KEY POINTS:
Why advertise online?
Ask yourself: Is my target audience online? If the answer is yes - and with more than 70 per cent of all New Zealanders being regular internet users, the chances are that it will be - you should consider advertising online to reach them. You could be assessing the benefits of online against other media you advertise with already, or how online can boost a campaign with other media.
Is it more or less expensive than more traditional advertising?
Online is generally an inexpensive form of advertising. There are hundreds of web publishers and that keeps the market competitive and good value for advertisers. The added measurement and accountability that comes with advertising online makes it clear very quickly if a website is over-pricing its advertising and advertisers will shift to greener pastures.
How do I pick which are the best sites to advertise on?
What do you want to achieve? Is your objective branding? Then consider large format ads on sites that reach high volumes of your target audience such as the NZHerald, MSN, Stuff and Yahoo! and Xtra. For direct response objectives think about email newsletters, text ads on high-reach sites and cost-per-click advertising on search engines.
Can I trust the numbers given by ratings services about the websites?
The NZ online advertising industry recognises Nielsen: NetRatings as the gold standard provider of online measurement. This provides information on audience segmentation by gender, age, region and so on, page impressions, and page and session durations. Also, Alexa, Hitwise and ComScore all provide information on websites that are not audited by NetRatings.
How do I measure the success of internet advertising?
Measuring advertising effectiveness needs to match the objectives of the campaign. Methods include tracking how many ad impressions are served on the web page your ad is placed, how many people clicked on your ad and how many people visited your website and then bought a product.
How narrow can I make it?
It is generally better targeted at a national or international level, rather than a regional or local level.
