Advertising Online Vs. Advertising in the Newspaper

Back in the day, when you wanted to get your business name out to the masses and advertise anything related to your company from a grand opening to a special offer, or even just branding your name where people were reading most, you would advertise in the local paper. You knew people were reading the paper religiously to stay up-to-date on the latest news and to read the comics so it only made sense to show up there. But with today’s internet-savvy-ness, you won’t see people’s noses reading the paper as much as they are on their computer or browsing the news and other sites on their smart phone.

Our world is all about getting information as quickly as possible and the newspaper is unfortunately dying a slow death in the process. Your ads don’t make as much of a statement in the paper as they do online, period. Over 70% of people search Google alone compared to other search engines like Yahoo and Bing, so imagine how few people read the paper in comparison? To grab consumers attention, the best place to advertise is online. Have your ads show up on places people are already surfing like Twitter, Oprah.com, ESPN.com, and CNN.com. Even if consumers are not necessarily calling you the second they see your ad, you are still going to brand your name everywhere their eyes search. It’s called top-of-the mind awareness and when a consumer is in need of your services, they will call you after seeing your ad sometime in the past.

Even better would be remarketing to consumers. Remarketing is when a person visits your website, where a cookie is then dropped into his or her browser (or in simpler terms, their search history is bookmarked with your site) so you can follow them 2 to 3 times a day with your ad to remind them about you as they are surfing the web or looking at your competition’s site. You don’t want them to go with a competitor so remarketing is key! The ad will not show up unless the consumer is logged in to their computer and actively surfing the web. There is no guarantee where the ad will show up – it depends where and when there is ad space available but they will see you again. Guaranteed. And thousands of people can be remarketed for pennies!

Advertising online is much more economical than in the paper and is trackable as well. You can see how many hits you get on your ad, how many impressions (views) your ad receives, and can even put a traceable phone number on what people call you from viewing your ad. So what are you waiting for? Time to move from advertising on the paper to the internet! Now THAT is smart business!