How To Use Online Advertising And Not Be Obnoxious And Intrusive

Online advertising expenditures continue to grow and more and more companies turn to it as their main method for delivering their message, product, or service to the public. If it's done right, online advertising can be one of the most effective ways to reach your target market.

At the same time, nothing can drive an Internet user more insane than a gaudy, flashy banner ad in the wrong place, or a floating ad that blocks exactly what you were reading. Or, perish the thought, a good old fashioned pop up ad.

The Internet has a comparatively short history, nevertheless in this amount of time we've discovered new ways of delivering a message and even created some new phenomenons in customer behavior. Some methods have worked better than others. Some methods have even resulted in a complete backlash.

Online advertising can take many forms, including display or rich media advertising, contextual ads, email advertising, and search engine advertising. Some of these methods are more effective than others, and some of these can reach your target market more quickly than traditional advertising ever could.

The question is, are these quick and effective methods also obnoxious and intrusive? Will these methods turn more customers off than attract them to your site?

In the world of Internet marketing you've only got a split second to grab a potential customer's attention. In the space of a few seconds you then have to lead a customer from attention to interest, and from interest to action. This is not an easy feat in the best of times, and it is not made any easier if you chose a medium that is considered intrusive or annoying.

There's advertising everywhere. More than anything else, advertising dollars can propel the development of technology, art, and science. We've accepted advertising on TV, and radio, before movies and on newspapers, magazines, and blimps. They drive by us on the sides of a bus and are written in the sky. So why was there such a bitter response to advertising on the Internet? Advertising is a part of life, with the average citizen being subjected to advertisements literally everywhere they look. And yet online advertising has seemed to cross the line into intrusive and annoying.

Blame the pop-ups. In the earlier days of the Internet that was the choice method of putting your message in front of someone, because it put your message IN FRONT of someone. Of course, this was at a time when computers were still personal computers. Even when we went online it was to find something we wanted. It wasn't to let a bunch of overzealous marketers onto our computers.

And therein lay the key to non-intrusive advertising. The Internet has evolved. Technology has evolved. We can now deliver online advertising quickly and efficiently, with professional quality production values. But flashier pictures and videos aren't the way to impress potential customers. The fact is, amidst all this evolution, the customers' desires haven't really changed all that much.

Our new, faster technology has allowed us to evolve our advertising mediums online. Banner ads, interstitial ads, floating ads, wallpaper ads, pop-ups and pop-behinds have, well, popped up as valid marketing methods. Are any of these less intrusive than the dreaded pop-up? A little. Banner ads don't cover up what you actually want to see, and even interstitial ads don't open a whole new program anymore, they just require an extra click. Less intrusive yes, but still not the answer.

The Internet may have changed over the years, but customers still behave relatively the same. They access the Internet because they already want something. It's not a matter of “selling someone anymore. It's now a matter of being visible to the people who are already looking for you.

Good news: the people who are looking for you are more willing to buy what you're selling.

Studies have shown that more than 50% of users are more likely to make a purchase if they find your listing on a search engine, compared to 9% for banner ads. People who find you are often very glad they found you.

So what, then, is the best choice for online advertising? You need to get your site in front of viewers who want to see you. Keyword based online advertising is the best choice. Advertising doesn't have to be random “selling” anymore. The right keywords can make sure that you find and reach the right target market. And better than that, your target market can find and reach you.