In marketing there is no substitute for effective, targeted advertising. For example, if you want to sell beach towels, you need to go where there is a need and desire for those towels. You won’t find beach towel retailers lined up anywhere but along coastal communities and resorts. Likewise if you want to sell your beach towels online, you need to display your advertising where beach towel consumers can find it. And that is where Google AdWords comes in.

There are more than a few ways to find highly targeted advertising online. Continuing the example of beach towels, you can start your own beach towel website and perform enough SEO that you’re ranking highly in the search engines. This generates natural traffic from effective marketing, but can take time.

In your search for other customers, you can create banners and other advertisements for use on other websites. These banners might be used by affiliates marketing your products and bringing you their beach towel customers for a percentage of the final sale. You might also use the banners and advertisements on other beach product websites. You might find another website selling sand toys or swimsuits and buy some ad space for your beach towel website. (more…)

For a long time, there was great speculation about formal advertising on the mobile web, but now advertising over mobile phones and devices is not only common, but also has guidelines set in place by the Mobile Marketing Association. The initial guidelines were released by the MMA in 2005 and the latest release in December 2007 marks an increased interest in mobile advertising that will only continue to grow as the world of handhelds expands.

A Growing Trend
Mobile handheld technology is a growing trend all over the world, but especially in well industrialized countries. In North America, 10% of mobile users use the phones for gaming, browsing and sending messages. Most users are between the ages of 25 and 34 and have plenty of disposable income. In Europe, the number of users is considerably higher making mobile web advertising a very lucrative and growing field for marketers.

Buying Time Online
Buying ads on the mobile web is a bit different than buying ads online. You’ll still need to create a graphic banner ad, but the size of the mobile screen must be taken into consideration. The ads are sold through mobile ad networks or directly from the mobile internet websites. Rates for placing ads on the mobile web fluctuate greatly but will continue to rise steadily due to ever increasing numbers of users on the mobile web. (more…)