Online Advertising Growth Continues. Here Are 3 Reasons Why.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau announced earlier in the week that for the 6 months to June, 2008, online advertising reached $797 million in Australia. This figure brought the 12 months to June 08 to $1.52 billion, up 27% on the previous 12 months.

These figures do represent a slowing in the industry. The previous 12 month growth figure was 54% and the 12 months prior to that was at 59%.

However, at 27% growth over the period, the online advertising industry remains by far the biggest growth option of all the media channels. The best offline, "traditional" channel was outdoor, reaching 11% growth.

That poses a question; Why is online growing so much more than anything else?

1. Online is the new line.

Online advertising, as a media channel, is still in it's infancy. Look at it against other channels. Print media has been around for a relative eternity. Radio has been around since the early 1900's, television, well thats been in Australia since 1956, or 1975 if you want to take colour as a barometer. Australian companies have been advertising on billboards for many years. Online advertising however has only really been around, in any sizeof note, since the most recent turn of the century. Not even a decade ago!

Web 2.0 is only in it's first few years of existence. Only this year has it really gained a foothold in the thinking of major online players. And what will the future hold for Web 3.0, 4.0, and so on?

Australian consumers and companies are still excited by the internet. It is a new medium which has not fully been explored. There are no set, firm, established rules yet. Companies are yet to fully exhaust their online marketing efforts. There is still more ground to be covered.

These circumstances are particularly attractive for a new generation of marketers who like to set their own rules. As the online marketing industry bounds towards it's teenage years, many are expecting it's growth to slow to more sustainable levels. Even at these slower growth levels however, the industry is still expected to be large enough to handle a multitude of channels, players and agencies.

2. Offline barriers don't translate.

There exist many barriers to gaining extensive exposure via an offline advertising campaign. Geographical, language, consumption habits and more all ensure gaining full exposure is next to impossible.

In the online environment however, the situation is somewhat different. Geographical barriers are no longer a problem, as websites are in fact accessible from anywhere on the planet. Language barriers are far easier to overcome, both due to consumers having more time to spend interacting with a campaign and as a result of automatic translation services that are available across the net. Consumption habits are no longer a barrier to advertising campaign success, but rather they now present an opportunity as online marketing campaigns are far more targettable than their offline cousins.

Marketers and executives fully understand the benefits of having so few barriers to exposure. What they are only now catching on to is that such low barrier conditions do actually exist online.

3. Online measures up.

Via online advertising, it is easier to monitor the return on investment (ROI) of various compaigns. Various analytics packages tactics allow an array of performance indicators to be measured. Measurable ROI indicators include; click-through rates, website traffic levels, conversion rates, on-site behavious, banner/advertising performance, enquiry levels, lead generation and more.

Since key decision-makers love to measure the ROI of a given campaign, online advertising continues to demand a greater percentage of marketing budgets.

Online marketing, as suggested by the new Interactive Advertising Bureau figures, continues to grow year-on-year. This is thanks to a whole range of reasons, of which three key ones are mentioned above.

Can you suggest any other reasons for the continued online advertising boom?

Remember - smiles, laughter and only good things :-)

Content Remains King

In terms of Search Engine Optimisation, otherwise known as SEO, there are many key aspects to consider. Keyword research determines the most relevant and appropriate keyword strings for which search engines will list your website. Correct meta-tagging procedures allow these keywords to be effectively put to use. The site architecture will allow both users of your site and more importantly (in SEO terms) the search engines to easily navigate around your site to find what they need. Backlinks are hugely important as well, as they indicate to the search engines that your site is well respected and seen as important by the broader online community. Robot.txt files enable you to determine any parts of the site which you do not want search engines to "skip" or "disallow" (thanks to Mark Jackson of Search Engine Watch). Content however remains as probably the most important factor for most websites.

But how do you find the space within the site navigation to have enough keyword heavy content without putting off your customers?

Never discount the importance of the main pages, or "Level 1" pages as I like to call them. These include the home page, about us section, company news, product/service descriptions, portfolios, image galleries, and the like. On these pages should be relevant and important content that you want your viewers to see. Importantly, Prominent calls to action should be used within these pages to maximise your site's conversion rate.

The next set of content that can be incorporated to maximise SEO effectiveness are what I call "Level 2" pages. These pages contain content that is for the most part user-generated. Examples of such pages are company blogs, testimonials, forums and product/service reviews. Basically, you should incorporate Web 2.0 elements to your otherwise web 1.0 site. Whilst having a multitude of broader marketing and branding benefits, in SEO terms, they provide additional, relevant content. These level 2 pages, whilst adding content to the site, will not annoy customers as they have the ability to contribute to it themselves.

These first two content page levels are becoming more and more common in SEO campaigns across the web. But can they alone provide sufficient keyword heavy content to ensure your site is found towards the top of Google and other search engines? In my opinion, the answer is no. This is because they are so common now, that in the increasingly competitive race for top rankings, more is required. But where can it be placed without annoying consumers by bombarding them with too much content?

"Level 3" content pages, as i refer to them, are keyword heavy pages of content located in the back side of the site. They should not be easy to find for the average site user, a good place to link to Level 3 pages is in the site's footer links. These pages should be developed to target a plethora of industry related keyword terms, including but also beyond, those that were flagged in your keyword research. Level 3 pages may incorporate more specific and extensive product/service descriptions, e-copies of product manuals, industry related glossary of terms, an archive of various industry related arcticles and more. These pages are ones that you do not need consumers to see. In fact, in most instances you would probably prefer them not to be found as they could over-complicate their experience on the site. However, these pages can round off a highly successful SEO campaign, ensuring your website is found high-up on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), just where it should be!

Remember - smiles, laughter and only good things :-)