Advertising options available on the Internet.

Advertising options available on the Internet.

The Internet offers a variety of options for the marketer to advertise her/his products/brands. These include

1. Banner ads and their variations

2. E-mailers and their variations

3. Sponsorships

4. Search Engines

5. Affiliate marketing

In India, banners still remain the most popular option. However, wider options are now available to the marketer which, even at the cost of being intrusive, serves to enhance the visibility and effectiveness of the banner

The Variants of Banners include :

1.  Banner Ad - a graphical web advertising unit, typically measuring 468 pixels wide and 60 pixels tall (i.e. 468x60).

2.  Beyond the Banner - online advertising not involving standard GIF and JPEG banner ads.

3.  Button Ad- a graphical advertising unit, smaller than a banner ad.

4.  HTML banner - a banner ad using HTML elements, often including interactive forms, instead of (or in addition to) standard graphical elements.

5.  Iterstitial - an advertisement that loads between two content pages.

6.  Pop-up Ad - an ad that displays in a new browser window.

7.  Pop Under Ad - an ad that displays in a new browser window behind the current browser window.

8.  Rectangle Ad - any one of the large, rectangular banner sizes suggested by the IAB.

9.  Rich Media- new media that offers an enhanced experience relative to older, mainstream formats.

10. Skyscrapper Ad- an online ad significantly taller than the 120x240 vertical banner.

11. Text Ad - advertisement using text-based hyperlinks.

12. Surround Session - advertising sequence in which a visitor receives ads from one advertiser throughout an entire site visit.

13. Vertical Banner - a banner ad measuring 120 pixels wide and 240 pixels tall.

 Given the highly interactive nature of the Internet, and the also fact that unlike other media it offers a higher level of identification of the user, simple direct marketing tools such as email can also be used more effectively. For example, a high-end car seller can today easily send an offer to persons earning over Rs 25000 per month at a very reasonable cost and within a very short period.

Then again there are sponsorships, which can be effectively used to increase brand salience and even change image.

The other tool on the web with enormous potential, and which has possibly not been used to its optimal level yet by marketers in India, is the search engine. Marketers can own either popular keywords or make use of meta-tags (these are similar to the keywords which the search engines uses to catalogue various websites/products) in order to go higher on the search lists.

The above is used by the search engine giant Google.com and it has reaped profits so much so that it is now being viewed as a threat by the computer giant Microsoft Inc.