Targeted Banner Advertising
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A strategic marketing plan should include targeted banner advertising as at least one component for reaching the target audience of a company's goods and/or services. With pay per click banner advertising, the company's marketing budget can be focused on those websites that are most likely to be visited by prospective purchasers. As the nation's population has fragmented into diverse groups and subgroups of individual hobbies, sports, interests, pastimes, and activities, so has the need for strategically designing marketing campaigns that appeal to the specific niche audience rather than the general population. Advertisers can narrow the focus of different pieces of an ad campaign by bidding on relevant keywords and, possibly, concentrating on a specific geographical area instead of the world at large.
During the early days of targeted banner advertising, the prevalent system was cost per thousand or CPM. (The M is the Roman numeral for a thousand.) The company paid the internet ad agency so much money for each one thousand times the banner was seen by an internet user. Beginning in about 2002, the pay per click system appeared. Advertisers liked the idea of only paying for an ad when an individual actually clicked on it. This is sometimes referred to as a "hit" or, more recently, a "page view" or "page impression." "Run of site," or ROS, refers to pay per click banner advertising that isn't connected to any targeting keywords. This type of ad is more economical to purchase. However, without any consideration for keywords, there is less chance that it is being shown to an individual fitting the demographics for the particular product or service.
In determining the effectiveness of any particular ad, company management considers such factors as the click through rate (CTR), the conversion rate, the cost per sale, and the cost per visitor. The click through rate is the number of unique visitors who click on a banner ad that takes them to the company's website. Through the use of cookies, the banner server tracks ads, recording such information as the amount of time a visitor stays on a particular web page and if the visitor makes a purchase. The conversion rate is the percentage of visitors to a site that become customers by purchasing the goods or services offered by the company. The cost per visitor is easily tracked by the banner server. One easy formula for calculating the cost per sale, then, states that it is equal to the cost per visitor divided by the conversion rate. However, depending on the product and industry, other factors may be included in a particular company's cost per sale calculations. With this information, the company can analyze which components of the marketing campaign are most cost-effective and most likely to appeal to prospective customers.
Almost everyone who goes to the trouble of establishing a business presence on the internet hopes to make money from their efforts. The entrepreneur should be encouraged with this verse: "He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich" (Proverbs 10:4). Diligence in paying attention to one's business affairs can be said to the key to economic success. Many decisions have to be made about the product or service being offered. A key issue is identifying the target audience. The more an entrepreneur knows about the demographics of his customer, the easier it will be to design an effective marketing strategy. Advertisers have several options when creating pay per click banner advertising campaigns. If the marketing budget is small, the advertiser can join an exchange or swap system which allows advertisers to trade space on their individual sites with other members of the exchange. A second option is to buy space on a relevant website which is then referred to as a publisher site. The third option is to pay a network to place the ads on relevant publisher sites. Each option has its own advantages and disadvantages which need to be considered, along with financial considerations, when planning the marketing strategy.
There are eight standard sizes to choose from when designing a targeted banner advertising campaign, though other configurations are also possible. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), founded in 1996, has over 375 companies as members. As a group, these companies are responsible for approximately 86% of online advertising in the United States. Needless to say, the IAB has enormous influence in setting standards and in providing support and education to its members. A full-size banner, measureing 486 x 60 pixels; will stretch across the width of a web page. The smallest standard size measures 88 x 31 pixels and is commonly known as a micro-button. The banner ads can be placed horizontally or vertically on the page. They can also be designed as either pop-ups or pop-unders. The pop-up ad does just what the name implies -- it pop ups on the screen in a separate window. The internet user doesn't realize a pop-under is even open until she closes the window she's in. There the pop-under will be, patiently waiting for a click.
The designers of a targeted banner advertising campaign know that only a small percentage of internet users will respond to an ad. Though getting a customer is the primary goal of pay per click banner advertising, another important goal is the branding of the product or service. A person who sees an advertisement may not be interested in the product right then, but may go back to the site at a later time. Or, when the need for the product arises, the consumer may choose this particular brand over others because of the exposure of the advertisement. A carefully planned and strategic marketing plan considers many variables in creating advertisements for the target market, including budget concerns, publishing options, configurations, and branding.
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