THAT'S HOT - Online Advertising

I posted this blog about three years ago and, you guessed it, online advertising is even hotter now. So in case you missed it then, I've updated it with new and interesting information. It's time to get on the online advertising band wagon if you haven't already. I hope you find this refreshed blog helpful. – Peter

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Don't you just love online advertising?

I know I do — it is easily trackable. You, renewable energy, solar energy, bioenergy, geothermal energy and hydropower marketers and advertising buyers, face hard decisions on how to spend your advertising budget and then face tough questions as you report back to your bosses with return on investment metrics. But of course you have countless years of marketing knowdledge and show off your marketing-guru'ness and wizardry all the time. If not, look over your shoulder, your boss has started to look for success metrics from his hard earned marketing dollars. But fear not, online advertising is here.

Online advertising makes it easier to measure the success of your marketing efforts. For example, with online display advertising banners, e.g. the website or eNewsletter Leaderboard and Medium Rectangle banners, the most basic measurement of success is done through "Ad Impressions," "Ad Clicks" and "Click Through Rates."

Once you have those numbers you may ask: Ok I have the numbers, but how do I know that my online ad banners are doing well or not? And what do I compare it to?

Trying to find Click Through Rate (CTR) averages in online marketing articles, let alone averages for specific online advertising banner sizes like the Leaderboard or Medium Rectangle. is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, so your best source of information is your digital advertising sales contact. You should start by asking him/her what the stats are in their medium and internet-wide. Once you have those numbers, you can determine if your ad is doing above or below the average.

Nice, my banners are performing above average, or ahhhhh, my banner is performing below average! What do I do?

First off you should try and get ahead of that problem before it arises and one way to do that is by testing different banner designs and copy. Don't settle with one banner at a time, rather test several messages and designs with around two to four different ads. You don't have to spend more money on the website, just ask your digital advertising sales contact to upload your different designs at the same time and then check-in on the stats after a week or two. Compare banner results and simply choose the banner or two banners that are pulling best. Now you will have more confidence and higher success with your banner messaging — so go ahead and start branding your company — 2014 is just around the corner!

Once you have your ad messaging set, remember it's not all about the CTR and lots of clicks doesn't necessarily mean leads. Why should online display banner advertising be any different than any other marketing medium? Online display advertising is about branding, branding, branding! Read this article from eMarketer, "Clicks, So What?" to find out what I mean.

Now if you are looking strictly for "leads," digital is still the way to go. One great lead generator is a commercial or editorial webcast, posting a white paper or digital magazines. Yes you read that correctly, Digital Magazines...they are not only a great option when you look for a dynamic branding medium that includes e.g. video, but can also include lead generation directly from readers. Contact me if you would like more details.

Back to online banner display advertising: Much more to write about...but I'm afraid I have to be careful with the time spent rewriting my first ever blog post, my boss Jim needs me to sell sell sell.

But before I do, I just want to mention Targeted Banner Advertising and how beneficial and cost-effective it is for the marketers I talk with. Advertise for example by geographic location and contextually, which means that if you have a specific audience in mind like my hypothetical advertiser in Denmark, Jorgen Jorgenson does...Let's say that Jorgen wants to target European readers that are interested in Solar Energy news and information on our website http://www.renewableenergyworld.com, he will tell me to target them only and I will ensure that our website advertising software will only show Jorgen's ad to visitors with IP addresses that are located in Europe and who read solar content — so for example no-one in China that reads our wind news will ever see his advertisement!

I'd like to leave you with a not-so-recent marketing article (it was recent when I first wrote this blog, but is still very timely) on online ad spending from eMarketer, which mentions that more marketing budgets are shifting towards online display ads and especially video advertising.

Energy Department offers online training for residential PV inspectors

The SunShot initiative free online tool helps skills learn code inspectors to ensure recommendations needed.
Credit card: Craig Miller Productions

The Department of energy announced on October 1, a free online training program for building and electrical code officials, inspections for residential photovoltaic (PV)-solar energy systems perform. This training program helps a consistent and optimized PV test process in jurisdictions across the country, to establish cost reduction and time savings for consumers.

The photovoltaic-online training (PVOT) program is used a learning tool to illustrate the video and photos to the correct techniques for safe solar systems that meet all relevant building and electrical codes. It includes seven online modules, offers classes in subjects such as roof and ground mounted PV arrays, electrical requirements, equipment reviews, and accelerated allows. The first six lessons contain sequential material, while the last module offers a virtual stroll along a roof line, which looks similar to an inspector in a real situation. The PVOT program tracks each participant progress and test results and meet professional licensing requirements for ongoing training in most cities and States. The curriculum complies with current national electrical code requirements and industry standards that are referenced in the modules.

Although the program is designed the code officials, it is suitable solar installers, architects, and students for consumers who are interested in this growing area. While participation in the course is free of charge, there is a nominal fee for obtaining continuing education units by International Association of electrical inspectors (IAEI). The Interstate Renewable Energy Council developed the PVOT program for the Energy Department as part of the SunShot initiative solar instructor training network, to strengthen the quality and the capacity of the solar-PV vocational training in the country. The Department of energy progress warning message displayed.

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Online Energy Department Tool Helps Consumers Cut Bills

The Energy Department announced on April 30 that it has launched the Utility Data Access Map tool, an interactive Web platform that enables electric utilities across the country to show customers, in a simple way, the data they can access on their electricity use. DOE has already received responses from more than 500 participating utilities.

Many consumers do not have enough data or they are not aware of the data they can access to make informed decisions about energy efficiency measures that could save them money. Among those who do have access to their data, some lack the ability to share it with service providers who might help them identify energy savings opportunities and verify savings once improvements have been made.

The Utility Data Access Map tool provides "crowd-sourced" maps in user-friendly formats based on information gathered from electricity providers nationwide. It highlights local access to electricity data and allows consumers to compare their electricity data access to others in their state and across the country. The data access maps display different features of consumer electricity data, including the time period and timeliness of data—informing consumers, for example, whether their utility supplies same-day electricity use information—and the extent to which the data can be shared. By helping consumers better understand their energy use and providing new ways to compare, local utilities are adopting "smart grid" technologies. See the DOE Progress Alert, the Utility Data Access Map, and the DOE OpenEI website, a collaborative system managed by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

View the original article here