Online advertising has become popular in recent times between business owners and individuals who are trying to make money online. These online ads are a means for you to get your business or product to clients.
Without online ads for your products, your customers will not know you exist. It is more like winking in the dark, nobody sees you. Also you might be wondering how online ads make money and how you can take advantage of them. First, what are online ads?
- What is Online Advertising?
- What are the Main Types of Online Ads?
- What Form of Advertising is Most Effective?
- How do Online Ads Make Money?
- How Much Money can you Make From Website Ads?
- How do you Make Money by Viewing Ads?
What is Online Advertising?
Online advertising can be referred to as any type of marketing message that shows up with the help of the Internet. That means it could appear in a web browser, search engine, on social media, on mobile devices, and even in email.
Read Also: How Online Video Advertising can Boost Business Profits
Savvy advertisers are increasingly making use of this forum for reaching consumers, for a number of reasons:
- It’s relatively inexpensive
- It reaches a wide audience
- It can be tracked to measure success (or failure)
- It can be personalized for a target audience
Indeed, online advertising is only growing in scope, as new avenues for marketers pop up (think ads delivered through text message or marketing messages delivered to users in a certain area, known as geo-targeting).
But, while some of the ads are less common or just gaining traction, there are plenty that we’re exposed to multiple times every day. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular types of online advertising.
What are the Main Types of Online Ads?
There are different types of online advertising that you might get confused on which types your business or product needs. Below are the main types of online ads and how to choose the best one for your business.
1. Display Advertising
Display advertising is a type of online paid advertising, typically using images and text. The most popular forms of display ads are banners, landing pages (LP’s) and popups. Display ads differ from other ads because they do not show up in search results.
Most commonly, display ads are found on websites and blogs to redirect user’s attention to the company’s product. Working together with remarketing, display ads can have great success.
According to Digital Information World, “website visitors who are retargeted with display ads are 70% more likely to convert on your website.”
2. Search Engine Marketing & Optimization (SEM) & (SEO)
SEM and SEO are two types of online advertising that promote content and increase visibility through searches.
- SEM: Instead of paying for the actual ad, advertising pay each time users click on the ad to their website. Businesses benefit by gaining specific information about their market.
- SEO: To gain a higher rank in search engine results, advertisers use various SEO tactics, such as linking, targeting keywords and meta descriptions and creating high level content that other sites will link to. While SEM is a paid strategy, SEO is organic, making it a sought out type of online advertising.
3. Social Media
There’s no doubt that social media advertising just keeps growing and growing each year.
Consider these numbers: There are 1.65 billion active mobile social accounts globally with 1 million new active mobile social users added every day.
According to the Hootsuite social media advertising statistics, social media advertising budgets have doubled, worldwide, from $16 billion to $31 billion in the past 2 years alone.
The two types of social media online advertising are organic, an online word-of-mouth technique, and paid. Placing paid ads, promoted posts or sponsored stories are a popular way to reach more of the demographic of the company, without paying a bundle.
As you can see from the chart below, Facebook and Twitter are the most popular social media platforms for companies to reach potential new customers with LinkedIn a popular avenue for B2B sales.
4. Native Advertising
Have you ever noticed those sponsored ads at the bottom of blog or FB posts? They can be “other recommended readings” or “other people liked” with suggested examples for users to click on. This is native advertising.
5. Pay Per Click (PPC)
Pay per click (PPC) ads explain their concept right in the name. These are ads that advertisers only pay for when a user clicks on them, which contributes to the strength of PPC as a tool.
If the ad was seen by 100 people and only 1 person clicked the ad, the cost of the ad revolves solely around the 1 who clicked. PPC ads are usually text, with a small image if at all.
Keep in mind that 64.6% of people click on Google ads when they are looking to buy an item online.
6. Remarketing
Remarketing (or retargeting) is a type of online advertising that does exactly what it says it does. This cookie-based technology literally followers the user around the internet, in order to remarket him/her again.
