Lean Times and Online Advertising

As countries around the world brace for possible recessions, and individuals, alongside with the corporations are becoming more cautious when and where they spend their money, online advertising market uncorks champagne. They have a reason to celebrate; since it is much easier to measure the efficiency of online advertisement, compared to that of print or TV more and more clients, set on downsizing the budget, while getting the most bang for their buck, turn to Web for promotions. "We constantly hear from our clients that when they're tightening their ad budgets, they look to digital because it's accountable and measurable, and they have a sense of what's working and what's not," Forbes magazine quotes Darin Brown, chief strategy officer at Avenue A/Razorfish. McDonald’s reportedly singed a $10 million deal with this ad company, so it’s clear that Darin Brown knows exactly what he is talking about. McDonald’s example used here is far from unique, just flashy.

Google Plus DoubleClick Equals Love

Google is beyond big - its proportions, in regards to everything (from the number of employees to the number of users, to their financial worth) are mind-blogging already and only keep growing. Thanks to its recent acquisition of DoubleClick, Google currently controls what is assessed to be just over 69% of the online advertising market. Microsoft and Yahoo’s concerns over Google’s domination of the online advertising market are well grounded. In fact, Attributor has recently released a survey which clearly shows that Google and DoubleClick control 34.39% and 35.3% of the ad server market. Google averages out 1,107,489,739 of unique monthly users, DoubleClick boasts 1,079,203,140, Yahoo comes in third place with an estimated 362,201,931 visitors, giving it 11.54% of the ad market share, and MSN lags behind with a modest 309,290,121 number of unique visitors a month, which translate into n 9.8% of the total online advertising market. Google shares are on the rise again this week, which is hardly surprising, given the numbers provided above. Due to Google’s clear lead in the number of the unique users it attracts monthly, its stocks are likely to keep growing. If you are a merchant, and you know that search engine A has almost three times the number of users than search engine B, where would you advertise, given that the cost of advertisement is roughly the same?

Goohoo

Goohoo? Goohoom? Agoohoo? What will be the name of the future search engine, if monopoly seems to be the question of when, not if? There are speculations that Yahoo just might form some kind of alliance with Google to prevent being taken over by Microsoft. Away from the public eye the battle of the corporate giants is gaining momentum. Associated Press reports that Yahoo “hopes to build upon the Google deal by combining its online operations with Time Warner Inc.’s AOL, which has been struggling to regain its stride after stumbling badly for years.” Google, revenue from search advertisement steadily increased by 2.7 percent throughout March, is planning to run search ads alongside Yahoo’s in the United States. ComScore reports that profits from paid advertisement are slowly decreasing, which is bad news for Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft, but is definitely good news for their clients; ideally in a bid to stay ahead the companies may lower their pay per click costs. Today is not that day. Sadly.

Let the World Know You Exist.

Let the World Know You Exist.

Indeed. How else is one supposed to do business? Internet is the great place to start. The quest to satisfy professional curiosity about the advice and the information available to those desirous to increase their business and visibility on the web brought mixed results. Apocalyptic predictions and conspiracy theories aside (domain names are ALL rapidly running out, strings of numbers are soon to replace website domains and names; Google tracks and stores all information in the preparation of its quest to take over the world – one personal website at a time) the amount of information, delivered via different channels and very different styles is overwhelming. There are dry bottom-line statistics, offering number of registered businesses and domains, nationally and world-wide. There are philosophical, Nietzsche-hued articles about the good and the evil of search engine marketing, pay per click advertising, and search engines in general. There are articles brimming with integrals, fractions and factors which make stock exchange column read like a children’s bed time story. There are articles where the first word of every sentence is a verb, firing off orders like a "runaway gun"- you don’t even have to actually read the article it to hear it barking at you.

How do you….? Why do you…? Website optimization, search engine and directories promotions, copywriting, marketing, linking, bookmarking – all the new, the old and the cleaver manipulation combined, aesthetic claims aside, serve one purpose – to increase profit. It is the old good marking and advertising, cloaked in the ‘I’m so advanced, you can do me yourself’ selling strategy, aimed at the small and mid-sized business. Big, successful companies don’t separate online advertising and all other media-type advertising; all their marketing needs are taken care by the capable hands of either their own marketing departments, or a marketing corporation they are clients of. You might become a devoted student of the new tricks and lingo, and with enough determination – ‘Sky is the limit. If there is a way, there is a will’ to overuse the clichés. Formal education, or even a course, taken through an accredited educational facility will help in understanding and mastering the processes. If you are hell-bend on learning how to create and to run a successful online promotion for yourself – grasping the ‘why’ is fundamental. Rules of the game, shortcuts to fame, logic and many components change too fast. That what were little-known, highly-effective gimmick a mere six months ago are completely outdated and are disregarded today. If you are an aspiring student – focus on the ‘why’ part of the question first, in the long run it will be significantly easier for you to stay up to date and to be able to judge which ‘how’ articles are valuable, whether or not they are up to date, and what are the latest ‘it’ gimmicks in the business.

Online Advertising

Online Advertising

If you are reading this post, I am positive that you know what online advertising is. It is a form of advertising that uses the internet as the means of delivery marketing messages and promotions to potential customers and clients. It includes banner ads, ad networks, e-mail advertising and search engine results pages.

There is a number of ways in which online advertising is purchased: Cost Per Impression, Cost Per Visitor, Cost Per Click, and Cost Per Action. The names are self-explanatory.

Cost Per Impression means that advertisers literally pay for the 'impression' of their ad to a specific audience.

Cost Per Visitor means that advertisers pay for the visit of a targeted visitor to their websites.

Cost Per Click means that advertisers pay when a targeted user clicks on their advertisement is redirected to the advertiser's website.

Cost Per Action means that the advertiser pays only for a completion of a certain transaction by the user (i.e. purchase). This type is mostly used in the affiliate marketing branch of businesses, and is generally not viable/available to small and medium sized businesses.

Research shows that users consider the search engine results pages to be the most useful and the least disruptive, while the floating media-rich advertisement (an ad which floats across the screen) and the expanding media-rich advertisement (an ad which increases and may change the contents of the webpage) are among users' least favorite types.