The multitude of advertising vehicles available these days has made it difficult for many advertisers to distribute their advertising budgets. From traditional newspaper advertising to interactive web-based advertising, the opportunities for advertisers are endless. A healthy combination of these and other advertising media is ultimately the best approach to a successful campaign. However, lately the nay-sayers of newspaper advertising have started to garner attention. Allow me to refresh your memory on the continued benefits of newspaper advertising.Newspapers have been gracing the doorsteps of American homes since the early 1700s. That is over 300 years of budding romance between American consumers and their beloved newspapers. Lee Clow, the Chairman & Global Director of TBWA\Worldwide explains that the, “Newspaper is a special medium. It’s not urgent, not yesterday or tomorrow but today. Sitting with a newspaper and a cup of coffee in the morning will always be one of the most intimate media experiences there is.” The title of this article is “Newspaper Advertising…Benefits Revealed” so… when will the benefits be revealed? I am getting to that! The newspaper has built its reputation as a trusted source of information; this goes for not only its articles but for the advertisements it features as well. Each individual newspaper has guidelines and restrictions that must be met by each advertiser. This is not always the case with the truckload of advertisers that place ads on the web. Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous people and companies that are able to post ads on various websites without undergoing any sort of screening. Consumers can continue to feel secure knowing that advertisements that make it to print have been checked out and approved for their benefit.Another advantage to newspaper advertising is the portable/permanent aspect of a newspaper. A newspaper is very easily toted from home to work, to lunch, back to work and back to home. This allows readers to pick up the paper when it is convenient for them. As far as the permanent feature of the newspaper… let us look at an example. Over a cup of coffee you are perusing the pages of your local paper. You come across an ad for a new product that strikes your fancy. You set the paper aside until later when you have some free time and can research the product. Later that week, you pick up the ad and make a phone call to the company advertising the product. The same product is advertised while you are surfing the web. You bookmark the site in order to return to the site later. However, later that week the ad is seemingly gone from the site. Is it on a rotation? Was the ad pulled? You may never know. This example may be a bit dramatic, however it illustrates the benefit of a tangible ad that someone can revisit and review.Perhaps the best argument for making the case for newspaper advertising is the “opt-in” feature. The world is full of annoying advertisements (not to say they don’t work), TV commercials, pop-up internet ads, spam emails, etc. etc. etc. Newspaper advertisements continue to be an opt-in advertising method. People can decide whether or not they are going to read your newspaper ads. They know the ads are there, alongside the articles they read everyday, and they have the choice. And as it turns out many adults are making the choice to read those ads, because they find them useful. In a 2007 study done by Mediamark, 51% of the adults they interviewed said that they found newspaper advertising “somewhat/very useful.” This day and age, people do not want to be bothered. Case and point? DVRs are becoming increasingly popular and allowing people to completely skip over commercials. People are finding a way around commercials, anti-spam filters are finding ways to weed out spam emails, pop-up blockers are eliminating pop-up ads. The list goes on. However, newspaper ads have not become an annoyance, they continue to be a source of useful information for readers of the newspaper.Advertisers have a difficult decision in distributing their advertising budgets. There is no “right answer” for how or where to spend your money. No advertising plan is going to be right for all advertisers. Each advertiser must test different ads in different mediums in order to find out what will produce results. Newspapers have long been a valued method of advertising to companies and individuals around the world. They offer benefits to advertisers that web based advertising cannot. Newspaper advertising is still working for advertisers that continue to recognize its value. When you are divvying your advertising budget this year; do your research, weigh your options, but don’t overlook the value that newspapers have always offered advertisers.

