Advertising

With audience specific advertising, online advertisers are playing the major league in the advertising and marketing industry. The growth and sustenance as observed during the last few years have been impressive. Advertising on the web sites and search engines is obviously the biggest catch people in the industry has ever had.

Internet advertising agency provides advertising solutions on the web. This form of advertising, which has a history of about a decade only, has become the most suitable for its cost cutting and effective advertising campaigns. By using web as its channel, Internet advertising offers many advantages over our conventional advertising methods.

The growth of Internet advertising can be credited to the development of interactive online media tools and formats. Advertisements that appear on the web are more interactive, cost less and can effectively deliver the message of the advertiser to the audience. Some popular online advertisement formats include banner advertisements, pop ups and pop unders, video ads, widgets, etc.

The consumption of online media and user behaviour has also been found to be supporting the growth of this industry. Amid all these developments, Internet advertising agency has to play the central role of delivering target oriented messages to the users and evoke intended response.

The cost cutting in Internet advertising campaign is due to lesser production cost than offline advertising and also due to inexpensive space available on the web. Typically an online advertising campaign cost many times lesser than mainstream advertising. Online advertising agency also provides a number of services that are used to monitor the impact of advertising campaigns. The results can be concretely put forth as various actions and responses can be tracked. Offline advertising often suffers from this lacunae.

Online advertising agencies are the next generation advertising leaders and we have a lot of evidence coming up. Google’s launch of advertising programs and services, those 16 billion dollars they make in a year from online advertising, Microsoft’s desperation to acquire an online advertising platform, etc. These are some of the examples that support the view that Internet advertising is pulling the crowd.

As a business owner, no doubt you’ve often thought about the question as to how much you should spend on advertising, and where exactly you should spend it. For most people who own small businesses, these questions simply give you more headaches beyond those simply suffered in the normal everyday operation of your business.

No Simple Answers

In fact, there aren’t any simple answers as to how much you should spend on your advertisement.

Depending on your business, there are those who suggest that you should spend anywhere from 4 to 10% of your gross receipts on advertising.

Of course, the conundrum is, it’s likely that your business is not going to survive unless you have a continuing flow of new customers. However, it’s not likely, either, that you’re going to get those new customers without spending at least something on advertising and get the word out about your business.

How to Develop Effective Advertising

Have you found yourself in this situation? You pay for advertising and then sit back, waiting for new customers to arrive. The only thing is, you sit and sit and sit, and they never come. Sound familiar?

Don’t worry; that has happened to many of us as well.

What most people don’t know is that you don’t have to just worry about knowing where to spend your advertisement money.

You also have to establish the following about advertising:

You have to have a marketing plan.

You have to have an advertising strategy.

You have to know about headlines, ad copy and visual presentation.

You have to know how to track the success of your advertising campaigns.

Your Marketing Plan

Your marketing plan is used primarily for you, so that you can identify what your products and services are, what they cost, their particular strengths and weaknesses, and finally, what your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses are as well.

Your Advertising Strategy

You need to understand just exactly what you expect to get from your advertising.

For example, do you just want to get your name out there so that customers will think of you first when they have a particular need you can fulfill? Or do you want your customers to come to you on a particular day, like Saturday?

Do you want your customers to come in and simply browse, whereupon they suddenly come upon an object they can’t do without? Or do you want them to come in and buy a particular product?

Do you want enough customers so that you can pay for your ad? Or do you want a customer who will come to you again and again, becoming a lifelong customer who will help pay your advertising costs over the next several years?

Once you know what you want, you can better formulate just how you should do it.

Ad Copy, Headlines and Visual Presentation

Many businesses actually put money into advertising without thinking much about their sales pitch or presentation; simply, the quality may not be as up to par as it should be. If your advertising is not quality, then it doesn’t matter how much money you spend on advertising or on your distribution, for example.

Make sure you test the advertising you plan to use in smaller markets before you put a lot of money into it to go to larger markets. You have to know that your advertising is going to have value before you put a lot of money behind it.

Track the Success of Your Advertising Campaigns

One particularly successful advertising campaign might be that you can tell your customers to save another 10% if they mention your ad. Or, you can suggest that they can register to win a free sample of product if they fill out a form and tell you how about your business. You can also advertise a particular product in your ad and then track how well that particular product sells.

It really doesn’t matter how you track your advertising, as long as you do.

In Conclusion

The best way to spend your advertising dollars is to make sure you target an advertisement specifically to the customer base you want to serve.

If you don’t track your advertising, then you are simply “shooting blind.” This is a waste of your time and money.

Even with more widespread advertising, if you are still “shooting blind,” then you’re only making a bigger mistake. You have to track your advertisement so that you know what’s working well and what you need to change. If you don’t, you’ll simply repeat mistakes over and over again, and further waste your time and money. This can actually make your business fail.

