Bus 50 Advertising for Small Business
Class Session #18 - Internet Advertising

Advertising on the Internet and the World Wide Web

Advertising on the Internet and the World Wide Web - is similar to print advertising but uses digital screen media instead of the printed page. In what ways do you see similarities and differences?

It is also similar to Television advertising except it uses Many types of devices, often smaller screen sizes and the Internet instead of the television sets and Broadcasting. In what ways do you see similarities and differences?

We will look at two general parts of the Internet for advertising opportunities:

  • Social Networking
  • Web Pages

One big issue with the Internet and advertising is that the audience is less likely to accept advertising in many digital arenas and is mixed and unpredictable about others, for example:

  • Accepted - Search Engine Results Page ads, eZines
  • Not Accepted - Bulletin Boards/Usenet Newsgroups, Chat
  • Tolerated - eMail, newsletters
  • Tolerated as Publicity - Facebook, blogs
Web 2.0 Social Networking (audience participation)

Social Networking is loosely defined as user created and user participatory content on Internet. It is often mis-called Web 2.0, but broadly includes a mix of both Web (e.g. websites like Facebook)and other types of Internet Content (e.g. personal blogs)

Examples: Starbucks Community | TheOnlinePhotographer

 
A Brief User's History of the Internet aka Web 2.0 Social Networking
  • 1974 - On-line ATMs introduced – The newly connected machines soon led to the modern-day networks we’re all familiar with.
  • 1984 Apple introduces the Desktop Computer in a single two-minute Super Bowl Ad
  • 1986 telephony Internet telephone connections
  • 1988 Commercial eMail available, usually through work site and educational institutions
  • 1991, Al Gore "invents" the Internet wisely dubs it the “Information Superhighway” in December when Congress passes a bill to build the National Information Infrastructure
  • 1991 Laptops developed - the look and feel of the laptop was defined by the Apple computers, (built in trackball, keyboard and Palm rest). Not to be outdone the IBM Thinkpad 700C introduced the TrackPoint a year later.
  • 1992-1994 Starbucks opens in California
  • 1993 Proprietary Online eMail service provides large scale adoption of Internet email as a global standard.
  • 1993 Cell phones available to public in replaceable hand-held sizes (2nd Generation)
  • 1995 the wwweb and the Internet becomes available to households with Netscape and the W3C
  • 1995 Laptop batteries last more than 10 minutes and laptops, power cords are introduced to recharge them, hard drives big enough to hold data and run software...they become portable.
  • OnStar satellite subscription service available in cars.
  • 1996 MapQuest.com was launched on the Internet, changing the way people obtain street maps and directions forever.
  • 1996 (Palm) Pilot was the name of the first generation of personal digital assistants (PDAs) manufactured by Palm Computing in 1996 (then a division of U.S. Robotics).
  • 1997 IRC Chat and text messaging
  • 1997 AOL Instant Messaging (IM)
  • 1998 Cell Phones start to become mainstream
  • 2000 Text messaging launched for cell phones (2nd Generation)
  • 2000 eHarmony & Match.com online dating
  • 2001 Streaming audio and video
  • 2002 Blogging becomes available when MetaWeblog API merges RSS 0.92 with XML-RPC to provide a powerful blogging API. 3/14/02.
  • 2003 T-Mobile Hotspot develop wireless access
  • 2003 MySpace launched
  • 2000 GPS systems In Your Car, and on your cell phone, dude! (1996 developed | 2004 in cars)
  • 2004 Facebook launched
  • 2004 Blackberry becomes popular
  • 2004 Flickr is an image and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community platform. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository
  • 2006 A Skype user can have local numbers for voice and video telephone; Skype Video conferencing was introduced in January 2006 for the Windows and Mac OS X platform clients.
  • 2007 the iPod introduced and iPod Ads as well a the iPod nano Ads
  • 2007 iPhone introduced and iPhone Ads (all Ads)
  • 2007 - 2009 Twitter launched and takes over media and the Congress (see 4 Reception - 4.2 In the Media )
Where is the Internet going? Internet 2 and Web 2.0

Internet 2 is a media generated term that is meant to imply that the electronic standards for improving the Internet are, in fact, being improved and being worked on by a "consortium" of businesses, governments, educational and research institutions and leaders worldwide. Standards are thought to be developed for:

Speed, connectivity, electronic universal languages, technology, physical infrastructure and so on.

In fact, they are not!

| Internet2 (Not) | Internt2Abilene (Is) | Internet2 FAQs |

To see a summary of the main organizations running the Internet and contributing to its architecture and use include see CABT160 Internet Basics:

Web 2.0 is user driven form and content on the Web as opposed to organization driven content. From this point of view the internet information has four primary sharing patterns:

  1. one-to-one,
  2. one-to-many,
  3. many-to-many,
  4. and many-to-one.