As a business coach, new clients often ask: “Coach Maurice, what is the best way/place/form of advertising?”The short answer is: none. There is no magic bullet. If there were a “best”, then everyone would use that method exclusively.There is however a little known key that relates to all forms of advertising. Mastering this key will allow you to maximize your advertising efforts.The majority of the time when, small business owners and entrepreneurs delve into advertising they take a universal approach. They do not realize there is an important dynamic to consider if they expect their advertising to be effective.This key is simply the difference between active and passive advertising. Understanding active versus passive advertising methods (and subsequently an active versus a passive viewer) will make the difference in whether your advertising brings explosive results or gets lost in the crowd.[Active Advertising]This form of advertising is considered active or intrusive because the viewers are passive, meaning they are not specifically looking for you or your service at that time. Radio, Television and Billboard ads are all forms of Active Advertising. The goal of active advertising is for your offer to catch a percentage of the people who see your advertisement at the exact right time and make them say “oh, that looks like something I need.”Active ads either catch a person’s attention or they do not. Just like with a billboard on the freeway, you have 1-3 whole seconds to get your ad to capture their attention enough to begin to get your message across.This means that if you do not interest a person within that time, they drive by, switch the channel or move their mouse to the upper right corner of your ad and press the [x] to close it.An effective active ad is one used to reach out and grab someone who is not particularly looking for your product or service at that exact moment.The idea is to generate name recognition and familiarity in the marketplace with your brand. Therefore, active ads are best suited for branding and positioning. They are mostly used to imprint an impression in a person’s subconscious so that when they are actually at a point of purchase, the buying decision goes in your favor.Although you can use them for lead generation, do not expect a high percentage of immediate response from active ads.[SUCCESS TIP]Whenever using active advertising, you must do a LOT of it (quantity and frequency) in order to be most effective. The reason you need to do a lot of active marketing, is because the target audience is passive. They are in the middle of doing something else, i.e. reading a magazine, watching a show or driving to work.Because they are passive in response to your ad, expect your response (as it relates to your ROI) to be lower than passive forms of advertising. This is because the majority of potential customers will not respond the very first time they see your ad. People are busy, and they need to be reminded of your business.Again, remember viewers are not necessarily looking at that time for what you have to offer. So you are in a sense interrupting their experience. This is why it is called “intrusive” marketing.SPAM is an example of active marketing that is seen as both “intrusive” and “offensive”.Make sure your advertising is intrusive, but not offensive.[Think about it] When was the last time you saw an ad only ONE time and responded to it immediately? How often do you have that type of immediate response to an ad? Do you usually need to see an ad a few times before you take action if it is not an immediate need?Ideally, when placing an active type of advertisement, you want to get a chance to be seen by the same people over and over with your exact same message. In the advertising business, this important technique of repetition is called “frequency”.[Frequency]Term used to describe the ratio or number of times an individual sees or hears the same advertisement. A person needs to repeatedly hear the same message in order for it to stick. The higher the “frequency”, the better response you will get.Frequency is a major factor in the response rate of any advertisement. You can see this in how often you see the same commercials on TV in a short time period.Frequency creates name recognition, brand familiarity and stability. All of which are necessary for positioning a product or service properly in consumers minds.Let’s use our billboard example again. A billboard gets a lot of frequency. They are often effective at branding because travelers usually use the same roads multiple times per week. This allows the same message to be presented repeatedly to the same people, day after day, month after month.Again, this method is best used for branding, because with the exception of a directional (i.e. Waffle House – next exit on right,) people are not likely to stop their car and respond immediately to a billboards offer.The other form of advertising is a passive type of advertising. They are called passive ads because rather than reaching out to the area a potential customer is, instead they sit and wait for the customer to find them. The viewer is “active” in that their goal is to find a specific advertisement with an offer related to their needs.[Passive Advertising]This form of advertising is considered passive because the viewers are active, meaning they are currently seeking out your type of product or service. Coupon Books, Yellow Page Advertising & Search Engine pay-per-click (PPC) are forms of Passive Advertising.People who see passive ads are already looking for your type of service and have actively made the decision to search out a provider. Usually they do not have any particular provider in mind, which is why they are looking for someone to service their needs.