When it comes to the world of advertising and marketing, like most small business owners. I’ve wasted many thousands of pounds over the years on purchasing online digital advertising on news sites, industry publications and even directories

The reason I say ‘wasted’ is the fact that, for any form of online advertising to be worth the investment. There needs to be a potential return. Sure, returns come in all different formats. The objective might be to boost your brand awareness, sell a new product or generate leads for your business.

For me, I can honestly say that the tens of thousands of pounds I have spent on banner advertising on top news and industry sites have provided zero return. Why? Simply because it was sold to me using meaningless data just to make it sound very good.

What a fantastic advertising deal this sounds

Have you ever been contacted by the sales team at your local newspaper who want you to purchase banner advertising on their website? I have many times and no doubt you have too. Now, have the media sales team made the banner advertising deal sound so fantastic that you just cannot afford to miss out on this fantastic deal? WOW! Imagine your business being featured in your local newspaper that gets 3 million impressions per month, for a cost of only £500! Sounds like an incredible investment, doesn’t it? After all, you’d be getting 6,000 impressions for every pound you invest. That’s if you are sold on the number of impressions your banner advert will receive.

What are impressions when related to any media website?

Before I go into explaining why it might not be such a good advertising deal, I firstly want to simply explain what an impression is when related to advertising.

“Every time any page is loaded on the media website, it counts as one impression.”

Let’s keep with the scenario of the media site securing 3 million impressions per month. That means three million pages on their website have been loaded – NOT READ. These impressions might not even be real people as each time Google (and other search engines) crawl the website, counts towards that impressions.

How you can verify real impressions

If you are ever considering advertising on a news site or directory based on impressions, you should ask the media sales rep for proof of their stated monthly impressions. A screenshot can be taken from their Google Analytics account as real proof of the number of monthly impressions. After all, if you are going to be paying a few hundred pounds advertising your business on their website. The least they can do is provide you with this simple screenshot. It only takes one minute.

Real figures you should be basing your decision on

What you really need to know though is, the average number of ‘unique visits’ per month instead. A unique visitor is a real person who has not viewed any page on that website within the past month. Going one step further, you need to know the demographic split of those monthly unique visitors.

Only now are you able to make a real informed decision on the potential reach of your advertising campaign.

As an example. For the purposes of this article and for me to prove a point. I’m going to fabricate a fashion business who sells designer dresses. Out of those 3 million impressions, how many impressions are your target audience? Let’s say that the media sales person has provided you with all the stats you have asked for and there are 250,000 unique views per month on their site. Now, what percentage of those 250K people will be your target audience?

THIS is the fact and figure you NEED and MUST base your media banner advertising decision on. Why? Because it will have an INFORMED decision on your investment spend.

Measuring the impact

I know that there are never any guaranteed returns when it comes to online advertising. I would be stupid to state otherwise. You do need to know however if your advertising investment has been worth it.

A straightforward way to check is to login to your Google Analytics account. If you don’t have one, why? It’s free and gives you access to so much information. Once you have logged in – browse to ACQUISION > All Traffic > Referrals. Set the date range to when your banner advert has been live. Look down the list of websites until you see the URL (website address) of the site you have advertised on and look at ‘new users’. This will tell you the number of people who have clicked on your banner advert who was directed to your website.

If you paid £500 but only got 5 people clicking through to your website. Was that a worthwhile investment? If I said to you – “Give me £500 and I will send five people to your website each month with no guarantee that they will buy or even enquire”. Would you snap my hand off? Of course, you wouldn’t.

As small business owners, we need to be more aware

Do not get me wrong. I’m not against purchasing banner advertising on news or industry related websites. I have personally run very effective banner advertising campaigns throughout the years providing a fantastic return on investment for me clients. How? I simply did my research and asked the right questions.

To conclude this post, anytime you are considering advertising on any website. Ask yourself this one question:

“Does advertising on this website have the ability to drive real targeted people (a potential new customer)?”

If you are a large brand with very deep pockets and the aim of your banner advertising is to spread your brand awareness far and wide, then sure. Go for it, but most small business owner’s do not have that luxury so we all need to be a little more vigilant before investing our advertising budget.

