TrialPay’s Best Of Web (BOW) Awards

Best In-Game Placements: Watercooler Welcome to TrialPay’s Best Of Web (BOW) Awards, where we recognize the savvy online merchants that best utilize TrialPay’s e-commerce solutions. This month we’re putting the spotlight on Watercooler for optimizing ad placements in its newest Facebook applications FanSection Fantasy Football 2009 and $20K Football Challenge. Over 27 million Americans are [...]

Are software companies overlooking a valuable strategy for increasing conversions?

With average industry conversion rates as low as 1-2%, converting free or trial users is a challenge for just about every software company. (And it’s also why Avangate says hammers sell better than software). Many software companies increase conversion rates by streamlining their product pages, sending e-mail campaigns to expired trial users, and implementing creative [...]

What Women Want

If you think it’s Mel Gibson, think again. Women want games, especially games of the social and casual variety. Let’s take a look at the facts: Female Facebook users outnumber their male counterparts in every age bracket. According to a study conducted by ShesConnected Multimedia, 36% of women would give up chocolate, Prada, and their [...]

Rethinking Cost-Per-Install (CPI) Advertising

In order to acquire new users, application developers are spending more than ever on advertising. Social network ad spending is expected to reach $1.3 billion by 2010, according to eMarketer. Developers have been turning away from more traditional advertising models, like cost-per-mille (CPM) and cost-per-click (CPC), in favor of cost-per-install (CPI; a developer only pays [...]

Reassessing Online Coupon Distribution

Even though coupons can significantly boost online sales, they often have a reputation for delivering low-quality customers. This is most likely because online retailers predominantly distribute them through coupon and deal sites, which attract bargain-hunting shoppers with low lifetime values. With a little re-thinking on distribution, though, you can use coupons to attract targeted, high-quality [...]

How to ensure high quality customers through CPA advertising

As I explained in my last post, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) advertising is the best way to advertise from a risk/reward standpoint. This method produces quality customers on a cost-effective, pay-for-performance basis. But with a little extra effort, advertisers can ensure even higher quality results. Most already know the obvious ways to optimize their ads, [...]

Super Bowl Ad Spending: Worth the time or a waste of time?

It’s the most watched television show in America. It presents a rare occasion when viewers actually enjoy watching commercials. And it’s quite possibly the single most expensive advertising move a company can make. In 1967, the cost of a 30-second ad for Super Bowl I was as low as $37,500. Fast-forward 42 years later to [...]

Get What You Pay For: Why CPA Advertising is the Best

There are several ways for online marketers to advertise, but from a risk/reward standpoint, Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) beats them all. But before I explain why, let’s first examine other online advertising methods and see what they give you for your money from a customer standpoint. Cost Per Mille (CPM) allows advertisers to pay a [...]

The End of Brand Advertising

Part I: Will Free Content Go Down With It? The Internet has witnessed the conversion of analog advertising dollars into digital advertising pennies (credit due to Jeff Zucker at NBC for “coining” that metaphor). Despite the fact that a viewer is always just a “click away” on the Internet, online advertisements command only a fraction [...]

The Advantages of Cross-Selling

While food shopping the other day, I came across an entire display full of restaurant gift cards—Applebee’s, McDonald’s, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, etc.—for sale at, of all places, a grocery store. Last I checked, grocery stores are the antithesis of the restaurant industry. And here was a grocery store promoting dining establishments—essentially the only businesses [...]