Measuring the Effectiveness of Online

Advertising

INTRODUCTION
Advertising resources assigned to internet media have grown dramatically over the past
few years. This growth is suggestively driven by search and performance. Measuring
online advertising effectiveness is a very intricate process particularly in an ever changing
environment where new resources are constantly developed every passing day. This
research acknowledges the effectiveness of online advertising strategies based on
consumers perceptions of different types of ads. With an increasing spree of advertising
budgets, measuring the performance is more than a key issue. Both the ad agencies and the
advertisers do not wish to invest money even if they believe it is an apt decision in the long
run. In addition to selecting the right pointers, evaluating the effectiveness of online
advertising is also an important issue. According to Avi Goldfarb (2011, Vol.30, No.3,
pp.380), response rates to banner ads have dropped dramatically in the recent past. On the
flip side, online advertising on the websites has developed along two unusually discrete
paths. First up, online advertising has advanced beyond outmoded banner ads to include
many audio and visual features that make ads flashier and hard to ignore. Additionally,
Google has developed an extremely commercial non-search advertising strategy called
AdSense that creates an expected $6 billion in returns (Avi Goldfarb, 2011).
The rapid increase in the number of internet consumers is on a swift rise globally and is
used by people irrespective of age and location. As we all know, internet has become a
chief medium for entertainment, communication and is constantly developing replacing the
outdated informative mediums. Outmoded marketing mediums such as television,

magazines, newspapers, radio, etc. are becoming a thing of the past (George Scifo, 2010).
Online advertising gives a wider coverage area that supports in making the advertisements
reach wider audiences which may yield better results. Additionally, online advertising is
much faster than offline advertising where the advertiser has a greater scope to deliver
more information to the potential customer at a relatively low cost. Online advertising
helps the advertiser in making an ad campaign more profitable by reaching the target
audiences. The effectiveness of online media advertising increases by constant
improvisation of ads that can be done with a lot of effective analytics tools available. For
instance, the quality of the advertisements can be improved based on the feedback from the
audiences.
According to George Scifo (2010), any form of advertising helps in improving the
branding and online advertising stands a notch high in improving the branding of your
company , service or product.

SCOPE
To understand what dynamic role a product name might play in paying to the success of a
company. It will be essential to comprehend the background of existing issues within the
Dot-com industries and to categorize the main companies within the Dot-com industry and
their brand building strategies. It focuses only upon the branding strategies for internet
marketing. It also determines the effectiveness of the revolutionary Web2.0 technology in
influencing the brand power over internet with respect to the pillars of branding in the
perspective of its customers. According to an article that was published in THE HINDU
(Pelle, Friday, December 07, 2013), online media advertising with its shorter promoting
time, low cost and high rate of flexibility resulted in higher impact than offline advertising.
The growth of internet and the amount of time spend on the internet have also been the
crucial motivating factors. According to Mr Pelle (December 07, 2013, THE HINDU),
with agents like dedicated spaces, pop-ups, floaters, banners and wallpaper ads making
up the most of internet advertising, there were also a number of ways to express the
efficacy of these agents. In the recent past, online marketing and social media advertising
seem to explore all available options and revenues over the internet to market a product
and to gain the maximum exposure. There is always a need for an online marketing
company to fetch the corporate perceptibility for subsequent sales. The scope for these

facilities is increasing at a mercurial pace. With every marketing agency hiring a webbased project, these businesses are reaching exceptional heights within no time.

LIMITATIONS
Nowadays, many customers tend to shop online for everything, right from everyday
necessities to clothing and electronics. While the advantages of online media advertising
include the capability to reach a large market, it also has some limitations. According to
Miranda Brookins of Demand Media(2011), consumers are so used to viewing ads on
television, flicking through ads in magazines and hearing radio jingles. In the case of
online advertising, where an internet user can avoid clicking banner advertisements, avoid
advertisements in online videos they watch and abruptly close pop-up ads as soon as they
pop up on their screens. Additionally when a potential customer, visits a website, they
stereotypically have a goal in mind whether it is to read the news or shop for a specific
item of their interest. But when websites offer customers with infinite options they can
easily get distracted. With so many options at hand, it becomes difficult for the customer to
shortlist his choices. On the other hand, companies should limit themselves to certain type
of advertising that yields the best response from their target customers. And the limitations
of this study include:
-

Given suggestions and interpretations may be limited.

Biased and concealed responses by the respondents cannot be averted.
Only a few aspects of the brand building strategies are considered. The data
obtainable on this context may be limited.

BACKGROUND
a. Innovative ways of consuming Internet help boost the growth
Internet is probably one of the most powerful ways of marketing to reach billions of
people worldwide. Internet instantly provides endless scope to market your product.
Online media marketing has seen many changes in the recent past creating many
millionaires, who tend to manage their own businesses by promoting and advertising their
company online. According to PR Smith and Ze Zook (2011, 5 th ed. Kogan Page, pp.4), a
new marketing revolution has begun that put potential customers back at the centre of the

organization and instantly paved way for the marketers to establish a new set of tools to
listen to them and to motivate them to get involved with the brand. This marketing ideal is
the beginning of a new creative age in online media advertising. There is always a good
scope as companies realize the endless possibilities of engaging with the customers who
can drive the business forward. There is a golden break for the marketers to create strong
and defensible business,for; there has never been a better time to be engaged in marketing
(PR Smith & Ze Zook, 2011, pp.4).

The main objective of online advertising is to reach out to large audiences quickly.
According to Louisa Ha and Kim McCann, the key to measure the effectiveness of online
media advertising is to differentiate the characteristics of online media consumers from
their offline counterparts (2013, pp.576). In online advertising, the idea of audience is
replaced by users because customers profusely use internet with specific targets. On the
flip side, offline media consumerscan use media such as television or a radio sans any
specific goal of consumption. Hence, online users are generally goal oriented than offline
media consumers. Another important classification than can be drawn between online and
offline advertising is that, in latter, such as television, consumers tend to skip the
commercials by abruptly leaving the room or zapping through channels (Louisa Ha and
Kim McCann, 2013, pp.576). In online advertising, the only way out for the customer is to
shut down the computer abruptly or wait for 15 to 30 seconds for the ad to finish. ,
According to Mark Sweney (The Guardian 30 September, 2009), the INDIA. has
become the first major economy where advertisers spend more than 1.75bn on internet
advertising than on television marketing. According to him, internet has become the
biggest advertising sector in UK in less than a decade. Additionally, Mark Sweney throws
a light on IABs (Interactive Advertising Bureau) figures showing that UK advertisers
spent 1.75bn out of which 60% was spent on search based advertising on websites like
Google (The Guardian 30 September, 2009). However, UK is not only the first country
where online media advertising has taken over TV advertising in the recent times. Gian M.
Fulgoni and Marie Pauline Morn states that, United States spend more than $20 billion
annually on online advertising (2009, pp.134).

b. Innovative formats and targeting methods

According to Yulia V Smirnova (2013) selecting the right customers is the driving factor
in online media advertising. She also throws a light on seven different types of targeting
methods as classified by the Advertising Research Foundation.
-

Contextual Targeting: According to Anand Subramanian, CEO of ContextWeb (2006)

states that, contextual targeting enlarges the scope for marketers to interact with the
customers by highlighting different offers to the same customer at regular intervals.
Contextual targeting is extensively used by various search engines to showcase
advertisements that are centred on the keywords used in the search box. However,
contextual advertising can be defined as a form of advertising that is deliberately based on
the content that is being displayed to the user in real-time technology which serves
pertinent ads that appear on different forms of media. According to DirectCPV (2010),
contextual advertising is a best option for cost per view (CPV) advertisers, for it
increases the chances to interact with the customers by allowing them to send information
about various offers to the same customer. According to Acuity media group (May 18,
2012), for both direct response and branding, this type of advertising can add
remarkable worth to the overall performance of the promotion. Increased targeting, direct
communication with the consumers and performance are the predominant reasons why
contextual targeting is an excellent way of promoting your product in the market.

