Internet Advertising

The internet connects people and like any media, there is a big difference between size of distribution and the number of people that actually read any one advertisement. Newspapers will promote circulation numbers but what percentage of newspapers are actually read. If newspapers can be home delivered for a ridiculously cheap price of $5 a week, how many people read a newspaper every day, or read it completely? As an advertiser, how many people are guaranteed to see your advertisement? Newspapers aim to increase circulation because the higher the circulation the more it will cost to advertise on them. But with the sheer volume of information in newspapers, on the internet, in magazines, in direct mailing and advertising on the roadside, television, radio and PayTV networks, has the advertising industry outdone itself by producing so much material and diluting the value of advertising.

The internet in the same way boasts millions of internet users, but most sites receive only a handful of visitors. Enter, the search engines with their promise of bringing visitors to your website and suddenly a huge media empire has been born.

Although it is important to understand search technology and to measure website performance, underlying every successful business is a product and a market - if you don't have a product or you have a badly written and badly designed website, there is very little value in prmoting your website. In the beginning, marketing a new product was easy, all it took was a good idea, take out a patent, develop a product and write a simple ad and sell your product to your local community. Now, with a flood of products and services on the market and globalization, it is no wonder that 30% of new businesses fail in their first year of business and it is also no surprise that many new businesses run up losses year after year. Add into the equation, internet marketing and the mix of gold rush fever and seemingly unlimited audience has led to a frenzy of businesses and individuals clambering to build websites and live the online dream.

The cold hard truth is that established businesses have a huge advantage in internet marketing over new start up businesses. The advantages include; existing customer bases, word of mouth referrals, capital, cash flow and branding. The vast majority of successful internet start up businesses have been started with venture capital, affiliate programs or at great personal sacrifice. However, the internet has provided savvy individuals and businesses with the opportunity to directly market without media companies, and thus greatly reducing the amount they pay for advertising.

Internet advertising relies on keywords

Internet advertising is not the same as traditional advertising. It is almost totally reliant on keyword phrases. A searcher enters a 'keyword phrase' of a product or service they are looking for, and this brings up both natural (free) and paid search results. The natural search results display the webpages title tag and either a snippet from the website or from the page description. A paid search result generate an online text ad. Both lead to a company page or specially designed landing page. Therefore, to use the internet effectively for advertising, a business must know or guess, the keywords and keyword phrases that are most likely going to result in an interested customer. If the product is so new or unusual, how would a person know to search for it in the first place? If however it is a niche product or service, that is difficult to find in the 'real world', the internet is a perfect place to market the product because a well designed website should rank well for keyword phrases and would have a lower pay per click advertising cost per click that highly competitive terms.

Understanding the internet and search to develop a online marketing strategy is very important. See The Australian "Keywords hold the secret to hitting online target"

Methods of online advertising

Businesses can use internet marketing to promote products and services and this can be achieved by the following means -

• natural search results - Natural search results are search results that you do not pay for. The major search engines are Google, Yahoo and MSN and when an internet user types in a word or words into the search bar, it will return results. The results on the left hand side are natural search results; the most viewed of all search results. This requires working with a website designer that understands search engines and who can develop websites that are well coded, modifying copywriting, and researching and analyzing competitors.
• Paid search results - You can also pay to advertise on search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. There are various methods available but the most popular is adwords. You bid for words or phrases, and when an internet user clicks on your ad, you pay the search engine for the traffic that comes to your website. The ads are usually placed in the right hand column of the search results or syndicated to websites that have signed up for Google AdSense.

• Paying for advertising on other websites - Information based websites offer adverting on their site for a fixed sum and fixed period of time. Many websites charge too much for online advertising and cannot demonstate a clear return on investment. Few people may see your advertisement because the webpage that your ad appears on, gets very little traffic.
• Free links - it is also possible to get free links from websites and you can also link to useful websites. Linking your website is an important aspect of internet marketing but should not be undertaken as a mindless rush to get as many links as possible.
• Banner advertising - companies who sell banner advertising should demonstate that their banner ads work in most browsers, operating systems and common browser settings. If users do not have flash installed, ads may not be visible to all visitors and this is why we suspect Google has continued with text based ads.
• Email advertising - depending on the product or service and mailing list, this can be effective but SPAM filters may stop your ads from being read.

Other methods of using the internet for marketing

• direct marketing
• selling products or services on ebay
• advertising your website on flyers, business cards, brochures or local paper, television or radio advertisements. You should reward your website visitors with discounts, special offers, detailed product information or latest news.
• viral marketing - using forums, and blogs to promote your product or servicees

What is the best internet advertising option?

The best option by far is getting natural search results for keyword phrass relevant to your business. Natural search results account for about 80% of click throughs and according to website usability research are more likely to be clicked on and treated with authority. However, in order to get good results for natural search results, a website must be designed with search engines as well as users in mind, requiring planning and working with consultants, designers and copywriters that can execute the plan. It is a long term investment not a quick fix.

How expensive is internet advertising?

All advertising is expensive and internet advertising is becoming increasingly expensive, driven by increased competition.

The low risk option is Adwords and depending on where you ads appear, it may be possible to get a quick return on investment but it is also quite risky with the rising costs of click fraud and impression fraud. It is also advisable to manage your account to ensure that you are getting targetted visitors, which represent higher sales conversions. Most people will find google adwords to be the most attractive form of internet advertising as it appears to be the cheapest but will cost more in the long run. Generally companies are choosing to invest in both natureal search results and paid internet advertising.

Google Adwords are less likely to be viewed by online searchers when it appears in the right hand column but when syndicated to other websites can be positioned in very prominent positions, thus representing excellent value for money, especially if the website is targetted towards an niche market. It is also important to realize that not every visitor is a prospective customer. Visitors to your website may include your competitors, students, researchers or businesses looking to sell you products and services. Therefore the proportion of "real customers" is less than the actual number of people visiting your website and website statistics may often count the same visitor more than once.

Measuring results

The benefit of internet advertising or online advertising is that it is more measurable than other forms of advertising. You can use your website statistics to analyze where visitors are coming from and become quite selective about what advertising options are working and are not working. However, fraud is becoming increasingly prevalent and it is possible for a dishonest SEO consultant to use automated programs, to make it appear as though your site was getting traffic, in order to stimulate more investment.

Therefore, it is prudent to survey real customers rather than relying solely on website statistics.

Conclusion

Build your website to meet the needs of your business, bearing search engines in mind with a website designer and consultant that can help you obtain free natural search results. Routinely analyze your statistics for business opportunities, get feedback from customers via your website, be creative in your marketing, adapt your product and services to changing markets. Advertising should be integrated with a business plan, and companies that focus on search engine optimization as their business plan, can quickly find that they have built their business on sinking sand because visitors alone do not guarantee business success.