[APPLES-TO-APPLES]Be sure you properly compare advertising methods before judging their effectiveness. Do not confuse response with conversion.One frustration common among advertisers is the difference between the pricing and response rates of an active campaign compared to a passive campaign. An advertiser may compare a banner or pop-under-ads campaign to a pay-per-click campaign. The cost and response rate of both will be dramatically different.There are many, many reasons for this difference, but a main reason is they are not the same type of advertising. One is active, the other is passive.In general passive campaigns, like pay-per-click (Yahoo Advertiser Network, Google AdWords, etc) will always yield a higher conversion rate than a passive campaign, like banner or pop-under-ads. It is also much more expensive and difficult to track when using a passive form of advertising.The key reason there is better response rate in PPC (a passive form of advertising) is these are people who took the time to type in a phrase into a search engine and click a link or open the yellow pages and make a phone call. They are currently and actively looking for your service.Billboard or Pop type ads are active forms of advertising and show up in areas or on a site where your customer hangs out. However, the viewer, who is passive about (i.e. not currently looking for) your service at the moment, was in the midst of doing something else.It takes several impressions and reminders to get the passive viewer to RESPOND. Response, or taking action based on the advertisement, should not be confused with CONVERSION, or the viewer actually making a purchase (or other required action taken).This is the same reason Yellow Page inquiries are more expensive, and generally will yield higher response than something like Radio Advertising. This is due to the different focus of the viewers at the time of seeing the ad.[KEY POINT]DO NOT compare your active campaign response results to your passive campaign results. They will NEVER match, nor should they. When you attempt this, you are making an apples-to-oranges comparison.Most vehicles offer either active or passive. Sometimes, certain mediums like a magazine may have both active (display ads throughout) and passive (classifieds in back).Both methods should be properly implemented as a part of a well-rounded marketing plan.When creating a media mix, be sure to recognize whether the vehicle you are using is an active or passive vehicle.While in the creative phase, ask yourself:Are you intruding on a (passive) person’s activity and need to let them know what your ad is about?Or, do you just need to answer the need of the (actively looking) person’s desire?Be sure to create your ad according to whether the person is active or passive about your offer.[SUCCESS TIP] Before running an ad campaign, ask yourself, “If I were looking to buy this same product/service, what would this advertisement have to say to convince ‘me’ to respond right now?”Any advertisement that can answer that question is going to convert into lots of visitors. That is exactly what your ad must do.

There are many ways to market one’s product or service. One of the most powerful forms of advertising is advertising outdoors. In the UK, this is a booming market and because of this, outdoor advertising space can be hard to come by at times. However, once the space has been secured, any business will begin to see the benefits of this form of advertising.Captive MarketWith all of the cars on the road, the people who are driving those cars have no choice but to look out their windscreen at their surrounds. Part of those surroundings are the marketing campaigns utilising advertising outdoors. With the popularity of holiday ventures to rural areas as well as camper trailers, not to mention urban driving becoming more and more common, there are avenues for any marketing campaign that will get seen by thousands or hundreds of thousands of people a day. The advertisements outdoors make big statements and cannot be ignored, unlike other advertising mediums, such as a reader skipping advertising pages in a magazine.Repetitive ExposureOn top of guaranteed views of an advertising campaign, there is a high level of repetitive exposure to the same advertisements. The typical commuter drives the same route five days a week so that means that any given outdoor advertisement will be viewed by that driver repeatedly during the week. Repetition in advertising is difficult to obtain in most mediums but while advertising outdoors, it is one of the most cited reasons for choosing this medium for advertising.Gets to the Customer at the Right TimeWith any marketing campaign, timing is everything. A bold advertisement is lost if there is a large amount of time, from the advertising impression, to the decision to make a purchase. Outdoor advertising minimises that time, sometimes dramatically. Advertising a product utilising an outdoor ad in front of the store where that product is sold is the most striking example of this. However, even having a product featured on the expressway will still leave an favourable advertising impression when a person stops at their local market before heading home after a long day at work.Outdoor Advertising is Cost EffectiveWhen looking at the cost per viewer, no other advertising medium is so cost effective. While an advertisement in a magazine may be a bit more targeted toward an audience, the cost per impression is dramatically higher than a high-quality and dynamic advertisement placed outside. Getting repeat exposure for the same product requires even more outlay of capital from a company’s marketing budget, yet with outdoor advertising campaigns, the same commuter will see the advertisement for weeks before beginning to truly ignore it.The initial cost for an outdoor advertising campaign is fairly low as well, depending on the location and size of the advertisement. As with other marketing outlets, size and the variety of colours affects cost. However, compared to most other marketing mediums, the initial cost is most often lower and the monthly cost after the first month is more of a rental agreement and maintenance fee agreement, rather than a reoccurring fixed cost.