Behavioural Targeting: In behavioural targeting information about how the customer uses
the internet is collected, kept and associated with a cookie on the customers browser,
which can track you through different websites and online services. According to Kurt
Opashl (March 11, 2009), the issues with this type of targeting have been associated with
us for over a decade and have grown as more customers use more online services and
more information has become readily available about your online behaviour. The major
drawback of this type of targeting is that, the user who care more about the privacy issues
are the ones expected to delete cookies. However Kurt Opashl concludes that, deleting
cookies from the browser is not enough; because a new cookie would be storedthe next
time your browser loaded a banner ad (2009). Behavioural targeting has been in boom
much recently. According to Lori Deschene (CBS News, May 1, 2013), ad networks
specifically are companies which act as middlemen to collaborate with thousands of
websites for access to data about visitor traffic and also to keep a record of user

preferences and other details including visitors IP addresses. Nevertheless, behavioural

ads are economical and profitable way to identify the potential consumers who have
confirmed some level of attention. According to Jonathan Lemonnier (Advertising Age,
2013),retargeting mainly targets to locate the customers who dropped off
midwaythrough the path to a purchase and serve them a new ad in the hopes they will
complete the purchase.
Called remarketing in the offline world and sometimes classified as part of behavioural
targeting online,one of the major advantages of this type of advertising is that, sellers can
directly reach the potential customers who have shown some amount of interest. For
instance, in 2007, Pepsi worked with Tacado, an advertising company based in United
States to serve these kind of ads for the advertising of their new product; Aquafina Alive.
This promotion targeted only health-conscious customers which attracted nearly three
times the total number of consumers who clicked on the targeted ads (Lori Deschene,
2013).
-

Demographic and Geographic Targeting: The success of online advertising can be

measured with the rapid growth of internet users worldwide, however, the most significant
characteristics of online media advertising is its capability to deliver right pointers to
specific targets. In this type of advertising, the demographic targeting is often used to
target certain age group, geography and gender (Millward Brown, March, 2009). On the
other hand, geographic targeting can be more technical which includes computers IP
address provided by the customers. Unlike behavioural targeting which can be very
effective for specialised goods, demographic targeting is generally considered as the best
option for mass marketing. According to Yulia V Smirnova, geographic targeting is
considered as the most effective for small scale industries that are willing to make profit
from on the local searches (2013). For instance, geographic targeting has the ability to
allow marketers to maximise their reach with the help of IP protocols and GPS
coordinates.

Purchase Based Targeting: According to Jonathan Lemonnier, purchase based targeting is

solely based on the information provided by the customers about purchases made on
websites (Advertising Age, 2013). This type of targeting predominantly depends on the
purchase history of the customer and uses this information to print coupons with custommade offers along with the receipt in real time. For instance, according to him, people
who bought one brands shoes might be interested in more of the same or of another

brand (Advertising Age, 2013). Purchase-based targeting is supposed to be very

efficient to modify the databases for particular markets.
Withwebsites becomingmore and more elegant and elaborate,itis always essentialto
evaluatethedifference betweenthebrands seen by the customer and the brands
supplied.Infact,onlytheformertendtohaveaninfluenceonthe
Establishedontheseideas,

various

potential

assetsareevolvingto

customer.

assessadvertising

coveragewhichhelpsimprove the effectiveness of advertisingintermsofbranding.

However,

constantmodernization

and

superiorchoicein

targetingformatsmean

thatevaluatingthegenuineeffectofdifferentadvertisementsisa very intricateprocedure.

c. Observing the effectiveness of online Advertising is becoming a crucial

challenge
Marketers identify determining the effectiveness of their promotions as a strategic
challenge in their collaborative communications stratagem. The internet is supposed to be
anassessablemedium but promoters are still disappointed with the tools available to them
for estimating its performance. Coping up with an exceptional amount of generated
information, marketers express a necessity for clear and comparable data. The
collaborative rich media advertisements may create more interactivity with regard to its
click-through rates paralleled with mouse rollovers. The study of the comparative data uses
descriptive and inferential indicators to measure the effectiveness of online media
advertising. The interactive, rich media advertisements earned considerably higher clickthrough rates than the non-interactive, rich media ads in the recent past. It also earned
more user commitment and stimulated more user interactivity.
According to Burns and Richard J. Lutz, for marketers, online advertising promotion
decisions may be intricate by the array of ad formats and inadequate knowledge about their
effectiveness (2006, 35(1), pp.58). For that reason, they require better understanding about
the measurement, use and effectiveness of interactive online rich media as well as more
studies of the interactivity of consumers and ad messages (Stewart and Paul A. Pavlou,
Vol.30, Issue.4, 2002, pp.381). According to them, the requirement for more studies of the
interactivity of customers and ad messages is most possible due to the nature of the
interactive medium, which requires a diverse way to theorisemethods of advertising
effectiveness.Several pointers are available to measure the efficiency of online media

advertising, but the click-through rates are still the most commonly used indicators. But
Jeff Smith affirms that, the generality of the click-through rate as a measure of the
effectiveness of online advertising drops back to the initial days of the internet (2012).
According to a study conducted by eMarketer, online promotion has been hyped for its
measurability that makes it easy for the sellers to assess the effectiveness and money value.
Regardless of extensive appreciation that the click-through does not assess the full effect
of an online advertisementseven ones placed with straight response intentionsand
demands for better branding metrics, many sellers still have faith in the easy-to-track click
as their best performance metric (eMarketer, May 7, 2010). According to the following
figure (Figure 1), click-through rate is supposed to be the most usually followed metric to
measure the effectiveness than the amount of incremental sales, ROI and brand awareness.

