Advertising on the Web

Digital interactive media offer several ways to engage and influence prospects. In the case that follows you will help a small business make several key decisions about an interactive campaign.

Taking an ad campaign online requires thinking about the strengths and weaknesses of digital interactive as a medium. Show your understanding of how digital advertising can help an advertiser achieve his/her IMC objectives.

Read the case below and answer the questions that follow.

Maria runs an import business that sells authentic Mexican arts and crafts through her website. She knows that advertising on the Web is the best way to generate traffic to her site. But she is unsure about exactly how she should spend her small ad budget wisely. She consults with Gina, a friend from college who is now running a successful business.

1. Maria's small business represents about a dozen Mexican artists and craftsmen. In this group are three painters, five sculpturers, and four artists who use a variety of media, including glass, wood, and sand. She finds that her best customers know what they are looking for and use search engines to locate her site. Based on this information, Gina suggests that Maria advertise in Google's __________ program.

AdSense

portal

Bing

Yahoo!

AdWords

2. Gina asks Maria about key terms that Web users use to find her site. Some potential customers, Maria responds, are searching for native artists of any kind, but others are seeking a specific artist. This is frustrating to Maria, because she doesn't know whether to create a "home page" that features all of the artists, or to create pages devoted to each artist. Gina responds that this is a false choice, because Maria should use

a page for each artist without a common page listing all of them.

one page featuring all of the artists with links to each individual.

nothing. Since the artists are on Facebook, they don’t need a webpage.

nothing. Search is unlikely to bring up any particular artist so an artist page is wasteful.

landing pages for each artist and for all of them together.

3. Maria knows that Google is the world's most popular search engine. Because of this, she suggests to Gina that they look for another way to advertise. "I can't afford to pay for all of the people who would see my ad in Google," she says. "That audience must number in the hundreds of millions!" How should Gina reply?

Google works fine on PC’s and Mac’s, but is useless for mobile devices.

Most people are still not on the Web so it would be better to use a traditional medium.

Maria is raising an excellent point. They should use a less popular search engine.

Google does not use a CPM model. It uses a PPC, or pay-per-click model. So Google is a good choice.

The web is now too widespread to be used as an advertising platform.

4. Maria likes the idea that Web users can find her ad during a search, but thinks this may be too limiting. "What about people who don't know about my artists or my site?" she asks. "Does Google have a way to place my ad at websites where people who are not necessarily looking for me can still discover my business?" What should Gina tell her?

No Google ad program can help with this problem.

Google's Cookies will place her ad on related websites.

Google’s AdSense will place her ad on related websites.

Google’s Sponsored Links will place her ad on related websites.

Google’s AdWords will place her ad on related websites.

5. Maria is sold on search advertising, but doesn't want search to be her only way of reaching customers. "Once I've gotten a customer," she explains, "I stay in touch with them and let them know about new works and artists." But she hasn't done more with email because she is frustrated with its limitations. "The reason I don't use email more," she explains, "is it is just text-based. If only email could allow me to use graphics to display my artists, and even include video and audio clips from the artists explaining how they create and design their work." What should Gina's response be?

Rich mail is exactly what you are looking for.

Banner ads consistently outperform email.

Nobody uses email anymore.

While email is ok in this situation, mail delivered by the postal service is much cheaper.

6. Maria is sold on search advertising, but doesn't want search to be her only way of reaching customers. "Once I've gotten a customer," she explains, "I stay in touch with them and let them know about new works and artists." But she hasn't done more with email because she is frustrated with its limitations. "The reason I don't use email more," she explains, "is it is just text-based. If only email could allow me to use graphics to display my artists, and even include video and audio clips from the artists explaining how they create and design their work." What should Gina's response be?

Rich mail is exactly what you are looking for.

While email is ok in this situation, mail delivered by the postal service is much cheaper.

Nobody uses email anymore.

Banner ads consistently outperform email.