Of course advertising and marketing have gone to the internet. You’ve gone there, right? I still recall the first time I tried to go onto the World Wide Web… what a silly experience, but with advertising and marketing, it’s a simple philosophy… they will go where you go. Kind of like a shadow, but generally a bit more colorful. If you want to reach yourself through advertising, reach out to yourself wherever you’re at. If your prospective customer is online, you need to go there and meet him/her.
As a business person, you should consider this…
Your prospective customers are on their computers. Nearly everyday, they go online. In fact, I was reading the Economist the other day and I stumbled across an article about this very subject. According to their research, the Online Publishers Association (a trade group) estimates that the average consumer spends around 23% of their total media time online, yet all web advertising in America equaled about 6% of total advertising expenditures. Online advertising spend 10 years ago was nothing and then came Bill Gross and Idealab. They dropped a baby gorilla on the other side of the advertising see-saw. That gorilla is growing up and the see-saw is tipping.
First, let’s look at the bigger number. 23% of all media time is spent online. Are you kidding me? You mean to say that between the televisions, the car radios, home radios; online is actually one-quarter of total media time? When I think about it, it makes sense. I’m certain that I do at least that – if not, more. Why, then does online make up only 6% of total advertising spend? Is it cheaper to advertise on the internet? Or, have businesses not yet grasped the strength of online advertising and marketing?
The Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday that advertising on the internet is a $12.5 billion industry. That’s not including online marketing, which includes email, search and blogs. Many experts estimate online marketing and advertising to soon eclipse $20 billion as an industry. Yet, still that is only a nickel out of a dollar in the total ad game?
You mean to say that even though people are spending a quarter of their media time online; even though prospective customers are shopping online, with credit card in hand; even though they can directly access all of your direct and indirect competitors after a short series of mouse-clicks; even knowing how much shopping is done online (Amazon, anyone?); even after all of this, you still don’t spend your advertising budget to get visitors to your site? And give them what they’re looking for when they get there? Man, that’s too bad.
The numbers are growing everyday. Total ad spend is 6% today and will likely be 8% tomorrow. Think of this… the Wall Street Journal published a story this morning, reporting that Foster’s Beer – Australian for beer – is preparing to launch a web-only U.S. ad strategy. The site’s slogan? “TV sucks!” Is this the opinion of the company, or of the advertiser? Where the beer goes, the people go; where the people go, the advertising and marketing are soon to follow.
If you’re a business owner, looking to improve your return-on-investment (ROI), you need to look a little harder at the internet. There are tremendous opportunities there. Sit down with an educated professional and crunch the numbers. Compare them with your cost on traditional mass-marketed advertising, I’m certain that you’ll find a viable, online solution that fits your business model, increases business and improves your overall cost-of-acquisition (COA).
Next time I write, I’ll introduce the topic of PPC, affectionately known as pay-per-click and also touch upon the topic of analytics/measurability and how malleable an online campaign may be.
