binge drinking. Also it had a bad impact on the future career of the students as many of the prospective employers used to screen the candidates’ profiles over the social networks. Also many times the photos of several party people used to be pictured in the contest without seeking their explicit permission. This had privacy issues as well. Several blogs targeted the campaign and liked it to the possibility of it being linked to accidents, violent crimes and sexual offenses that may take place in future. The final nail in the coffin came in form of boycott of the campaign from the deans of several of the represented universities. Plagued by displeasure of the authorities and continuous protests, Molson had to withdraw the campaign much in advance and issue a public apology.

This case illustrates a classical mismatch between the online strategies wherein the company misinterprets the online medium to start a campaign that may not be accepted by all the members of the audience in a way it intended. Molson thought of the campaign to underline freedom, fun and choices aspect of the brand. The company also had the mission to promote responsible drinking. The online marketing plan had backfired and instead of responsible drinking, the focus had shifted on the promotion of binge drinking and irresponsible behavior.

The failure of the campaign was a result of several factors. The company had failed to carry out a detailed study of the potential of the social media. This included who all had access to the information, what can the channel be used for and aspects of privacy protection. The company also did miss out in carrying out a stakeholder analysis. They did not talk to the university representatives to get their opinion. The company did not take efforts to carry forward its motto of promoting responsible drinking. It did not analyze the contribution of collaborators in the entire online marketing plan. This included the friends of friends, distant relatives with internet access, company officials which may want to profile the candidate etc.

Molson failed to understand the power of social media. The information and user contributed content cannot be monitored at all times. It has potential to grow very big very fast. Also due to the power of connections in a social network, the information can spread exponentially. It is also not possible to come up with a plan that pleases all segments of the target market. The social media and online marketing are very dynamic elements where the impact is fast and strong. External elements like bloggers, online critics, tech enthusiasts, ethical gurus, organized bodies etc. all can have a say in the campaign. The company should do a thorough assessment of the stakeholders, risks involved, segment and target the audience and come up with a plan to have the maximum impact.

Social Media Marketing Awareness Cycle

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Fig. The Social Media Awareness Cycle

The impact of the social media on the targets can be studied in term of the awareness cycle. It lists the progression of the users as they evolve along the exposure cycle. The prospect pool consists of all readers who are exposed to the social media campaign. The exposure medium over the online channel can include blogs, social networks like Facebook, micro blogs like twitter, online ads in websites, and interlaced ads in streaming video sites like YouTube etc.

The user who has read and experienced the ad campaign belongs to the category of readers. Some of these readers will be interested in the message and graduate to become contributors. Contributors comment of the ad page, tag friends to it, hyperlink other related content in the ad page, ask questions to the poster etc. Collaborators have a higher engagement with the brand compared to the contributor. They interact with the brand on a regular basis and help the online marketer understand customer sentiment. They may be critics to particular aspect of the ad and give constructive feedback. The marketer can use this information to modify the information to make the ad more effective and meaningful to the audience. Leaders take brand contribution to the next level. They may start to blog on behalf of the brand, link it to their own web pages, answer questions on behalf of the brand etc. They may do it on a voluntary basis based upon their satisfaction with the brand or the thrill to support something that has semblance to their own lifestyles, attitudes or preferences. Leaders are brand advocates that proliferate the brand message among their own friends and community members. The networks of such brand leaders are very important in case of some online campaigns that have a potential to become viral.

6Ps and 5Cs of Social Media

The social media marketing mix can be studied in terms of the 6Ps that are addition to the traditional 4Ps of marketing. The people aspect is very important for experiencing and proliferating the online message. People add a personal touch to the information by sharing their own aspirations, ideas and experiences on the product page. The information published represents the value in the online marketing space. The information is present in the social media space on a 24/7 basis. The promotion aspect underlines the various social media tools that are used to promote the information to a larger network of audiences. The proximity aspect deals with the location specific information that can be attached to the social media message. The data shared on the social networks can be modified to better appeal to the local users by modifying it based on the local user’s customs, language and culture. These location specific details can be read by the online system based on the user’s IP address.

The social media marketing strategy can be looked in terms of the 6Cs. The content is very important in the social media message and it should be produced taking in consideration the viewer cultures in mind. It is the element that attracts traffic to the marketers’ online page. The information should be able to connect the viewer with the brand. The consistency of the brand image, brand message, user experience and visual elements should be consistent with the overall brand. The trust relationships and belief that viewers establish with the brand after experiencing its online marketing campaign represents the contract aspect. The conversational aspects of the social media campaign underline its collaborative nature. The information should be concise with the video blogs being in the range of 3-4 minutes and the online blog posts ideally about 500 words. Facebook brand pages should have a neat outline with clear conscious messages not spanning more than 5-6 sentences in each paragraph and should be written in a lucid language.

