Internet advertising: destroying myths and misconceptions

Unknown and unexplored phenomena often become cluttered with various fantasies and myths. Internet advertising ceased to be an unknown phenomenon long ago, however various myths accompany it to this very day agitating the minds of inquisitive Internet users. Let us take a closer look at the most widespread misconceptions concerning Internet advertising.

Web banner advertising is the only kind of Internet advertising

Web banner advertising is one of the very first kinds of Internet advertising, but by no means the only one. The statistics shows that the portion of web banner advertising in Internet advertising comprises about 10%, and it is far from being the largest “piece of the pie”.

Banner Internet advertising has no effect these days

There is a common misconception that no one clicks on banner ads anymore because these ads irritate the visitors very much. However the statistics shows that the most irritating ads are pop-ups, and users tend to be more loyal to banner advertising. According to the results of the survey carried out in 2008 by RuMetrika, 11,1% of users click on banner ads. (RuMetrika is a service powered by a Russian search engine Rambler that provides statistics of the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet). Besides, modern web analytics tools and services provide complete information about the number of users who visited the site by clicking on a web banner. You can learn how long they stayed at the site, what pages they visited etc. You should keep in mind that banner advertising is aimed at website promotion and improvement of brand memorability.

Nobody buys anything on the Internet therefore Internet advertising is of no use at all

The background of this myth can be found in our recent past when shopping on the Internet was considered something unusual and even odd. However in our time shopping on the Internet is safe enough. To make a purchase via the Internet you should visit several online shops, learn a lot of useful information about the product or service you are interested in, inquire about the prices, check the availability of the required good, and submit a request. The purchase will be delivered straight to your apartment or office. It is much more convenient than spending time and money in common “offline” shops.

Positions of a site in the search engine results depend on its traffic

Thanks to this tenacious myth many SEO engineers and Internet marketing specialists do not disdain to cheat counters artificially. However it has absolutely no useful effect as a website needs real visitors (potential customers). Quite the contrary – site traffic depends on its positions in the search engine results. To improve these positions you may use search engine optimization of the site and contextual advertising.

Registration of the site in various directories and rankings is “a must”

This myth has been generated by a huge number of dubious offers to register a site in tens of thousands of directories. In fact registration of the site in absolutely all directories is of no use at all. It will be enough to register your site on thematic resources only; these resources should have authority with potential visitors of the site. For instance if the site belongs to a domestic company which works with domestic clients and partners, it is absolutely pointless to register the site in thousands of foreign directories.

The effect of Internet advertising will become apparent instantly

Everyone wants to see instant effect, but it is impossible. No one expects a flash-like effect of advertising on the radio, TV or in the printed media. Online Internet advertising campaigns, their structure and procedure are almost identical to “offline” advertising campaigns in traditional mass media. Therefore you should not expect miracles from Internet advertising. Proper organization of an advertising campaign on the Internet improves its efficiency. Taking into account that the cost of Internet advertising is still much lower than that of traditional “offline” advertising, Internet advertising can be considered one of the most effective investments for small- and middle-scale business.

There exist secret methods of Internet advertising

Unfortunately, the number of swindlers on the World Wide Web is really huge, therefore the anxiety of advertisers is quite clear. You can protect yourself from being swindled – you should have an idea of the fundamentals of Internet advertising. There is no secret knowledge that will help to carry out an Internet advertising campaign. If the “marketing specialist” doesn't tell the client which methods he is going to use to advertise the site or tells about some “secret methods”, he is probably going to use forbidden methods of website promotion.

The site must contain information about absolutely all products or services that are offered by the company

This statement is correct in those cases only when the company offers a very narrow range of products. If the company produces or sells thousands of items, you should think out very thoroughly if it is really appropriate to place information about all these items on your site. Usually it is hard enough for the users to find a necessary product or service in such a great number of items. There is only one exception – online shops. The philosophy of online shop development requires the presence of the biggest possible number of offered items. You should learn to select only the most important things weeding out minor ones.

Internet advertising should attract only regular target audience

The audience of a commercial website is rarely regular. If the company that owns the site offers, for example, furniture, sale or purchase of immovable property, cars, you should understand that a customer who has already bought such good is hardly going to buy one more in the nearest future.

Internet advertising is useless as a website is advertising itself

This is really so – to some extent. A competently developed website is an excellent tool for an advertising campaign on the Internet. But there are millions of sites, how are the clients going to find this very site? Internet advertising is intended to make your site known to the biggest possible number of potential customers.

To sum everything up we should admit that no Internet advertising can help if the quality of goods and services offered on the site is low, the prices are high, and the quality of client servicing leaves much to be desired. At it is not a myth – it is a fact!