The Good Side of On-Line Advertising

Thank goodness the political advertising season is done for awhile, now we get to see and hear holiday ads.  Advertising it self is neither good or bad, but you and I know that we have seen plenty of bad ads we never want to see again.

Let’s set the record straight.

Advertising is simply an attempt for a business to invite you to spend money with them.

The business may use incentives in their ads, such as the sales we have seen for Black Friday or Cyber Monday shopping.  Or they may simply be branding ads that are to remind us of them so when we have a need, they are top of mind and we check them out first.

Actually we live in an ad-supported world.  NASCAR would not survive if there was no sponsorship dollars because the cost of the sport would have to be paid by the fans and ticket prices would be so high, the sport would die.

How about the online world?  The ads we see on our favorite websites or posted next to the stories we read are supplementing the cost of those websites.  Same thing with your “free email account”.  It’s more than just data collection, it’s also a way to improve your online experience.

As data is collected about us from our online habits and the information we give voluntarily on sites like Facebook, the reward for you and I is we are served ads for items that we are interested in.  The ads my son sees when he is online are different from the ads I see.

Try this experiment with a friend.  

Both of you visit the same page on a website on your own computers at the same time.  Odds are there will be different ads customized for each of you based on the information that “Big Data” knows about each of you.

By the way, if you are reading this and have a business, I can show you how to target online your potential customers anywhere.  It’s a pretty cool trick, and actually more than a trick, it’s an extremely useful way to spend your money to invite customers.  It’s part of the Good Side of  On-Line Advertising and can work hand in hand or separate from the other advertising options I have available with my radio station WOWO.

Contact me and let’s talk.