Advertising Media—Internet

Related Terms: Advertising Strategy

The invention of the World Wide Web created a new way to reach out to people—and for business to reach its customers. The World Wide Web is a communications network; as such, it is a natural venue for communicating advertising messages. Early on people needed computer know-how and command of communications protocols to use the Web. In the mid-1990s this began to change rapidly.

In the early 1990s came the first graphical browser. With that and the later spread of high-speed connections to the network, the World Wide Web, the Internet, became an powerful economic engine. The volatility associated with the early days of Internet growth has settled a bit; but fifteen years later it is still a enormous economic and cultural force; it is changing the ways in which we work and communicate.

Advertising on the Internet, online advertising, has seen many ups and downs. Exactly how best to use the Internet as an advertising medium is still a subject of debate. What is certain is that more and more people are using the Internet more and more regularly. The Internet has "the eyeballs." Advertising is about the eyeballs.

Small businesses may have a unique opportunity for advertising success on the Internet. There are many ways to do so. The sophistication of online advertising campaigns has grown with the proliferation of techniques, from banner ads and pop-ups to direct e-mail and paid search terms. The key to a successful campaign is getting the proper mix of techniques.

MEANS OF ADVERTISING ON THE WEB

To get started involves an initial investment. It is the cost of building an online presence, a web page or web site. This is necessary because most Internet advertising involves bringing users to a web site, "generating traffic." The web site itself may consist primarily of a simple presentation of information about a company, its products and services. The site may also be a more interactive display with e-commerce capabilities allowing a visitor to read about and see pictures of products, to place an order or even to purchase and pay for items online. An e-commerce capable site is often referred to as a cyberstore. The cost of building a web site will depend on the complexity of the resulting web site.

The first questions to ask when deciding on the best way to advertise on the web are the same questions one would pose in launching an ad campaign.

• Who is the target consumer? Who is interested in purchasing the product or service? What are the specific demographics of this consumer (age, employment, sex, attitudes, etc.)?
• How does the targeted customer like to buy? How does she/he use the Internet?
• What is required to get the target consumer to purchase the product? Does the product lend itself to rational or emotional appeals?
• How much profit is likely to be generated for each dollar spent on ads?

Once these questions are answered, planning and designing a web site and online advertising campaign can begin.

ADVERTISING TOOLS

Paid Search Terms

Internet users usually navigate the web by starting their session at one of the Internet's search engines: AltaVista, AOLsearch, Dogpile, Excite, Google, HotPot, Lycos, MSN, and Yahoo—, to name but a few. The goal of an advertiser is to capture those users who may be interested in his or her product or service.

Google was one of the first search engines to offer advertisers the opportunity to do just that. Today, many search engine businesses offer this opportunity by selling terms. The practice is called paid search terms, or pay-per-click search-engine advertising, or, in the case of Google, AdWords. By purchasing a term through a search engine, you purchase the right to have a hypertext link appear on the result page of any search phrase that included the term you purchase. For example, a user types the words "air filtration system" into a search engine. The company that has purchased the term "air filtration system" from the search engine will appear on the list of results for that search and the user will have the opportunity to link directly to the advertising company's web site. The advertising air filtering company only pays if and when the user actually clicks through to its web site. This is called pay-per-click.

The use of paid search terms is the fastest growing method of online advertising; it represents 40% of the approximately $12 billion spend on online advertising in the U.S. in 2005. It's also the most potentially powerful online advertising tools for the small business, according to Seth Stevenson in his article entitled "Words That Sell." This is particularly true for companies dealing with specialized items. "Do a search for 'sling-back shoes,' for example, and you will find small e-commerce sites competing head-to-head with major retail chains" explains Stevenson. This form of advertising helps to level the playing field.

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