One type of modern advertising methods that you may not think about for your marketing mix is truck and car advertising.

This post is the tenth in a series on modern advertising methods. If you prefer to start at the beginning of the series, click the link below:

Modern Advertising Methods 1: Introduction

Modern Advertising Methods: A New Kind Of Truck And Car Advertising

I know putting signs on business vehicles isn’t new, but did you know that:

• You can buy advertising wraps and have them put on everything from semi trucks and buses to your business car?
• You can rent advertising space on trucks designed specifically to be mobile billboards?
• You can have a live advertisement including interactivity and props displayed in a glass sided truck?

Yes you can do all three.

Modern Advertising Methods: A New Advertising Industry

Multiple companies advertise truck and car advertising over the Internet. You can pick the geographic market that you want your ads to reach and prescribe regular advertising criteria like gross rating points.

Companies offering truck and car advertising services contend that:

• Truck and car advertising use motion, size and visual appeal to capture attention.
• More than 90 percent of people notice truck and car advertising.
• 14 million people a year see metro trucks.
• Truck and car advertising is more economical than billboard advertising.

Modern Advertising Methods: Does Truck And Car Advertising Meet The Criteria?

I question if truck and car advertising truly meets the criteria for modern advertising methods.

All except for the glass trucks that use multimedia and offer some interactivity, truck and car advertising is one-way communications. And these ads aren’t likely to get immediate action because many people seeing them are occupied driving.

Some companies boast that the ads can be changed quickly. But if you’re buying the wraps, I expect changing them is quite expensive. Plus, it takes time to get the wraps printed.

In conclusion, I wouldn’t put truck and car advertising top of my list of modern advertising methods, but it may meet your needs. If so just search for truck or car advertising, and you’ll get results with lots of companies offering this service.

If you do, please let me know how it works for you.

To get to the next post in this series on modern advertising methods, click the link below:

Modern Advertising Methods 11: More Mobile Advertising

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Posted 9-16-08: Modern Advertising Methods 10: Truck And Car Advertising

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Modern advertising methods include two major types of Internet advertising. I covered the first in the seventh post in this series. You can access it from the link below:

Modern Advertising Methods 7: PPC Advertising

Or you can start from the beginning and read the posts in order by clicking on the link below:

Modern Advertising Methods 1: Introduction

Nearly everyone’s definition of modern advertising methods includes on site advertising or ads placed on Web sites and blogs.

There are two major categories of on site advertising, those that aren’t necessarily related to content on the page and those that are tied to a page’s content.

Modern Advertising Methods: On Site Ads Not Necessarily Related To Content

Both banner advertising and pixel advertising fall into this category.

Modern Advertising Methods: Banner Advertising

Banner advertising utilizes three major types of advertising payment.

• The advertiser pays for space for a limited time on a publisher’s page.
• The advertiser pays per click for all searchers sent from a publisher’s page,
• The advertiser pays a commission if a searcher takes a desired action on the advertiser’s destination page.

Either the publisher or the advertiser can choose ad sizes for banner ads. But sizes often vary by the payment method used.

Modern Advertising Methods: Pixel Advertising

Pixel advertising primarily uses the first type of payment. Like buying space in a newspaper, the advertiser pays based on the space (number of pixels used) that the ad takes on the page.

However, some traffic exchange programs use pixel ads as enticements to get publishers to visit other sites or blogs. Entrecard works this way with all ads sized 250 by 250 pixels.

Modern Advertising Methods: On Site Ads Related To Content

This type of advertising, called contextual advertising, is placed on pages with content relevant to the ad. Contextual advertising often proves more effective because of its relevance to the keywords searched.

Two categories of contextual advertising comprise most on site modern advertising methods.

The first category includes banner ads that the advertiser places with a third party like Google. The third party then places banner ads only on pages with relevant content.

Modern Advertising Methods: Contextual Links

The second category provides links instead of ads. A third party scans the content for keywords purchased by the advertiser and automatically makes those keywords into links to the advertiser’s destination page.

The advantage of this second category of contextual advertising is that the links are less intrusive than banner ads. They appear to be a part of the content. So readers are more likely to click on the links than on banner ads.

Like ppc advertising, contextual advertising is interactive because the searcher keys in a keyword or clicks on a hyperlink to get to the publisher’s page. Thus, searchers choose what interest them and ads are displayed accordingly.

To access the next post in this series, click the link below:

Modern Advertising Methods 9: Mobile Phone Advertising

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Posted 9-12-08: Modern Advertising Methods8: On Site Ads

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Many people think of modern advertising methods almost exclusively as Internet advertising.

This post starts coverage of Internet advertising with paid search advertising or what is commonly called pay per click or ppc advertising.

What Is PPC Advertising?

If you haven’t read the prior six posts on modern advertising methods, you can link to the first one below. Each post then links to the next.