Internet Technologies to meet all four of these design patterns, are evolving and include...

...as examples of user developed content.

Businesses use these tools as well.
http://www.japanesegarden.com/

Three particular technologies and attendant device development (wireless, PDAs, iPods, etc) have made Web 2.0 aka Social Networking able to respond to the huge interest people have in participating in content development and sharing.

1. RSS - Rich Site Summary aka Really Simple Syndication - is a lightweight XML format designed for multipurpose extensible metadata description and syndication formatting:

for data feeds from a website content publisher (including the BBC, CNET, CNN, Disney, Forbes, Motley Fool, ESPN, Wired, Red Herring, Salon, Slashdot, ZDNet, and more) that syndicates its content through an RSS publisher.

for Blogs - A blog (a contraction of the term web log) is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many bogs

2. Wireless and satellite communications andhe building of the cellular network towers

3. PDAs and touchscreens,cell phones (iPhone) and other protable devices

Web 2.0 | | Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
Web Pages

In marketing an eCommerce or website business and starting an ad campaign there are some things you absolutely must do to get off the ground.

For a traditional (bricks & mortar) business you put up a storefront sign, get in the Yellow Pages, print business cards. You should generate some pre-opening publicity in the media and distribute flyers to customers in your vicinity. You probably want to engage in some pre-opening advertising. Then you continue to market and promote your business.

Similarly, for an eCommerce or website business plan you should:

  1. Identify your broad markets and target market your efforts
  2. Put Out The Welcome Mat - Domain Name, Site Optimization
  3. Generate Pre-Opening Publicity
  4. Develop an Internet Marketing Plan and develop your site to be search engine friendly (SEO).
  5. Develop a "real world" Marketing and Advertising plan (you may want to take a Marketing or Advertising course or both.)
  6. Integrate The Web Effort into Traditional Business Promotions, Marketing & Advertising Literature
  7. Develop a partnering plan for "real world" referrals and an Affiliate Plan (links and swaps, etc.) with related  businesses and vendors online.
  8. Develop customer service policies, good customer enticements, customer referrals, forums, review postings and other after sale service, feed back and marketing plans.
Below is sample strategy focusing on Place (distribution) and Publicity.
  • Choose a domain name and Web host and get online
  • Consider multiple domain names
  • Consider additional Web Hosts for bandwidth and speed issues at other geographic locations using multiple domain names; consider different language version and overseas hosting
  • Sell a product or two on as many auction sites as you can - you get promotion, brand awareness, additional Webspace, a link back to your site and a chance to communicate with customers via email.
  • consider multiple websites, home pages and site personalities for different target markets.
  • Identify Special Interest Web sites and subscribe, enter discussion groups, put up classified ads, make an inexpensive storefront, link back to your Website
  • Solicit coop links and join link exchanges
  • Submit repeatedly (every 3-6 months; this is debatable) to search engines and have your site search engine ready; submit to international search engines
  • Use eMail for publicity releases, coupons to customers, offer good customer discounts and so on
  • Create a newsletter, discussion group, chat room, sign ups for sales and specials, etc.; create consumer interaction.

1. Paid Web Advertising - Paid ads cost you money. However, they are effective if well planned, targeted to your customers and scheduled well. A nice thing about paid Web ads is that the people seeing them are generally comfortable users with the Web and Internet. Another nice thing is that you can test your ads, monitor responses, track statistics and not pay a small fortune to do so.

Paid Web Ads include:

  • Classified Ads - at targeted sites and in eZines
  • eZine Ads - similar to display ads in print media
  • Site Ads - banner, popups, etc.
  • Paid Placements in Search Engines & Directories
  • Pay per click (ppc) services

We will focus on Paid Placements, Pay per Click, and Site Ads in this 1st section. The other are covered below in the 2nd section.

Paid Placements in Search Engines & Directories

There is a world of terminology and jargon developing in Web Advertising similar to and mimicking what we use in the real world of advertising for ad insertions, measures of effectiveness and buying and scheduling of ads. Click here to learn more.

Paid Placements in search engines either charge:

  • a direct fee when your site or ad comes up as the result of a search, this is called a "hit" when you site or ad comes up in the listings that are returned as a result of the customers search. (Not to be confused with a "page hit" where you track statistics of requests of a file from a Web server.
  • or a fee only when the customer "clicks through." This means the paid ad or link comes up as a hit AND the customer clicks on it to request the server to download and display the page.
    Example: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hits&btnG=Google+Search

Google AdWords - You sign up for this service, determine your budget and get statistical tracking of the results.