Statistics show that only 2% of web traffic converts on the first visit, which means 98% of users leave without converting right away.
These users are targeted once they leave the website by then seeing subtle hints (ads), reminding them about their previous interest. Here’s how the code works:
7. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is promoting a company’s product while earning a commission for each sale that was made. It’s essentially a 3-party advertising agreement between the advertiser, publisher and consumer.
It’s widely adopted with bloggers who have large numbers of followers and are looking to gain passive income.
8. Video Ads
Video ads are growing in popularity, especially with the younger generation of consumers. BI Intelligence reported that digital video will reach nearly $5 billion in ad revenue and with the highest average click-through rate, 1.84%, of any digital format (2016).
And the stats don’t lie. 55% of consumers view videos in their entirety while 43% want to see more video content from markets.
With YouTube being the number one platform for videos, they have already implemented video ad strategies for their users. Using the PPC method, businesses only pay when someone engages with an ad.
With targeting, analytics and customization, businesses are flocking to the video ad genre. HubSpot reports that 48% of marketers plan to add YouTube to their content strategy in the next year.
Choosing the Right Type of Online Ads
With all these different types of online ads, you might feel overwhelmed. However, how can you pick the right type for your business? Here are some tips.
Not ready to spend any money yet? Start with an organic social media or SEO advertising strategy.
If you’re ready to take ad spend to the next level, try one of these types of online advertising: PPC, display ads, remarketing, SEM, paid social media ads or video ads.
Creative solutions, such as Undertone, help the biggest brands make statements online with innovative technology using multiple types of online advertising.
Each business has its own niche, and finding the one(s) to fit can bring in the desired audience for growth.
What Form of Advertising is Most Effective?
When creating your advertising campaign, it is not really a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket so to speak.
Although online advertising has proven to be very effective, there are other forms of advertising that can also give you your desired result. Some of them are discussed below.
Social Media
With 56% of Americans having a profile with a social networking service, social media is undoubtedly a killer advertising platform to maximize brand recognition and spend as little money as possible.
Social media is no longer solely the Millennials’ domain. Even Great Grandpa Lou can create a Facebook invite for the bridge tournament at his retirement home.
Although social media users stated that Facebook had the greatest influence on buying behavior out of any of the social networking sites, only 33% of Facebook users actually “followed” a brand name on Facebook.
This is giving companies a lot of wiggle room to generate product interest and connect with potential leads.
Additionally, you’re getting bang for your buck – advertising costs break down to $.25 to reach 1,000 potential leads via Facebook Ads.
Print Media
Although a number of businesses have started to reallocate their advertising budgets entirely towards the world wide web, never count out print media as an advertising platform.
Even though the question has been raised whether print advertising is still worth the pretty penny or not, it is still an extremely viable option.
For one, print media is tangible. The shelf life of online advertisements is short-lived at best while print advertisements have the potential to stick it out until Charles Barkley gets a halfway decent golf swing (debatably never).
Print ads also act as a security blanket of sorts. With a mind-boggling number of online ads lurking around every corner of cyberspace, it’s hard to determine whether you’re being offered an actual product or you’re one click away from introducing all sorts of malware to your operating system.
In effect, you generally avoid clicking on them altogether. I can’t guarantee there’s nothing gimmicky about a print ad, but I can promise it’s not at all spammy or a danger to your well-being.
Although the cost to reach 1,000 people via newspaper or magazine is expensive as all sin at $20-$30, prices are dropping due to the movement away from print media advertising.
This is advantageous to both your product and your wallet because with less print ads in the mix, your ad can take center stage.
Up your game by mixing channels within a single advertisement with the addition of QR codes that will redirect users to your homepage or give them access to a special offer.
Television
Internet advertising has been getting all of the hype, but television remains the top dog. Whether it be national or local broadcasting, television advertising has the potential to reach a larger number of people, as opposed to smaller audiences associated with local newspapers and radio stations.