Figure 1
Source: http://www.public.site2.mirror2.phi.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?
R=1007679[Accessed May 22 2013]

However, according to Jeff Smith, click-through rates are worthless to brand advertising
promotions. For instance, according to him, Ford Motor Company doesn't publicise in
the hopes that somebody will click through on their banner and buy a car; they are instead
trying to change consumer insight against brand funnel metrics(2012). On the flip side,
according to Xavier Drze, click-through rates are still the de facto measure of Internet
advertising effectiveness (2003, Vol.17, No.4, pp.8).However, gradually click-through
rates have tumbled.
Online media advertising can be an extremelyoperational brand constructing tool as long
as you keep a few simpleprinciples in mind, and effort to avoid the collectivedrawbacks as
noted above. Don't be dejected by all the terminology - the basic guidelines of
actualendorsing and advertising have not changed. Do, however, teach yourself as to the
unique features of this technicallyempowered medium, in order that you can take full
advantage of its capability and accordingly incorporate online advertising into your
complete marketing mix.Yet again, the click-through rate is being indicated as some grand
pointer of successful online advertising. Additionally, Doug Knopper, VP of advertiser
solutions at DoubleClick, said, "While click-through rate is only one method of assessing
online advertising effectiveness, its stability over the past several months reflects the
mainstream adoption of online advertising at levels consistent with traditional direct
response rates." (Rob Graham, 2002). Rob Graham points out that, just because a
promoter was able to encourage a customer into snapping on the ad, what implication does
that have for the promoter's bottom line? Does this rise in click-through also come with an
escalation in return on investment (ROI)? (Rob Graham, 2002). How about being able to
illustrate solid branding capability by calculating the percentage of customers who saw the
advertisement and got connected with it?I personally think promoters should try to look
past the click. It cannot act as an indicator of effective advertising if it can't associate with
a considerable change in profits. I also think promoters should look more closely at what
rich media advertisements have to offer them and their customers.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Objective 1: Analysing different types of online advertising
According to David S. Evans, internet based technologies are revolutionizing the stodgy
$625 billion global advertising industry (2013, Vol.7, Article 2). Search based advertising
techniques the most advanced and developed of these, have interesting economic features
that result from the combination of keyword bids by advertisers and single homing. The
evolution of the internet has not replaced the use of other media, particularly television.
Rather than competing, these two media supplement each other. Internet always acts as an
extension to the television experience. Many internet users believe that watching a video
online balances their use of television. However, internet users try to look out for unusual
and previously inaccessible content. This approachenables to be prolonged through online
media and encourages an advertiser to mix the Internet with other media. Online
advertising has come a long way in the recent past. When the internet was first
breaking out into the mainstream, many advertisers did not understand the
significance of online platform, and still depended on advertising from the
perspective of TV and print mediums. According to AdJuggler Inc., most online
advertising was quite simple both in terms of the advertising itself, and the way in
which it was sold (2009, pp.3-5).
Simply put, without advertisers there could be no scope for online advertising. All
of the advanced ad technology in the world does not matter if there isnt any
advertising to show, this view has been supported in the work of AdJuggler (2009).
The advertisers pivotal role is to provide actual and appealing ads and campaign
parameters. In the end, it is up to the advertiser to choose what type of advertising
they want to run and how much the agency is ready to pay for it. Apart from

providing the actual advertising, the advertisers another major role is to observe
various reports to see if the advertising is meeting their goals. The advertiser will
eventually have to decide upon the renewal of a particular campaign, or spend their
online advertising budget in other productive ways. An ad agency typically helps an
advertiser with wide range of services which includes designing ads, developing an
entire strategy for advertising and buying advertising space on the websites where
their product will be most effective.
According to Maximillian Kaizen (2011, chapter8), there are eight types of Online

ads, they are as follows:

Banners,
Text-Based,
Advertorial,
Affiliate,
Sponsorship,
Classified,
Paid Search and
E-mail.
Banners are generally blocks of wavering sizes inserted into web-pages that use
catchy graphics with a hyperlink directed to the destination of the advertisers. Nowa-days, banners come in full rich-media along with streaming video/audio. Richmedia and advertising offer a brand new experience to the users. Rich media
formats have developed noticeably over the past few years. This advancement
enhances the communicative strength of online advertising. Text based ads are
purely related to the content that is manually added by the publisher. So, ultimately
content plays a major role that has a direct impact on how we view it. For instance,
according to Maximillian Kaizen (2011), advert snippets that occupy a smaller
portion of the video tend to annoy the viewers, but on longer videos they can be
tolerated and sometimes even appreciated. Online advertising began in the past
decade, when the first banner ads were placed in commercial websites (Zeff &
Aronson 1999). Even though there are quite a few forms of online advertising, such
as banners and pop-up windows, banner ads are considered as the most widespread.
Banner ads have gradually ruled online advertising and have become the
usualmarketing format on the internet (Cho et al. 2001, pp.48). Banner ads are
oblong displays on a web page that function as a preface to the customer to discover
more by clicking on the banners (Singh et al. 2000, pp.19). Clicking on the banner

directs the visitor from the current web page to the promoters web page. In this
manner, banner ads are used as connectors to bring potentialconsumers to a site,
presentingacomputerized link to the promoter (Briggs & Hollis 1997; Bellizzi
2000). Clickable banner ads are believed to be the first gateway to entering the
world of interactive electronic markets (Shamdasani et al, Vol.41, No.4, pp.16
2001).
Advertorials are those paid reviews that happen online mainly through the
blogosphere. But according to Merriam-Webster, an advertorial is an advertisement
that is usually written in the form of an article that looks exactly like any other
autonomous news story from a magazine or a newspaper. Affiliates are also called
as commission based advertisements where in the publisher chooses everything
including the banner, text links and the review. Advertisers utilize an established
affiliate system to publish ads and manage the cost-per action or cost-per click
payment (Maximillian Kaizen, 2011). In the field of marketing, sponsorship is
defined as the establishment of a deeper relation and understanding between an
advertiser and a publisher. For instance, this content is brought to you by x
brands paying for specific valuable pieces of content which consists of a video or a
research or on-going conferences.
According to Hollis Thomases (2001), Micro advertisements are categorized by a
low barrier to entry, both in terms of cost and in the number of impressions
required. Classifieds are the best example for micro ads that can actually lend
informational and value added content to the users experience.
According to Michael Zimmer (2006, Vol.32), paid search is a unique example that
motivates the online consumers to simply click on web pages listed significantly in
the results, yet not essentially the most appropriate to their search query. On the flip
side Eszter Hargittai (2003, pp.11-12) warns that, these search engines that are
driven by profit motives might direct people away from the most suitable and better
quality sites in favour of those that have paid the highest bids for the placement on
the results page irrespective of their quality.E-mails and social networking offers
advertisers a new platform for expression. Even though e-mail spam is a major
hindrance, opt-in e-mail provides the best results for online advertising. Internet
users spend a tremendous amount of time using different communication services
on the Web. This use of media technologies including different social networking
sites generate added advertising space which provides ad agencies and publishers to

target a large sect of people. Nonetheless, the advertisers must assess the efficiency
of these new platforms in relation to their own communication methods. Today,
internet tends to play a vital role in purchase processes. Many internet users refer
thousands of websites before buying a product of their choice. Internet is becoming
a highly powerful medium, just like a TV in the earlier days. Internet users know
how to make the most of resources accessible to them, for example, retail websites,
product reviews, comparison between different products and websites etc. This led
to the development that underpins the significance of conducting a detailed survey
regarding the choices of the users by the advertisers.
However, according to PR Smith and Ze Zooke (2011, 5 th ed. pp.283), new form of
advertising include;
-

