Online Advertising – It Works!

Been thinking about Web Adverting? My company BeareWare has become very active in the online advertising market over the last 12 months.

Online Advertising – It Works….

It has been both exciting and eye opening. Like most things good solid product and marketing plans must be the backbone of a successful advertising campaign. But there is no doubt that online advertising is a medium that cannot be ignored…

So How Does Online Advertising Work?

Very good question – there is quite a few types of online advertising now available. Search engine advertising (GOOGLE, YAHOO, MSN). You would have undoubtedly seen Ads By Google (Google Adwords) on many websites you have visited. Over the last 12 months Google Ads have been found on major websites such as CNN.com and Weather.com which really shows that google advertising can place you on many good websites.vThis form of advertising is called Pay Per Click (PPC).

Generally google looks for websites that have a similar area of interest (that matches the advertising demographic). When a person sees a Google ad and then clicks on the ad the advertiser pays for that “Click Thru”. Generally the Click Thru goes to the advertiser’s website. Google ads have generally been text based but you are now starting to see image based ads which are actually charged to the advertiser as an impression (OR should be – versus a click thru as they provide a much higher level of branding). With Google Advertising your ad will appear on any website that matches the demographic (that google advertising system selects). This is both good and bad as you may end up on sites that are not a good match that may send very unqualified visitors to your site.

There is also specific website advertising (or affiliate advertising) where you can select a specific site (or multiple sites) that have a very specialized demographic. The form of advertising is called CPM (which stands for pay per 1000 impressions). Just to make sure you understand what an impression is – it is an advertisement being displayed on a web page you are visiting.  This form of advertising is specifically focused on the demographic of the website that is displaying the ads. This advertising in my opinion is the most likely model to work long term in the online advertising arena.  Quite often you have specific areas of the site that you can choose to be on – (Home Page or Secondary Pages). The key is that you are marketing to a specific demographic and you are looking for a specific advertising outcome…

You Should Have a Specific Advertising Outcome?

The beauty of online advertising is you get to link the ad to any specific page you want to (e.g. a larger more detailed advertisement) and you get to track your responses (click thru results) as well as a pre defined number of impressions visitor seeing the advertising running.

With a well designed graphic ad the advertiser also gets brand building by web visitors seeing your business name (or brand name). Just like any traditional form of advertising you want to set a budget (which would be set on impressions) and then any good advertising program will give you results of click thrus. The good thing about online advertising is you can make adjustments if you are not getting a desired result.

OK sounds good – when do you pay for online advertising?

That is another good question. Generally you are billed for advertising post the advertisements running. With google ads you secure your advertising with a credit card and with specialized sites they will generally have billing cycles (monthly).  Of course the organization selling the advertising will have their own standards (and credit guidelines). The key is that you establish and fully understand the start and finish of the process (which again is page impressions or click thrus) – not actually calendar time.

Should we switch our print (or radio advertising) for Online Ads?

The best thing about online advertising is that is generally in-expensive. For as little as $30 you can increase your advertising reach by advertising online. The most successful programs will generally be a combination of your traditional advertising combined with solid online advertising. Picking the right site to advertising is also a key. Companies that offer multiple forms of media such as Print and Web are becoming powerful combinations to advertise with.

No doubt online advertising is here to say. Consider making it a part of your next advertising campaign.

Cheers Mate,

Peter Beare – Webmaster
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Peter Beare is CEO of BeareWare, a Website Design & Development Company located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. Since building his first website for a local sports club in 1998 Peter has been a webmaster. Over the last 10 years Peter’s duties with BeareWare have included website planning, design and development, website marketing and sales, as well as database application programming & project management. But when all is said and done, Peter is still a webmaster and this is “Interview with a Webmaster“.