Rob Walling has posted this "5-minute" guide to advertising for startups. It doesn't go to a great depth, but it's a solid introduction. The article covers:
- Strategies to make the most of advertising:
- Converting advertising into emails (making it stick)
- Using advertising to test hypotheses
- The top five advertising options:
- Niche advertising (InfluAds, BuySellAds, etc)
- Google AdWords
- Facebook Ads
- StumbleUpon
An interesting point is the view that advertising is not a viable way to scale a bootstrapped startup's customer acquisition:
unless you have deep pockets think of advertising not as a long-term traffic strategy, but as a testing tool to improve your website and find out more about your ideal visitor. Few bootstrapped startups can withstand the cash outlay required to turn advertising into a marketing activity with a positive ROI