If you are a person who surfs the internet with any regularity, you are likely to be well accustomed to seeing banner advertisements of all sorts and sizes across many websites on the web. The fact they are such a common sight serves to prove that they must surely be an effective form of advertising, or else it is a relatively safe bet they would have disappeared from our screens many years ago, as advertisers flocked towards more effective advertising mediums that delivered a better return on investment.Indeed, banner advertising always has been and remains to be a very core part of most companies online advertising strategies. It is not the only online advertising format however – and the number of which is growing every day – so how are we to know whether banner advertising is right for us or should have a place within our advertising strategy? We must obviously look at the different merits of banners relative to other advertising formats.These days, pay per click (PPC) advertising is one of the most popular online advertising methods, since it generally delivers a very predictable return on investment and is immensely trackable. Advertisers are charged based on the performance of their advertisements, rather than just by how long they are run for or the amount of exposure they receive. Most PPC advertisements are text-based, however, and that means whilst they may be good for advertising product deals and offers and bringing in direct leads, they are less effective by nature at such things as increasing brand awareness.In contrast, banner advertising – being image based – is much more suitable for companies who wish to present their logo with their offer, or in cases where manufacturers may wish to increase brand or product awareness without directly selling a product or service to a customer.Since banners have the ability to leave a more lasting visual imprint of a product, service or brand in the potential customers mind, many advertisers who choose banner advertising for brand awareness rather than direct sales or leads may seek to pay a flat rate for their advertising exposure on certain websites. The price in such cases may be based either on the number of clicks or number of impressions (usually by the thousand). Either way, the cost of advertising in such a way is often much lower than if they were to go the more predictable modern route of choosing text-based pay per click advertising.Banners are often site-wide advertisements as oppose to page-specific. That is to say when an advertiser looks for websites on which to place their advertisements, they will often choose sites on which the overall theme or topic is relevant to their product, service or customer demographic. They will choose to advertise throughout the whole website, allowing them to gain more exposure than if they were to simply have their advertisements display on a single page of a website, as is often the case with text-based pay per click advertisements, which are usually automatically targeted towards keywords within the content of any given page.The fact that banners can be (and often are) very eye-catching and dynamic by nature and usually cheaper than pay per click advertising makes them an ideal advertising format for companies seeking wider and increased exposure, particularly for brand awareness rather than prompting a direct and immediate action from the customer. It is by far the most effective advertising form in terms of delivering results whilst keeping down costs when big advertising campaigns are concerned, or when one is trying to establish brand awareness and credibility over direct, immediate leads.

Advertising is a form of communication. Its intention is to attract or persuade an audience to take action or purchase products, ideals, and services. This audience is composed of readers, viewers, and listeners. All of them are part of the advertising communication. In advertising you are showcasing your business or your product to your audience in a manner that they will know what is being advertised. It is a common tool used by different companies and agencies in promoting their businesses. Whatever is the type and kind of the company, advertising is really needed.There are different types of advertisement and they are used everyday. The following types are print advertising, broadcast advertising, outdoor advertising, covert advertising, surrogate advertising, public service advertising, and celebrity advertising. To show the distinction on the types of advertising, below are their functions and their usage.
Print advertisings are commonly printed materials like brochures, magazines, newspapers and fliers. They all have a common goal that is to let the readers know about their products or services. Broadcast advertisings are aired advertisements through different types of broadcasting media’s like television, radio, and internet. Outdoor advertisings are usually seen on billboards, kiosks, trade shows and events. Covert advertisings are commonly incorporated in movies, programs, and TV shows without them being mentioned but largely showcasing the brand. Surrogate advertisings are commonly used to showcase a different product which is related to a banned products. Celebrity advertisings are advertisements that uses celebrity as the endorser of a certain product. Advertisement plays a major role in a business. This is the booster or the energizer of all companies and products. Reasons for advertising varies but most of them are common in one thing and that is to let the people know about them. So what are the different reasons why companies and individuals do advertisements? Here are some of the reasons.
