Why TV, radio and billboards don’t work!
I recently entered a debate with a friend about how to drive traffic to websites.
My friend, who offers a free service where people can sign-up online, is running many high priced ads via radio, TV and billboards to drive traffic to the site.
Although expensive, at first this seemed like a great way to get some attention. But then I started thinking…Imagine your consumer driving in their car and seeing a billboard or hearing a radio spot. The ads are attractive, eye-catching and motivate your target audience to get online. But even with the right motivation, your imaginary consumer doesn’t exactly pull out their web browser fixated on the dashboard, do they?
As a professional web developer, I know that the average web surfer doesn’t usually remember web addresses for extended periods of time. If the person has to travel even five minutes further down the road they have significantly cut down their chances of remembering to write it down, let alone remembering the site address in the first place.… Now suppose they DO remember it and they DO write it down when they reach their destination. There is another abyss of time between the writing the name down, and actually typing it into a web browser. Not only do they have to remember to look up the website after what could be minutes or even hours, they have to still want to.
People who regularly get online are called web “surfers” for a reason. They don’t generally go to a specific site unless the link is glowing bright blue before their eyes.
What was appealing to the person in the ad at that moment is no longer in front of their face. That is unless they snapped a picture of the billboard with their zoom lens while they were driving. Thus it is obvious why a billboard will never drive people to a website. They are not only unlikely to be on a computer when they see it; they are guaranteed not to be!To explore radio even further: how many people actually listen to the radio while surfing the net? I will fill you in - it is not that many. In fact not that many people even listen to radio. It is a dying media (just ask the people who sell radio ads!).
Television actually has the same problem. Most people do not watch TV while surfing, but if they do have their laptop open, they are probably not paying attention to the commercial.
So how did I enlighten my friend that they had wasted thousands of dollars of their client’s money?
I simply told them Google rakes in almost 4 billion dollars each year from internet ads, with most of that money coming from big companies like Pepsi, Disney, and eBay. The internet advertising age has arrived. We know this because today over 9 billion dollars are spent on Internet advertising. That is more than radio, magazines, and billboards; it is more than just about anything.
When a company like Disney spends multiple millions of dollars paying people to “Search Engine Optimize” their network of websites, it really says something.
When you advertise your website on other websites, you give someone an opportunity to see your site at that exact moment. If they came from a search engine it is at the exact time they wanted your information.
So tell me what form of advertising can accomplish all of that?
October 6th, 2007 at 11:11 am
This is really clear thinking on your part– I hate to see organizations with public or charitable dollars throw them down the drain. I guess if we are going to use the web, we should really understand how to build traffic, and not just try to sandwich old media with new! Keep Thinking Straight!