Online advertising and the writer
The early Internet was a medium for organisations and businesses: they
quickly recognised the value of websites. So it was only
a small step from providing information to actually advertising.
But it was Google which really seized the
moment and made Internet advertising a global business. Their Unique Selling
Point was that because it was powered by a search engine, they delivered adverts that in some way matched what the browser
was looking for.
The Internet is really the marketers’ dream. For display ads the information
is responding to a user request. Web pages are a unique ‘magazine’ or
‘newspaper’ that can be prepared for each ‘reader’. The key point is that the system
knows just enough to allow adverts to be targeted to the interests and possibly
the income, gender and ethnicity of the person.
There is also a different, inverted economy of scale when working on the
Internet. For conventional newsprint, an advert has to bear its share of the
finite print space booked. Rather than paying for tens of thousands of items to
be printed, where 99% of the space paid for is unread, each Internet page is
unique. It only springs into existence at the behest of the person calling it
up, so the unit cost per reader, as well as the absolute costs, can be much
lower. On the Internet, the ‘print run’ is potentially infinite.
So online advertising is good news for emerging companies and
micro-businesses when big advertising budgets are not available. And never
forget, if you are a writer, you are a business.
Online display
The Google ads model (They call it 'AdSense'
- also provided by other search engines)
These ads can appear when you do a search or when you visit some websites.
Google put the ads alongside the search results. If the space is on a website,
it uses space is allocated by the site owner - but it is Google that chooses and
sends the ads. The ads they send are based on the page content which the search
engine has already analysed.
So the model works like this: ‘If you chose to look at this page, you might
be interested in these adverts’. As far as we know, they do not know very much about the person browsing except
that they are interested in the contents of that page.
All of these ads look similar and again it is the page owner who selects the shape,
size and colour. So you cannot judge the size of a business by the size of
its ad, unlike most other media ads where size really matters. However, not all ads are equal. The ads
that are actually displayed are selected
from among the businesses that have subscribed for this service. This uses a sophisticated model,
as you would expect.
There is nothing as simple as rate card. You make your bid. Then
where-and-when you appear depends upon what you pay. If you are selling music,
you will need to pay more to be displayed than someone who is selling antique
music instruments. So, as an advertiser you need to study the metrics and tweak
your payments to make sure your adverts are actually displayed. Your $50 budget
could last a long time because they never get displayed! It is like budget
airlines and ebay – the price is set by the market.
There is a pay-per-view and a pay-per-click model. The only way to see which
one works is to go and experiment. You will find people who will tell you that
pay-per-click online ads are so wonderful because you only pay if
people respond to the ad. But others will argue that just being there is what
matters, as it is cheaper and still brings people in. You need to know your
customers.
The high level of acceptance of these small ads is because they are there on
a ‘take it or leave it’ basis. They don’t shout at you but just give you a
tagline.
When adverts are placed on somebody’s site by Google, they call this
‘Affiliate marketing’ and that term has been adopted: The affiliate gets paid a
little for hosting advertisements. If your site relies on selling things then
you probably don’t want rivals advertising alongside your offering (although
some targeted blocking is allowed by teh site owner). But if you are looking to
fund lots of free, quality content then Google ads are one possible way to help
pay the bills.
Should you host online adverts? The average small business has few chances of
building a massively popular site that will attract the quantity and quality of
visitors you need to support decent advertising revenues. WritersServices
displays about a quarter of a million ads per day, but even at that level you
won’t pay one proper salary. For small businesses, think of being a user of
online ads and paying to drive sales to your site, rather than hosting them. Use
ads to drive sales as a way
that will boost your income.
Widgets
The online ads are just widgets. The ad will then have a link which
can lead you to an information and sales site. So a book widget can ring people
to you but will you hold them?
But many of the social networking sites let you make widgets and you can get
these to dive people to the place where you can sell your book. All of the
online booksellers will generate widgets for you as they will bring the sale
back to them.
It works like this:
This is a no-cost online advert - so it has to be profitable.
The Future
If you wanted to see the shape of things to come, open an Amazon account and
I challenge you to resist their recommendations. They not only know where you
live (to deliver your books), they know your credit status (from your payment
card), and as much information about yourself as you are prepared to give. They are very good at getting me to buy books because they suggest ones that I
actually want. The more you know about your customer, the better you can target
them.
Facebook and similar social networking sites can use profiles to select the
adverts. So this model can generate cost-effective results but you are dealing
with the most savvy group of users, so deliver what you promise or you will
get shot down in flames.
But not every on-screen ad works.
Banners are making a comeback. These can be a static or an animated banner
with companies pushing the technical boundaries in their attempt to catch our
attention because of their ‘entertainment’ value. A banner might have media such
as video or audio included, plus various gimmicks are being employed. Some
banners have the page to themselves and others use ambiguous wording or active
buttons to
encourage users to click through to the advertiser’s website.
There are also floating ads that are at the front of the screen until they
are watched or you click on them. There is plenty of evidence that intrusive ads
have the power to irritate and the reader will leave and not return: So these
are not recommended if you are devising a long-term strategy, but they do work
if you need to ‘shout’ at your audience.
Some service providers offer you a free website in exchange for hosting their
advertisements. But you will have little or no control over the adverts that may
damage your brand and lose you readers.
So
Online adds are cheap and targeted. It is well worth a few experiments but
make sure you have your blog/sales site in place first.
But beware of complacency. Users of the Internet are increasingly
sophisticated and you still only have a few seconds to meet their expectations.
Internet users know to look for signs of reliability and credibility before they
part with their money. So online advertising will get you a lead, but it won’t
land you the business. You still need some quality content to make it
worthwhile.
