There are many people out there who seem to think that advertising online is somehow different to advertising in what they would call the ‘real’ world. However, the longer I spend in the world of online marketing the more I see a host of similarities with marketing in the real world.
Of course, there are differences but many of the principles that apply out there also apply here. If you want to compare the form of real world advertising that comes closest to what you would do online then you only have to look at billboards.
Two of the most important factors with billboards are visibility and traffic. You don’t just advertise on any billboard; you want one that is visible for the longest period of time as a car approaches it and you want one that has lots of passing traffic every day and it’s the same online.
You want to advertise where people will see your ad for the longest period of time and you want to advertise on websites that see a lot of visitors every single day. And you also want to place your ads on sites that your target audience will visit too.
Another similarity between billboards and online advertising is that you really must keep the message simple and the calls to action plain! Billboards that are stuffed full of information just don’t get read and it’s the same with online advertising. Your ad has to be eye-catching and engaging but also very simple and not full of so much information no one stops to read it.
The call to action in your online ads needs to be simple too. ‘Call this number’ … ‘click here’ … do this and do that all need to stand out and catch a person’s eye and you really only have a split second to do that.
The one major difference between advertising in the ‘real’ world and advertising online comes in how you’re billed for the ad. With a billboard there is usually a set rate that covers a set period of time. In a magazine or newspaper the cost of the ad is assessed on the size and the circulation of the publication where your ad will appear.
With online advertising you can pay by the month for advertising on sites that don’t see a huge amount of traffic or you pay a set rate per thousand impressions. An ‘impression’ is registered every time your ad is displayed to a person who is visiting the page on the website where your ad is to appear.
So the take-away for those new to online advertising is to keep your ads simple but eye-catching and engaging and make sure that you advertise on sites that are targeted for your market place and that get a lot of visitors.
