With online ad spending hitting new highs, Internet advertising is becoming one of the key tools that companies use to attract attention for their product or service online and online ads are beginning to eclipse traditional advertising.
History
Hardly a new concept is it? Advertising has been used ever since mass production became possible well over a century ago as a means to influence an audience with the intention of getting them to buy your product or service. You just need to read Claude Hopkin’s 1923 book on the topic called Scientific Advertising to understand the importance advertising has had from a business perspective for the last century (and many of his points still apply today).
Recently however traditional media advertising (TV, newspaper, billboards etc) has faced a tough challenges with readership and viewer numbers plummeting, savvy audiences becoming desensitized to traditional advertising techniques and with the rise of alternative ways to influence target audiences (such as social media).
One of the saving graces for advertising is the ability to use the Internet to advertise online. Online advertising has a few advantages over traditional advertising:
Less Expensive
Highly Targeted
East To Track Effectiveness
There are a number of different forms of online advertising, each with its own pros and cons.
Search Based Ads
Usually associated with search engine results ads like Google Adwords and one of the most commonly used forms on online advertising, search based ads are predominantly text based and appear as sponsored or paid ads when people search for a particular phrase or keyword online.With search ads you pay or bid on an ad appearing to a searcher (impressions) or when someone clicks on the ad (pay per click). These ads are highly targeted because they appear only to the people who enter pertinent related keywords. If you have a new website this is a great way to get noticed by the major search engines, and really useful if you are going after new audiences. The key to being successful using these ads is to use very specific key terms that you know potential clients will use and to make the most of them in the ad text.
Banner Ads
Banner ads (or web banners), are for the most part, rectangular image ads that appear on another organisation’s website. Pop on over the Entrepreneurial Woman’s website and you will see an example of a banner as right at the top of the page. One important consideration with banner advertising is that you should only post your ads on sites that are related to your product or service or that attract your target audience. Banner ad costs can vary according to the traffic the site gets and can be on a pay per click basis or on a time based (i.e. monthly) fee basis.
Email Ads
Not to be overlooked, more people use email on a regular basis than use any other online tools. Having a regular opt-in marketing newsletter should be part of every company’s online advertising strategy to promote its products or services. Email advertising can also include buying placements in the newsletters of related companies.
Network Advertising
Advertising networks companies make it easier for organisations to advertise on related sites. Google Adwords is an example of a tool that facilitate network advertising and this is a growing area with companies like Tribal Fusion acting as facilitators between publishers of high trafficked content and organisations looking to advertise to their large audiences.
Pop Up Ads
Those annoying ads that pop up on your screen unexpectedly and won’t go away. Spare your audience and don’t use them.
Online Classifieds
Just like traditional classifieds, online ads on classifieds sites are used for the most part by the general public to buy or sell and by companies that target consumers. Craigslist and Kijiji are just 2 examples of online classifieds – they are easy to set up and free to use but before you do consider if this is appropriate to your brand.
Social Network Advertising
Many of the major social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter allow you to advertise and these social ads are the fastest growing form of online advertising. The biggest benefit of advertising using social networks is that your ads can be aimed at a very highly targeted audience and you can get started with just a few dollars per day to test the waters.
Online advertising tools make it easy for companies to use adverts to reach their audience online and can be a huge driver of targeted traffic to your website. If you are considering your online advertising strategy and would like more information about our services please contact us.
I recently noticed that my pal, who shall remain nameless, had disappeared from Facebook. Her profile was gone and I missed catching up on her news and photos. When I emailed and asked her why she had gone AWOL, she said she was taking a break because of phishing, spam and she went on to rant a little about Facebook (but I won`t share that here) and the fact that she doesn’t trust the network enough to post photos or any personal information there.
It is understandable that she feels this way – she ‘s not the only one. There has been a rash of attacks on Facebook recently: everything from unwanted Facebook wall posts (like the OMG Roller Coaster Accident! one currently making it’s rounds) and surveys (like the win an iPad Facebook survey scam). When this happens to you and someone hijacks your wall, you might feel violated and you will probably think twice about the content you share online (which is not necessarily a bad thing) but there are some precautions you can take that can help prevent this from happening.
Facebook Privacy Tips
Here are some tips to consider that, if done right, will help make your Facebook content more secure and to limit the likelihood of attacks like this happening to you again.
1. Be very careful which third party applications you add. When you add a third party application to your Facebook profile, whether it be a game or a widget linking to an external site you give the company behind that site access to your general information on Facebook which includes everything from user names to user IDs.
Connecting with an Application or Website. When you connect with an application or website it will have access to General Information about you. The term General Information includes your and your friends’ names, profile pictures, gender, user IDs, connections, and any content shared using the Everyone privacy setting. We may also make information about the location of your computer or access device and your age available to applications and websites in order to help them implement appropriate security measures and control the distribution of age-appropriate content. If the application or website wants to access any other data, it will have to ask for your permission.
So be very picky about which games you add and if possible, review the privacy policies of the third parties you are adding.
To review and delete any shady applications or ones you haven`t used in ages, go to your privacy settings then click on applications and websites. At the top you will see a list of your apps, click to edit and see the complete list and x to delete as you see fit. You can also turn off all applications on the apps and websites main menu.
