4specs is an Internet-based library service for specifiers, architects, engineers and others in the construction industry. 4specs organizes the building product manufacturer's website just as a librarian organizes 3-ring binders in the design office. You can also think of 4specs as a specialized search engine or directory of manufacturers of construction products. Each manufacturer's link goes directly to their website.
Free basic listings:
Free enhanced listings with a 15 word description:
Showcase listings with image and longer descriptions:
Construction Specialties, Inc.
CS is responsible for much of today's expansion joint cover technology, whether it's for seismic, thermal or wind-sway. Our 45+ years' experience and expertise will ensure that you get the tested solution you need and the unparalleled service you deserve. From off-the-shelf products to custom solutions, we"ll show you why we are the industry leader.
Featured Product - large ad on home page, no rotation $1,000 for month.
Division & Uniformat Pages - a new offering. $500 a month. Seen by the specifiers entering the 4specs home page plus most of the visitors from Google. On about 64 pages. No rotation.
To help you understand a little bit more on how referrals work in 4specs, it is important to remember that our target audience is specifiers and architects. Specifers and architects rarely phone or email manufacturers and they are not purchasing materials. They add the products to their designs and write the specs for projects to be bid in the future. You want to be included in that design and specification. That is why you, the manufacturer, want to be seen and referred from 4specs.
The 4specs annual advertising costs are based on our performance for your website. The Internet has made the Pay per click (PPC) advertising model possible. Google AdWords is probably the largest PPC network operators, operating on a bid-based model typically charged to a credit card. 4specs is a highly-targeted website with a flat-rate per referral model and an annual invoice.
Our ad rates are set on a forward-looking per-referral-to-your-website basis based on actual recent referral from the pages you are advertising on. We track the outbound referrals and report to you each month by email. You can validate our performance with your website analytics, including Google Analytics.
Our target pricing is $3 per referral, with a $100 minimum per year. A referral is a 4specs visitor, seeing your showcase listing, clicking and being sent to your website. Your Google Analytics will track a 4specs referral. Most adverisers are at or under $250 a year.
What is one more specification worth? The 4specs focus is on the full-time architectural specifier with over 60% of the referrals coming from visitors who have a home page cookie from entering through the home page, not from a search engine.
How much would it cost you to identify and visit just one architect or specifier at the exact time they are reviewing which manufacturers to include in their specs or accept as a substitution?
Our ad program is invoiced on an annual basis and there are no additional charges for overages. If we overestimate the expected number of referrals, we will extend the ads, and if we underestimate, you receive the additional referrals at no additional cost. Renewal will be determined by the prior year's performance. 80% of the advertisers renew every year. There are no contracts or multi-year agreements.
Expected and actual performance is highly variable, depending on the sections the company is listed in and how well known the company is. We will review the sections with you and can add sections as appropriate.
Advertisers with multiple companies and urls are added together to determine the total expected referral rate and ad rate. We typically do not provide multiple links into a website for different sections.
The showcase listings typically appear twice - once on top with the advertisers and again on the bottom with all the listings for the section. You can see examples of showcase listings used on 4specs:
Showcase listing examples
Links for each building product manufacturer go to the top of their website or single target page; we do not provide multiple product links to different sections. The link is typically the company name, not a product name. Profile pages are designed to link anywhere in your website.
Image - maximum size is 160 pixels wide x 144 pixels high and a jpg or non-animated gif or png. We recommend different images and descriptions for each section, targeted to that section. We can resize photos or existing images, or you can provide finished artwork. Images are typically compressed to 5-6,000 bytes. We use Photoshop Elements and generally save for the web - jpg medium or 40%.
Text - 55 words is the typical maximum length. Our hard limit is not going onto the 7th line. We recommend against the words manufacturer and superlatives such as world class and premier. While I understand the use of trademark and register notations, I find they slow down reading and are not useful to our user and I recommend against using them.
If you email the text back to me in a word document and attach the images, it makes it simpler for me. I can resize the images if needed. It is very helpful to label the images with the section number if there are multiple images - yourco_09-9100.jpg for example.
Email them to:
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Colin Gilboy
Publisher - 4specs
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