The Digital Ad Biz Beginning to Sprout & the Seed of an Idea

We are way too early in this to be talking about blossoming, but the sprouts or seeds that are the revolution of the advertising business going totally digital, totally accountable, totally targeted and totally interactive are HUGE!

I cover the basics in my internet marketing ebook, and today's New York Times covered how Microsoft is trying to catch up with Google in this arena. This is a good article packed with perspective.

At one point, this NYT article emphasizes how advertising-supported free media is winning out over subscription models by pointing out that, "In recent days, two prominent news Web sites — The New York Times and The Financial Times — said they were scaling back attempts to charge subscription fees for some of their content."

And then Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer says, “As much as people sometimes like to pick bones with advertising, people much prefer an ad-funded experience to one that they pay for.”

Hey, isn't this the guy who runs a software company that sells more software (and software upgrades) than any other company on earth?

He continues: “Even the basic software that we’ve delivered for so many years — if it can be ad-funded in the way it gets delivered to consumers, it probably will be ad-funded.”

In other words, free ad-supported digital media will rule, and digital advertising will blossom into channels of humongous proportions... proportions that make Google as it exists today seem small.

Bottom line, they all agree that it’s ALL going digital and this will change everything. Personally, I'm interested in building an advertising "on-ramp" for small businesses... A web application platform that would guide small business users so that they could leverage the advantages of the new media & advertising world. This is seriously needed by millions of small companies.

Like I've been saying for years, we need communication bridges spanning the grand canyon gap between people and technology... Anyone want to play?

3 Tips to Save Money on PPC Search Advertising

I like it when two of the authorities on web marketing who I most respect get together. I've had personal contact with both Dr. Ralph Wilson and Catherine Seda (whose most recent book How to Win Sales and Influence Spiders looks excellent... I've not read it yet). Bottom line, like me, both of these people are committed to helping small and medium size businesses succeed with their internet marketing campaigns. This video offers three solid tips that are fundamental strategies. I know from experience that each of these will help you save money with PPC search advertising:

Google Audio Ads Ramps Up Radio's Reach

It's been widely understood and acknowledged (ever since Google's January 2006 acquisition of dMarc Advertising) that Google would be launching an interface to sell radio advertising based on it's widely popular Google AdWords platform.

Well, the wait is over. It's here. Now, anyone with an AdWords account can buy targeted radio advertising via a new tab at the top of their AdWords interface.

The impact of this innovation on the radio advertising industry cannot be overstated. Google facilitates the production of the spot as well as its placement (you can pick radio stations by audience demographic as well as geographic location, etc.). Thus this new service is truly revolutionary because it makes the whole process of advertising on local radio a whole lot easier and far more accessible than ever before.

Google, DoubleClick & the Next Era of Internet Advertising

While Microsoft & ATT are quick to raise defensive legal questions (and Google's Eric Schmidt is quick to scoff at them, while also downplaying their new online presentation application), Sara Holoubeck at the DMNews (DM as in direct marketing) has some nice references to emerging ad exchange networks that introduce and integrate EBay-style bidding into online display advertising.

Bottom line, this merger idea is not just Google getting a new way to connect to display ads, it's also about the continuing re-modeling of online advertising in general. It's moving fast and it's just another brand of toothpaste that's not going back into the tube.

Even SmartMoney calls Microsoft's claims "almost laughable" amongst other more progressive comments.

US Online Ad Spending Continues Rapid Growth

I can't believe that I've not posted a thing that I learned at Webmaster World in Vegas two weeks ago, but bottom line: search marketing and search advertising as well as online viral, word of mouth marketing are hot and garnering a bigger and bigger piece of the US business marketing dollar pie. For example, this eMarketer report summarizes a consensus among analysts that internet advertising spending is continuing growth at a 30-40% year over year pace.

FYI, in addition to ComBridges internet marketing services, I'm working on a workshop and e-book to help smaller businesses get a handle of the effective use of these marketing channels. More on that soon.