Consider this, Thornton Ranch’s house is a 11,800 square foot 6 ½ bedroom rammed earth Main Ranch House can be described as California Mission Style meets Frank Lloyd Wright. The traditional hacienda vocabulary has been updated to include thoroughly contemporary style and function. Thornton Ranch is its own self contained destination resort containing a full compliment of amenities that exceed that of most vacation hotels. The Ranch is utterly secluded with plentiful wildlife including deer, turkeys, a wide variety of bird species and more. From the beginning, it was designed to be the ultimate personal get away experience. By the way, this range is actually for sale and you can view their website if you are interested in a $25M property.
So, what does Thornton Ranch have to do with businesses in Calgary?
The ranch itself has nothing to do with businesses in Calgary, however, one of their marketing techniques is of interest to me and may be applicable to your business. Here is what they do?
If you type in the following in Google, GOOG (this is the ticker symbol for Google), you will notice on the right hand side that their is a paid advertiser. The ad, reads as follows:
Sonoma Estate For Sale
Once a Lifetime Destination Retreat
Lake & Vast Ammenities <55min to SF
www.thorntonranch.net
So why would you advertise a ranch for sale under the keyword GOOG? The answer is simple, Google stock is currently selling at over $300 US per share, as of today, and I assume the rationale is that if you are interested in or have already invested Google, then you must have a portfolio. This is probably a safe assumption.
Now, you might be thinking, true, but not many people can afford $25M to purchase property. You are right, but in terms of marketing a property such as this one, the goal is not quantity rather quality. A $25M property is probably not something you are going to see in a local newspaper?
A full page ad in the Robb Report, 1x rate is $22,118US dollars. The 12X rate is $15,476 according to their website. This means that at 10 cents per click, the cost of this keyword as it is not competitive, Thornton Ranch can potentially have over 221,000 clicks under this keyword for the same spend on a full page ad.
How many people looking at the latest ticker price for GOOG would have the interest and means to purchase this ranch? 1, 2, 5 or maybe 10? Even it cost $5000 to generate 1 qualified lead through this process, would it be worth it?
The point of this posting is that sometimes as business owners we don’t cross-relate business categories when we build our online marketing campaigns?
For example, a person who purchases a C-Class Mercedes is probably the same person who purchases high-end furniture, might get cosmetic dentistry work done, is financially successful, might be active in sports, etc. The point is that we can cross-relate business categories, products, services, or even ticker symbols and use a directive search method, such as Google as a creative advertising approach. You can review directive and creative advertising in a previous post.
When comparing the costs of traditional advertising to testing cross-related marketing online, you the same example of the Robb Report above. It is not about choosing one medium over another, rather it is about lead generation and the cost of lead generation.
If you are a realtor, why not place a Google ad under the keyword, “calgary mercedes” promoting your 1/2 million dollar home? Some might say this is crazy talk, but is it?
Is this not the same principal businesses use to justify their ad spend in newspapers? That people reading a newspaper will see and respond to my ad if the offer is good enough? The thing is, experimentation with newspapers could leave you broke, experimentation online could you leaving you generating a lead or two?