A core strategy to reach target consumers is through paid advertising. In the early days of the Internet, online advertising mainly encompassed the banner ads appearing on websites, much like print media, such as newspapers and magazines. Online publishers can allocate various digital spaces on their web pages to display advertising messages. Different sizes and locations of such advertising spaces or banners, are priced differently depending on the likelihood of attracting a website visitor's attention. For example, when a visitor reaches the website of the News Gazette, a local newspaper in the Twin Cities of Champagne Urbana, where our university is located, they may see ads in various positions. A banner may appear at the top of the web page, just like the one here. You notice that this banner is visually separated from the news content. This placement is optimal because web page readers typically pay more attention to the upper left section of the web page as they read from the top to bottom and from left to right. Top banners used to be a common and effective way to capture the first glance of a website visitor. However, recent research suggests that web users have gotten so used to the traditional layout of web pages. They start to consciously or subconsciously dismiss certain regions on the web page, such as the top banner position, to avoid advertising messages. Researchers call this phenomenon banner blindness. An online publisher can display ads in any position on the web page however. They must consider the interest and the user experience of the readers, so the ads do not become a distraction, or worse, a disruption. As website visitors become desensitized to static web ads, advertisers could also do more to grab your attention. Rich media displays are web ads that are animated and interactive. Compared to traditional banner ads, rich media displays typically occupy more prominent spots on a web page and are much harder to ignore. Overlays are another type of display ad commonly found on a web. Unlike banners, overlays are displayed on top of the primary content. Overlays are most commonly seen on places like YouTube. The advantages of overlays is that the users cannot skip or avoid these ads. But the disadvantages are also evident. The users may find that the overlay is distracting and annoying. Also, by clicking on the overlays, the user is taken away from the primary content, which can be cumbersome and disruptive. Even more disruptive to the web browsing experience. Interstitials and pop-up ads heavily interrupt users viewing experience. The users have to minimize or close interstitial ads to reach the content they seek. Interstitials force the users to view and interact with the advertising message. But such forced engagement comes with the potential cost of alienation and annoys. Nearly 90 percent of the open market online display ads are bought and sold programmatically by computer algorithms. Through behavioral tracking and micro targeting, advertisers can deliver personalized ads at a moment's notice when a prospective customer appears on a website. Concerned about intrusion and threats to privacy and security, most Internet users have now adopted some form of ad block features when browsing the web. Governments worldwide are also developing regulations to limit advertisers ability to collect and use consumer's personal information for targeted marketing. Google announced the phasing out of its third party tracking cookies in 2020, which would severely reduce the value of web browser-based advertising strategies, the heavily relied on cookie tracking. In the post cookie era, advertisers may still have other choices for digital advertising. Besides display ads, such as banners and pop-ups, online advertising also include advertising that appears in search results or mobile apps, in-game advertisement, or games that are themselves advertisements. They're called advert games, and also email advertising. Let me go through a few of them. First, a staple in digital marketing is paid search advertising. Paid search marketing is known in the marketing and advertising industry by many names. Such as search engine marketing, pay-per-click or PPC marketing, search engine advertising, and sponsored listings. Many services and platforms facilitate paid search marketing. Such as Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords, Google Product Listing Ads, Google shopping ads, Bing Ads, and Yahoo Verizon Media, among many others. However, the principle behind paid search is simple. Product related searches reveal strong customer intention. By studying the patterns of internet searches, such as who used what keywords to find what products, a company can detect and convert new consumers when they appear. In paid search marketing, advertisers provide search engines or online directories with a list of keywords most relevant to their products and services, and specify the conditions in which a keyword or a combination of keywords could be triggered. When a consumer uses these keywords to search for a product, an ad will appear at the top of the search engine result page or SERP. If the consumer clicks on the search ad to reach the advertisers web page, the advertisers pays for that ad impression. Paid search advertising ensures your products and websites are discovered when a consumer seeks irrelevant information. However, research shows that consumers perceive paid search results as less trustworthy than organic, unpaid search results. To learn more about paid search advertising and how to use the Google advertising services, check out the additional learning materials I curated for the students in this class. Native advertising is a form of paid advertising designed to circumvent ad blockers and grab media users attention. A native ad appears within, instead of being next to the primary content of consumers interest. Such as their social media feeds or an online news article. Here's an example of a native ad appearing in a Facebook feed. Instead of purchasing spaces on the popular website, the advertisers won a bid to have Facebook show the ad to a population of Facebook users that matched the profile of the company's existing consumers. This is called lookalike audience. When used appropriately, native ads can precisely target and reach consumers likely to be more receptive to the marketing message. It is a good tactic to reduce advertising avoidance and circumvent ad blocking. TV commercials, video ads can also appear before and during online streaming videos. Instead of being aired during television programs, the pre-roll videos are placed before online videos, and in-stream ads are inserted between them. Pre-roll and in-stream video ads can be found on video hosting sites such as YouTube and streaming services such as Hulu. Instead of competing for a few spots during popular TV programs, online video ads allow companies to directly target consumers and deliver high-quality, high production value marketing messages to millions of web users. I will discuss these issues related to online video advertising in more detail in a separate special topic lesson. A more recent development in streaming video and TV advertising is OTT, over-the-top advertising. As more consumers migrate from traditional television to streaming television, advertisers must find new ways to reach millions of TV viewers. OTT advertising is delivered directly to viewers over the Internet through streaming video services or devices, such as smart or connected TVs or CTV. The term over-the-top comes from the ability to bypass traditional TV providers that control media distribution, giving advertisers the ability to reach their audiences directly. OTT advertising is rapidly reshaping the paid media landscape. Built on the same concepts and technologies that power web-based digital advertising, such as programmatic buying and behavioral targeting, OTT advertising allows brands to deliver targeted TV commercials to specific households without the constraints of broadcast schedule. Like its offline counterparts, online advertising can be used for a variety of objectives. In early days of the Internet, marketers thought that online ads should be used primarily for specific product messages or elicit direct responses. However, as computer graphics and display technologies improved, and as more Internet users seek entertainment and information from a variety of sources and platforms, brand awareness campaigns are becoming increasingly common.