A study performed in 2010 showed that Americans on average spend 4.5 hours per day watching television, while only spending 96 minutes listening to the radio and 30 minutes a day reading newspapers (where the hell are you people getting this kind of time).
Before you emit a resounding “huzzah” because you think you’ve found the almighty advertising medium, know you’re most likely about to blow your advertising budget into smithereens.
On average, a 30-second commercial will run you on average over $300,000 on a national television network.
Although the prestige of having a commercial gives your product or service instant credibility, the process of getting this short clip up and running is terribly slow and time-consuming.
In addition, you can choose channels that you think would best fit your demographic. But due to networks’ lack of feedback, you can’t guarantee that your targeted audiences are seeing your commercial.
Radio
You can reach a more select audience with radio airtime than you can with television advertising.
Radio stations schedule different musical programs and talk shows to target different interest groups, giving advertisers the opportunity to hone in on the demographic they’re trying to reach.
Radio doesn’t require the large scale production process that goes into creating a commercial.
Make your commercial a DIY project, or spend a few extra dollars to get a creative development to record something snazzy for the airwaves. Compared to advertising via newspaper or television, radio advertising is a bargain hunter’s dream.
One of the main drawbacks of radio is that it often serves as background noise for whatever mundane activity you’re doing.
Unless the listener is engaged in a particular newscast or jamming to Justin Timberlake’s newest hit single, your content may not be reaching your audience’s ears.
Direct Mail
Although digital media advertising has been basking in the limelight for quite some time, it’s impossible to hit all of your target audiences via cyberspace.
In a heated battle between email and direct mail advertising strategies, Marketscan rung in that there are only registered e-mail addresses for 20 percent of postal addresses, which means 80 percent of the market is still at large.
Advertising via direct mail can be highly targeted and personalized. Businesses can purchase mailing lists and reach smaller market segments based on demographic analytics.
For example, you’ll probably get a decent response rate from single women over 35 years in the New York City area with a brochure advertising premium cat litter.
Additionally, you can easily differentiate your direct mail from other generic offers by adding a potential customer’s name to the greeting.
Colleges and universities are prime examples of using personalization in their direct mail advertisements to cater to the ethos of prospective students.
The success rate of direct mail is also very measurable – you receive a response or you don’t.
By including a special offer with an expiration date for your product or service, you can easily keep tabs on the profitability of your direct mail advertising campaign.
As an added bonus, direct mail advertising is very affordable. Try a test campaign with a smaller number of advertisements to get a gauge on your response rate, and gradually increase the quantity of outbound advertisements.
Definitely include this medium in your arsenal because when it comes to time-efficiency and cost minimization, email advertising takes the cake. The beauty of advertising via email is that it’s easy to track the progress of your campaign.
Unlike direct mail, you can directly check whether your email was received and/or opened as well as whether the recipient would like to unsubscribe to your emails or not.
Similar to direct mail, you can personalize your email advertisements with names and purchase history. You can also individualize your email marketing campaigns by segmenting your customer base into different demographics.
Although super cost-effective, email advertising has shoddy reliability. Most email users are bombarded by an onslaught of offers and advertisements on a daily basis, so you’re inevitably taking the chance that yours is either going to be part of a mass exodus into the recycling bin or is simply going to get lost in the shuffle.
How do Online Ads Make Money?
As an individual, make money from online advertising is really easier than you think, although some efforts are needed on your part. If you are ready to put in the work, the result are endless and worth it.
Let us now look at some sure ways you can make money from these online ads.
Advertise on Your Blog
If you have a blog or a website, your goal of make money from online ads has become easier. Just follow the steps below.
- 1. Create an advertising spec sheet. An advertising spec sheet is a list and description of the advertising options you offer online to potential advertisers. You can include banner and text ad options, sizes, the number of words, pricing and length of time the ad stays up.
