Online Advertising Explained

Successful online advertising starts with planned objectives...just like traditional advertising. But one of the main differences and attributes of online advertising is the ability to obtain clear and accurate measurements of success or failure through web traffic analysis.

Some of the most common reasons for creating an online advertising campaign are:

• Building brand awareness
• Increasing website traffic
• Creating leads and sales

Your objectives will help decide what type of advertising you need and where it should appear.

Think about the people you are targeting. Is this a big group or a small number?

Some definitions:

Banner Ads

An advertising graphic shown on a web site. Can be animated.

Click-Through Rate

The percentage of people who click on a banner. For example if 1,000 people see the banner, and 17 click on the banner, the Click Thru Rate is 1.7%.

Hits

Dubious measure of a site's traffic.

One 'Hit' is actually one access to any file on the web server, so a single HTML page containing several embedded images may count as several hits for each Page View.

Commonly mis-used - some webmasters say "Hit" when they really mean "Page View" or "Unique Visitor".

Impressions or Page Views

1 impression is the display of 1 advertisement (usually a banner) to 1 person.
1 Page View is the display of 1 HTML page to 1 person.

This is used as a measure of traffic by many advertising supported sites. It is important to them as they make most of their money from impression based advertising, and each Page View results in one or more impressions.

CPM

Abbreviation for 'Cost per Thousand [Impressions]' ('M'=Thousand).

Large advertisers pay for advertising based on the number of times their advertisements (usually banners) are displayed. Each display of their of their advertisement is one impression.

For example, an advertising rate of $10 CPM, means the advertiser is paying $10 for every 1,000 impressions, or $0.01 for each advertising impression.

Keywords

A keyword is a value that is typed into a search engine, in order to find relevant results.

An important part of search engine positioning is to identify relevant keywords, and to incorporate them, appropriately, into your web site's pages.

Geotargeting

Allows advertisers to target their ads geographically using a range of IP addresses.

Banner Options

Banner ads come in a variety of sizes, static or animated. Scrolling banners can show a different advertisement every 10-30 seconds. Here's some things to keep in mind when creating a banner ad:

• Make it quick to load. Keep it under 5K. Right-click on your banner and view it's Properties. You can see the file size listed.
• Stay simple. Don't get too complicated with heavy text and confusing colors.
• Make it easy-to-read.
• Always use ALT tags for text display on those surfing wihtout images.
• Verify that the banner clicks-through to the appropriate page on your website.
• Limit your use of animation.
• Include a call to action like "Visit our website now".
• Test your banners in dirrefent browsers at different screen resolutions.
• Get your web designer to make your banner ads for you in a variety of standard sizes if you are not experienced in advertising.

Types of Banners other than Static

• Expanding - They get bigger when you click on them. They often have a button labeled "Expand" and rather than take you away to another website, simply open up and reveal more information.
• Animated - These are moving images and can gain more attention. But I hear from many of our clients their irritation at animated ads. Use sparingly.
• Drop-Down Menu - These have embedded HTML and allow the user to choose options from a drop-down menu. This great for co-op advertising. Several businesses can advertise together.
• Interstitial - These appear in a separate window as the website loads. These ads often contain large grphics, animation, and streaming presentations.
• Java, Flash, and Shockwave - These allow for rich media presentation including video and audio.
• Floating Ads and DHTML - These float over the content of the website you're visiting...or trying to visit. These ads are intrusive although they do get a high click-through rate.
• Unicast - These are just like little TV ads that run in a separate window. High click-through rates on these.

Where to Put Your Ads

High-Traffic Sites like search engines can reach a huge range of people. You can focus your range by specifying keywords.

Content Sites offer a more targeted group. Find a site that shares your target market and who can find smaller numbers of traffic, but more qualified and interested in your site content.

Once you've identified a websites you're considering placing ads with, be sure to compare the value of your advertising dollar spent.

• How many ads are on the page? And where is your ad placed?
• Are the banner rotations based on a targeting scheme or profiling method?
• Are you being charged for impressions or click-throughs?
• How much traffic is the website receiving? Will there be lots of viewers for your ad?

Helpful Websites
Banner Ad Creation & Placement by Animation.com
DoubleClick - an ad network
ValueClick - Internet's largest ad network
Adbility - explains ad networks, ad serving, banner programs, tracking and more
Advertising Age Magazine - for articles about online advertising
Nielsen Net Ratings - provides updated statistics about internet advertisers and other internet stats.

Recommended Titles