In many ways the Internet is no different to any other popular medium and nowhere is this more apparent as when we consider the web as an another platform for advertising. By now you've probably become quite accustomed to seeing ads all over your favourite web pages, indeed you've probably noticed there are plenty ads on our site too.
These adverts play an important role in how the web works today. For site owners it offers them a means to make money from their site. Simply by placing some code in their page they can generate an income as users click on the ads generating revenue for the site owner. Indeed there are many sites which make huge profits just from advertising alone.
The second way these adverts work, is to bring traffic to the sites of those who advertise in this manner. For example, if you consider these ads, such as the AdSense ads on my page or elsewhere, the companies who are advertised there pay the advertising company, in this case Google, for every time a users clicks on their ad. When the user clicks on the ad it's brought to the advertiser's web page. It is therefore the advertiser's prerogative to try and turn that page visit into a sale.
Internet ads come in many shapes and sizes, from small,relatively unobtrusive AdSense columns to hideous strobing banner ads, to those obnoxious pop-ups. Advances in Flash technology has also meant an increase in Flash advertising. Flash can be used for interactive adverts which, for example, can allow the image to change as you mouse over it, as well as displaying animations and even movies.
Animated adverts made from ubiquitous Gif files, are far smaller than Flash files but are generally only suited to simpler animations and also cannot play sound. Indeed sound is also beginning to play an increasing role in web advertising, particularly in the United States, where "talking website characters" are proving quite popular. Personally, however, I find such sites too loud and brash for my taste and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels
likewise. I've lost count of the amount of times when, clicking my way down through Google searches, a loud, chirpy American accent erupts from my speakers causing a rapid back-click reflex and a silent vow never to visit that site again.
Therein lies the lesson. You can, of course, feel free to plaster your site in every sort of gimmicky ad you wish, but don't be surprised if customers don't take your site seriously because the ads you serve from it make them cringe. Ad placement, some will tell you, is an art. Others say it's a science. I wouldn't go so far as to say either, there's just a knack to it, that's all. It all depends on your site, its look and design, what the content is and the level of formality involved. In our case I chose the ads to be prominentbut not dominant. You will note that, but for a few slight exceptions, the ads on this whole site are all on the side of the page, outside the main text. As this is a business site, it was our intention to make the ads visible but not distracting, even going so far as to tweak the colour schemes so as to make them meld with the page better however this may not necessarily be the effect you are looking for. Indeed many people say that the more your ads stick out the better chances there are of clicking them. In the end I can't really say which is better, as it depends on both the site itself and on individual sites. It's interesting to note, however, that even Google themselves say to experiment with different placements and colour schemes and compare results from one month to the next.
A common misconception with Internet advertising is that you can slap together any ole site, upload it, choke the whole thing up with pay-per-click ads and just sit back and wait for the millions to roll in. This is why there are so many sites clogging up the Internet, badly coded, badly implemented looking like a rather nasty pile up on a NASCAR track. So don't just think you can splatter lots of ads on a page and make loads of money, it doesn't work like that. Think about it - who wants to look at ads all the time? If you had a channel on TV that showed nothing but ads would anyone watch it? Not likely. Yet still people insist on making sites with zero content and zero purpose other than to vomit forth as many ads garish, flashing seizure-inducing ads as possible.
That ones choice of adverts also has a bearing on how people view the site cannot be overemphasised. Zwinkys and smiles might be fine on sites like Myspace or Bebo but not on a business site. Likewise, if you have a text heavy site you don't want something that distracts from it, like Flash ads in the corner, which can make reading difficult. These ads often lead the eye away or, in extreme cases, can actually hurt the eye with incessant blinking. Such ads are not only distracting but downright annoying and can cause your visitors to leave your site quite quickly.
It's important to note, too, that, though you are in fact a third party and therefore not endorsing the products being advertised directly, the online world is a community just like any other and you are still going to be judged by the company you keep. So if, for example, you're a computer company and one of your adverts advertises a product that also installs spyware on users' computers it will certainly impact on your company's credibility.
AdSense is an advertising product from Google and is currently one of the most popular ways for bloggers and webmasters to "monetise" their websites. AdSense displays ads, in a number of formats, (be they text ads, a series of links or images and text) throughout your page. The way it works is, whenever someone clicks on such an advert, you make a small amount of money. They're pennies really, but pennies can add up, especially if your site is getting hundreds or thousands of hits a day.
The source of these ads are companies who use Google to advertise their company or service. (More on this later)
In order to generate money from AdSense you have to create an AdSense account. In doing so be sure to give proper details, as Google will need to verify this later. After you've set up your account you can then set up the actual ads. With AdSense you have a broad range of choices to choose from, including regular AdSense, referral ads and a customised Google search bar. It's a good idea to take the time and experiment with the different ad types and also with the colours. For our site we chose to devise our very own colour scheme, you can do the same to make sure the code either matches your site (the subtle approach) or stands out completely (the more aggressive, assertive, "in your face" approach.) As I said earlier, it all depends on the nature of your site and how you want it to appear overall.
When you're satisfied with the ad you want you are then given a small snippet of Java Script code which you then copy and paste into the HTML code of your page. Obviously the position of the code is as important as the colour, so Google recommends you also experiment with the placement of your ads for best effect.
If you wish to use AdSense on your site but don't know much about HTML or Java Script, we can, of course, handle that for you as well as setting up an AdSense account in your name.
Once you've done this and the pages are uploaded, AdSense will automatically start displaying your new ads.
Now whenever someone clicks on the ad, you earn money. (Don't think you can just spend the day clicking your own ads and making millions, however, Google are very strict about users clicking their own ads and, in extreme cases, will ban you completely.) If you don't see your ads straight away just hit F5 to refresh the page. The first thing you should notice is that the ads displayed are, or at the very least should be, of relevance to your site. This is the really clever bit about AdSense, the ads it displays are based upon the impression Google receives as it reads through your page. So if your page is about cars, then the adverts are also going to be about cars. This, in and of itself, creates a quandary; what if I inadvertently advertise one of my competitors? It is for this reason that AdSense provides a "competitive ad filter" whereby you can place the addresses of your competitors' websites to make sure they never appear on your site. We advise webmasters attend to this regularly, as new advertisers are using the service more and more and we've found that as soon as we ad one site to the list another pops up in its place so keep an eye on your ads!
If you want to avoid these sorts of ads completely you can exclusively opt for referral ads. This way you can chose precisely which companies and products you wish to advertise. Altogether, though, we've found a mix and match approach works the best.
We provide many advertising services to our customers. We can provide advice and consultation for those who are interested in gaining revenue from their own site and setting up their own AdSense ads.
We can also do the whole thing for you, if you so wish, and at the basic consultation charge.
In the next section you'll learn more about AdWords, the companion to Google's AdSense, and even how to attract customers to your site with AdSense ads of your very own.
A Guide to Online Advertising - Part 2
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