Modern Advertising Methods 1: Introduction

Ppc advertising is also referred to as adwords advertising, keyword advertising and search engine advertising.

Adwords is the name of Google’s ppc advertising program. It is the largest ppc advertising program on the Internet. Originally adwords advertising was relatively inexpensive, but today prices have increased to the point that many small business owners can’t afford it. Yahoo, MSN and other search services also offer ppc advertising, often for less than Google.

All ppc advertising is keyword advertising because businesses purchase ppc advertising by keywords. They combine relevant and related keywords to form a ppc advertising campaign. Then when someone types one of the campaign keywords, the ad shows either above or to the right of the organic search results.

How Is PPC Advertising Priced?

The search engine determines the page and position that your ppc advertising displays depending on:

Does PPC Advertising Attract A Different Market Than Organic Searchers?

Some researchers contend that different types of people click on ppc ads compared than click on organic search results. I’ve read studies that found ppc clickers younger, less likely to purchase, and better educated. But I can’t vouch for the reliability of those studies.

Many people have lost their advertising investments with ppc advertising. Others have made fortunes using it. You can find research for improving pay per click results as e-books from Internet marketers.

All encourage split testing to build ads that will effectively get traffic and sales from ppc advertising. And Google makes such split testing easy.

What Makes PPC Advertising A Modern Advertising Method?

What makes ppc a modern advertising method is that it’s interactive. Searchers see the ads only if they type in relevant keywords. Then they must choose to click on the ad.

Ppc advertising is also targeted. But many advertisers target by keywords rather than by searcher’s characteristics. This makes it more difficult to write sales pages that effectively appeal to the target market. Some Internet marketers conduct surveys and other research to acquire information on people who search by certain keywords. Many use ppc advertising to get clickers to take a survey.

But most use ppc advertising to either send searchers to an opt-in (squeeze) page or a sales page. So ppc is a modern advertising method because it gets the searcher to take an immediate action.

Searchers start by clicking on the ad, then opt-in to a list for information, or go to a sales page where they can purchase and often download a digital product immediately.

The next post in this series on modern advertising methods covers advertising on Websites and blogs.
You can access it below:

Modern Advertising Methods 8: On Site Ads

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Posted 9-11-06: Modern Advertising Methods 7: PPC Advertising

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Modern advertising methods include using some traditional mass media in a modern way. When you use traditional media to target your market and to get a direct response, you’re using a modern advertising method, even though the media is traditional.

This post on radio advertising is the sixth in a series on modern advertising methods. You can access the first post in this series by clicking the link below. Then each post links to the next one.

Modern Advertising Methods 1: Introduction

Radio advertising is one traditional mass media that you can use as a modern advertising method.

But doing so demands that you select media carefully, repeat messages often, and motivate listeners to take immediate action.

Modern Advertising Methods – Media Selection

With the proliferation of radio station formats, you can now select radio stations and programs to reach almost any target market. But you need to know what kind of music that your target market prefers and which programs are most popular with your market members.

Drive-time programs usually get the most listeners so ads on them cost the most. But your target market may not drive to and from work during peak drive times

For example, I live ten miles south of Fort Smith, Arkansas, where there are many factories. Most of the factory workers, who work first shift, have to be at work before 7 a.m. and get back home well before 5 p.m. So if these factory workers comprised my target market, I’d be able to reach them cheaply by buying ads to run between 6 and 7 a.m.

Modern Advertising Methods – Message Repetition

You need to run ads frequently enough to make an impression on your target market members. Many local radio stations offer drive time ads that provide affordable message repetition, especially if you run ads shorter than the typical 30 and 60 second ones.

For example, running a 10 second ad six times during an hour attracts more attention than running a 60 second ad once during the same hour. With shorter ads, you can afford to repeat your advertising message more often and saturate your market.

Modern Advertising Methods – Motivating Offers

But it doesn’t help your business to attract attention by saturating your market, if your message doesn’t motivate market members to take action.

You have to make an offer that entices listeners enough that they will remember and act on your offer. The more immediate their action, the more successful your ad will be as a modern advertising method.

Because you can quickly change radio ads, you can design and produce them to encourage direct response to offers.

For example, a convenience store between Fort Smith and Greenwood could advertise a brown bag lunch special for factory workers on their early morning drive and change the special Mondays through Fridays. As the workers drive from Greenwood to work in Fort Smith, many may decide to stop and grab alunch special rather than gambling on what the factory cafeteria offers.

Radio Advertising: Conclusion

If you select a radio station and program that targets your market, frequently repeat ads during the time that market members are listening, and make offers that encourage immediate action, you get the best from radio advertising as a modern advertising method.

To access the next post in this series on modern advertising methods, click the link below:

Modern Advertising Methods 7: PPC Advertising

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Posted 9-10-08: Modern Advertising Methods 6: Radio Advertising

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