To expand its reach, PriceGrabber.com goes where new customers are--offline
The effects of offline advertising are less easily measured than those of online advertising, but to reach into the huge market of potential customers who don’t shop currently online–but could–offline is where PriceGrabber.com is putting more of its marketing budget. President Kamran Pourzanjani tells Internet Retailer the comparison shopping site has shifted 40% to 50% of its former online advertising dollars, representing ad spending in the millions, to print, radio and outdoor media over the past year.
“This was a process of bringing people who don’t know about PriceGrabber and this type of service online,” says Pourzanjani. “If they are not online, we have to go to them where they are, if you will, by advertising in the publications they are reading and on the radio stations they are listening to.”
Though he grants that offline advertising is more difficult to track precisely than online ads, Pourzanjani says PriceGrabber gets a read on the impact of its offline ads by comparing traffic from markets where it has done radio and billboard advertising to those where it hasn’t, and by interest in product categories for which it’s run ads in specific interest-driven magazines.
“We have a fairly good idea of where our users are coming from. Part of our comparison service is that people provide their ZIP codes so we can figure out tax and shipping based on that,” he says. “So we have a huge database of ZIP codes, which is one vehicle we use to measure.”
Pourzanjani adds that the current offline campaigns will run into the new year and that PriceGrabber will consider other offline ad media including TV in the future. “Depending on our goals, we will be looking different ways of advertising offline,” he says. “Each has its own benefits and advantages. It’s a longer term investment, but we think it’s worth it in the long run for PriceGrabber and the industry.”
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