ADVERTISERS > FAQ

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Definitions | Incentives-Based Marketing | Tracking/Monitoring | Support & Resources

DEFINITIONS

What is a subscriber?
A subscriber, in our program, is an individual or family that agrees to complete a required number of “online” surveys per month in order to remain eligible in our program. Subscribers also agree to participate in our e-newsletter requirements for eligibility.

What is an advertiser?
An advertiser, in our program, is a Health Insurance Company, Pharmaceutical Company or health care provider that uses our survey research program to gather valuable information that will help them to produce or market new or existing products or services to consumers.

Advertisers choose this venue (online surveys and marketing) for any number of reasons, however, the primary reason is targeted product marketing to an online audience who are offered valuable incentives to view and respond to the advertisers commercial message or survey.

According to advertising industry trend analysis less marketing resources will be spent on television advertising and more on Internet based marketing options.

What is click-through (also called click)?
A click-through refers to the action a consumer takes when they are referred from one Web site through a link or advertisement and is taken to another Web site. Click-through ratio is the percentage of clicks for the number of advertising impressions displayed.

What is CPA (cost per action)?
CPA is a metric for online advertising where a rate is set for every action that is taken by a user.

What is CPM (cost per thousand impressions)?
CPM is a metric for online advertising where a rate is set for every thousand impressions.

What is an impression?
An impression is the viewing of an advertising banner, link, or product on the Internet.

What is conversion rate?
The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who take a desired action. The action that determines conversion is determined by the advertiser and may be a sale on the advertiser's Web site, a completed lead form, or another action.

INCENTIVES-BASED MARKETING

What do we mean by incentives-based marketing?
In our program consumers, who we refer to as subscribers or members, are a select group of individuals that are willing to participate in our research surveys in exchange for compensation (or incentives) that are paid to their Health Insurance Carriers.

Paying for actions taken by a consumer as they occur on the Internet, rather than paying up front for advertising space, which may not result in immediate action, offers a distinct marketing advantage.

Any type of action a subscriber takes where we provide an incentive (i.e. subsidizing monthly insurance premiums in exchange for completing sponsored surveys or forwarding copies of our monthly e-newsletter) would be considered an incentives-based strategy.

The marketing is enhanced by an incentive to pay closer attention to the details and benefits of the product or service.

How is this advertising effective?
Each survey has questions that are specific to the advertisers information gathering agenda. These surveys can be adjusted to allow information to be aggregated to match specific needs of the advertiser.

The greatest impact is that each survey has an option for a “one to two” minute “commercial” or video. The subscriber must watch the video because there will be a question at the end of the survey (regarding the video) that must be answered correctly or the survey will not count towards the subscriber’s monthly quota and the subscriber must take another survey to meet their quota requirements.

With television ads the viewer could change channels or leave the room until the commercial ends. With this online venue the viewer must watch and respond to the commercial by answering a question specific to that commercial.

Recent advertising industry trends indicate that the overwhelming number of pharmaceutical commercials on television has led to viewers “tuning out” many of these commercials without understanding the advertisers message.

The advertiser pays per survey (which includes the video) and not per minute for airtime. The advertiser can determine exactly how many times the video or commercial was watched by how many surveys were submitted as complete.

Why would someone spend their time to take and complete online surveys?
Each completed survey represents an established dollar amount that is applied directly to the subscriber’s monthly health insurance policy premium. The subscriber represents a unique and valuable segment of the population – someone who has health care concerns, either for themselves or for their family, and someone who otherwise may not be able to afford health insurance but understands that they need it. This makes this individual a great resource of information regarding potential new drugs, equipment, insurance products, funeral prearrangements or medical procedures.

What makes this individual so valuable is; they have an expressed health care concern and they are being compensated to provide consistent and honest answers to the surveys. They understand that the answer they give could result in the research for a new drug or medical procedure that may help them or a loved one.

How are surveys selected?
The surveys are in a rotation designed to make sure that the same survey is not taken more than once by the same subscriber. When a subscriber “logs on” to The BAER Project website with their user name and password the next survey in rotation is automatically selected. The survey could be from a national sponsor targeting a specific region for test marketing purposes or a local sponsor targeting their local market.

TRACKING/MONITORING

How does this agency track transactions?
The BAER Project uses a combined e-commerce and email based system to track subscribers response to the surveys. When a subscriber at a designated level (i.e. Category “B”) completes the required number of surveys per month it registers that subscriber as having met the monthly eligibility guidelines.

The number of completed surveys that are forwarded to the sponsors are tracked and billed on a per survey basis.

What about subscribers who don’t meet their requirement? A subscriber who does not meet monthly eligibility requirements is not provided with the subsidies paid to their Insurance Company. The subscriber must pay the monthly premium without any assistance from The BAER Project’s HEALTH CARE ASISTANCE PROGRAM or the insurer may cancel them. That subscriber is also given a warning or can be terminated from the assistance program.

How are subscribers responses tracked or monitored?
Each completed survey is recorded and registered to the subscriber. When a subscriber has not completed the required number of surveys, our system “red-flags” that account.

The BAER Project’s e-newsletter “The BAER Report” allows us to see when a newsletter was opened, how many times it was read, what dates and times, how often which links were “clicked on”, and the times/dates, how often the newsletter was forwarded to a friend and when it was sent/received.

These monitoring systems provide leverage in determining the continued eligibility or termination of subscribers based on their compliance in meeting our guidelines. This also provides value to the advertiser/sponsor because it offers documented statistics of response to ads, surveys and links.

How does The BAER Project know which advertisers should pay for a specific survey?
The survey is automatically forwarded to the advertisers designated email box when the subscriber completes and “submits” the survey. The surveys are forwarded in an encrypted format that will be released when the advertiser/sponsor submits their sponsorship donation for the number of surveys submitted.

This is critical because the sponsorship donations are calculated to meet the funding needed to subsidize the subscriber’s premium payments based on their monthly participation requirements.

SUPPORT & RESOURCES

Are the emails of the surveys safe?
A member or subscriber to our program must log in to our website with their USER NAME and PASSWORD. When each survey is complete it is submitted from our website directly to your email address. The emails are not sent from an outside server, they are sent directly from The BAER Project’s site, which is protected to your site, which is also presumably protected.

What technical skills do sponsors/advertisers need to have?
Sponsors/advertisers need to be able to copy and paste HTML code and place it accurately within the code of a survey and place video within code of a survey as well.

The BAER Report Newsletter.
The monthly e-newsletter “The BAER Report” is an excellent resource for placing new or existing product ads or links to our sponsor/advertisers websites.

Subscribers agree to receive the monthly newsletter to their email address. They also agree, as part of their membership requirements, forward a copy of the newsletter to at least one new person that they know each month. They agree to read, review and respond to articles, ads and website links of our sponsors in the newsletters.

The BAER Project’s monitoring system alerts us to subscribers who are not in compliance with these guidelines. Failure to meet these requirements could result in termination.


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