Looking at Online Marketing at GM

General Motors is one of the few automobile giants which have intelligently used social media as part of its marketing strategy. Since then GM sales have gained considerably. This is not the same as other manufacturers of automobiles Ford and Toyota who are reporting drop in sales.

GM Blogging

General Motors entered into the blogging arena much earlier than the other automobile giants through its blog, Fastlane, which was launched in the January of 2005. The goals of Fastlane were:

To reach out to customers in a faster way and hear from the customers

To attract significant web traffic

To help in closing the gap between the customers’ outdated perception of GM’s quality and the improving quality of GM’s new cars and trucks

To help GM in overcoming its lumbering-dinosaur image

To attract other blogs and websites related to GM’s industry to link to FastLane blog

Fastlane is written by the Vice Chairman of GM, Bob Lutz. GM has scored a first here with the GM of a significant company to feature posts from a senior executive. GM was not called to be trendy, but that perception is changing mainly because of the communication channels GM have with its community.

GM Community Site

Recently General Motors launched its second major social media initiative called GMNext. A website which is strong on user interaction and graphics, GMnext uses dialog elements and attracts people interested in elements of designing, the environment and aspects of advanced technology, not limited cars in general. This channel will take the persons visiting it to the framework and behind the curtains scenes at GM to showcase the employees who work on cutting edge technologies. The GMNext blog allows users to collaborate and engage on the site by uploading videos, photos, etc. The blog is built on the Word Press Open Source blogging platform.

General Motors considers GMnext a dialogue-based campaign to engage people through interactive experiences and social media. Through usage of technologies relevant to customer needs, GMnext tends to demonstrate its focus on the solutions to challenges that will change the future of transportation.

Benefits of Social Media Marketing Strategy

GM derives the below benefits from its social media marketing strategy:

Receive better consumer intelligence data from the comments on General Motors’ blogs than from any traditional market research channels, such as focus groups and surveys

Cost savings of close to $180,000 per year. Forrester utilized the insights from the focus group to compare it with GM’s Fastlane blog results; it found that GM obtained the same results from both the strategies. A focus group costs close to $15,000 a month ($180,000 a year). Thus GM has obtained significant results through its blogs, thus potentially saving a huge amount on focus groups

Create interest in clients and the community, thus instilling a sense of cooperation. GM is engaging its customers with one car at a time.

Transparency: GM is now much more transparent about its design process and is making its hopes and challenges open. It is also engaging customers and suppliers alike by pulling them into the process and making them a part of it

Easy reach of younger buyers. Young buyers often browse the internet for reviews and online forums before choosing a car. GM’s strategy has helped GM to connect with the younger buyers easily.

Increase of 2.6% in sales compared to the last year’s January figures.

It points to the success of GM’s social media strategy because they are able to create an entire user experience, both online and offline. They are not strongly dependent on their online presence, but their online presence is getting stronger by the day. They are going out of their way to ensure that GM’s cars match the online experience they describe. Every day many online users are becoming part of the GM online community.

Internet-Specific Factors

Some of the larger manufacturers, especially GM, FIAT, Volkswagen and Renault, have established an aggressive presence on the Internet. Here are some of the reasons for this decision:

The number of Internet users has been increasing multifold. This population is younger and better educated than the overall population, and matches the target market for the "popular" cars.

The integrated plants allow the producers more flexibility in their relationship with the main suppliers and provide for an information sharing process within the supply chain;

With the exception of Volkswagen, the big manufacturers are concentrating their Internet investments on selling popular cars, which do not offer many options to the customers. This makes it easy, not only to design the process of Internet sales, but to guarantee higher availability of the chosen models and simplify the process of build-to-order. Usually the models sold through the Internet allow the customer few choices, such as no more than 2 distinct motors, 4 or 5 different colors and 2 or 3 standard bundles of optional items;

The manufacturers and dealers are using sales through the Internet as a way to reduce taxes. In the model adopted, the customer buys the car directly from the producer and the dealers receive a commission. This allows dealers not only to reduce their costs of holding inventories but also make them exempt from a sales tax.

Given the economies in taxes and cost of inventories, the price of the cars sold through the Internet can be from 6 to 8% lower than through the traditional channels.

Auto Manufacturer’s on the Net

The Internet provides manufacturers with an opportunity to communicate directly with the consumer. To some degree, it bypasses the dealer network, allowing the manufacturer to send a message directly to the public. To illustrate some of the Internet uses that major manufacturer’s devised, let’s examine the Chevrolet site (www.chevrolet.com) or Toyota’s site (www.toyota.com).