If you only rely on instinct, this isn’t necessarily going to help you; you may be choosing wrong so that your advertising dollars aren’t getting spent to the best benefit. And in fact, you may lose all of your money for no gain.

When it comes right down to it, if you want to make money from your advertising, you need to prepare, plan, track and study your advertising campaigns and see what the results are. Base your advertising decisions on facts and on the results you see. Once you’ve made the right advertising decisions, making profits from your business should come much easier for you.

I believe that tobacco advertisement should be legalized given the fact that first it is not illegal to manufacture tobacco. Second, it is not illegal to sell or distribute tobacco and third it is also not illegal to consume it so why should it be illegal to advertise it? after all it is not as if those who used to advertise tobacco were promoting the sell of heroin or other illegal substances. 

Most countries have laws that band tobacco advertising of all kinds; not only from television but all other sources that include magazines, billboards, etc. however what is the reason for such laws? The answer most governments give is that tobacco is hazardous to one’s health not only to those who consume it but those who are around the consumer as they will inhale what is known as “second hand smoke” which some claim is even more harmful then the one the smoker is inhaling. I however ask if this is the case then why only ban tobacco from being advertised? Why not ban it all together?

Of course there are those that will say that tobacco should not be made illegal because it does not kill or at least not as quickly as do the above mentioned narcotics and it is with intent of having people smoke less that advertising should be banned. This sounds logical; at least in theory but as is often the case what works on paper does not always work in practice as many years ago the government of Norway banned all kinds of tobacco advertisement only to discover that neither the amount of people smoking nor the amount of cigarettes being consumed decreased. It was in shook contrast that the opposite occurred as consumption of tobacco tripled rather then decreased.

One of the observations I however have made about advertisement based on what I have seen is that it does not determine weather or not people consume a certain product by this I mean that those who are willing to smoke cigarettes will do so like those who are willing to drink alcohol and it is not the advertisement that leads them to do so but other factors such as society and its customs. I in a perhaps odd example believe that if the act of suicide were to be advertised the number of people committing it or attempting to do so would not increase. Poland for instance had an episode not long ago where its government banned all forms of advertisement connected to alcohol to find out like the Norwegian government did with tobacco that the number of people drinking did not decrease and neither did the amount of alcohol being consumed.

With regards to advertisement I once wondered why was it that some companies like Coca-Cola advertise spending millions of dollars a year in doing so in the form of not only television commercials, billboards and even sponsoring sporting events like the World Cup which must cost them a huge deal of money? If one thinks about it what could be the reason Coca-cola who no offense to anybody who is religious is about as well known a name as is the name of Jesus Christ, to continue to advertise?

So it is not to gain fame that companies like Coca-Cola advertise nor is it to keep it as those who are very young are not even in need of commercials to become aware of the existence of this company as they merely need to leave their homes and look about them in stores or their friends’ homes which are more then likely to have this product. Coca-Cola unlike other companies with huge names such as Ford, Sony, or IBM does not introduce new products on the market as their product has remained unchanged for the last 100 years or so. It was with this in mind that I asked a friend of mine who worked in advertisement why if there name was one that was so famous as to be on the same level with God’s did they need to advertise? It was my question that was met with a simple answer that if companies like Coca-Cola or Pepsi did not advertise they would have to pay more in the way of taxes being that they can deduct their cost of advertising from their taxes and given that paying more taxes gives these companies nothing in return they opt to advertise.

It was this logic that put in my mind the notion that reached the conclusion that this perhaps is the real reason tobacco companies are not allowed to advertise and again the health issue is a smoke screen. If tobacco companies are not allowed to advertise that means they can not deduct the cost of advertising from their taxes and therefore would have to pay more of them. This in my opinion is the real reason why governments have banned tobacco advertisement and not the so called “health issue” because if that were the real cause then they would have made tobacco illegal as they have done with cocaine and other narcotics.

As for adverting, it in and of itself does not determine weather or not people consume certain products such as alcohol or cigarettes or chocolate for that matter but it does help determine what brand people choose. For instance those who smoke will do so regardless of advertisement or lack of which as the case in Norway and other countries have shown but what advertising can sway is what brand they will smoke or what brand of Cola they will drink. If Cola-Cola and Pepsi have huge names in the carbonated soft drink industry well the name Marlboro is just as big in the tobacco industry and just as Coca-Cola does not need to be advertised as just about everybody consumes this product neither does Marlboro. Naturally there are those who do not consume either Coca-Cola or Marlboro but those who do not refrain not form lack of knowledge of the brand but because their tastes lean in another direction which not even advertising can change. This being the case as who does not know Marlboro as it even turns out that all people need see are the colors “red and white” and their imagination will automatically associate them to the Marlboro brand as is the example given by Formula One cars.

