You have seen these ads, most likely clicked on them, and didn’t even know that a business just like yours paid for that click. In online marketing, there is a type of advertising called Pay Per Click, or PPC. You are most likely familiar with the ads that show up on both the top and right sides of Google search results: these are PPC ads.
Outbrain is a marketing platform that allows for PPC campaigns on trusted news and blogging sites. As you surf the web, reading articles and blogs, you will often encounter several links on the bottom of an article that may say “we recommend” or “from around the web.” These links to other stories are paid advertisements run via Outbrain.
Outbrain works successfully because of their high demand for good content. When you advertise with Outbrain, you are not allowed to simply link the ad to your homepage. The landing page of the ad must be content, and good content at that. You are allowed to direct web traffic to blogs or videos that are about your product or to services that either you or someone else has produced.
Plus, the clicks are inexpensive, starting at a recommended 15 cents per click and only $10 a day. The process of getting started is even easier, since you do not need to pick a target client or keywords. Based on your content, the Outbrain system will automatically place your ad with stories that appeal to your target customers. For example, if you write a blog that outlines grooming tips for your dog grooming business, your ad will automatically appear on articles about dogs.
To find out more about how Outbrain works and how you can use this tool to grow your business, I interviewed Outbrain CEO Yaron Galai.
Why did you start Outbrain?
Yaron Galai: I was noticing more and more that bloggers I was reading were endorsing products, and those endorsements were really effecting my purchasing decisions. The problem is those blog posts appear for a few good minutes on the blog and then they go away getting buried by other content. This could have been the best endorsement that the business ever got, and it’s gone.
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I never click ads on websites. What makes Outbrain different?
Yaron Galai: Unlike any other area [where ads appear] on the page, we have the reader’s trust that we are going to continue to provide good content. That was the first idea: stick to content. The second one is how to bring in content that someone is going to pay for and have it be interesting content. Our content team vets every piece that is going to be advertised before an ad is approved.
What is the best way to use Outbrain, and how do I get started?
Yaron Galai: It all begins with great content. Any business owner at the end of the day is about a story of what their business is about and how that story appeals to their customers. Where Outbrain starts is with a great story, either in writing or video form. What is important for small businesses to understand is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a story that they craft. If they are a great business and have customers that love them, there are people that will be willing to independently write about them or sometimes you can ask people to write about it. With Outbrain, you can point the ad to any piece [of] content.
Jabez LeBret is the author of the Amazon No. 1 bestselling law office marketing book How to Turn Clicks Into Clients. As a partner at Get Noticed Get Found, a legal marketing agency, over the last nine years he has delivered over 800 keynote addresses in six countries. His main area of expertise is managing Gen Y in the workplace, advanced Facebook strategies, LinkedIn strategies, Google+, SEO, local directory optimization, and online marketing.
