The Fine Line Between Online and Offline Advertising
If we start from how ads are found both online and offline, the kind of advertising search engines like Google uses needs to have a different name, because the nature of the ad changes when someone has to key in a search term in a form of keywords in the search boxes at anyone of the search engines. Which means the buyers know very well what they are looking for and all they are interested in is where to find them, with the kind of price and delivery arrangement that they can live with.
However, the other kind of ad is the one that people encounter haphazardly, and that will convince them to pay for what they are looking at, which could be a first encounter with what is offered, and it is the copy that will tell them why they will be benefited by availing themselves the service or the product. This kind of buying does not always have to be an impulse buying, especially if a targeted audience makes an in-depth research on what is offered and decide to part with their money at a latter time. However, what is possible to accomplish, even if there is no immediate sales closing is a brand-promoting and building campaign.
It is possible to place these kinds of ads both online and offline, and it was the online ads that were catching up with the offline ads, with an intent to outdo them. Because online ads were static at best not long ago when they were only text ads and that had changed when banners were introduced, which are much better than static ads as more message can be crammed into them. Yet, they still fall short when compared with TV video ads that could convey more message in a few seconds better than all the other methods of advertising methods.
Here, the fine line blurs because online ads, no matter how static they were, they can send a would be prospect to a Web site with a click of a button, where more profound information about the product or the service could be obtained. It is not only that, but it is possible to buy the product or the service in real-time, although possessing what is bought immediately might not be possible unless it is a digital product. There are efficient businesses that could deliver goods within two to three days time depending on how much the buyer wants to pay for the service and the distance involved.
What overturned the table was when it became possible to have video ads online that are becoming common place and the preferred way to do an ad campaign. But the highly touted search engines that are said to give a boost to online advertisement are still in the text era as far as their presentation is concerned, even if at the end they could lead to a Web site that could be loaded with text, banner, and video ads, yet they used to be only useful for those who know what they are looking for, for the most part. It is due to this fact that the search engines have become aware of the prevalent handicap and to correct it, they have come up with advertising systems like AdSense, where text ads pop up while surfers are doing totally different things, even if there had to be some relevance with what they are doing, and the ads that will pop up, because it is the common keywords and content that will trigger the ads.
Here also it is worth mentioning the popup banner ads that are flooding the Internet that are triggered when surfers use particular keywords, which is adding to the complication of online ads, something advertisers should take a note of when they start comparing their chance of being found, because it could get better if they use popup ads.
Stumbling upon ads that were not anticipated is possible while visiting Web sites, because most sites carry some kind of ads since ads are a source of income for most, or they could be inundated by banner popup ads for simply accessing a given site. Recently, what all the buzz about ads is that ads that are put online could be more effective than their offline counterparts, because they have developed various formats that cannot be applicable on offline advertising. Yet, it is not possible for advertisers to compete for eyeballs without forking out a good amount of money offline, whether it is print, radio, television, direct mail, and cold calling, maybe with very few exceptions.
In comparison, those who have money could advertise aggressively online too, yet it is not going to cost them arms and legs like the offline ads. Whereas those who are working with a shoestring budget can also compete for the same eyeballs without spending a fortune, in fact, free by simply implementing a search engine optimization strategy.
Hence, offline advertising in any form is very expensive, even if it still reaches a big number of people, and the pitching and the creativity aspect of the ads are slowly falling behind because online advertisement is taking huge strides by implementing technology. It is forcing advertisers to think twice when they plan their marketing campaign, where at least some of it will have to go to online ads not to be missing out from what is happening online. The situation currently is the other way around and it is offline ads that are striving to catch up with online ads that have availed real time buying for example and, sooner or later, TV advertising might catch up with that.
Nonetheless, the frequency of being found on the Internet is much less because of the nature of the medium and the high number of advertisers, which will bring us to the fact that using the Internet could also be fairly expensive from what could observed at the bidding war that is taking place that is coming close to offline advertising. The bidding war has nothing to do with being found randomly, because like it was mentioned earlier the searchers know what they are looking for. It is businesses that are bidding to be first on line to give the similar services hundreds of similar business are giving at a, more or less, similar level or to sell similar products that a big number of seller are selling online.
One of the major tools of being found randomly, banner ads, their effectiveness is said to be falling, and they are not anymore an effective source of prospects for businesses because the click through rates had been frozen between 0.3 and 0.6 percent for a while. What this means is there is between three to six click through from every one thousand views, and even these few click through might not buy, making it a far cry to do business on the Internet.
Consequently, the banner ads have become more useful to build brand-recognition, because the banners will be viewed repeatedly on various sites, on different occasions, and the end result could be exactly like it is anticipated. It could be prospects converted through these banner or text ads that have developed a following of a given brand that eventually could develop brand loyalty. Whenever they are looking for these products, they can cut through the chase by going directly to the Web sites to do their purchase or they might consult search engines if they want to make comparisons.
Here again the dual advantage of banner ads when compared with print, TV, and radio is they offer a real-time buying, which is good for the sellers, because that is where the impulse buying could be triggered, and people can buy the product immediately instead of making a plan that they might not follow through.
Another advantage of online marketing is highlighted through direct email marketing, which is proven to be much better than banners; even than traditional direct mail marketing, which has a response rate of between 1 and 3 percent, whereas direct email marketing has a response rate of 5 to 15 percent according to various sources. This has forced most businesses to integrate email marketing in their marketing strategy by allocating up to 5 percent of their advertising budget, even if it is not much.
At the same time, the cost of direct email marketing might be lower than catalog and telemarketing, which have a hefty price tag attached to them. There are ads that sell 1000 email list for as low as $10, although it is difficult to say whether they are good leads or not without trying them. There are also email lists that cost more per thousand and the reason might have to do with the satisfied customers they have had through the years who are willing to pay up to $100 or more for 1000 email list.
Opt-in email marketing is also an inexpensive way of bringing prospects to a site and could be done on a Web site by offering something interesting like a newsletter or any of the free services that are available on the net, like a free Web submitting service and the like. It could be very effective but much less expensive since it does not cost extra money other than having a Web site and running an ad campaign to convince visitors to become opt-ins.
When we make comparison between online and offline ads it is possible that any of the traditional offline marketing could cost up to $2 to $3 to get a prospect pay for a product or a service, whereas the same cost for TV or radio could go between $10 to $40 that is, to make one prospect pay for a product or a service.
What this shows is in order to do a successful business, today’s businesses will have no other choice other than mixing both advertising methods to stay ahead of their competitors even if the cost of doing business is getting costly, and if there is something unsavory about the whole deal, at the end of the day all that cost will be passed on to the consumers.