User generated ads,

Location-based ads,
Apps- the new ads,
Creative ads and
Behavioural advertising and contextual advertising.
But most of the companies today will be aware of what stimulates discussions in
social media when it comes to ad promotions. Are there any aspects that lend
themselves more to social and user based content?(PR Smith & Ze Zooke, 2011).
Online media advertising gives a broader scope for the organization to identify what
new trends or business styles are evolving that may affect the companys product?
Hence, self-exploration plays a pivotal role in building an advertising strategy.
Objective 2: Defining the aims of online communications strategies
Although the marketing literature accepts that communication strategies play a
vigorous role in channel functioning, it offers no incorporated theory for channel
communication. According to Jakki Mohr, & John R. Nevin, communication in
advertising channels can function as a method by which credible information is
communicated, programs of coordinated and commitment is fortified (1990, pp.36).
Developments in communication strategies now empower the promoters to take
advantage of an extensive range of available online tools that go beyond the
outdated exchange between search and display so as to develop their online
communications.

With the introduction of the internet as a fastest-growing advertising medium and a

fresh form of mass communication channel, whether the idea of advertising
chaosstill applies to the online environment becomes the main concern. The
internet, with its twofold characteristics of being both a self-paced medium and
confined calls for aninnovativetheory of clutter as promotions of different formats
are being used on the internet.
According to Satya Menon and Dilip Soman, a primary challenge in establishing
effective online advertising is to confirm that the ad not only appeals to the potential
customers, but also to create interest in customers to know more about the
advantages of the product (2002, vol.31(3), pp.1).According to Stacy L. and
Weathers, the vague nature of e-commerce may causecustomers to be ambiguous
about whether products purchased online will satisfy their needs or make up to
expectations. Such uncertainty is anelement of buyer risk that result because the
actual product of a purchase choice can only be acknowledged in the future (2007,
Vol.83 (4), pp.393). The main challenge to create an interest and educate the
consumers has become primarily important in the field of online advertising. In this
field, ample interest and encouragement on the part of the customers is required to
interact with the ad and to access suitable information about the new product.
However, some promoters consider that online advertisements have a role in
creating a better brand awareness and image (Satya Menon & Dilip Soman, 2002).
The internet as a communication medium is ultimately different from the other
media on several dimensions such as interactivity, control, dynamic content and
depth of content accessible to the customer (Hoffmann and Novak,Vol.60 (3),
1996). We have a comprehensive range of online assets available which can be used
in different ways depending on the aims of our brand promotions. For each one,
specific measurement pointers are used to assess the final role played by online
resources to enhance the effectiveness of the brand strategy. For instance, according
to

Ulrike

Gretzel,

information

technology

and

advancement

in

online

communication strategies has had anincredibleeffect on the tourism business over

the past few years. Due to increasing globalization, it has become difficult for the
marketers to keep pace with the advancement of new technologies, the development
of ground-breaking advertising strategies and the changes in the buyer market along
with the growing competition (2000, Vol.39, pp.146).Hence, it is argued that

information technology has led to a number of remarkable changes in the

expectations underlying different communication strategies.
The online medium offers us a unique opportunity to target and reach a desired
section of customers in an engaging and original fashion. According to Anuskha
Subramanian (Business Today, August 19, 2012), Hindustan Lever Limited
(HUL), Indias biggest consumer goods enterprise, relies strongly in the power of
new communication technologies for an effective communication with their target
customers. She also affirms that, other multinational companies like, PepsiCo and
Coca Cola are also betting on the power of new advertising strategies. According
to Avi Goldfarb and Catherine Tucker (2010), the US$11.2 billion online
advertising market has become much more sophisticated since the primitive days of
simple banner ads. Today sellers can entrap and attract the viewers with
flamboyant graphics, video advertisements and flash animation that are practically
difficult to overlook. Others take a more low-profile, yet directed approach using
informatively relevant advertisements, such as inserting text ads for computers on a
technology site. For instance, Googles AdSensefetches in about $6 billion in
yearly revenues through its targeted contextual ads, which Google claims have
been seen by an expected 76% of internet consumers throughout the United States
(Avi Goldfarb & Catherine Tucker, 2010).According to Avi Goldfarb & Catherine
Tucker, most of the online advertising campaigns use relevant key points as a data
from a large collection of web surveys that observed the effectiveness of
variousadvertisingstrategies (2010). This allows us to draw a comparison between
targeted ads andprofessedflashy ones that highlight pop-ups, video ads, or
evenadvertisements taking over the whole page. They concluded that, flash
advertisements lured higher number of buyers to buy the product or service. An
expected $664 million is currently spent on online advertisements that are both
directed and flashy (Avi Goldfarb & Catherine Tucker, 2010). As a result,
advertisers are always in a dilemma about how much amount of money should be
allocated for online advertising. Rises in online advertising budgets should rely on
relevant performance measures which ultimately aim to assess the effectiveness of
online advertising strategies in terms of performance of the brand and growth of
offline sales. One of the reasons for Google AdSenses continued success is that
its discreet textual ads are assimilated impeccably with Web content. In my opinion,
a refinedmethodology might serve as the best way for companies to confirm

customers that their privacy matters. In summation, according to Sebastien Yanni

(Online communication strategy, online), information technologies and online
communication strategies offer many opportunities for promoters to:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

Increase productivity,
Enhance logistic follow up,
Gain new customers,
Start new online websites,
Improve new operations and
Developcustomer relations.
Along with customer interaction, branding and reducing acquisition costs also play
a pivotal role in online media advertising. Microsoft Advertising has proven the
significance of online media advertising for brand promoters by establishing a
transparent link between online campaign engagement and measures of positive
brand impacts (Microsoft Advertising, 2010). According to Aaron Siegel, branding
has the capability to bring many potential clients immediately after you've ran an ad
campaign successfully (2006). Also, according to Yadav and Varadarajan, promoters
also show interest on how to relate technology to communication. Hence,
interactivity can be theorized as a distinguishingcharacteristic of computer-mediated
communication in the open market that tend to increase with the mutual
controllability, promptness and awareness of communication as observed by
consumers and companies (2005, Vol.33. Issue.4, pp.585).According to Jothi & R.
Shakthi Prasad (2011, pp.235), promoters now target more over to social media
due to high rush in varsity of audiences. So they use this space as the supreme
standard to communicate their brand and build active brand uniqueness through
extremely effective and interactive communication strategy. Social media
advertising holds some benefits like, spreading your brand to the potential
customers; educating target groups about the various advantages of the brand and
making the buyers interact and keep them engaged with the brand along with
motivating healthy competition in the market (Jothi et al, 2011, pp. 236). Hence,
there is always a need to study the best way of communication strategy in branding
the product especially in social networking sites and evaluate its reach among the
people and their insights. Alongside, it is clear that the new media and its
technology is a developing trend in communication strategies which attract almost
all the people, if they have basic knowledge of computers.Another important issue

