Tag Archives: superbowl ads

The Math Behind Super Bowl Commercials and How You Can Get Better Results for Just a Pittance

This year it is estimated that companies will pay upwards of 5 million dollars for a 30 second commercial aired during the super bowl. This is up from 4.5 million spent last year for the same 30-second video, according to SBnation.com.

Is a Super Bowl Commercial Worth It?

Is it worth the cost? Every year companies bank on the Super Bowl viewership rising, but of course they won’t know until after the game whether or not the risk was worth it. According to Forbes, Super Bowl 48 (2014) had a record average audience of 112.2 million viewers and generated 331.8 million in advertising spending. This broke down to about $3 per viewer.

How Can Small Businesses Compete?

So how can smaller companies compete? I have helped small businesses create a steady steam of clients through creating engaging videos (commercials) and ranking them on the first page of Google and in the top spot on YouTube for key phrases that people use when searching for the services their business offers.

By having a first page listing, the business will not just be found once during a 3-hour game to a passive audience, but will be found day in and day out by people that are actively looking for their products and services! 

Because although the Superbowl numbers seem like a fairly inexpensive customer-acquisition cost, the real question is: did that viewer become a customer, or was the commercial’s major benefit simply brand recognition?

Why First Page Matters

According to gravitateonline, a sample of over 8 million clicks showed that over 94% of users clicked on the first page result. Less than 6% clicked over to the second page and then selected a result that was displayed there.

There have been many studies that have found that the first listing on Google gets the majority of clicks and moz.com did a summary of some of these studies. While this is still the case, over the years other positions on page one have started to get more clicks, perhaps as writers have become better at creating engaging headlines and summaries. According to neilpatel.com, click through rates (CTR) were improved by as much as 400% just by changing the headline.

The Benefits of Video

When listing results, Google almost always includes the YouTube thumbnail in the listing, drawing the eye to the listing naturally. Video listings get clicked on average twice as often than other listing on the page. Having a listing on the first page of Google increases a business’ chance of being found and by having a video for your business listed on page one of Google, it will out-perform most other listings for that search term.

page one videos

According to Virtuets, some of the benefits of video include:

  • Video ads increase purchase intent by 97% and brand association by 139%.
  • Online video now accounts for 50% of all mobile traffic.
  • There are more than 1 billion unique users visiting YouTube each month, spending more than 4 billion hours watching videos.

Getting The Biggest Bang for Your Buck

To increase performance, the next step is to get that same video ranked on page one of Google for more than one search phrase. If you are a roofer in Hagerstown, MD, for instance, you would want your video to show up on page one for search terms like, “Roofer Hagerstown MD,” “Best Roofer Hagerstown, MD,” “Emergency Roofer Hagerstown,” “Fix Roof Hagerstown, MD,” “Leaking Roof Hagerstown,” etc. so that you are able to reach more potential customers without increasing your cost.

Think about what a person would type (or speak) into a search engine when looking for the service or products that your company provides. With more and more people searching on their smart phones, voice searches are becoming more popular. People generally speak a search query with more words than they type the same query. You can capture these leads, too, with a well-placed video.

The video can also be placed on the company’s website. According to Virtuets, blog posts that incorporate video attract three times as many inbound links as posts without videos. This means more potential clients finding your website. According to the same source, the average person spends 88% more time on a site with video, which means they are more likely to learn all about your company and find all of the products or services that you offer.

Do You Know Your Numbers?

Do you know how many people are currently finding you online? If you have a website, is it being found? If it is being found, are people buying what your site is offering? In the Superbowl example above, it was estimated that each company with a 30 second commercial was spending about $3 per person that viewed it. Without knowing your numbers, you don’t know which advertising dollars are the best spent.

If the roofer in Hagerstown knows that:

  • on average 200 people are searching for a roofer in his area each month
  • a well placed video sends, on average, half of that traffic to his site
  • out of those 100, 4 will hire him at a profit of $2000 each,

then he can determine if securing a first page ranking is worth the cost. But he needs to know his numbers. If you are unclear on how to determine your numbers, contact us.

Unlike the companies buying Superbowl commercial spots, he doesn’t have to hope that the turnout will be good or that the people he is advertising to want what is being put in front of them. If someone is searching for a roofer, they want a new roof or a roof repair or perhaps gutter work. It is not likely that someone is on Google searching for a roofer if they actually want a landscaper or if they really don’t want anything at all.

An Affordable Option

After knowing your numbers, would you pay $500 a month to have a video on page one of Google for several search terms that your potential clients would use to find you? If that $500 brought in 2-4 new clients would it be worth it to you? If so, you will be happy to know that I help small businesses create a presence on page one for much less.

Contact me today for more information on how we can create a video commercial for you and get it on page one of Google where your potential clients are looking for you.