Advertising ecommerce site in Printed Magazines

[palain]

I am considering advertising a niche product in a printed magazine. The products are ready and are already selling modestly with PPC and organic traffic.

Anyone has experience advertising in magazines?

Should I consider the classified section $37 / month or go with 1/6 page color $1100 80000 prints very specialized magazine?

[King_Fisher]

I once ran a $2,200.00 full page ad in a tech magazine for computer plug ins,
( drives, memories, etc) got nada, zip!

Should of taken the dollars and went Adwords.PPC. Would of gotten much better

ROI. Its easy to get carried away with the idea of a colored ad in a slick

magazine, but unless you have deep pockets its better to stay away!...KF

[Grandmas Cookies]

just do a Press release without giving big bucks for monthly ads and stuff like that.

[arubin]

It's so hard to measure, which is frustrating.

If you can't afford to run three ads with no return, don't take the risk.

If the ad really hits your target audience, you have something unique to mention in the ad, and you have some cash available to experiment with, give it a try.

[akmac]

Print advertising for an online entity can be tough. As a merchant I tend to expect good return from a single full page ad-assuming the message/design/audience is a good fit. However, I've had mixed/poor results. Part of the problem was my mindset-I expected immediate results, when what print advertising usually required is a campaign. Long. Repetitive. Expensive. CAMPAIGN.

Not doing print advertising anymore myself. Obviously, it's effective for many (mostly B&M)-but I haven't found the secret sauce for advertising our site through print.

[HRoth]

I have gotten way more results with 1" classified ads in target magazines than with display ads.

[piatkow]

If it is something new to market then a good press release may be a better investment. You could reinforce with a paid ad or follow with a paid ad in the next edition.

This does assume that the magazine is closely targetted to the niche. Remember that you will be reaching people who don't have internet access and people who are frightened of buying on line.

I have come across quite a few people who think that entering their credit card number over a secure connection direct to my acquirer is fundamentally unsafe and prefer to put a cheque in the post with their full bank and home address details and a copy of their signature.

[pbradish]

I've had mixed results with niche magazine ads. The problem is that their results are difficult to track.

If you have a large budget, and want to focus offline as well - I think that niche magazines certainly have their place.

[bvsoftware]

Print advertising takes time to be effective. A one time spot will likely get you nothing unless it is very targeted. You'd be much better off with a nice classified that ran every single issue for a year with some distinctive language or graphic. People will notice your ad because they see it again and again.

Marcus

[HRoth]

I think Marcus is right. People are reminded of you when they see you issue after issue, and it gives them a sense of security that you are there and will continue to be there.