Online advertising and the writer
The early Internet was a medium for organisations and businesses who quickly
recognised the commercial value of websites. It was only a small step from
providing information about themselves and their products 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 they delivered adverts that in some way matched what the browser
was looking for.
The Internet is really the marketers’ dream. The ads are responding to a user request.
A web page is 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 interests, 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, or space paid for in unread newspapers, 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 very much
lower. On the Internet, the ‘print run’ can be one but is potentially infinite.
So online advertising is good news for emerging companies and
micro-businesses where big advertising budgets are not available. They can still
be visible online.
Online display
The Google ads model
(also provided by other search engines) can appear when
you do a search or when you visit some websites. The space on the page is
allocated by the site owner but it is Google that chooses and sends the ads.
What makes this such a powerful tool is that ads are based on
the page content which the search engine has 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 anything about the person browsing except
that they are interested in the contents of that page. But be aware that all
browsers are sequestering a profile about users to help target ads. They will
deny it - they juts want to make the service more relevant and responsive to
your needs.
The Google ads model (They call it 'AdSense'
- also provided by other search engines)
Everybody's equal!
All ads look similar and again it is the page owner who selects the shape,
size and colour. This introduces an unprecedented degree of equality among
businesses - All the display ads look the same so the author of one book and the
world's biggest publisher would look the same on the web page.
However, not all ads are really equal - some are 'more equal' than
others as George Orwell would say. The ads to be displayed are selected from
among the businesses that have subscribed and it is the ones that are selected
that is important.
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 will 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 your ad never gets displayed. It is like budget
airlines and ebay – the price is set by the market. The more you pay, the better
your position. Pay pennies and you will not make it to the first page.
| There is often a pay per view (some call this impression, mirroring
the old print terminology) and a pay per click model as well as a pay per view
model. The only way to see which one works for you is to go and experiment. You
will find people who will tell you the ads are so wonderful as they only pay if
people respond to the ad and others who argue that just being there is what
matters, as it is cheaper and brings people in. |
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 this appears on somebody’s site, Google call this ‘Affiliate
marketing’ and that term has been adopted: The affiliate gets paid for hosting
advertisements. If your website relies on selling things then you probably don’t
want rivals advertising alongside your offering (although some targeted blocking
is allowed). 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 little chance 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 paying for small
online ads to drive sales to your site, rather than hosting them in the hope
that they will boost your income.
The future of display ads
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. So
they are very good at getting me to buy books because they suggest ones that I
want. It is like one of the old book clubs except that Amazon actually offers me books
that I want to buy.
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 do deliver what you promise or you will
get shot down in flames. Social networking sites often allow you to include
widgets on your site and what is a widget other than an advert. The cover of
your book can have a link to download or buy your book.
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 bring people
to you but will you hold them? Your widget dives 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:
| You put your book in Amazon (for instance) |
| Make a widget and copy the code |
| Paste it into your social network and update your page |
| When somebody visits the page there is an image of your cover (or
whatever) which is supplied by Amazon, in this example |
This is a no-cost online advert - so it has to be profitable.
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, and various gimmicks are being employed.
Some
banners sometimes have the page to themselves for a while: Others use ambiguous wording 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. And banners are ideal for small screens common in mobile devices.
A free lunch?
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.
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.
Get on with it!
The trend is unmistakable and irreversible - Web ads are the future. The low
entry cost plus their capacity to be aimed at people who are interested makes
this an excellent marketing tool for writers.
Online adds are cheap and targeted. It is well worth a few experiments. One
final tip,
make sure you have your blog/sales site in place first.
| 