To introduce. Many new products, websites, and companies are now rapidly popping up into the market and in order to stand out from their niches they do advertising. To sell. This is the most common reason in all companies and products, to sell. Companies and products are being advertise to the public using the most common advertising type, the print and broadcasting. Letting the public about their services or products. To help. This type of reason is more of a public service. To give information. Informations like a certain component of vegetables or fruits is one good way to fight a certain diseases. To warn. Police departments and establishments advertise faces of people whom broken the law or committed wrong acts to the public. How about you why do you advertise?

The online world is a wonderful place to advertise any business. One of the first things you should think about will be the expense associated when you choose to do this.Google Inc. may be the dominate player as far as search engines is concerned. They have perhaps a two-fold advertising program, Google AdSense and Google AdWords Pay Per Click Program. In this article, allow me to cover effective methods on how to advertise on Google having minimum cost. Advertising on Google can be quite profitable when done properly. Make sure you properly educate yourself prior to deciding to advertise with Google. If you ever go in blindly, advertising on Google can become very financially demanding.How to Advertise with Google?Google AdWords pay per click is a great advertising program that enables marketers to showcase with a Pay-Per-Click scheme. Advertising on Google by means of Pay-Per-Click or in other words PPC, you pay whenever a searcher clicks your ad. This implies your advertising could operate nonstop so you just pay Google whenever a searcher clicks your advertisement. Google’s procedure gets rid of unnecessary fees billed by many commercialized internet sites in order so they can show your advertisements on their website. You’ll still be left with debt whether or not you receive genuine visitors to your site or not through the advertising you placed. So I think Google AdWords pay per click is the right option for targeted visitors. Whenever you advertise with Google, you only pay for the actual visitors you receive, not only an advert position. This is why Google is superior from their competitors.Google AdWords Pay Per Click ExplainedWhen a marketer signs up to promote on Google AdWords pay per click, they will have the choice to produce both an image or text advertisement of the product or service they may be advertising. Promoters additionally must include a related list of key words. Almost all ads show on the right side of Google after a preliminary search is performed by the consumers whom are trying to find info on the internet with Google’s search engine.You actually might be wondering how Google can evaluate which placement advertiser’s advertisements will show in the search engine. Google AdWords pay per click using a bidding and content relevancy technique to determine this. The higher a person bid on any key word, the more inclined your ad might be shown in Google.Google’s bidding program offers publishers the ability to bid and compete for top ad placement on keywords. Bidding on keywords usually starts at five cents.Here’s where ads are shown when you advertise with Google.Google publishers advertising typically display on the right side of the web page when an internet search is conducted using Google. They furthermore appear on web host who agreed to allow Google to advertise on their website relevant adverts. Promoter’s adverts are only shown when a search term they’re bidding on is searched by a web searcher. Once again I want to reiterate that the advertiser only pays for clicks from web searchers.How to advertise on Google with minimum Pay-Per-Click expense? Advertising on Google isn’t a no brainer meal ticket for publishers. Sound judgment is needed to advertise with Google. After all I’m sure you’d like to learn how to advertise on Google with minimum cost on pay-per click. The ultimate goal is to convert web searchers who click on your Google AdWords pay per click ads directly into sales. Without having sales, it’s going to hard to cash in on advertising on Google.One method to advertise on Google and be profitable is by not being at the top placement of a search phrase you happen to be bidding on. Although being on the top of the search results will probably produce a lot of clicks on your advertisement, it will likewise get you a lot of curious searchers and not serious buyers in most cases. Statistics show that visitors usually do not usually buy from the first advert that they click, so keep that in mind when you’re bidding on search phrases.Positioning your adverts in the latter part of the results between 5 & six, there is higher opportunity that the visitors produced through those clicks can provide more sales whenever you advertise with Google. Advertising on Google second page isn’t really necessarily a bad thing. If someone will to go to the second page of Google’s search results, that’s an indicator they may be a serious purchaser. Not to mention that what an advertiser will pay per click will be significantly cheaper versus trying to get and paid ad on the first page.Content relevancy on your website also maximizes sales when you advertise with Google. With relevant and targeted content, you avoid confusing potential customers as to what your website advertisement is about. Keeping your links live assures consistent traffic flow to your website.Google AdWords pay per click is an excellent choice to get immediate traffic to your website to create exposure for yourself or business. Hopefully this article gave you great ideas on how to advertise on Google.