  • You make your text Ad
  • You choose search words and terms
  • You bid approximately 5 cents (more or less) to come up close to or at the top of the list of returns from a customer search
  • The hits are listed on the right side of the screen
  • You can adjust your bid up to come up at the top of the list
  • Google tracks statistics and allows you to refine your word list and even suggests which words are working or not and other words to try.
  • Google also suggest bid prices to try
  • They only charge if the customer clicks through, but in the meantime the customer might read your text ad that came up on the right - this equals an impression or exposure
  • You can scale the amount of responses and your budget to get the response

Other Search Engines and Directories like Yahoo offer similar services using a software system called Overture. Yahoo now owns Overture. Yahoo calls it Adsales. From their homepage, click on "Yahoo! Search Marketing" just under the search box or try clicking here.

Google AdSense - This is a service whereby other web publishers (other websites) place ads through google and you allow their ads to display on any or all of your webpages...AND you get paid for accepting these ads. You can control the relevance of the ads that appear. You can also display Google's search box on your pages and share in the revenues of other companies that are using AdWords when the search originates from your page. It is also a banner ad service. (see below)

Google's Froogle - Froogle is Google's online shopping site and directory of products. You can list your products on Froogle for free. You can list your prices, products and brands so that they come up when customers ask for a product in the Froogle search box. You will be displayed with other merchants. You can add ad paid placements on the right with AdWords, display a text and graphic display that comes up when a customer clicks on your text link and you can link back to your website.

example: http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=music+cds&hl=en&btnG=Search+Froogle&lmode=unknown

In order for your products to be included in Froogle, you will need to send them a product feed, which is a simple text file listing your product information. You can include graphics. There's currently no limit to the number of products you can submit. Unlike other online shopping sites, Froogle costs nothing. There's no spending account to set up and maintain. No cost-per-click. No cost, period.

A product feed is a file containing information about the products listed on your site.

By sending us this product feed regularly (once a month, once a day, or somewhere in between), you can make sure Froogle is displaying the latest pricing, promotional, or other information for your products.

Pay Per Click Services - These services are intermediaries or facilitators that save you the trouble of going directly to Google or Yahoo and others.

http://www.payperranking.com/

http://www.websitepros.com/html/visibility_online.html

Return to Index

2. Other Types of Paid Web Advertising

Banner Ads - Usually appear at the top of a page. They can be static banners, animated banners and interactive in nature. HTML banner ads use HTML elements, often including interactive forms, instead of (or in addition to) standard graphical elements.All these forms are a type of Paid ad placement that can be arranged by:

  1. Paying another site directly for the ad placement - negotiate the terms on your own - anything goes.
  2. Using a service to get the banner ad placed.

Specifically, it's a graphical web advertising unit, typically measuring 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels tall (i.e. 468x60) and appearing at the top of a home page or deep placed at your site. It can be a vertical ad, usually on the right side of the page but possibly placed anywhere. For more information try "How Stuff Works" website.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau or IAB sets voluntary guidelines for website advertising.

Click Here for more info on Banner Ads

Button Ads - A graphical advertising unit called a button ad , smaller than a banner ad. They are often rectangular or occasionally round. Button ads come in a variety of sizes. There are standards such as 120x90, 120x60, 125x125 and 88x31 (micro-button), although nonstandard button ads are not uncommon. Whereas banners are often placed at the top or bottom of a page, buttons are often placed towards the middle of a page on the left or right sides.

Text Ads (aka text sponsorships) - Advertisement using text-based hyperlinks. Text-based ads, although common in email, have been dominated on the Web by their graphical-based counterparts like banner ads and button ads.

Google text advertising options, Premium Sponsorship & Adwords Program, claim a "click-through rate 4-5 times higher than industry standards for banner ads.

While lacking some of the advantages of graphical ads, text-based ads have some powerful advantages of their own. They download almost instantly and are not affected by ad blocking software.

Pop up Ads - An ad that displays in a new browser window.

Pop up windows come in many different shapes and sizes, typically in a scaled-down browser window with only the Close, Minimize and Maximize commands.

There is a strong resentment by some Web surfers towards pop-up ads. Marketers often do not realize the ill-will generated by pop-ups because it is easier to click the "close" button than send an email to complain. What can often be seen is an above-average click-through rate, although some of this can come from "false positives," unintentional clicks when the pop-up gets in the way of the desired target. Advertisers can get a better picture of the effectiveness of pop-up advertising by paying attention to conversion rates and return on investment (ROI).

Pop Under Ads - An ad that displays in a new browser window behind (beneath) the current browser window.

The pop-under ad is the sneakier relative of the pop-up ad. While pop-up ads are often shown (and closed) instantly, pop-under ads linger behind the current browser window, appearing only after other windows have been closed.

Vertical Banner and Skyscraper Ads - unusual sizes of ads guided by the IAB guidelines. A Vertical banner ad measures120 pixels wide and 240 pixels tall. Skyscraper ads are tall -- very tall -- with heights often ranging from 500 to 800 pixels (and widths often ranging from 120 to 160 pixels).