- 2. Create an advertising page or listing on your site or blog. Alert visitors to the site that you have advertising for sale by building a page with this information on your site, or by including a way for potential advertisers to contact you. You may want to field potential advertisers to be those that relate to the topic, subject or business represented by your website or blog.
- 3. Send a contract agreement. Once an advertiser chooses the advertising options they want to use, send an agreement that spells out the details, such as the size of the ad, type of ad, how long the ad will run and the price. Have the advertiser sign and return the agreement to you.
- 4. Collect the advertising fee. Depending on how your agreement reads with the advertisers, you can collect the entire advertising fee upfront, spread it out on a monthly basis or in another format according to how your agreement reads with the advertiser.
Affiliate Marketing
Another way to make money on Internet advertising is to set up an affiliate program for your website. You can register affiliates that are willing to promote the products or services you sell on your website.
You provide a special tracking link to your affiliates so you can track when a sale comes from their website or blog and then pay them a percentage of the sale. In this scenario, you make money on Internet advertising because your affiliates are referring customers to you and your affiliates are making money on the sales they make.
Paid reviews
You can make some good money by publishing reviews on various products and services that you trust. The best thing about this arrangement is you command a price per review. Some websites ask anywhere from $150 to $500 for reviews. Of course, it depends on your rank and incoming traffic as well as your niche.
There some websites that can help you achieve this. SponsoredReviews allows advertisers to build backlinks and bloggers to make money. It connects bloggers with Search Engine Optimizers, Marketers and Advertisers who want to build traffic.
You can offer writing paid posts on your blog to their network of hundreds of advertisers. Set your own price per piece. And you’re not expected to write positive reviews only – honest and in-depth posts are welcome.
Payments are made bi-weekly via Paypal.
PayU2Blog is another alternative for getting paid to write blog posts on your site. Not all blogs are taken in, so you may want to sign up and wait before you know.
PayU2Blog works a little differently in that they assign you a blog post topic in areas such as real estate, health, retail, etc. You don’t have to write glorious reviews or endorse anything if you don’t believe in a product or service.Personal experience, honest opinions are encouraged.
You get paid via Paypal every two weeks
Cost per Click ad networks
CPC means the advertiser pays you when someone clicks through their ads. An alternative to this is CPM (Cost per Thousand) where you are paid for every 1,000 ad impressions served.
With CPC, your income can vary hugely but that isn’t the case with CPM. If your CPM network sets your CPM at, let’s say, $5 per 100,000 impressions then you will make $500 in total when that number is reached.
How Much Money can you Make From Website Ads?
According to WordStream, the average CPC for ads on Google’s display network is $0.58. So, if an advertiser generates 100 clicks from an ad at $0.58 per click, they spend $58. And the publisher — in this case, Google — earns that amount in revenue.
For example, this chart breaks down revenue from display ads with Google’s average CTR of 0.05% and CPC of $0.58.
This chart breaks down revenue from native advertising with an average CTR of 0.44% (8.8x higher than the display ads). The CPC and monthly page views remain the same for comparative purposes.
Since native ads have a higher CTR, they generate more revenue. As seen in these charts, native advertising can generate an average of $1,276 for 500,000 pageviews; whereas display advertising only brings in $145, and that’s with an estimated CPC of just $0.58. When advertisers bid higher for more competitive and engaging ad space, that revenue climbs.
Evidently, if publishers offer native advertising solutions to brands, they have a greater chance of capturing visitors’ attention and increasing their earnings.
It’s crucial for publishers to understand how much websites make from ads. With industry benchmarks to guide them, they can more effectively sell ad space to advertisers, gauge ad performance, and optimize campaigns going forward.
They can also use this information to choose the most engaging and lucrative ad formats, so they can continue to deliver relevant content for visitors to enjoy and maximize their revenues at the same time.
How do you Make Money by Viewing Ads?