If you could master the art of advertising, you would soon be an extremely rich individual. An “Advertising Master” could not only sell just about anything, for any price, but could also sell his or her expertise to others for untold sums of money, especially if that Master could guarantee results.Now the bad news. Becoming a true Advertising Master is probably as difficult and time consuming as it might be to become a nuclear physicist! Advertising is that hard! Advertising is that elusive! Advertising is that much of a mystery!Advertising is like writing a brilliant poem on the sand of a beach. Just when you have written a masterpiece, the tide comes in and washes it away forever. Then when you try to rewrite the poem, it turns out not to be so brilliant the second time around – even if you wrote the very same thing. The poem may stay the same, but the world around it changed. It lost it’s the original relevancy that made it brilliant the first time around. That happens with great ads all the time.Is this starting to sound like a philosophy lecture? But here’s the thing about advertising: You never know what good advertising is until it works. That means you can’t tell if an ad is a good, effective ad before it is actually used.Now, let’s get in touch with reality here. We know a lot about advertising. We know a lot about what works and what does not work. It’s just that there’s never 100% certainty about anything. Add to that fact that advertising tends to be extremely expensive and you have a very delicate situation, indeed. Still, very few businesses can exist without doing at least some kind of paid advertising, and very often, advertising can be a tremendous source of new customers, business and profit for just about anybody who is selling anything.When advertising is done right, the profit it can bring to a business can be truly spectacular. That’s why it’s so tempting to roll the dice with your ad budget. But when it comes to advertising, what you need is a healthy dose of common sense, combined with a strategy that risks only as much money as you think you can afford to lose.First of all, one must decide what kind of advertising is right for the business type. The choices are:· print advertising in things like newspapers, magazines and other specialty publications.
· broadcast media eg. radio and television.
· internet advertising is a whole new and different kind advertising world in itself
· directory advertising
· billboards and poster sites
· promotional advertisingIt can all be pretty intimidating. What advertising vehicle is right for you? What if you only had £1,000 to spend. Is it best to spend that £1,000 on an ad or ads in the local newspaper, take out an ad in the Yellow Pages, or maybe buy some radio time on a local station. If you only have £1,000 to spend, which should you choose to gain maximum effect? And by maximum effect, we mean bringing in more than the £1,000 you spent on that ad!Well, we’re only going to talk about some general principles here and give some basic guidelines. That’s because literally whole libraries of books have been written on the subject and art of advertising, and we simply can’t cover it all here. It’s a subject that is nearly inexhaustible, and any entrepreneur worth his salt should be spending a lot of spare time reading up on all the advertising information he or she can get his or her hands on.First, never buy a large print advertisement without testing a smaller less expensive ad first. Maybe start with a classified ad, or very small space ad. If the results are promising, you can reasonably upgrade to a bigger more expensive ad in the same publication. The key is test and measure! You must have a system to determine that the ad you bought is responsible for the leads you get from that ad. It’s not always easy. Take the case of a restaurant.Let’s say that Restaurant A buys an ad in the local newspaper. How do you know that the people who come into the restaurant are doing so because they were prompted to do so by the ad in the local paper? Is it reasonable to ask every patron who comes in if they saw your ad in the paper? Probably not. But if you included a clip out coupon in the ad which patrons can bring in for a 10% discount, you can get a pretty good idea of how well the ad performed. Simple techniques like this can make all the difference.Companies that sell things via mail order key their ads to show where each order sent in came from. All orders which include a key from a print ad will show exactly how well the ad performed. This is an almost 100% accurate way to test a print ad.But what about a radio ad? How could a restaurant advertising on a local radio station determine if their broadcast ads were working? It’s a lot tougher. You could ask patrons to mention your radio ad when they come in, but this is unreliable, to say the least. If business suddenly increases when the ad runs, you might reasonable conclude that the radio ad is working, but you can’t be 100% sure. It’s a tough call, and the smart restaurant owner will have to decide if the radio ad is worth it or not. If business continues to be brisk while the ad runs, it’s probably a good idea to keep it going.Whatever the case, having a reliable way to test ads is essential to making intelligent decisions about the advertising budget. Another major point is this: Always remember the central purpose of an ad.- to bring in customers who will buy what you are selling. This point is so often forgotten and the design of the ad becomes an exercise in creative design rather than something designed to generate new sales.The ad should produce more in income than the cost of the ad itself. This seems obvious, except for the fact that we are all bombarded every day with all kinds of advertising that is not necessarily selling very much. If this is so, then why is all this advertising being bought and paid for?Well, much of the advertising we are confronted with every day is purchased by major corporations with very deep pockets, and gigantic advertising budgets. The big players can afford to buy ads that merely create “name recognition” and help them keep a high profile in the public mind. But small to mid-sized businesses can’t afford this kind of thing.How many times have you seen a TV commercial that is fun to watch, completely hilarious, and really gives you a good laugh — but leaves you with no idea whatsoever about what is being advertised? We all see dozens of these ads every year. They’re fun and entertaining, but they don’t sell much. So why do people buy pay for ads like these? Again, such ads are usually the venue of major players with more money than brains, and who are also willing to take big risks in the advertising game.But the vast majority — perhaps 99% — of businesses can’t afford this kind of thing. The purpose of an ad is to sell, not to entertain. The purpose of an ad is not to “be creative” but to produce profits. The purpose of an ad is not to be a work of art — but to get customers marching through the door. If an ad happens to entertain while making money, well, that’s fine. The trouble is, too many people have been led to believe that an ad must first be funny or entertaining, when the true first task of an ad is to inform customers about your product, tell them where and how to get it, and get them to buy.Many small and mid-sized business owners see a lot of funny and creative ads on TV or in magazines, and then assume that because huge rich companies are using these kind of ads, they must be a good thing. That’s not the case.There are other pressures to create ads that are nice to look at, but which don’t work. Ad agencies, for example, compete for creativity awards sponsored by advertising associations. Ad writers and creators who get awards get a boost to their careers when they win awards. This encourages them to lose sight of what their primary purpose is — to create ads that sell. Many TV ad producers tend to be frustrated film makers. How many TV ads have you seen that have the look and feel of miniature feature films? A lot! It’s great if they actually do something to sell the product, but much of the time they don’t.So how can you be sure that your advertising vehicles have the proper elements needed to make sales? While there is no such thing as a guaranteed formula for ad success, you can give yourself the best chance by remembering the tried and true basics, and those basics are represented by the anagram AICDA — Attention, Interest, Credibility, Desire and Action.An ad must first attract Attention. With a print ad, that task falls to the headline. In a radio ad, that means a loud, attention getting intro made up of any number of sound effects. In TV it’s something similar, but with visual effects added. In a sales letter, its teaser copy on the outside of the envelope, and an attention grabbing headline on the opening page. Photos and graphics can also grab attention in print ads — whatever the case, an ad must first capture attention before it can accomplish the next mission which is…….. Interest. Once you lure the prospect in, you must create instant interest in what you are selling. That’s usually handled with a subhead and the first sentence of the body copy, or the first dialog of a radio or TV ad. Credibility is provided in a variety of ways, including past customer testimonials, statistics which demonstrate success and more.Desire is created by appealing to the emotions of the ad viewer, and this is done my showing what the product will do for those who buy, such as solve a problem, or enhance prestige, or improve health. The final function of an ad is to produce Action! The ad viewer must be compelled to call, write in, stop by in person — or whatever you want them to do. Urging action usually means providing incentives and rewards to do so. For example, putting a time limit on when an incredible 25% discount can be obtained will spur people to action. There are many other ways as well.How you produce the elements of AICDA will be your challenge. There is no one, good way to make sure you have all the elements of AICDA hitting on all cylinders. Again, this is advertising, not mathematics. You may have to test several different versions of an ad. before it really starts working. If you’re lucky, you’ll hit the jackpot the first time you place an ad.Please be aware that this short discussion on advertising is only a primer. Getting advertising right is a major challenge for any business and an ongoing process. A lot of marketing gurus out there offer a lot of hype and unrealistic notions about what advertising can do for a business, but here at Alchemy, we don’t deal in hype. We deal only in reality, and solid, grounded business practices that are guaranteed to work. You will need to advertise, but you must take the correct and careful approach. Do that, be persistent, work smart, and you are bound to succeed. Millions of others have.SummaryFew companies can afford to ignore buying paid advertisements to grow their businesses, but the key is to proceed carefully, intelligently, and stick to the basics. Advertising is by nature a somewhat arcane art. There are no magic formulae that guarantee success. All advertising must be rigorously tested. Buy small ads before risking major money on large ads. Remember the AICDA formula and the real purpose of an advert is to SELL! And not to entertain.

