technologies

While Ideas 1 & 2 from Kathleen Malaspina and Tom Scearce, co-authored White Paper: How to increase demand for medical devices in today’s changing and challenging market are straightforward and fairly easy to execute, implementing Idea 3 involves more “out-of-the-box” type thinking for most medical device marketers…
Idea 3 is Find out where your product is being discussed, and advertise there in a low-risk way.
There are actually many ways to do this, and we’ll elaborate upon that in a bit, but for now, let’s focus on the strategy Malaspina and Scearce say to do.
They say, “Start by testing a Google AdSense campaign.”
This is actually a very innovative and smart strategy, but one that requires peeling back the layers to really understand how to maximize it.
Malaspina and Scearce give a basic overview of what they mean when they say “test a Google AdSense campaign.” But what does that really mean for you and your medical device company?
First, the basics.
What exactly is Google AdSense?
Google AdSense is a service offered by Google where website owners (called “publishers”) select ads that appear on different pages of their website.
Ads can be video ads, graphic ads or text ads. These ads are (supposed to be) relevant to the content on the web page that they appear.
When someone clicks on that ad, the “publisher” gets paid.
Many look at AdSense campaigns as a passive revenue stream for the website or blog owner, but this of course depends on the amount of traffic to the website or blog.
The idea behind AdSense is quite simple: content-based sites display ads for products or services. The more traffic the content-rich website or blog receives, the more people are likely to click through the ads displayed on the site.
And, if you care about such things, the more revenue for you – or, in this B2B case, your company.
Now, there’s also the “retail” side to AdSense. It’s unclear whether Malaspina and Scearce were recommending that a medical device company participate in a Google AdSense campaign as a “publisher” or as a “retailer,” so we’ll address both.
A “retailer” is usually the side that is trying to sell their product or service.
“Retailers” are the ones that pay Google to make their ad available for AdSense “publishers” to post on their websites and blogs – usually this is in the form of a Pay-Per-Click ad campaign through Google AdWords (not to be confused with Google AdSense.)
I know. It can get a bit confusing as to who does what and how…
While there is much discussion about this, many say that if you are a “retailer” trying to sell a product or service, then you’re best bet is to just stick with Google AdWords.
This is because Google does not tell you which “publisher’s” website and blogs are displaying your ads as Google uses an algorithm to determine where your AdSense ads will appear.
What this can mean is that sometimes the relationship between the “retailer’s” ad and the “publisher’s” website or blog where it is being displayed is extremely vague – if not completely unrelated as some retailers have discovered…
In other words, you are at the mercy of Google’s judgment where your ads will appear.
The hypotheses some have made is that AdWords clicks often represent users looking to make a purchase, while AdSense clicks come from sites that primarily cater to visitors looking for information.
If you’re a medical device company, both alternatives can actually work on your behalf.
In the AdSense option, attention must be diverted away from what the visitor went to your site for in the first place (learn about your company, read an article, etc.), while with AdWords, your ad must simply be more appealing than the other ads also displayed.
exactly was the “big idea” that Malaspina and Scearce were trying to make?
While it’s definitely open to interpretation, I’ll do my best to break it down for you in a “user-friendly” way.
If they are saying that a medical device marketer could use their company’s website as a “publisher,” this would mean that certain pages – or all pages – could display ads for products and services that may or may not relate to the content on their website.
And if it does relate, hopefully it’s not an ad for a competing product or service…
Let’s say someone goes to a medical device company’s website or blog because they are interested in a White Paper, webinar, Case Study, whatever…
They get engrossed in the rich content offered and, hopefully for the “retailer,” click on an ad that appears on that same page. This then directs the person to the “retailer’s” website and away from yours (the “publisher”).
If this happens, the medical device …