for the promoters is to reduce the purchase costs of getting new customers.
According to Renee Warren, knowing customer purchase is an investment is the key
to doing it right and reducing the cost of getting new customers (2012). Long-term
planning gives the promoter an opportunity to engage with the target customers and
to evaluate short-term plans. This practise is like a good return on a stock
investment, i.e. when reinvested, it generates even more returns. (Renee Warren,
2012). Andy Narayanan confirms that, lack of proper knowledge about customer
acquisition costs might have a great impact on the viability of a business structure
(2010). For instance, if a company needs to pay $1 for each click to initiate
customer acquisition through online promotions, 1 in 5 clicks end up in a customer
signing up. So, thats equal to $5 to gain a new customer (Andy Narayanan, 2010).
He affirms that, managers and promoters should think and understand about how to
reduce customer acquisition costs to increase the credibility of a business agenda
(Andy Narayanan, 2010). Hence, customer interaction, branding and reducing
acquisition costs are three different goals that are not contradictory, for each of
these goals use different indicators to measure their effectiveness. The following
table (Figure 2) illustrates the most commonly used online advertising units and
their respective sample costs.

Figure 2

Objective 3: Efficiency of Media mix

According to Kim T. Gordon, exposure in multiple forms of media will affect the
target consumers decisions to buy what the company promotes; this as a result
generates a consistent involvement that reflects positively on the company
(Entrepreneur, 2013).Observethe type of media customers are exposed to; that
may change their decisions to buy what a company promotes, and choose a mix of
the best forms. For instance, web sites possess an ability to carry flashy and deeper
content and more complex communication than other forms of media (Kim T.
Gordon, 2013). On the flip side, outdoor advertisements deliver a quick punch of
information. Companies that tend to use just one or two methods to reach their
target customers frequently encounterdifficulties keeping them involved and also
lose track of the competitors who make steady profits using other forms of media.
By choosing a perfect media mix, a company can maintain frequent relationship
with their consumers without boring or annoying them. With the advancement of
communication technologies, customers are gradually using different types of
media simultaneously. Therefore, an effective integrated marketing campaign
makes profit from the strengths of individual media.Customer satisfaction towards
an ad campaign has therefore become the main concern to the media mix strategy.
Hence, it has become essential to recognise and estimate the influence of media
mixing

i.e.

promoters

need

to

categorize

the

effect

of

mixed

media

promotionsinvolving both the internet as well as traditional media such as TV.

Online advertising is gradually becoming a part of the media mix for many
companies. Advertisers across all media posted surges in their online advertising
presence since 2002, and a slate of media companies reported large growth in
advertising revenue during 2003(Ginger Rosenkrans, Vol.6(5), 2005). According
to Ginger Rosenkrans, online advertising revenue reached $7.3 billion in 2003 (Vol.6 (5),
2005). She also adds that, online advertising's supporters hype online advertising as the
most effective of all media, stating that it delivers an enormous amount of data not
available with offline media.According to Print Power (online source), a pan-European
organisation committed to supporting print media states that, the key to a successful
advertising campaign is to maintain relation with the potential customers through attentiongrabbing content before offering a worthy product or service. An effective advertising

campaign yield best results when print media is used with other media as one element of a
unified solution. Dynamic Logic, part of global research agency Millward Brown, found
that addition of magazines to a mix of internet and television increases brand reputation by
44% and purchase target by 15% (Cross Media, 2012). Additionally Cross Media
highlights the report published by The Financial Timesin 2011 stating that, the grouping
of print media and internet also increases effectiveness, with brand commitment 26%
higher than using just print or internet medium (2012). According to George S. Yip, epromoters should be aware of the fact that, the internet blurs the marketing mix. He also
argues that, traditional marketing, like print media can separate each element of a mix as
they hold separate physical personifications (2000, Vol.11 (4), pp. 13). Furthermore, Print
Power (online source) also confirms that, print media is ideal for marketing because it is
available in large numbers and can be easily accessed.
Reading a newspaper, magazine or a pamphlet requires full attention of the reader and it
also delivers the means to escape todays always-on culture. However, reading print
allows the reader to pay attention fully on the editorial and marketing content. Whereas on
the flip side, all essentials of the marketing mix appear on the same web page and at the
same time which can distract the customers.Lauren Indvik (Mashable Business, January
19, 2012) reports that, according to a study conducted by the eMarketer, online
advertising is estimated to make $39.5 billion in sales by the end of this year, which is
equal to 23.3% increase from 2011 and compared to a sum of $33.8 billion on print (Figure
3).

Figure 3

Although different communication strategies and information technologies are coming up,
spending on tele-marketing promises to be essentially unaffected by rising online ad
budgets.

Figure 4
From the above graph (Figure 4) it is evident that INDIA. advertisers are likely to spend
around $72 billion on television advertising in 2016. On the other hand, the forecast for
print media is quite predictable. Advertisers are expected to continue reducing their
advertising budgets on print media for the next half decade as the following graph (Figure
5) illustrates:

Figure 5
Lauren Indvik (Mashable Business, January 19, 2012) concludes that, generally, it
seems to be a strong year ahead for the ad industry, with total INDIA. ad spending forecast
to grow by 6.7% to $169.5 billion and a total ad spending is set to reach nearly $200
billion by the end of 2016, out of which online advertising will account for a third.
Optimisation of advertising budget also plays a pivotal role in online media marketing.
Increasing the percentage of online marketing in the media mix can be a way of targeting a
wider population for the same budget. However, there is no predefined rule regarding the
ideal budget allocation. While it is comparatively easy to frame an online marketing
campaign, appropriate budget allocation becomes a herculean task. In todays declining
economy, many advertisers are forced to reduce their advertising budgets to meet the new
challenges of the market. According to Savitz Research Solutions (2009, pp.1), using
statistical study we can identify the impact of online advertising budgets and also measure
the effectiveness of radio, TV, magazine and newspaper.

According to the above statistical analysis it can be inferred that, National TV was least
efficient during October. Also, radio is was not fully operative in the metro areas.
Alongside, newspaper advertising was constantly unproductive; hence, expenditures in

print advertising can be drastically reduced. Direct mail showed the highest ROI because of
the depth of mailing throughout the year (Figure 7).

