Online Advertising

With the advent of the internet and it’s surge in the last decade to a multi-billion dollar resource, businesses can no longer deny the medium it provides them to connect with their customers and attract new ones. There are dozens of different methods advertisers are using to reach out to new and existing clients including email, videos and animated ads. Businesses are generating more traffic than ever with the internet as their primary source of marketing.

There are dozens of different routes available to the advertiser looking to generate more customers. Banner ads are one of the most popular choices as they are a visual representation of the product being sold. The graphic image or animation is displayed on a website in a variety of different sizes. The latest craze in internet marketing is the floating ad that moves across a website attracting attention and generating interest. The trick banner is an almost surefire way to generate traffic as it creates a popup window simulating an error message or alert. Mobile ads are also new on the scene, sending SMS text or multi-media messages to cell phones.

The best aspect of online marketing is the affordability of it all. Never has there been a time before when it was so easy and affordable to run an ad to reach millions of potential customers. Mediums such as magazines, radio and TV can no longer compare. Online marketing works on a number of different levels:

1. It attracts new customers, while building loyalty among existing ones with the use of email marketing.

2. Advertising has never been so targeted to a specific audience before. An advertiser can now use SEO and blog advertising to reach only a target audience.

3. Online advertising allows for collecting and analyzing of results in real time.

4. Internet advertising also allows the business to collect customer information that would never be available otherwise. And vice versa, the business is able to notify customers of the latest company information and products.

What is important to note about online advertising is that it’s all about trial and error. If an ad isn’t generating the traffic and sales expected, do not give up. Tinkering with the ad’s wording, changing placement and pursuing new markets can make all the difference. Also, something to think twice about is the use of email spam. While effective at one time, the practice has caught a lot of negative press in recent years, and for this reason, it has become much less of a profit generator as it was originally. It is now much less effective than newer advertising tools such as video and popup ads.

The best option for email marketing is the opt-in emails. This is fast, affordable and personable, and allows the business to keep customers up to date with promotions and newsletters with a direct route to a customer’s inbox. Also to keep in mind when designing an ad is to keep it new and eye-catching. Ads with animation and video attract the most attention and generate the most traffic to websites. It out-maneuvers the average banner ad every time and is ideal for companies who are able to create high performance ads.

There are also many online advertising companies available to work with you to produce the results you want. With the recent surge of the blog, many companies work to connect the advertiser and the blogger to market products and services. An advertiser is able to create and upload an ad campaign to a website, and the ad company then finds the best blogger for the job. While traditional banner ads work great on blogs, rising in popularity is the use of blog entries to promote a new service or product. The advertiser can submit an outline to the blogger, and the blogger in turn writes a review of the product, posting direct links back to the advertiser’s site. Blog advertising has proven a great niche market as bloggers have smart, savvy, loyal readers visiting their blogs. Bloggers have a lot of pull in the new age of internet marketing, and it’s a great resource for advertisers to tap into.

When finding an online advertiser to work with, it is important to do the research and know the company’s goal. Just as in the real world, not all virtual ad companies are created equal. Some provide the liaison between advertiser and webmaster, allowing the advertiser to submit campaigns for acceptance on a specific website; other ad companies have a much bigger role in helping the advertiser get accomplished what they need. Some provide only the database for webmasters and advertisers to browse, while others have a great amount of control over the finished product. It is important to know that as an advertiser you may not have ultimate control on the end result. While you may be able to determine what it will look like, you may not be able to determine placement on a page, or which blog it appears on. Banners on websites for instance are very big business; placement at the top of a page gets the most traffic and therefore demands the biggest sale price. Ads along the side or within the content of the page don’t see as much traffic and are therefore cheaper for the advertiser.

Also, we have all seen the sponsored ads on search engine results that appear at the top of the page. While that can be considered the crème de la crème of the online ad world, they’re not exactly practical for all. It’s not as simple as submitting an ad to Google and crossing fingers in the hopes of acceptance; those ads are big money and not at all practical for the average business owner. Top search engine rankings are also an important marketing tool. Search results are always ordered by the amount of traffic the website sees, so the more traffic you can generate, the higher your ranking goes. All is not lost for the business owner on a budget though; with the use of search engine optimization (SEO), small businesses can quickly and effectively improve their search engine rankings with relevant keywords and search terms; a must for any online business.