2. Never click on a link to a website, video or image that seems suspicious, even if it comes from someone you trust. If someone posts something on your page that seems iffy, delete it immediately you notice it so as to avoid your followers clicking too.
3. Use your privacy settings to control who sees your content and which content you make available. Never show your actual date of birth on your public profile: click to edit your profile and make sure that “don`t show my birthday in my profile” is checked. Read this for more information on Facebook privacy controls.
4. Protect your images - did you know that unless you change your privacy settings, the images at the top of your Facebook page may be viewed by anyone. This is the setting that Facebook actually recommends but if you are concerned about this and you want to keep your images private you can change access settings. Again, you use privacy settings to make your content available to: friends only, friends of friends etc. You can do this for all of your Facebook content as well as photos you might be tagged in - it’s highly recommended.
5. Change your password regularly, and especially after an attack, to limit the likelihood of it happening again.
6. Status Updates and Links - always take some time to consider what you are posting or linking to and, given your privacy settings, if you really want this information to be made available to your authorized audience. Be very, very careful about your posts and updates if your settings are set to reach everyone and think twice about posting about vacations until you return.
7. Be selective about who you follow and like. If you are concerned about privacy, you should be very selective about who you add to your connections and which pages you follow. Only add people or like pages that you know or trust.
8. Be wary of surveys that appear when you are about to login to Facebook or when using it (other than Facebook’s own newly minted questions app). If a survey takes you to an external website, always verify the domain URL of the site to see that it corresponds. For example, the recent Facebook survey scam took those who clicked to URL unrelated to Facebook. To be on the safe side, just don’t participate in surveys like this as a rule.
Social media web-based dashboard, Hootsuite, overhauled their analytics capabilities earlier this month resulting in powerful, customizable reporting tools for users. New features include the ability to track Twitter brand mentions and measure your Twitter follower growth, examine Facebook Insights for your page including ‘likes’ and demographic information, overlay social link clicks and website visits via Google, and over 30 report modules with which to create customized reports.
Social analytics is accessible from the left sidebar on your Hootsuite dashboard. To begin, click ‘Analytics’, then ‘Custom Analytics’ and then ‘Create New Report’. You’ll see a screen that looks like this:
From here, you can choose to create a completely customized report, or choose from one of four report templates. Regardless of which template you choose, you can customize it with your logo, header, and contact information. The custom report also allows you to arrange modules so that information is presented in a certain order, as well as include up to 30 different charts and graphs.
If you choose to build a customized report, you will see a blank canvas that looks like this:
To add modules to this report, you hover over the plus sign on your module of choice from the list on the left-hand side.
You may have noticed that some of the templates cost a certain number of points. This is a new feature whereby modules are available through Hootsuite’s custom point payment system. There are 3 levels of Hootsuite packages – Basic, Pro, and Enterprise. The basic level is free, but users are limited in the modules they can access. To access all modules, users mush upgrade to Hootsuite Pro for $5.99 a month. Pro users will be given 50 free points. Each module costs a certain number of points, as do the report templates. Most modules cost 10-20 points each, with the more sophisticated graphs and charts costing up to 30 points. When users have run out of points they have the option to purchase more. Hootsuite Pro users will end up paying a bit more per month with these new features; however, the analytical insights will be a great asset in quantifying your social media efforts.
For more details about social analytics, here’s a video from Hootsuite:
Hardly a new concept is it? Advertising has been used ever since mass production became possible well over a century ago as a means to influence an audience with the intention of getting them to buy your product or service. You just need to read Claude Hopkin’s 1923 book on the topic called Scientific Advertising to understand the importance advertising has had from a business perspective for the last century (and many of his points still apply today).
Usually associated with search engine results ads like Google Adwords and one of the most commonly used forms on online advertising, search based ads are predominantly text based and appear as sponsored or paid ads when people search for a particular phrase or keyword online.With search ads you pay or bid on an ad appearing to a searcher (impressions) or when someone clicks on the ad (pay per click). These ads are highly targeted because they appear only to the people who enter pertinent related keywords. If you have a new website this is a great way to get noticed by the major search engines, and really useful if you are going after new audiences. The key to being successful using these ads is to use very specific key terms that you know potential clients will use and to make the most of them in the ad text.
e. One important consideration with banner advertising is that you should only post your ads on sites that are related to your product or service or that attract your target audience. Banner ad costs can vary according to the traffic the site gets and can be on a pay per click basis or on a time based (i.e. monthly) fee basis.
To review and delete any shady applications or ones you haven`t used in ages, go to your privacy settings then click on applications and websites. At the top you will see a list of your apps, click to edit and see the complete list and x to delete as you see fit. You can also turn off all applications on the apps and websites main menu.
Protect your images - did you know that unless you change your privacy settings, the images at the top of your Facebook page may be viewed by anyone. This is the setting that Facebook actually recommends but if you are concerned about this and you want to keep your images private you can change access settings. Again, you use privacy settings to make your content available to: friends only, friends of friends etc. You can do this for all of your Facebook content as well as photos you might be tagged in - it’s highly recommended.