A lot of people will not believe that they can make money by just watching online ads. Well, this is very possible. ‘Paid to click’ sites are sites where you join and are paid to view ads.
These are completely free to join and have a track record of being a successful way to make an income. You have to be careful though because there are scam websites out there that will have you do the work but will not pay you anything.
There are plenty of proven sites out there like getting paid to play games or take surveys, that users have and consider beneficial. Check some of them below.
InboxDollars
If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to make money watching videos and ads, check out InboxDollars. You can earn rewards by watching a variety of short videos daily.
Check each day for new videos and other money-making opportunities including performing web searches, completing online surveys, playing games, and signing up for promotional offers.
There are a number of ways to make money with InboxDollars, and you get $5 just for signing up.
You need to earn at least $30 before you get paid. You’ll receive your cash payout in the form of PayPal cash, ePayment (merchant gift cards, prepaid Visa card, or a charity donation), or a check in the mail. It can take between 10 and 16 business days for checks to arrive.
You might also want to check out SurveyJunkie. It works similar to InboxDollars in that you can earn incremental rewards for watching short ads and giving feedback to help companies tailor their campaigns and better reach their target audience.
Periodically checking both apps gives you the most opportunities to earn money since there is a fixed number of ads you can watch on each site.
Swagbucks
Swagbucks is a free online rewards site. Earn points, or Swagbucks (SBs), for watching a variety of videos — some short and some longer. Video categories include entertainment, fashion, food, health, home and garden, news and politics, parenting, and sports.
In addition to watching videos, you can earn SBs by answering surveys, using coupons, shopping online via the cash-back portal, and more. Cash out your points for gift cards or PayPal cash.
You can redeem as little as 160 SBs for a $1 Amazon gift card. If you prefer cash, the payout threshold for PayPal is $5 or 500 points.
Fusion Cash
Fusion Cash is another site that the money-making opportunity isn’t from just clicking on ads. You can also complete surveys, download apps and more. You receive a $5 sign-on bonus just for signing on with them. One bad thing maybe you cannot cash out until you reach the $25 minimum.
Fushion Cash has a nice set up for their referral system for every person you ask to join you earn $1 when they confirm their email, another $2 when they finish their first offer and $5 each time they cash out earnings.
Getting paid to click ads is an easy way to make extra money during your spare time. If you’re interested in this income stream, we recommend signing up for a few of these sites and spending a few minutes per day on them during your downtime.
You’ll be surprised at how your earnings stack up.
Slidejoy
Slidejoy is an app only for Android phones that rents your device’s lock screen in exchange for cash rewards. When you install the app, you’ll see a card with a news story or a promotion on your lock screen. You’ll have the option to get more info about the card, view another card, or go to your home screen.
As ads run, you’ll accrue points, known as carats. Every 1,000 are worth $1. You need at least 2,000 carats (or $2) to cash out. Redemption options include gift cards for popular retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, and Starbucks. You can also redeem your payout in cash through PayPal.
Read Also: Email Marketing – How to do it Right For Effective Sales Conversion
While you do watch ads for money, your payout is not dependent on how much you interact with those ads. Rather, earnings are based on Slidejoy’s proprietary algorithm. Keep an eye on your account to see the balance grow throughout the day.
NeoBux
The amount of money users can earn with NeoBux varies by the type of membership they have. The type and quality of the advertisements is also a factor as well. Neobux doesn’t have any daily limits or limits on how much you can earn. The minimum amount paid is $2.00 on the first cash out.
There can only be one user per day on a single internet connection in a 24 hour period making money by clicking on ads. There are other things to do on the site, but only one per day can make money on NeoBux by clicking on advertisements. The preferred methods of payment are Skrill, Neteller, and AirTM.
Conclusion
Making money with online ads is really easy, especially if you already have a blog or website. But first you need to build you website with quality contents to attract visitors, that will increase your earning potentials with online ads.
Many methods has been discussed above, however, you need to research and see the one that suits your business.