Figure 6
Therefore, the total potential savings is expected to be $11.25 million or 22% of the
advertising budget (Savitz Research Solutions, 2009, pp.4).
According to Richard Schmalensee,an advertising agencys budgets may rely on how their
customers allocate their marketing budgets across media and there is also a relative
difference in media mix among agencies (1982, pp.1). Porter argues that, the minimum
amount of advertising budget required solely varies with respect to the size and
characteristics of the potential customers an agency tries to reach (Schmalensee et al.,
1982, pp. 19). On the other hand, newspapers are highly confined, because their potential
consumers are spread across small areas that make them reachable to small marketers.
Even though most of the marketers identify the benefits of the internet, mainly in terms of
offering additional reach, preciselyevaluating media mix effectiveness is no stress-free
task. The Online Publishers Association (OPA) hired Millward Brown IntelliQuest to
carry on a media mix study to know how online promoting can work in amalgamation with
offline advertising. According to this research, advertisements that are exposed online as
well as on TV are expected to recall more by the customers (Online Publishers
Association, March 2002, pp. 2). Contrarily, this research also states that, online ads are
probably more seen by the customers than TV advertisements. Advertisers should have
patience to re-examine their media mix to add online medium so as to improve
effectiveness of the whole campaign.
Objective 4: Economics of online advertising
Online media advertising has developedpromptly in the last decade. The exceptional
features of online media advertising include the use of data collection tools and Internet-

based technologies to aim and track potential customers. It now accounts for almost oneseventh of all advertising expenditure and adds to the majority of revenues for most
websites (Davis S. Evans, 2013, pp.1). It is alsoexpected to growrapidly as more users
spend timeon internet using their personal computers as well asother devices like TV and
mobile phonesthat are coupled to the web. Like modern finance, online media advertising
also depends heavily on cutting-edgestatistical and economic methods.
According to Rachel Arandilla (1stwebdesigner, 2011), the first ever online ad (Figure 8)
appeared on the internet in 1994 which was advertised by AT&T and was featured
onHotWired.In the beginning, publishers and promoters began to experiment on various
types of ad formats and internet-based technologies available to them.

Online media advertising was at its best during the late1990s, it was only a decade later
that the measurement of online advertising effectiveness was even considered. According
to Davis S. Evans, in 2001, revenue in the INDIA. raised to an expected $7.1 billion which
is equal to about 3.1% of overall advertising expenditure and the industry reclaimed
momentum by 2010 as the business model for Web 2.0 came together (2013, pp.3).
Advertisers were blowing billions of dollars into dot com companies at an alarmingly fast
rate. Yahoo! could charge up to US $30 to even US $100 to run these banner ads. At its
height, internet spending has reached US $8.2 billion (Rachel Arandilla, 1stwebdesigner,
2011).Gradually advertisers understood that online banner ad campaigns stand nowhere
close in comparison to an effective 20-second TV commercial or a full-page
newspaper/magazine ad.According to Magid Abraham, co-founder and CEO, ComScore
Inc., in case of TV, there is a stability of allocated advertising that extents to an average of
160 spots per viewer per day approximately. Nevertheless he also states that, budgets have
continued to increase even as the number of TV viewers during the prime time has
weakened (August 2012, pp.7). On the other side,according to a survey conducted by
PricewaterhouseCoopers and sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
inthe first half of 2007 alone, advertisers in the US spent more than $10 billion on online
advertising. That was about 14% of all advertising spending (PricewaterhouseCoopers,
2013, pp.3). In early 2000, almost all the dot com industries went bankrupt one after
another. During this period, INDIA. advertising sector had to witness a drastic fall from

$8.2 billion to $6.2 billion. Hence, at this stage, online media advertising was considered as
an unstable medium to invest huge amounts of money for campaigning purposes. Soon
after the dot com bubble burst, search based marketing grew at a mercurial pace in 2003.
Advertisers and publishers considered search-based marketing as the most efficient and
reliable form of advertising. However, as different ad formats and information technologies
have evolved in the recent years, it has become evident that not all formats of online
advertising actually have an impact on the customers. In the case of direct- response
marketing, online advertising has been a blessing. But, most of the advertisers are
apprehensive about the after-effects of this type of advertising. Thus, online advertising
remains a experiment for branded promoters, who are still uncertain about how to use the
medium efficiently.
Internet advertising is particularly viewed as a promotion tool for selling services or
products. This market developed during the 20th century as new information
technologies

for

mass

communication

were

exposed

and

executed.It

is

predominantly designed for making sales of products and services using different
advertising strategies. Costs of different form of ads also vary, but the most
popularis cost per viewer.Online media advertising is completelydissimilar from
traditional media advertising. Former uses new information and communication
technologies available within the internet that permits the marketers to accurately reach
their target consumers.Online advertisers are still looking for how to distribute 100% of
their expenditure efficiently. The worldwide online advertising industry is estimated to
worth $428 billion in returns this year, according to ZenithOptimedia, a marketing firm
(The Economist, July 6, 2006). Many advertisers still believe that pay-per-click is more
efficient than the traditional marketing. However, some advertising companies are still
trying to search other ways of charging marketers for users actions. According to
eMarketer, INDIA internet advertising expenditure might increase thrice the amount of
expenditure spent in 2013

Figure 7
From the above chart (Figure 9) we can infer that, in 2013 INDIA internet advertising
expenditure has increased by $4.8 billion over the preceding year. But when it comes to
allotting media budgets for different forms of advertising by the marketers, audiences play
a major role. According to eMarketer, 29% of their time in a usual week is spent on
internet, but surprisingly only 9% ad expenditure goes online (eMarketer, March 2013).

Figure 10
From the above chart (Figure 10) we can conclude that, usage of media is closely
associated with the percentage of ad expenditure figures for TV. On the flip side, the
percentage of expenditure spent on newspapers surpasses the parallel media time. Call it a
depression or a market recession, whatever you call it, US advertising expenditure both
online as well as offline will be designed with the help of these supreme economic trends.
Nonetheless, while internet advertisingcosts is in no way insusceptible to the present
economic swings, it is more resilient to ad-spending reductions than any other form of
media.

As stated earlier, costs of different form of ads also vary, according to a survey
conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and sponsored by the Interactive Advertising
Bureau (IAB), search-based marketing continuedto be the leading ad format since 2010.

Figure 11
From the above chart (Figure 11) we can infer that, search-based marketing has had a
strong successive development between 2010 and 2013. Search-based marketing is
followed by Display Banners and Classifieds/Directories in fractionportion of internet
advertising. Out of the 5 major advertising format categories portrayed, only two have
witnessedrelentless losses in percentage share. Sponsorshipreturns have plunged from 8%
of the overall revenues in 2010 to 2% of aggregate revenues in the first half of 2013. On
the other hand,Classifieds/Directoriesreturns have fallen from 18% of total in 2010 to
14% in the first six months of 2013. According to Laura Roberts (The Telegraph, 28
October 2010), the INDIA. has the most advanced internet economy in the world with a
huge online e-commerce market per person. She reports that, online business is nearly
worth 100bn a year with internet marketing income making up to 7.2% of the total GDP

(gross domestic product). After the United States, the INDIA. has the second largest online
advertising market worldwide.

Objective 5: Consumer responses towards online advertising

Many advertisements appear simultaneously with different forms of media such as
programs on TV, articles in magazines and so on.As advertising perspective may vary to a
greater extent, it is always important to select an applicable context for ad campaigns. On
this front, a crucial question should be reflected: What role do consumers responses play in
measuring the effectiveness of an ad campaign? Marketers should make it a pivotal point to
maintain a constant relation with their target customers, because this could be an effective
tool for the online advertising. It is always a huge task for the marketing agencies to choose
the right elements that should be stressed and used in an advertisement. According to
MarketingSherpa, one of the internets most popular marketing websites, have conducted
a survey and suggested seven important tactics to boost response rates (Armando Roggio,
2013). This survey reported that (Figure 12), adding picture of a person is worth a 53.2%
hike in ad response (Armando Roggio, 2013).

