Online Advertising Network

An online advertising network can be an effective tool for communicating an advertiser's message. These ad networks are companies which act as a bridge between the advertiser and the website which wishes to host the advertisement. Websites (and software developers) are paid money for allowing the ads to be seen when people access the software or webpage. Online ad networks share revenues collected each time that a visitor clicks on an ad. Their inventory of ads may be unrelated, and the ads appear in many forms.

Websites, blogs, instant messaging, emails -- all these and much more can be vehicles for an advertiser's message. Most of the time these advertisements are delivered through a centralized ad server. A larger online advertising network may use search engines, media companies and technology vendors to get messages across. Two types of online advertising networks exist: first tier and second tier. First tier networks have many of their own advertisers and publishers, high quality traffic and are able to serve ads or traffic to second tier networks. Second tier networks may have some of their own advertisers or publishers, but usually survive by syndicating ads from first tier networks.

There are several types of online advertising networks. A representative network clearly outlines where the ads will run. Brand marketers often employ these networks because they command high quality traffic. Revenues are shared with the network. Blind networks, on the other hand, offer lower prices for advertising, yet no control from the advertiser's end as to where the ads will appear. Their inventory is more of a remnant than brand market. These networks use ad targeting technology to steer ads towards responsive audiences.

A targeted online advertising network (also known as next generation or 2.0 ad network) employs targeting technologies such as behavioral or contextual marketing to gather customers. Using click stream data, they are able to more effectively promote the ad inventory they control. Contextual marketing is when an audience is targeted according to the content of a webpage. For example, an advertisement for buying gold or other precious metals may be run on a page which features an article about coin collecting. Behavioral marketing takes things a step further and targets customers according to behaviors exhibited as they view a web page. A person who purchases an item of clothing may be shown advertisements for additional clothing which prior purchasers of that same item also bought. At times the customer is not even aware that specific items are being steered their way. Other web sites are quite open about this practice and let the customer know that other people who purchased the first item also bought this second item. Often behavioral and contextual marketing are employed simultaneously. The object of both types of marketing is 'conversion', not in a spiritual sense, but rather in terms of a purchase or return on the advertiser's investment. Other forms of conversion may include signing up for a service or newsletter.

What about Internet advertising costs? One option for free advertising is article marketing. In this scenario, a person writes an article about his or her product or service which is geared to the desired market niche. This is then submitted to an article directory. Traffic is brought to one's own site through the author bio link. It is free, but there are other considerations besides Internet advertising costs. One is results. Some report success with this model, but results can be slow. Other forms of Free For All (FFA) marketing carry additional problems. Because of software which allows a person to submit articles or ads to a large number of sites at once, others may also be submitting their materials at the same time. This results in one's ad or article being featured only briefly on the site before it is removed to make room for the latest offerings. Another serious consideration to make is whether one really wants to become the recipient of the multitude of spam advertisements which are likely to result from this type of marketing. If an individual is intent on at least trying this method, be sure to use a dedicated email address so that the business is not overwhelmed with useless spam. (This may also help a business to gauge how effective a response was obtained through this particular method.) In any event, as Proverbs 16:3 asserts, Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed.

One popular form of marketing used by an online advertising network is that major search engines offer a type of advertising where a business submits a few lines of ad which includes certain keywords that it has targeted for the desired audience. The advertiser pays only if a person clicks on the ad and goes to the site. These ads usually show up as 'sponsored links' when an Internet search is initiated. This may be effective in that the customer is already interested in receiving information about the same topic, so he or she may be quite likely to click on the ad. However, certain effective keywords are more popular and thus, more expensive. Yet, in this case, perhaps one should be less concerned with Internet advertising costs and focus upon the fact that these ads are running in a venue which may be richly productive for obtaining potential customers.

At times of economic downturns, online marketing may experience a lull in profits, as businesses have less available money for Internet advertising costs. However, some savvy entrepreneurs insist that such a time is instead a prime opportunity to let one's message be heard. When the number of ads is less, a business' message is more likely to be noticed by potential customers. In general, marketers seem to agree that these online ads are an important part of the mixture of resources used to generate customers. Therefore, much to the delight of the owner of an online advertising network, there does not seem to be a time when it is not appropriate to make use of this form of advertising.

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