Internet Advertising

As we all know, the Internet is a huge global network of computers. Some of them are owned by individuals, such as householders, others by businesses, companies, corporations, etc. Many of these computers are used for purposes other than surfing the Internet. People use them for activities as education, research, entertainment, Email, etc.

Having all these in mind, it is easy to see how computers connected to the Internet are a source of revenue to anyone with a product or service to sell, because millions of customers are out there. Still, the most important question is how to reach and promote to these customers, quickly and cost-effectively. We can say that the Internet, Email and the World Wide Web are powerful tools in the hands of advertisers who want to reach consumers. Thus, unlike other communications media, the Internet is capable of reaching both mass market and specified individuals within it, as it offers huge possibilities for bringing sellers and buyers together on a worldwide basis. Moreover, on-line advertising differs from other media in other important respect, because it allows enquirers and consumers to interact with advertisements direct and with immediacy. With a key-stroke or a mouse-click, a ‘visitor' can call up information about a product, resolve questions about it and then buy it – all this in the same ‘visit'.

In fact, the Internet provides another means of directly targeting specific audience members, albeit it more effectively under certain circumstances. In other ways, it is very much like the traditional Yellow Pages on one hand and posters and magazines on the other. As stated before, people use the Internet to search out information, much as they have used the Yellow Pages; they also ‘surf' the Internet, just as they browse through magazines or pass by posters . With advertising and the Internet we are dealing with a print advertising; it is simply being delivered in a new way and under certain circumstances that offer the potential for increased processing of the message and even interactive feedback. However, advertising on the Internet must follow the same ‘rules' and principles as any other advertising if it is to be effective. For example, adverts on the Internet must attract and hold attention and quickly communicate a positive benefit for the brand; with more detailed messages, it must also encourage reading and processing the entire advert, because it is unlikely that the Internet user hits a page looking for adverts. A very important thing is that this kind of advertising is available to anybody in the world who can get access to the Internet.

Although the Internet has grown from its purely academic origins, it is still a mixture of things and even though it is today predominantly commercial, it is not exclusively a commercial environment. Still, the fundamental shift in Internet usage from an academic to a commercial environment took place and thus, the Internet became another advertising medium. (Steven Armstrong, 2001) There are several types of on-line advertising and the most important are:

•  Web advertising

Most on-line activity takes place on the web, the media effect being different than that offered by television: colour, movement, sound, graphics and animation.

There is also opportunity for downloading advertisers' material to the user's computer and printing it. The unique advantage to advertisers, however, is the ability to offer products and services to consumers worldwide, take orders and receive payment, direct from a website.

•  Classified advertisements

As with newspaper classifieds, an advertiser buys lineage from the owner of the site. Popular directory and search sites, such as Yahoo, offer this service. However, it is always advisable to test sites selected for advertising before investing in contracts with them. There are some advantages to be gained from using classified advertising on the web, as sites that charge fees are often of higher quality than free sites. They may also receive visits from potential customers looking for particular products and services – if that is what the advertiser wants.

On the other hand, some sites offering free classified advertising may be using the sites to collect Email addresses. For example, if an advertiser takes classifieds on such sites, they may sooner or later be involved with multiple junk Email lists, which are bought and sold to all comers at random. Thus, the advertiser must bear this in mind when he plans to reach a specified target audience for a product or service on offer.