Online advertising

Online advertisingis a broad term that can take forms like search engine marketing, social networking web sites and on-site marketing. Just as with search engine optimization, targeting plays a crucial role in online advertising too. Targeting increases chances that the viewer will take the time to act on the ad, and it also saves money and effort by avoiding people who will never buy a company product. A company can target customers by following criteria: keyword targeting (through search engines), demographic targeting (depending on the audience of a web site or ad publisher) and behavioral targeting (using information from cookies to track browsing trends, such as pages visited or searches made on search engines). To identify customer’s profiles, companies usually place simple surveys on their web site.

Depending on its objectives, a company can choose from several types of online ads. Display ads, or banner ads, are the most popular, and contain images with marketing message and link to a landing page. Text ads are any paid advertisement that uses hyperlinked text to link to a landing page. In some cases, small text ads can include graphics as well as a headline and several lines of body text. Rich media or flash ads are usually created in Flash or JavaScript, and can feature video, interactivity,and even gameplay. Video ads are excellent ways to show product reviews or demonstrations. Popup ads open in a new window on top of the current browser window, while a popunder ad appears underneath. Popups can be full web pages, and can include video, rich media, or a contact form.

When decided on the type of advertisement, a company should then choose how to pay for it. Under the Cost per Mille model, a flat fee for every thousand impressions has to be paid, regardless of whether an ad gains any clicks or conversions. On the other hand, advertisers pay for a Cost per Click model only when a user actually clicks an ad. Finally, when a company wantsa web site visitor to complete a designated task, such as signing up for a free trial or making a purchase,it can use a Cost per Action model. CPA is sometimes referred to as Cost per Conversion or Cost per Acquisition.

Below are given the four main forms of online marketing, including search engine advertising, advertising on social networks, on-site marketing and publishing press releases.

Search engine advertising is when advertisements are displayed to search engine visitors after a defined set of search terms is requested. For the most part, these advertising campaigns are based on a Pay Per Click model where advertisers pay a set amount each time their ad is clicked on.

According to the latest figures, Google prevails the world search engine market with 81% share, way behind go Yahoo and MSN with 7% and 5%, respectively[5].Because Google has such large market share, a simple rule of thumb when determining which search engines to place advertising with is to start with Google AdWords.

AdWords accounts are segmented into campaigns, which break down further into ad groups. Each ad group can target a specific set of keyword phrases. This allows advertisers to segment campaigns into groups targeting specific customers. Campaigns are created for each broad category of products. For example, a car manufacturer might choose an advertising campaign for passenger cars or for commercial vehicles. The passenger car campaign might be divided to hatchback and sedan ad groups.

Ad groups allow companies to break a campaign into very specific niche segments, which will allow to target ads directly at those search engine visitors. In Google AdWords, it is possible create up to 25 campaigns per account, each with 100 different ad groups. Also, marketers can track each ad’s effectiveness from their Google AdWords account by calculating a click-through rate, cost per conversion or ROI.

If a company sells a product targeted at 18- to 24-year-old people who are college graduates, then advertising on social networks may be a really good solution for business.

With hundreds of millions of users, many of which log in every single day, social networking web sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube offer an alternative, and highly targeted, advertising solution. Ads on social networking web sites allow to target according to virtually all of the information they collect about users—or at least the information users choose to make public. Social networks have their own software for tracking impressions and clicks, just like Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing.

What is more, it is now much cheaper to promote products on social networks than on search engines. To compare, a pay per click billing model will cost from $2.00 to $2.50 on GoogleAds, while only from $0.15 to $0.30 using Facebook Ads [6]. Until more advertisers enter the market, these prices will stay low, because they are market-driven and based on advertiser bids.

Advertising on social networking web sites can be very effective if targeted, tested, and optimized. Now is definitely the time to try it out, because as more advertisers realize the benefits of advertising on social networks, those benefits will become less and less attractive as competition increases. If advertising on social networking web sites fits the target demographics, then it is the best to spend money on.

Running on-site marketing campaign is more a necessity than a possibility to a marketer: when visitors are already looking at the company’s web site for information on products or services, they may be unaware of all products offered. This is why a significant part of homepage should be dedicated to marketing. New products and specials should be prominently featured on the page for first-time visitors to see.

Sometimes it is reasonable to personalize the web site to show upgrade opportunities and promotions so that customers see offers that apply specifically to their current status. If a web site developer restricts certain features to upgraded members, he should definitely consider making those sections available to all members—but instead of showing all the content, show an example or teaser, and offer options for upgrading their accounts.

Nowadays it is increasingly difficult for small and medium-sized businesses to gain mainstream coverage from conventional media forms. Publishing press releases can be a powerful marketing tool for business to generate more sales leads and increase online visibility.

‘A press releaseor news release is an official statement sent to media outlets providing detailed information about an event the company wants to get into the news, such as a new product launch or investor relations [page 8, 1].’ Press statements that target web site publishers and bloggers, as well as targeting customers directly, give the opportunity to reach millions of people every day.

Press releases are rarely sent by facsimile these days. As well as being sent to mainstream media journalists, press releases are now available online for customers to find through a web search, or read on a company’s blog. When a press release is posted online, it becomes immediately available and has all the capabilities of a regular web page. Many bloggers and online publishers access these to read for story ideas close to their niche. There are several ways to send a press release, but the most popular are emails (directly to journalists), online newswire (specialized sites dedicated to online press releases), and company web site uploads.

A company should publish press releases anytime it has news or information to share with customers, clients, or investors. ‘The following are all excellent reasons why you’d send a press release:

· a new product or service to announce;

· a case study about how you helped a client or made a client money;

· a new employee has been hired with extensive experience in your industry;

· your company has won an award or been recognized in your industry as a thought leader.’ [page 9, 1]

When writing a press release, a publisher should include any information that will help support a message. It means offering evidence when making marketing claims and supporting them with third-party reviews, specifications, or some kind of data. Similarly, if a company hires a new employee or wins an award, it should describe how positively that will affect the business and help customers.

In terms of size, a press release should be long enough to cover the main topic. As a basic rule, the article should be at 400–500 words. If it is much longer, there is a risk of losing audience’s attention.

Monitoring the news channels is an important part of public relations. No matter if it is good or bad, it is necessary to take notes on what people are saying about a company and products or services. A service called RSS ( Really Simple Syndication) is a way to know when your company or product is mentioned in the major news or blogs without having to actually visit them. This application is updated automatically when the web site is updated.

Also, it is important to know when people mention a product or company. Using a social media monitoring service like Trackur, companies can be notified when they are mentioned on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn.

When a company, product, or service was reviewed favorably, it is crucial to write a short comment on the post thanking people for their time. If the article or post is negative, the reply should always be respectful, state a point, and then leave it at that.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-13