This week, we offer relevant and current data that
illustrates the growing importance and presence of online
marketing.
Marketing on the Internet is different than direct mail
or print media marketing in that it combines the forces of
traditional marketing with sophisticated technology that
observes and tracks users' online habits and interests, matching
them with advertisements to best serve their preferences.
Extremely popular as a method for businesses to promote their
products and services, online advertising is cost-effective
and allows businesses to communicate in a much more interactive
way to potential customers than most traditional forms of
advertising.
With the growing number of online users, the audience of
online advertising is anticipated to be huge. Businesses
can capitalize on this by using the internet to keep in touch
with customers through newsletters, chat rooms, and promotions
on their websites.
Best Performing Online
Advertising Tactics in 2006, according to US Online Marketers:
Best Performing
|
2006
|
| Paid search ads |
49%
|
| E-mail - house list |
47%
|
| SEO (search engine optimization) |
45%
|
| Behavioural targeting |
34%
|
| Contextual targeting |
29%
|
| Rich media ads (audio/visual) |
28%
|
| Affiliate marketing |
25%
|
| Pop-ups and pop-unders |
15%
|
| Ads in e-mail newsletters |
13%
|
| Banner ads |
12%
|
| E-mail - rented lists |
11%
|
Source: Marketing Sherpa, Inc., January 2007
Online Advertising Tactics given a 5% budget investment
increase in 2006, according to US Online Marketers:
| Search marketing |
34% |
| E-mail marketing to in-house lists |
27% |
| Rich media (streamed audio/video) |
25% |
| SEO |
25% |
| Contextually targeted ad buys |
22% |
| Traditional banners |
20% |
| Behaviour-targeted online ad buys |
18% |
| Affiliate marketing |
14% |
| E-mail to third-pary lists |
10% |
Definitions and terms:
| Affiliate marketing is a web
business promotion method in which an affiliate
is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer,
or sale
gained through their efforts. Compensation is often
based on a certain value for each visit (ie. Pay per
click), registrant, or new customer. Some businesses
run their own affiliate programs while others use third
party services to track traffic or sales that are referred
from affiliates. Marketing Sherpa estimated that in
2006 affiliates would earn $6.5 billion, worldwide,
in commissions, and the three sectors expected to
experience the greatest growth in this market are
mobile
phones, finance and travel. |
| Behavioral targeting is a technique used
by online advertisers to increase the effectiveness
of their campaigns. In this technique, a user’s
online behavior is observed anonymously and
then the most relevant advertisement is selected based
on their behavior. This helps advertisers deliver their
online advertisement to the users who are most likely
to be
influenced by
them. |
| Contextual advertising applies to
ads appearing on websites or other media
(ie. content displayed in mobile phones) where automated
systems
select appropriate advertisements based on the content
displayed or requested by the
user.
Contextual
advertising has made a major impact on the earnings
of many websites. A large part of Google's
earnings, for example, are from contextual ads. |
| SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of
increasing the amount of visitors to a website by
their ranking in the search results of a search engine.
The higher a website ranks in the results of a search,
the greater the chance that that site will be visited
by a user. Since users will typically not click through
pages and pages of search results, where a site ranks
in a search is essential for directing more traffic
to the site. According to Wikipedia, SEO is marketing
through algorithms - helping
to match visitors with the appropriate websites they
are interested in finding. |
Source: www.wikipedia.org Emerging Advertising Tactics budgeted for 2007, according
to US Online Marketers:
| Ads of 3rd party blogs and networks |
42% |
| Social networking |
40% |
| Adding RSS feeds |
37% |
| Video ads |
37% |
| Sponsoring podcasts |
18% |
| Mobile/wireless |
16% |
| Ads in RSS feeds |
15% |
| Product placement in video games |
9% |
Source: Marketing Sherpa, Inc., January 2007
|