Figure 12

According to MarketingSherpa,"Its no accident that some charities seeking donations

feature pictures of suffering children. Words on a page simply cant convey emotional
messages, such as suffering, joy, or frustration," MarketingSherpa said. "Our brains are
hardwired to pick up volumes of information from the subtle nuances in facial expressions.
That could be why adding a picture of a person is the single most effective way to
communicate brand information (Armando Roggio, 2013).
According to Briggs and Hollis (1997, Vol.37 (2), pp. 38), online media advertising has the
power to raise brand awareness, intent to purchase and constructive brand insights.
According to a research conducted by Gartner, an information technology research and
advisory company, online media advertising revenue is gradually declining for many
websites and alongside, banner ads response rates are sinking (2001, pp.1). Hence, banner
ads are considered to be less effective. The same research concludes that, many websites
have click-through rates between 0.3% and 0.5%, i.e. less than five people per thousand
viewers click on the ad, which is too low. Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, an American
multinational financial services provider, investigates the effectiveness of banner ads in the
digital marketing era. According to them, the eyeball is attracted to motion, while the ear
is attracted to sound (Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 2001, pp.3). Rich media has been
proved to be five times more effective than traditional banner ads in increasing the
effectiveness of the brand recall rates. As the number of users using the internet with the
help of broadband connections is increasing at a rapid rate, more rich media ad campaigns
will develop and are expected to garner greater response rates. Different ads on the internet
come with a specified price tag depending on their response generation capability. Many
investors and publishers vigorously attempt to assess the effective cost of internet
advertising. According to AdRelevance,the most expensive is the vertical banner which
goes with a price tag of $43 (Figure 13) (Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, 2001, pp.7). This
is mainly due toits higher response generation proficiency.

Figure 13
In order to reach the potential customers, advertiser should utilize the advantages of a
flexible medium like internet to effectively increase the brand awareness. According to
Ramaraj Palanisamy and Suzanna A. Wong (2003, Vol.4, Nos. 1&2, pp. 16), there are three
important steps that proper planning can do for an advertiser, they are:
-

Planning helps to build an expectation for the brand. This helps to increase the

response rate as the target consumer views the ad at definite situations.

Planning helps to create eagerness in the consumer for the product or service.
Also, its helps the consumer to rationalise the keenness of the viewed product or
service.

Additionally, viewer might click on the same banner ad for further viewing if the product
or service is appealing. Hence it can be concluded that, consumer expectations have a
substantialeffect on the efficiency of banner ads. Joost Loef explains that, customers face a
difficulty in choosing the right brand with many brands having both unique and common
features (2002, pp.3). Conversely, customers can manage such a composite situation as
they are clear about what they anticipate from a brand or a product. According to Joost
Loef, consumer responses rely up on the following key points (2002, pp.11):
-

Customers may utilize the brand knowledge to build expectations.

Customer expectations of digital marketing may be grounded on knowledge about
particular ads in a certain product category.

Therefore, consumer responses towards online advertising play a major role to comprehend
how digital marketing works.
Objective 6:Evaluating the influence of advertising formats on branding
The motive of being in business by any company is to make profits by selling its products
or services. However, it becomes a challenging task for the advertisers to expect or decide
target consumers demands with utmost accuracy. Hence, it is important to engage in ad
campaigns that can effect potential customers decision to purchase its products. This is
where exactly brand management is pertinent. If a companys marketing goal is branding,
the pivotal reason behind choosing digital marketing is to create responsiveness and
distinguishability of the product or service. George S. Yip affirms that, internet makes it
stress-free to construct global branding and recognition, specifically for websites with the
right subtexts. For instance, according to him, Chinadotcom was initially a small-scale
company in Hong Kong that managed to gain global recognition by virtue of its name
(2000, vol.11 (4), pp. 12). Advertising industry uses different metrics like, branding, image
change and acquisitions along with click-through rates to measure the effectiveness of
online media advertising, hence branding plays a pivotal role in determining the efficiency
of an ad campaign (George Baltas, 2003, Vol.45, Quarter 4,pp.505).
According to The Nielsen Company, a global advertising and marketing research firm, the
number of Americans consuming internet has grown at a rapid pace from 186.7 million to
249.3 million since 2003 (2011, pp.1). Alongside, more and more advertising budgets are
finding their way online. For instance, Advertising Outlook published by The Cambridge
Group in 2011 investigates about how online ads impact consumer approaches (The
Nielsen Company, 2011, pp. 4).

Figure 14
From the above figure (Figure 14) we can infer that, brand promotion campaigns do
succeed in moving the indicator for most measured brand effective metrics. Therefore, as
the instant responsibility of online media advertising and its branding capability becomes
apparent to the advertisers we can expect to see fresh and more innovative ad campaigns
take up a larger share of that growing expenditure. Michelle Rutter, head of Pan-European
sales and trade marketing at MSN, states that, the results witnessed in the recent years
prove that online media advertising can work efficiently for brand branding campaigns.
According to him, "It's a great frequency builder. People see the ads much more often
when they're online as well as on television."(Fiona Harvey, 2003). On the other hand,
Sally Cole argues that, click-through rates can be lesser for rich media when compared to
other forms of online advertising formats where the click-through is the only form of user
interaction (2013, pp.1). However, on an average, rich media advertising formats produce a
0.10% click through rate. From figure 15 we can infer that, in-page videos produce better
click-through rates than in-page non-video and expanding video formats.

Figure 15
Hence, we can conclude that, for higher click-through rates advertisers should consider
using innovative videos and larger creative sizes which in turn can affect the brand recall
rate. Additionally, according to Dave Chaffey (Smart Insights, January 10 2011), clickthrough rates usually depend on the placement of the ad along with its size and shape
(Figure 16).

Figure 16
Thus, the performance of the different online advertising formats therefore needs to be
administered in order to make the right choice between formats with digital marketing
resources still sternly limited. As brand advertisers search for better effectiveness from

their online media resources, they will turn increasingly to ad networks (Jeremy Liew, July
14 2010).

RESEARCH DESIGN
The methodology used in this dissertation as illustrated:

Figure 17

The research project is taken down in two phases wherein:

Phase 1: Consists of thorough analytical and critical review of the literature on advertising
in the conventional and virtual marketing environments.
Phase 2: Determines the effectiveness of advertising in influencing the brand power over
internet with respect to the pillars of branding in the perspective of both the organization
and its customers.

