What is “Groupon for TV”?

MORE IMPORTANTLY, WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

In brief, it means more customers without paying cash for the advertising.

“Groupon for TV” is an expression that conveys the simplicity of a pay-for-performance advertising model offered by Skyworks Marketing, which is a digital advertising agency located by the ocean in Ventura, CA.

Although there are a number of advantages to pay-for-performance TV, compared to Groupon, here are the primary points of interest for a forward-thinking business seeking to gain more customers:

1) The merchant pays no money.

2) Skyworks advertises the business on local TV (and online).

3) Just like Groupon, Skyworks collects the money, keeps its portion and pays the remainder to the merchant, along with the new customer names.

4) The merchant provides outstanding service so that the customers continue to return and make purchases at regular prices.

The fundamental point is that the merchant pays no money upfront, and in most cases, receives money before the customer walks in the door.

The strength of this pay-for-performance advertising model is based upon the merchant offer, not on the creative wizardry of the commercial itself. Although sophisticated TV commercial production services are also available, the TV advertisements for this model are very simple, featuring the main points of the merchant offer accompanied by a picture of the product/service.

In order for the local TV offer to generate enough interest so that it is profitable to run as a TV commercial, without the merchant paying any money, the offer has to be very compelling.

Stated more directly, the TV advertisement needs to offer at least a 50% discount (like Groupon) so that TV viewers will want to make the purchase immediately. The offer can’t be a fake 50% discount, whereby the merchant raises prices during the promotion. The offer needs to be significantly lower than any other available prices for a similar product or service.

Skyworks will keep a portion of the money and pay the remainder to the merchant.

This means the merchant will be losing money on this promotion (loss leader). In effect, instead of paying cash for the advertising, the merchant is paying for promotion through lost revenue.

Not all businesses will qualify.

For more details about our pay-for-performance opportunities, visit our P4P section.