I hope you found this post useful and good luck!

A Quick Recap:

• Is the Audience right for you?
• Prove the stats (Ask for unique visitors and demographics)
• Determine your budget and your ROI
• If in doubt ask, there are Advertising Laws and you have the right to ask

HMRC has published its latest batch of share scheme statistics, which showed that UK employees enjoyed estimated tax relief of over £1bn from tax-advantaged share schemes in the year to April 2016.

This year’s figures showed particularly strong growth in the use of Enterprise Management Incentives (known as EMI options), with the value of shares under EMI options granted in the year increasing by 23 per cent from the last set of statistics published two years ago. EMI options offer companies the opportunity to give employees a chance to share in the growth and success of a business, with any gains made on the sale of the EMI shares generally only subject to 10 per cent tax, which compares favourably to cash bonuses or ‘unapproved’ share options which are taxed at rates of up to 47 per cent for the employee and 13.8 per cent for the employer.

Although HMRC does not provide a regional breakdown of the statistics, there has been huge demand from North West businesses for share schemes over the past couple of years. Not least for EMI schemes where employers want to provide a real incentive to key employees to drive business performance, increase shareholder value, and give those individuals a stake and sense of ownership of the business.

The North West is a hot bed of entrepreneurial businesses and high-growth companies, and this could explain the increase in demand as leaders of ambitious businesses increasingly recognise that performance can be substantially improved where employees have a stake in the company they work for. The fact that this can be done in such a tax-efficient way, enabled by the government’s desire to encourage the small and medium-sized businesses, makes the use of arrangements such as EMI options a no-brainer for many companies to improve performance and retain key talent.

Martin Cooper, RSM’s head of employee share incentives in the North West

The results of the latest Quarterly Economic Survey (QES) from the Lancashire Chambers of Commerce shows that businesses are reporting solid growth, with expectations that turnover and profitability will improve getting stronger.

The Q1 2017 survey, compiled by the county’s Chambers of Commerce in association with Moore and Smalley Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors, shows that the manufacturing sector performed strongly in the first quarter of the year, particularly in the exports market, with the number of firms reporting improved sales and orders higher than in previous quarters. However, the rising cost of overheads and raw materials are presenting as a risk to growth in the medium term.

Although the performance of the services sector has not returned to historic trend levels, it is improving from its decline in the two quarters immediately following the EU referendum.

The results of the survey found that businesses are continuing to feel inflationary pressures. The percentage of manufacturers reporting raw materials as the key driver of increased prices is at the highest since Q4 2011, and in both sectors a significant proportion of firms anticipate having to raise their own prices over the next three months.

Commenting on the first quarter results, Babs Murphy, Chief Executive of the North & Western Lancashire Chamber, said: “In the here and now, many businesses are resilient and experiencing solid growth. Many firms tell us their short-term expectations are strong, but that the medium-term picture is far from clear.

“The rise in inflation seen since last year’s EU referendum is the biggest immediate pressure facing most firms. While manufacturers have enjoyed a good quarter, they are facing higher costs at the factory gates, which increasingly translates into companies having to raise their own prices. With inflation already above the Bank of England’s target, this squeeze on firms looks set to continue in the medium term.

“The myriad of upfront costs imposed by government – including business rates, Apprenticeship Levy, National Living Wage and insurance premium tax – are all adding to the overhead costs of firms and the pressure on prices.

“If higher inflation squeezes consumer spending as we expect, the current strength in business activity may not be enough to prevent a period of more muted economic growth.”

The results from the Chambers of Commerce survey were revealed to an audience of local businesses at Preston’s College this morning (Tuesday 11th April) by Stephen Gregson, Corporate Finance Director at Moore and Smalley. Commenting on the survey, he said:

“We often say that the QES has thrown up another interesting set of results. And sometimes that is truer than others. This is one of those times. In many respects it suggests a stronger performance than the last quarter or even a year ago – more so for manufacturing. But there is also some seemingly significant weakening in some areas- cash flow strength for instance.

“What we can say with absolute certainty is that the QES continues to perform a sterling job, not in giving us the answers to the questions – but in highlighting which might be the most relevant questions to ask.”