10 things every leader should know about online advertising

Same as for any other medium, online advertising campaign budget depends on a variety of factors, such as objectives, targeted consumer segment and preferences. The budget can range between €50 and €50,000.

“If you have a super-smart phone that you want to sell for just a nickel, you don’t have to spend a load of money to do it. It’s enough to set a Facebook status and there you have it. But if you want to sell a clunker for a billion dollars you’d really need to sink some money to talk people into buying it”, says Bogdana Butnar (photo) (bogdanatheplanner.blogspot.com), managing director at MRM Worldwide Romania.

Irina Morosanu (LinkedIn profile), business affairs manager F5 says the success of a campaign does not necessarily rest in the size of the budget. “A generous budget does offer a better coverage and reach, but what you also need is to set out your target segment, a good message tailoring and great creativity for eye-catching advertisements”.

Adrian Mihaltianu recommends an online advertising mix, rather than focusing on only one web tool. A banner ad is generally more expensive than a PPC campaign, although lately, there have been accepted banner ads loaded on a web page on a pay per click basis.

“With a lower budget (0 - €2,000), marketers can create an event interesting enough to be recorded (flash mob, a competition, an original outdoor campaign), and then uploaded and shared by internet users. Furthermore, it can be created an interactive website especially for the campaign, a website that would generate images in high-aspect ratio shape that can afterwards be updated by the salespersons.

“Unfortunately, most of the companies tapping the online environment for advertising their product or service go after the banner ads: the bigger the better, which is both expensive and sad. And non-interactive”, says Adrian Mihaltianu.