10 things every leader should know about online advertising

The web acts most of the times as an integral medium. In order to use the world wide web as a single marketing medium, advertisers must take into account that the advertised industry or the brand itself must be as close as possible to the online marketing formats while keeping public relations strategy centered upon this product intimately involved in this channel, says Mugur Patrascu (photo) managing partner of iLeo (blog.ileo.ro).

Radu Ionescu (radionescu.ro) managing partner at Kinecto says “the internet is the best epilogue of a consumer’s experience gained through ATL or BTL”. “Obviously, there are particular businesses that just don’t fit so neatly in other media than internet (tourism for example), same as businesses for which marketing campaigns achieve greater success in traditional media (detergents for instance)”, said Ionescu.

Another advantage associated with advertising online is that marketers can tailor their campaigns while in progress, instead of at the end of it, said Adrian Stanescu (LinkdIn profile), country manager Thinkdigital Romania&Moldova.

“Real time tracking of the success rate and reach of electronic ads allows marketers to focus on which ads really work. As for online projects targeted on lead generation, marketers can now track down the number of consumers that completed the online request form, as well as those who have been exposed to the message and accessed the client’s webpage and registered. Of all the campaigns I’ve carried, I noticed that at least 50% of the leads are generated by the users exposed to the message, without returning to the landing page immediately”, said Stanescu.

A smart online campaign can be much cheaper than a TV campaign. For a lower budget, marketers can reach a similar audience, says Adrian Mihaltianu (LinkdIn profile), Business Intelligence Consultant at MB Dragan.

“Budgets too low for TV ads can very well shift to web. As for print media, the online medium is not only cheaper, but more versatile. The internet offers a wide range of multimedia tools, especially for branding and awareness campaigns, that don’t exist in print. Let’s remember that advertising is first of all communication, and the World Wide Web opens up the most communication possibilities, and interactive capabilities accordingly”, Mihaltianu added.