My first job out of college was selling radio at Q98, Fargo-Moorhead’s “Legacy Rock” station, in the early ‘90s. At the time, the majority of advertising dollars spent by businesses were on “traditional” media—TV, radio, print (newspapers, magazines, coupons, etc.), out-of-home (billboards) and the Yellow Pages.

While each of those outlets continue to drive sales and profits for businesses, online media continues to grow in importance as part of the mix in today’s marketing environment, and with good reason.

Here are five reasons why your business should have online marketing included in your advertising mix:

  1. More Targeted: Of the five traditional media outlets I listed, the Yellow Pages is the best way to target your ad to people that are definitely interested in what you are selling. Consumers using the Yellow Pages are looking for a specific item, and having an ad alongside that item almost ensures that the consumer will see the ad—making each impression that much more valuable. Unfortunately, Yellow Page usage is declining thanks to the internet and users having the same information available to them at their fingertips. The outlet that is hardest to target? It’s definitely out-of-home because traffic, in general, encompasses all buying demographics. The other forms of traditional media fall between the two, with advertisers being able to target more specific demographics based on the channel/station, time slot and/or program/section in which they advertise. But, it’s still not perfect as there will always be demographic overflow throughout TV, radio and print, making the cost of each impression a little less valuable. (A conversation for another time: How have DVRs, iPods, satellite radio and streaming music services negatively affected broadcast advertising?) Using online advertising, an advertiser’s ad can immediately appear in front of someone based on their search engine history, their social media profile or a few other factors. Targeting doesn’t get better than that—your ad in front of someone specifically looking for that item in that moment. I would argue that the value of that impression is greater than anything you can get from traditional media because it captures an interested consumer who is in the market for your item as they are looking for it.
  2. Direct Access: Once your online ad is seen by an interested consumer, they are now just one click away. They don’t have to remember a phone number or a website address, or go out of their way to contact you, they just have to click on the ad to reach your website. At that point you can direct them to where you want to them go, either the front page of your website or a specific page inside that corresponds with their search. You have placed the consumer in a position of action mere seconds after they began their search, at a time when they are already interested, and that’s the best time to have a consumer looking at you.
  3. Analytics: By analyzing the data from your ad, you can further break down the successes (and failures) to allow you to refine your ad and make it even more target-specific. Unlike radio or TV ads, the analytics of your online ad allow you to specifically determine what worked—from where consumers came to your site and where they went once they landed on it. Using that information and refining your advertising makes each impression that much more valuable because it will be that much likely to work, improving your return on investment.
  4. Cost per Impression: The goal for all advertising is to see a positive ROI on your investment. At this time, Pay-For-Click advertising can be done relatively inexpensively while targeting customers currently in the market for your item. While TV, radio, print and out-of-home also help with your brand awareness, Pay-For-Click is designed to pull specific customers to your site, and in some cases you only pay for them once they click over to you. Another way is to pay based on the number of times you receive an ad impression—you pay one price for 1,000 impressions, regardless of where a consumer goes from the page that has your ad.
  5. Creative Costs: Online advertising, particularly Pay-For-Click ads, are inexpensive to create, especially if you are already using other means to advertise your business. While the cost of TV ads can run upwards of $10,000, online advertising can be created for much, much less because they are less detailed and don’t take as much time to create.

More and more companies are using online advertising as a way to successfully beef up the return they get for their advertising dollar. While I don’t advise moving your entire advertising mix into online advertising, it’s vital in today’s world to have an online presence, particularly something more than just a great-looking website.

As online advertising continues to develop, more opportunities will be available to your business that will compete with traditional forms of media. Using both effectively, and together, will not only give your company a bigger presence, it should pay off in sales, too.