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Advertising on MidwestWeekends is an efficient and cost-effective way to reach people who are interested in exploring the Upper Midwest. If you have a business that caters to vacationers or day-trippers, your potential customers are here, looking for information about where to stay and what to do.
Many of our visitors come to us via search engine with such queries as "best places to visit in Midwest.'' Most of our stories rank in the Top 10 on Google searches.
We’re No. 1 and 2 for Midwest travel with kids, best shopping towns and Midwest (and Minnesota and Wisconsin) girlfriend getaways, spring (and summer and fall) festivals, candlelight skiing, learning vacations, ethnic festivals and more.
Successful ad campaigns on midwestweekends.com
We offer banner ads, also known as display ads. They increase awareness of your business, like traditional print ads, and they also allow an immediate customer response, like online search ads.
A business whose goal is to build awareness may want to place an ad that is large enough to contain a more explanatory message and run it throughout the site. If the goal is to produce as many clicks as possible, it’s best to use a highly focused message and target your ad in only a few categories.
We feel that the best strategy is to use both approaches. We do not charge extra to run different ads in a single campaign. In fact, we encourage businesses and destinations to run a series of ads, each promoting a different aspect of the travel experience they can offer.
Readership of our web site already is targeted: 76 percent of our visitors come from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan, and virtually all of them are looking for travel tips. Businesses can target even further by placing an ad with stories in such categories as “Outdoor Recreation’’ and “Shopping & eating’’ or in a specific region.
You can pursue more than one strategy. For example, if you offer lodgings appropriate for girlfriend getaways and family reunions, you may want to run an ad in the “Family & Friends’’ category as well as the “Lodgings’’ category.
If you would like to attract leaf peepers in fall, target in the “Touring’’ category. And a business in northern Wisconsin that would like to reach people who usually go to Minnesota’s North Shore may want to target in the North Shore or Northern Minnesota categories.
We charge $12-$24 per 1,000 impressions, depending on the size and placement of an ad. Ads can run site-wide or in the categories of your choice. We help you develop your campaign at no charge.
Our minimum order is 10,000 impressions. You can limit how many of your impressions you would like to use per day. For example, if you have 30,000 impressions and you would like your ad shown 300 times per day, your campaign will last for 3½ months. At 400 times per day, your campaign will last 2½ months.
We can also give you an exclusive ad on a specific story, many of which are ranked No. 1 on Google searches. Call for pricing.
We can run the ad you have created or work with you to design an ad, using your existing business identity.
An impression is created every time a person visits a page on which your ad is displayed.
Each ad is linked to your home page or to any page or site you designate.
We have found that when an ad offers what readers are looking for, it does very well, earning click rates of 1 and 2 percent or even better.
Advertisers benefit in other ways. According to ComScore, the Virginia-based research firm that is the A.C. Nielsen of the Internet advertising industry, online ads result in a 46 percent increase in visits to the advertiser’s site and a 38 percent increase in searches for the advertiser’s products when it measured response to display ads over a four-week period.
We send monthly reports on the number of clicks and impressions your ad has received.
We want you to succeed. If you feel your message isn’t working, we will substitute it for another at no extra charge.
Internet users like their information short and sweet. Use as few words as possible and an image that will make people think, “Wow, I’d like to be there.’’ Think about what sets you apart from other businesses and destinations.
Many people are looking for inexpensive getaways. If you offer an especially good value, or if you want to offer our readers a special deal or discount, say so in your ad.
We maintain our credibility by keeping editorial content separate from advertising.
We do invite you to send us information to include in our Good Deals section, our events listings and our newsletter. And we make sure information about you always is complete and up to date.
Editor Beth Gauper is a big fan of the Upper Midwest, having spent 14 years traveling around it for her weekly column in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. So is her husband, webmaster and designer Torsten Muller.
We’ve discovered a lot of great places, many of which deserve to be better known. The Internet allows us to spread the word, and also to update our stories and tips whenever things change. For more, see the About Us page.
Decide what message you want to communicate and gather your logo and any other image you would like to use. Then contact Beth at 612-216-1201. We’ll get you going right away!