On the Chevrolet site, one finds extensive information on the different models that the company offers. One can examine the specifications of each model; if you prefer to view a paper-based description, you may even download and print a brochure. After looking through the literature on various models, you can configure a vehicle with the specifications that you want and view the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for that vehicle (you can even see the suggested cost for adding or subtracting a particular accessory). While you cannot buy a vehicle online, the website does direct you to a dealer in your area.

The website provides the customer with access to GM BuyPower, which the General Motors website touts as a powerful tool to help the user locate a vehicle: "Connect with GM BuyPower to collect information on your vehicles of choice. Once you’ve found the car or truck you want, you can locate a certified GM BuyPower dealer to schedule a test drive, and even get the dealer’s best purchase price—all online." This tool allows the shopper to access a particular dealer’s inventory. The shopper can see a picture of a vehicle and even view a replica of the sticker that appears on an individual vehicle’s window.

Dealers on the Net

While the individual dealer’s have websites offered through GM BuyPower, many local dealers maintain their own websites. For example, the local Chevrolet dealer in US, Jim Price, has its own website separate from the GM BuyPower website.

At this site, the consumer can browse through Jim Price’s inventory and see pictures of the different cars on the lot. Interestingly, while the website provides information on availability, it does not offer online pricing information—at least for new cars. However, if the buyer wants a price, he can fill out a brief questionnaire detailing the vehicle he would like to purchase as well as some personal information; the dealer will then contact the individual with a price quote. The website also offers a number of customer friendly tools, such as a monthly payment calculator. As the dealer does more than just sell cars, it uses the website to allow car owners to make appointments to service their vehicles and order spare parts.

Auto Referral Services

While the Internet is another channel for manufacturers and dealers to interact with customers, it has allowed the creation of a new category of intermediary: referral services, such as Autobytel (www.autobytel.com). These services assist car-buyers in researching different brands and models. Moreover, these services allow the user to place an order for a particular car and receive a quote. The referral service does not actually fulfill the order, though. Instead, it will pass your order through to a dealer in your vicinity. With the quote in hand that you received from the dealer, you can walk in and pick up your car without negotiating (source www.carbuyingtips.com).

The online referral services add value by eliminating the dealer’s asymmetric information advantage. In a certain sense, they are adding another middleman between the customer and the manufacturer, which on one level runs counter to everything that the Internet supposedly represents. However, they provide significant value over the old dealer driven distribution channel, in that they provide value-added information to the customer. These sites allow their customers to know the lowest price that the dealer is willing to offer. In return for providing referrals to the different car dealers, the referral services receive a fee. The following excerpt from Autobytel’s 10-K provides additional information on the firm’s business model:

"Consumers are empowered to buy new automobiles through our dealer reference network and our locate-to-order service, AutobytelDIRECT SM . When consumers show a willingness to buy a car, they use the system to connect to the network of over 4,800 participating dealers in North America, of which over 3,500 are Autobytel.com® dealers and over 1,300 are CarSmart.com SM dealers, with each dealer representing a particular vehicle make. Approximately 400 dealers subscribe to both the CarSmart.com and Autobytel.com systems. Dealers participate in our network by entering into non-exclusive contracts with us. We expect our dealers to promptly provide a haggle-free, competitive offer. Fees paid by our participating dealers constitute the majority of our revenues." (2000 10-K)

Information Services

While a number of the auto referral services also provide information on different car models, there are a number of independent information providers. For example, Consumer Guide offers consumers information on different makes and models of cars. For these services, like the auto-manufacturers and dealers, the Internet is simply another channel for reaching customers. They, too, play an important role in informing the customer, though as a general rule, they do not provide the same pricing information.

General Motors Spending on Facebook for Marketing

Although Facebook has more than 900 million active users, it is very difficult to be sure of how many people are moving closer to buying a car because of Facebook Ads. Hence General Motors decided to pull its ads off from Facebook in 2012. GM’s spending on Facebook show some trends as below

GM spent $300 million on digital ads in 2011, making its Facebook spend just 3 percent of its overall budget.

GM's overall advertising budget is $1.83 billion, which means that digital itself is only 16 percent of the company's total budget. Considering the fact that people use the Internet massively when buying cars, it is shocking that GM only dedicates this small amount to the medium.

GM is still going to spend $30 million on content development for Facebook. That is certainly not good financial news for Facebook, which gets no money from the stuff that gets put on brand pages. But it is good for the agencies that support GM. Facebook is a brand content channel and it's great that it can continue developing things specifically for it.

Although Facebook has more than 900 million active users, it is very difficult to be sure of how many people are moving closer to buying a car because of Facebook Ads.

