How to Use Online Advertising – Why and Where? | Bizhelp24.com UK business and finance help and information

Marketing

How to Use Online Advertising – Why and Where?

by BizHelp24
13/07/2006

All small businesses need to promote themselves, and most do this (among other things) by placing adverts; these are traditionally in local newspapers, magazines and radio, but an increasing number are benefiting from online advertising.

To help you get the most from your marketing budgets, here is a guide to online advertising, how to book it, and how to know whether you are getting good value for money.

What Types of Advertising Can You do Online?

There are four main types of advertising you can do online.

Images (I.e.: 'Banner advertising') - This is the most visible form of online advertising, banner adverts vary greatly in size and cost (more on this later); and when well produced can be highly effective (when combined with a well targeted site and ad position). This article is focused mainly on these ads.

Text Links - These are simply hyperlinks which contain a piece of advertising text for your business. E.g.: Special Offers on PC's from XYZ Computing. You can buy these spaces in almost exactly the same way as the image ads covered in this article.

Sponsorship - This involves paying for your logo or a small image to appear on certain pages or topics of a site as their sponsor.

Search Engine Advertising - Covered in our dedicated article How Can Your Business Benefit from Search Engine Advertising.

Why do Online Advertising?

Direct - An online advert is direct; it takes people straight from the ad to where you want them to go on your site. Rather than a print advert which has to encourage people to call you, visit you, or visit (after remembering the URL of) your website; an online advert makes it much easier to get the person to your site.

Comparatively Low Cost - Although online advertising is not the most responsive form of advertising, the costs are quite low compared to other types of media (radio, newspapers, etc); and you can potentially set up ads that pay out only when they get results.

Flexibility - Online advertising is flexible, you can use various sizes and positions for your ads, and you can change the ad image and where it goes on a regular basis.

Tracking - You can track the results of an online advert much more easily than with other forms of advertising; from simply checking how many more visits you get, to dedicated tracking software that can tell you the precise results from an ad.

How Should You Choose Where to Place an Ad?

There are numerous factors that you need to take into account when you decide where to place online ads. These affect the cost as well as the potential response (and who will be responding).

The main issues you need to look at are:

The Site - Obviously, you need to make sure that the site you are advertising on matches the needs of your advertising. If you sell office supplies you will find little benefit advertising on a music site (unless it deals with music businesses that have offices!); so find a site that is likely to be visited by people you wish to attract. In general, the more specific a site's audience is, the more expensive the ad space; as you will get more relevant viewers per booking. Sites with a very general audience are likely to be much cheaper, but will provide a much less targeted audience.

Size of Ad - Naturally, the size of the ad you are booking will have a huge effect on its price. Below are some examples of standard ad sizes in pixels, although there are many more than this. Note: The names often vary: