Online Advertising

Online Journalism
 What is Online Advertising?
• Online advertising, also called Internet
advertising, is a form of advertising which uses
the Internet to deliver promotional marketing
messages to consumers.
• In early days of the internet, online advertising
wasn’t allowed.
• Online advertising is a large business and is growing
rapidly.
• In 2011, Internet advertising revenues in the United
States surpassed those of cable television and nearly
exceeded those of broadcast television.
• In 2012, Internet advertising revenues in the United
States totaled $36.57 billion, a 15.2% increase over the
$31.74 billion in revenues in 2011.
• US internet ad revenue hit a historic high of $20.1
billion for the first half of 2013, up 18% over the same
period in 2012.
• Online advertising is widely used across virtually all
industry sectors.
 Phase 1: The Banner Era
Big Banner
• The first advertisement to grace the Internet
page was called a banner.
• It was initially hosted on top of the page and
its size was standardised at 468 by 60 pixels.
• Each pixel is equal to 0.02 cm.
• Gradually, the banner came to be hosted in
the middle and at the bottom of the Internet
page.
• The banner rates were directly proportional to
the traffic that a site attracted and the
position where the banner was run.
• The top banners that enjoyed the highest
visibility on a page were priced the highest.
• There is little doubt that big banner has been
the longest running advertisement on he
Internet.
• Advertisers may love it or hate it but they
have not been able to get rid of it.
• Example: Yahoo.com
 Baby Banner
• Sites needed more ad spots to generate
revenue. They therefore introduced a small
banner.
• The two most popular sizes are : 230 by 30
pixels and 215 by 35 pixels.
• The biggest advantage of this banner was that
it could be placed at different points on the
page, without disturbing the basic page
design.
 Phase 2: Innovative Advertising
• Advertising is a beautiful marriage of creativity
and technology.
• Almost every month a different kind of
advertisement made its debut. A few of the
innovative ads that still survive are:
 Box AD
• The box ad was possibly the boldest
advertisement conceived to boost Internet
advertising.
• It was introduced by Cnet.com, a technology
site, and gradually won acceptance on other
sites too.
• The square ad, which is 360 by 360 pixels, is
hosted in the middle of a content page, quite
close to the top of the page.
• From the advertisers point of view the ad is a
dream.
• However, for the users the box ad is an
eyesore. It eats into content space making
reading difficult. Also the animation, when
very loud, can be distracting.
 Vertical AD
• The vertical ads were developed to give
flexibility to web advertising.
• These tall ads, which are positioned on the
right hand side of the web page, are narrow
but run quite deep.
• They also enjoy the advantage of high
visibility.
• Their only disadvantage is that they cut into
the work area, leaving less space for content.
• Like baby banners, vertical ads too are used in
different sizes.
• Example: Hindustantimes.com
 Layer Ad
• The advertisement, also called the anchor
tenancy or the fixed position ad, is like a
banner ad.
• The only difference is that it does not go off
the screen; instead it stays glued to the base
of the screen.
• The browser can use his arrow keys to scroll
the home page or inside page of the site in the
vertical space that is available above the ad.
• But there is no doubt that the sites visual
appeal gets diminished; also if the ad happens
to be animated the browser can end up with a
tic in the eye.
• That is why layer ads have lost their appeal.
 Stamp Ad
• These advertisements, as their name suggests,
take little space.
• The two most commonly used sizes of stamp
ads are 150 by 50 pixels and 120 by 60 pixels.
• Stamp ads are popular with both the
advertisers and the site owners.
• The advertisers like them because they cost
less; site owners don’t mind them because
they use less space and easily positioned.
 Pop up ads
• These ads are a rage despite user unhappiness.
• As the name suggests pop up ads smile, blink and
flash on the users screen the moment he opens a
site.
• Invariably, they pop up even before a site opens.
• Sometimes they delay the opening of a site,
making a user wonder if the site is working of not.
• However, the advertisers like pop up ads
because they constitute the first window that
opens on a users screen when he tries to visit
a site.
• The browsers certainly do not like pop up ads.
 Pop under ads
• A few wary advertisers, afraid that they may upset
the users by continuing to bomb their screens
with pop up ads, have come up with a variant:
pop unders.
• These ads open beneath the main window; and
nine times out of ten user is not even aware of
their opening.
• It is only when the user closes the site that he
notices the ad.
• Clearly, pop under ads are improved versions of
pop up ads.
 Phase 3: Brand Building
• The new philosophy is that Internet
advertising is not about numbers but about
building brands.
• Internet advertisements are now being
designed to build brands, generate brand
awareness and improve brand recall.
• The argument is that advertising should be
used to make a customer aware of a product
and to give him sufficient reasons to buy it.
 Media Metrics
• Internet ad has generated a new terminology
that is very different from that used print or tv
ad.
 Cost per thousand impressions
• Popularly known as CPMs, this is probably the
first media metric to be standardized.
• It is directly related to the number of times an
ad banner downloads onto a page.
• CPM is equivalent to one thousand banner
downloads.
• A site charges the rate of tk 100 CPM is telling
the advertiser that it will levy a tariff of 100 tk
for every 1000 times the banner downloads.
 Clickthrough rate
• The CTR rate evolved from CPMs.
• This metric enables the advertiser to count
the precise number of times a user has clicked
on his banner.
• This is a useful tool for any advertiser. Ad
based on CTR is clearly loaded in the
advertiser’s favour.
 Cost per sale
• This was the ultimate that any advertiser
could dream of.
• He was not paying for the number of times his
banner was seen
• He was not paying for the number of times
that users were clicking on the banner and
looking at his products
• Instead he was paying for each product that
was sold.
 IP-based targeting
• The biggest plus point of Internet marketing is
IP-based targeting.
• IP, which stands for Internet Protocol, makes
it possible to target customers according to
geographical areas, time zones or
demographic profiles.
 Reference Book
Breaking News
The Craft and Technology of Online Journalism

Sulnil Saxena

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