Online advertising is all around us. Sometimes it’s discrete, and sometimes it’s in your face. Sometimes it’s helpful, and sometimes it’s annoying. As the web continues to evolve into a completely free service, sponsored only by advertisers, so too does the integrated complexity of online advertising. The purpose of this post is to explore the art of online advertising by looking at human nature with respect to both the general public and advertisers.How did the internet evolve into a collection of free services?
In the early days of the internet, people had to pay for pretty much everything. Can you imagine having to pay for an online directory? AOL did. And they made a lot of money from it too. Paying for services like online directories was very short lived however, due to the human nature of competition. In the mid 90’s, a couple of college students created a free online directory of their favorite websites, and later added search capabilities. It was a little project called Yahoo. As other free services began to emerge in order to compete with paid services, the free services began to take over the internet, resulting in the web that we know and love today.The nature of online advertising
In one of my previous articles, How online advertisers sponsor the internet, I discussed how most of the major websites we use today are free services that earn revenue from online advertisers. That being said, it’s interesting to see how different business models support online advertising. To really understand how online advertising fits into the world wide web, it’s important to realize what the general public wants and expects out of their internet experience, and what online advertisers want and expect out of ad-driven websites.The general public, for the most part, uses the internet as a tool to find information, to be entertained, to network, and to get work done. People aren’t usually seeking to find new products and services offered by businesses. Online advertisers, on the other hand, see the internet as a portal of potential new customers. They are generally only concerned with one thing: getting people to find out about their business, and getting people to use their services or buy their products. Finally, the free websites that we use every day, like Google, YouTube, and Facebook, must somehow find a happy medium between both of these group’s desires and expectations. How do they do it?Assault Advertising
Assault Advertising is when a website aggressively forces users to look at advertisements. The most notorious example of Assault Advertising is popup ads. Fewer websites use this technique today because it usually causes new visitors to leave the site and never return. These types of websites are like radio stations that play commercials 90% of the time. Who wants to listen to that?Assertive Advertising
Assertive Advertising is a technique that websites use to promote advertisers in less aggressive ways than Assault Advertising. For example, when a page or video is loading, sometimes websites will use Assertive Advertising to show an ad while the user waits for content to load. Visitors are usually more accepting of this type of advertising because it’s non disruptive, unlike Assault Advertising.Peripheral Advertising
Peripheral Advertising is a type of advertising in which websites display both content and ads simultaneously, with the hope that users might glance at the advertisements while viewing content. This is the most common type of advertising because it’s easy to implement and usually doesn’t annoy visitors. This type of advertising is usually implemented with banners and image ads like the one at the top right of this page.Inline Advertising
Inline Advertising is the most effective and least invasive form of online advertising. This type of advertising is usually implemented with one or two links integrated within a website’s content. Google for example displays paid advertisements at the top of selected search result pages. As users search for the content they are looking for, they naturally read through the advertisements and have a very high likely hood of clicking on a link. As another example, Digg uses Inline Advertising by positioning paid Digg articles in the third slot of every Digg category page. WebKrunk also uses Inline Advertising because the end of each article leads directly into two links paid for by online advertisers.