About Volkswagen

Volkswagen is a global automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. It manufactures passenger cars, vans and buses. It was established by the German trade union in 1937. Today Volkswagen is the largest car manufacturer in Germany and the second largest in the world. The German word Volkswagen means "Car of the People" and its slogan "Das Auto" means "The car". The company had revenue of €94.7 billion in 2011, with an output of 5,271,776 cars.

Three of the iconic Volkswagen cars that figure in the top 10 best selling cars of all time, are still in production. The latest generations of Passat, Beetle and Golf are used throughout the world. The design, dynamics and engineering of these automobiles have changed along the times. Other marquee cars of the brand include Jetta and Polo. Volkswagen greatly sponsors motorsports events in different parts of the world including France, Germany, Brazil, China and Dakar.

The vehicles in Volkswagen stable offer a choice of technology. The clean diesel models run on low sulphur diesel. This model is extremely popular in the European market. It contributes to the reduction in greenhouse gases during operation. There are flexible fuel models launched in Brazil that run on a mix of gasoline and ethanol. The research to hydrogen cell powered Volkswagen vehicle is on. The company has launched all electric powered models like E-Up. The company has partnered with Sanyo of Japan to produce hybrid fuel vehicles. These vehicles would run on both gasoline and diesel or on gasoline and electricity.

The company focuses on preservation of environment in all its manufacturing efforts. The cars are tested vigorously to be compliant to stringent European emission regulations. The company continues to research on alternative fuels to power its cars. It avoids the use of hazardous materials in the manufacturing process, cuts down greenhouse emissions from its factories and tries to develop fuel efficient models. It was one of the first organizations in the world to apply the ISO 14000 standard during the drafting of its environment standards.

Volkswagen and Online Advertising

Volkswagen has been successful in online advertising. Holding a share of only 2.1% of the total videos created by online brands in 2012, the company has a share of 25.7% of all views and shares on the online media. The Volkswagen ad "The Force", shared at the time of superball, is the most shared online ad of all time. The ad contributed to 127% increase in online traffic to the company website and led to an increase in sales to 20,902 units. The following table shows the ad metrics of major automobile brands.

Table: Videos by major automobile brands (Source: http://econsultancy.com)

A pioneering approach to online marketing by Volkswagen came up in 2001, where it offered two colors of the Beetle model only to orders booked online. Only 2000 cars were made exclusively. The ad created for the same purpose helped people associate the unique colored cars to the online campaign.

The online marketing campaigns carried out by Volkswagen have helped it to carry out two specific purposes. It helps to read online marketing trends as well as helps to formulate tactics. According to Borrell Associates, by the end of 2012, about 40% of all advertisement expenditure by auto companies will be done in the online digital media space. Volkswagen can tap into this pie in a big way as it has already treaded the waters.

The "Das Auto" element of Volkswagen brand is consistent with its online campaigns also, be it the Facebook page of the Twitter feed account. The company regularly posts information in these media and has dedicated staff monitoring the discussion and posting updates and responses to queries.

The brand elements are consistent for Volkswagen across the advertising elements in print, television and online media. The viewers are exposed to the unique brand identity of each Volkswagen product which is consistent across media channels. Some of the campaigns are to familiarize the customers with the new models, some helps to push the customers further down the prospect-purchase funnel.

Some of the online ads of Volkswagen incorporate interactivity in them to add value. This includes dedicated websites for car models like Polo. Users can customize cars, change colors, have a virtual tour of the cockpit and take it on a virtual drive. The system can then seamlessly take user information to pass it on to the sales team to arrange a real world demo.

The ZOON campaign was one of the creative online media campaigns carried out by Volkswagen. It was an online immersive campaign created by the firm V-On on behalf of Volkswagen. It aimed to develop and foster a strong emotional connect with the prospective customers of the brand.

The campaign targeted youth in the age of 14-20, the group that will become the target customer in some years. The focus was on creating an element of freedom, fun and independence that could be got from driving a Volkswagen. The emotional connect was important to be established. The company took 2 years to develop the Zoon portal. It had communication elements to help users connect with each other. It had edited magazine content about cars, travel and other elements that youth like. The travel section contained details about the holiday spots in Europe, the pubs, beaches and other places to travel and have fun. It contained a virtual driving license program. It helped youth to prepare for the theoretical driving exam popular in Europe. The music section contained famous tracks, a DJ mixing section and live interviews with popular bands.

The campaign was a highly successful one and had unprecedented visitor to the website. 300,000 users regularly logged on to the portal. The company was able to carry out physical setups in VW Youth World and several programs in Berlin to further carry out the brand concept and interact with the target group. The whole campaign helped the brand to create and sustain a profitable relationship with its future patrons and product advocates.