Lack of being able to advertise for Marlboro also does not present a problem in another form and that is that when they can not advertise neither can other tobacco companies. This meaning that none of them will be allowed to challenge the Marlboro name or even grow to represent serious competition to it which has already been established through the years in the mind of the consumer. This compiled with two more factors should guarantee Marlboro its place as the top selling brand worldwide for a long time to come. One of them being that marketing studies have shown that the average consumer will tend to buy products he or she is already familiar with which in the case of most smokers is Marlboro. The second one being the also accepted reality that cigarette smokers are the most loyal consumers of all.

Entrepreneurs these days work hard to take their business to the next level. Now, they are frequently using Internet as an important medium for advertising. To create brand awareness and to reach universal markets, online advertising is now excessively used. In India alone, over 41,000 advertisers have advertised on Internet, which means around 46 million advertisers. This makes India a sizeable target market for Internet advertisers.

Due to rise in competition, online advertisement agency or online advertising companies are hired. They help in promotion and well planned advertising. This also proves that advertising is the major part of promotional blend and also is crucial for achieving success. It is always a good idea to start the advertising campaign with best planning and proper coordination of advertising agency and advertising company.

It is acknowledgeable that online advertising is valuable since it reaches out more and is best for the advertisers. Any person of any social segment can view online advertisements. Another main positive feature of online advertising is that this type of advertising is not restricted by time zones or geographical boundaries.

To create an impact on potential customer and to ensure good returns, advertisers don’t hesitate on ad spends. They are assured that returns would be considerably good. A successful advertising campaign becomes obvious only when ads are placed right and are targeted perfectly.

The many search engines on Internet have drawn attention towards advertising through information technology. This helps common buyer also deeply as a person always tries to find out more about the product before buying the needful product of service.

If a person wants to go for banner advertising, then a lot of aspects those have to be managed intentionally. A professional Internet advertising agency or an Internet advertising company can be appointed for it.

Internet advertising comes under new media. Online advertising or Internet advertising is a whole new world of potential. It is not just cheaper but a very fast medium also. Youngsters spend a lot of time online; therefore to get money, tricks like ‘click through’ on advertisements are uses. In some collages, companies give free Internet access. For any company; youngsters are a major market, therefore most feasible to create brand familiarity. For this purpose companies provide free games, chat rooms, free downloads, etc. By doing this, the advertiser tends to create a positive notion for the product in youngsters mind.

Advertising is the activity that provides advertisements of commercial products and services. Many advertisements are designed only for the purpose of enlarging “brand image”. Because of this, advertisements tend to embed factual information along with their influential message. Advertisers use major medium like television, radio, cinema, and magazines and often appoint an advertising agency on behalf of a company or other organization to carry the advertisements to the target audience.

Advertisements now days can be viewed on shopping carts, airports, walkway, on the sides of buses, bus shelters, on telephone hold messages and in shopping malls. Advertisements are intentionally placed where the audience can easily or frequently approach it through visual, audio and printed mediums of information. Advertisers now even sponsor big events of endorse social causes in order to promote and improve their own brands value. For getting consumer’s attention ambient ads are made visible at places that a person surly needs to visit like public toilets, petrol stations, etc.

Very often advertising and public relations are thought as same. Advertising is much expensive and have much more focused message. Public relations have more creditability.

Advertisers now try hard to get their advertisements noticed by people. They are eagerly trying to find rapid ways to make their advertisements more innovative and ‘stand-out’ from the ad clutter. Digital technology is seen as the latest and is mainly used in sports events. Virtual ads now are now widening in scope as digital inserts are added in after scenes are shot.

Advertising revenue expenditure has engorged dramatically in last few years. By 2010, the estimated expenditure would exceed $500 billion, which in 2006 was estimated at $155 billion in the United States.

While advertising can be seen as necessary for economic growth, it is growing at the expense of society. Unwanted Commercial Email and other spam have become so dominating that it has become a major irritant to users who use these services. Not just this, they become a financial burden on Internet service providers. Public space is also invaded by advertisements. Places such as schools when penetrated with advertisements to some extent is a form of child harm. Political parties, group unions, etc also advertise themselves. Politicians through the medium of advertising also try to win public votes. Interest groups support good social ideas through advertising. Organizations advertise in order to recruit.

Not just the earth, the space surrounding it is now viewed as a commercial opportunity. In a Russian space program, a rocket with 30-foot pizza hut logo was launched. Many companies now even intend to put up ads in space at places that are visible from the earth. In near future, it would be a challenge to find places for advertising that are free of cost.