Internet advertising has been claiming a larger share of the total budget spent on advertising year after year. TV advertising spend has been dwindling in the past few years. With more rich media content available on the Internet including movies, videos and TV show episodes, as well as the increasing use of DVRs and Tivo, fewer people are spending their time in front of the TV, in favor of cruising the Internet on their computers. Not being blind to this, large advertisers are shifting budget away from TV to where more eyeballs will catch their ads: The Internet.
With this change in how consumers spend their time and get their information it begs the question, “Is TV advertising becoming insignificant?” People are spending less time watching TV and when they do, more are watching recorded shows, enabling them to fast forward through commercials, or movies on demand with no commercials. In contrast, Internet advertising, such as banner ads and search engine marketing allows advertisers to place ads in front of consumers who are in an active and attentive condition, vs. the more passive condition of TV viewers. Further, advertisers can place their ads more precisely on the Internet than TV, seeking out only those specifically relevant sites to place banner ads. For example, a doctor’s allergy practice can place ads on allergy and medical sites. Advertisers can also choose a search campaign where ads are presented only when consumers search for key terms and only pay when those consumers click on the ads. In the same example above, the allergy practice may choose to present their ad only when consumers search for “allergy relief”, “allergy doctors” or “allergy shots”. TV can’t do any of that and if the lower spend on TV advertising is any indication, smart advertisers are starting to pick up on this.
With a well thought-out and executed campaign, Internet marketing can be very effective. With analytics in place, Internet marketing can deliver proven return on investment, a metric unavailable with TV advertising. Internet advertising allows consumers to take action immediately. From any type of Internet ad, consumers are one click away from an advertiser’s website to learn more, become a lead or make a purchase. TV advertising may not be completely insignificant but with more people spending more time on the Internet, it has certainly become less effective. While TV commercials may never go away completely, if the trend continues, we will all be enjoying more TV time with fewer commercials. It will be a better experience for all …as long as we don’t lose the super bowl commercials!
