TV Ads Enable Vat19.com to Grow Sales and Web Traffic

Today we're thrilled to turn the reins over to our guest blogger, Jamie Salvatori of Vat19.com. We hope to continue inviting our partners and advertisers to contribute on occasion so that you can get the scoop on their stories and experiences. We kick off this series with guest blogger Jamie Salvatori, owner of Vat19.com, a purveyor of "curiously awesome products."  In other words, they make it easy to find and buy really cool and interesting stuff. Vat19.com has been using Google TV Ads for nearly two years with impressive results and was recently profiled by Practical Ecommerce, a publication focused on online merchants. Read on to hear Jamie discuss his company's success with television advertising.

In December of 2008, we ran our first test using Google TV Ads. Although the holidays are our busiest time of year, I wasn't expecting to make much money. I simply wanted to test the system. And I was instantly blown away.

Traditional TV advertising, in my experience, required negotiating separate deals with individual networks or cable and satellite providers. This proved time-consuming and cumbersome and I never knew if I was getting as good a deal as the business down the street. Not to mention that I had to plan far in advance, pay up front, wait weeks to find out when and if my spots ran, and I couldn't make changes to my campaign without tons of work and extreme patience. I had given up on TV advertising after three expensive campaigns that provided only mediocre results.

So, when I stumbled across Google TV Ads, I was obviously intrigued. It seemed like this system would give me the opportunity to dip my toe back into the water of TV advertising without wasting a ton of time or committing to an obscene spend.

I setup a campaign in a few hours, uploaded three spots, and was on TV in about 48 hours total. By using a simple "how did you hear about us?" question during our online checkout process, I determined that I broke even on the three week campaign. This was amazing! Because our spots lie somewhere between direct response and brand building, it typically takes longer to build the frequency required to achieve that kind of result.

My small test in 2008 convinced me to run campaigns throughout all of 2009. I used the extensive reporting features within Google TV Ads to refine my campaigns periodically throughout the year. My TV advertising throughout 2009 produced revenue of approximately three times the advertising spend. Naturally, I see no end in sight to my TV advertising via the Google TV Ads platform.

I believe that advertising on Google TV Ads has greatly increased brand awareness for our store, Vat19.com. The amount of direct traffic to our website has more than doubled in the last year.

My company is small and I love the fact that I am able to administer my entire TV advertising program myself. My sales have increased three-fold in the past three years and undoubtedly, Google TV Ads has been an integral part of that success.

Posted by guest blogger Jamie Salvatori, Owner, Vat19.com