Black Belt Web Marketing.pdf - Costa del Sol

The Basics of Advertising Online
On-line advertising is rapidly becoming big business. Ad revenues jumped three-fold from
first quarter 1996 to first quarter 1997 and 1998 is going to be another record year
according to a report issued by the Internet Advertising Bureau.
On-line Advertising Compared to Off-Line
In addition to being in a fast-forward growth stage, on-line advertising in some ways offers
more potential than traditional off-line advertising. This is particularly true if your primary
objective is to sell a product or service as opposed to improving awareness and exposure.
On-line advertising can be directed to a specific niche market, you know how many viewers
see the advertisement, how many click on it, how many visit your site. This important
information is all quantifiable as opposed to most forms of off-line advertising (magazine
ads, radio and TV, etc.).
On-Line Advertising Compared to Other Marketing Techniques
On-line advertising is similar in many ways to other web traffic techniques discussed in this
planning guide. Your banner ads at other sites are similar to, and perform the same
function, as links to your site (Lesson 5). A banner ad is basically a graphic link in a more
prominent position than normal text links.
Posting messages in discussion groups with your signature attached is similar to sponsoring
e-mail contents of mailing lists and newsletters. Many of the guidelines followed and
resources used in previous lessons also apply to on-line advertising.
Unlike placing links at other sites and posting to discussion groups, online advertising is
more involved and can be very expensive -- two good reasons to start out with small test.
Don’t commit major cash outlays until you gained some experience and insight into what’s
involved in on-line advertising.
Types of Online Advertising
This lesson discusses the two primary types of online advertising: banner ads and sponsored
content. As online advertising continues to evolve and as new forms of advertising appear,
future versions of this lesson will include more than these two forms.
The most popular by far of these two is banner ads. Banners are graphical, usually colorful
and sometimes animated, "billboards" appearing on a host site’s page and linking to the
advertiser’s web site or to a special page created to promote the advertiser’s product or
Lesson 10 Pg. 4