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH
The objective of this study is to identify the different ways of measuring the effectiveness
of online advertising. It is aimed at online marketing and media buying professionals and,
more generally, at all departments involved in digital media.
My study focuses on measuring the performance of display advertising and covers seven
key approaches:

Analysing different types of online advertising,

Defining the aims of online communications strategies,
Efficiency of Media mix,
Economics of online advertising industry,
Consumer Responses towards online advertising,
Evaluating the influence of advertising formats on branding.
For each of these topics, my aim is to analyse market trends based on benchmark studies
conducted by market research institutes, advertising agencies and sales agencies.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How many hours do you spend online a day?
Do you check internet before purchasing a product?
Which media advertising do you think is most reliable?
Do you think online campaigns generate offline sales?
How often do you purchase a product in physical store after getting exposed to an online
ad?
What triggers your purchasing intent when you come across an online ad?

Which type of online advertising do you react most often?

What do you think are the benefits of online advertising?
Where do you like to check online ads?
What do you request in search engines when you are seeking information about a product?

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This section highlights the process followed in collecting data and evaluating it.

a) Type of data used: Both primary data and secondary data will be used.
1) Primary data: obtained from direct interviews with company people, e-customers, Webusers, and possible consumers.
2) Secondary data: obtained from sources like leaflets of cyber companies, Web sites
Magazines, articles and Books etc. derives from a thorough analytical and critical review of
the literature on branding from articles and various papers
b) Method of collection: The survey depends on conducting and collecting primary data both
quantitative and qualitative. Data is sought from advertising companies and e-customers. It
includes questionnaires, and conversations. The framework is determined from the
thorough and detailed analysis of various literature reviews on branding.
c) Tools for data collection: The primary data is collected with the help of questionnaire. The
questionnaire will be designed to obtain necessary information that can help a researcher to
fulfil his study. The questionnaire will be administered through direct visit to companies
and the target segment.
d) Sample size: Keeping in mind the economic factors, time and manpower limitations, totally
a sample size of 51 internet users is considered.
e)

Sampling Technique: The sample used is small keeping in view of the nature of the
respondents. So the simple stratified sampling technique has been used in the dissertation.

f) Assumption: The information from the participants will be treated as the correct
information though the sample size is limited to 51.

TYPE OF RESEARCH
I interviewed several advertisers as well as three media agencies in order to understand
their view of the key issues at stake and identify together the best resources for measuring
the effectiveness of online advertising. I hope that this study will provide me with useful
insights.

Due to the nature of research both primary and secondary data has been used and the
details are given in the next subheading.
The research process involves two kinds of methods they are:
Descriptive Study:
This research is the most commonly used and the basic reason for carrying out descriptive
research is to identify the cause of something that is happening. For instance, this research
could be used in order to find out what age group is buying a particular brand of cola,
whether a companys market share differs between geographical regions or to discover
how many competitors a company has in their marketplace.
Exploratory Study:
Exploratory research is a type of research conducted because a problem has not been
clearly defined. Exploratory research helps determine the best research design, data
collection method and selection of subjects. Given its fundamental nature, exploratory
research often concludes that a perceived problem does not actually exist.

PROCESSES AND RESOURCES

Process
Assess and compare the performance of different formats (static/rich media/video):
-

Which

formats

are

effective

for

my

campaign

traffic/image/recognition)
Which are the most effective in terms of acquisition cost?

objectives?

(Awareness/site

Target deliverables
-

Use of the most effective formats in line with marketing objectives and budget constraints
Online budget optimisation
Comments
The effectiveness of different formats can be assessed at two stages:

During the campaign, via indicators;

After the campaign, via post-tests among internet users exposed to the campaign.
Reach is another important factor in the choice of format; video format can be limited by
advertising slot availability, which in turn limits exposure. The type of product is also a
determining criterion when choosing the format. Rich media and video formats have
proven to be a good solution for products such as cars, where the visual factor is of great
importance, but less effective with the financial or service industries.

FINDINGS
Questionnaire
This Questionnaire is built in order to under to understand the behavioural patterns of the
internet users and the performance of online advertising.
The information from the respondents has been treated as the correct information though
the sample size is limited to 51.

Figure 18
It is shown (Figure 18) that the majority of the respondents fall in the age
group between 21-25 years.

Figure 19
This question gives the information about the exposure time to online ad
campaigns that each person come across a day depending on the number of
hours he/ she spend online a day (Figure 19).

Figure 20
More than a traditional medium internet has evolved as a huge database of
information where users can get the ready information about the product
which they are willing to purchase (Figure 20).

Figure 21

Out of several media sources available internet has proved as a best source
where a major part of the internet users believe that the most reliable
information is available online followed by TV and in-store advertising
(Figure 21).
One of the major reasons being that is the users can exchange and share
their views over the internet.

Figure 22

Internet has become a platform where the advertisers not only use it to sell

their products online indeed it is mostly used to build the brand awareness
among the customers. Through this graph (Figure 22) it is understood that
the strong online presence will show a positive impact on the sales offline.

Figure 23

Though a majority of the respondents acted neutral on this question, it is

also understood that the internet advertising will take a mind share of the
customer and helps in brand recall (Figure 23).

Figure 24

This is the crucial decision that has to be taken in terms of an advertiser.

Depending on the site the ad is placed and the utility of the product the
customer perception about the product changes.
Majority of the respondents reciprocated saying that Vodafone and
Airtel are the ads which they could recall when asked about an online
campaign that they could think while answering this questionnaire.The sole
reason behind this is that, ads manage to deliver creativity and content in
proportion which made the respondents react this way (Figure 24).

Figure 25

Though videos leave a better impact to this date, it is observed that the rate
is being declined rapidly with the likability towards the static image ads
i.e.jpg or gif images (Figure 25).
Static images make the content delivery clear and to the point and in less
time as compared to that of video ads.
On the other hand due to increase in usage of internet on purpose, the
likability towards video ads is declining. People tend to show interest if the
video length ranges from 15 seconds to one minute.

Figure 26

From this graph (Figure 26) it is understood that majority of the internet
users believe that there are several advantages of online advertising than
the traditional means of advertising in the name of ready information that is
available with just a click away and the time spent in understanding the
campaign.

Figure 27

With the increase in the usage of internet it is also becoming very important
to place an ad in such a way that it breaks the clutter.

With most of the time spent on social networking majority of the

respondents opted that they would like to see the ads on social networking
sites followed by personal mails and subscriptions which help in increasing
the targeting levels as well as the conversion rate (Figure 27).

Figure 28

To this question majority of the internet users responded saying that they
would request for brand key words than that of the key words related to ad
campaign

(Figure

ensureconsistency

28).

Oneofthemajor

betweendisplay

purchasedinsearchenginesand
contentacrossdifferentmedia.

challengesforadvertisersisto

advertising

campaignsandkeywords

betweenadvertisingandcreative

Figure 29
This graph (Figure 29) shows that more or less every internet user is
exposed to all kind of advertisements. There is really a huge potential to
reach the target customers in several ways, the best of it being the pop up
ads. It should be made clear that the ads should be relevant to the site which
the respondent browses. A definite target segment should be identified
before advertising through these means.

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES
- Aaron Siegel (2006), Importance of Branding in Your Advertising
Campaign[online], Available at:http://ezinearticles.com/?Importanceof-Branding-in-Your-Advertising-Campaign&id=313128

[Accessed

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