Is Online Advertising Effective?
by
Angela Taylor
In the last ten years, the Internet has become
one of the dominant media in the United States. One of the most striking ways
that this can be illustrated is in the way that consumer consumption of other
basic media has changed since the rise of the Internet. A Forrester Research
report asked Internet users which activities they were spending less time
doing in order to spend time at their computers. Their choices were: Watching
television, Eating and sleeping, Performing Chores, Reading Books, Reading
Magazines, Reading Newspapers, Outdoor activities, Exercising, Playing video
games, or None. About a quarter of the people polled (24%) said they were
giving up eating or sleeping to spend time on their computer. But by far the
biggest activity surrendered by the respondents was television viewing, which
was given up by 78% of the people polled.
A study from The Georgia Institute of Technology's
Graphic, Visualization and Usability Center asked people about their television
viewing habits and about the affects that Internet use had on them. The study's
findings showed a clear shift in media habits with more than one third of
respondents saying that they "use the Web instead of watching TV on a daily
basis."
Television viewing has declined overall in the last
several years as well. 2000's Nielsen's February ratings sweeps found one
million fewer U.S. households viewing television during prime time versus
the same period last year. A study released at about the same time by Nielsen
and CommerceNet stated that the North American online audience had doubled
in the past 18 months. When viewed together, these two reports show a distinct
trend away from television, currently the most popular media in the United
States and towards the Internet.
So people who advertise on the Internet are reaching
more and more people every day. And they are reaching the kinds of people
that advertisers crave the most. Numerous polls and studies have found that
Internet users are more educated than the general population, with 75% of
Internet users having graduated from college as opposed to 45% of the population,
according to a study by the Media Futures Program of SRI Consulting. The same
study claims that the average Internet user has a household income of $60,800
and that 65% of Internet users have a household income of $50,000 or more
(as opposed to 35% of the general United State population). So the average
Internet-connected consumer has more disposable income to spend on advertisers'
products than the average consumer, which draws more advertisers to the media.
This is one of the main reasons that companies have
begun to set aside so much of their marketing budgets for Internet advertising.
The other reason, aside from the fact that it reaches large numbers of desirable
consumers, is that it is at least as effective as advertising through other
forms of traditional media. A single exposure to a banner advertisement ad
200% more of a branding impact on a test group than a single exposure to an
advertisement in a magazine or on television, according to a study by Millward
Brown International.
Learn More About The Author: Angela's Resume
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