Effectiveness of online advertising

From rock art since the BCE to the present online advertisements, we have come a long way in the field of advertising. And with every passing year, we are pumping in a fair piece of our economy’s budget.

Last year, the total advertising budget was a whooping $400 billion – and this is poised to grow every year. Out of this, the amount spent online was about $27 billion, accounting for a mere 7% of the total budget. But, come to think of this figure in isolation and we would realize that it’s no small figure. Moreover, In the next 4 years, this amount is estimated to jump to $62 billion.

Looking at these figures, one can easily say that online advertising is a flourishing business with a great potential for the new economy. Google grew into a multi-billion dollar company. Microsoft is eyeing Yahoo to be able to capture this market. But, with all this hype, I think there is a flip side to it also.

I usually spend a major part of my day interacting with the web and websites in one way or the other. I come across hundreds of advertisements every day. And like me, I am sure there are thousand others. Now, if I may quickly ask, name the last online advertisement you clicked on intentionally, or name the last two advertisements you’ve seen….
Can’t think of anything???

In fact, I believe the most enjoyable journey through the web would be the one with no advertisements. Almost 50% of the clicks that get recorded are either unintentional or fraudulent. This means, 50% of the amount spent by the advertisers based on the click-to-pay technology (where the advertiser pays for every click by the user) is for no real advertisement or publicity.

With such a scenario, I can only hope to see more matured and better advertising methodologies, which can infact interest the users as well as involve them. Presently, there seems to be a lot of disconnect between the Online advertising business and the Web world.

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