Trends Report:  Driving Instead of Convincing
by Sam Harrelson 

The continuing rise of contextual advertising in general has produced a shift in the way the online marketing space produces traffic for advertisers.  Generally, the online sector has driven sales, leads and traffic to advertisers’ web properties by convincing consumers that they should be interested in a specific product or service through the sales pitch.  This pitch was common to all forms of media.  From the banner to pops and email, the creative’s main purpose was to create a desire which would push the consumer to the site with the intent of making a purchase or giving lead information because of the convincing nature of the marketing medium.  For example, HTML creatives quickly replaced text in popularity and conversion rates as marketers and advertisers sought to take advantage of the “convincing factor” to generate sales or leads. 

 However, the contextual market, especially on the Google platform, has created a trending shift in this outlook.  Advertisers and publishers alike are quickly adapting to the changing face of the market and the steady changes in the underlying philosophy of effort that the entire sector rests upon.  Google in particular has helped to bring about this shift to driving instead of convincing consumers by its very nature. 

By searching for a key word, consumers are already expressing interest in a product or service for which they are searching.  By displaying ads on the results page that incorporates the already-expressed consumer interest, Google is albe to capitalize on the intent of the consumer and marketers can rely on the ability of Google to drive traffic rather than their own efforts to make the initial connection and conviction.  New campaigns are shifted to grabbing people’s attention shortly before their purchase point or at the point where they make a critical decision. 

Unlike the past forms of traffic driving media (email, banners, pops, etc), contextual advertising is not about convincing consumers that they want to purchase a product or service that they hadn’t previously thought strongly about buying.  Instead, the consumer has already arrived at the point of decision and is looking for either more information on the product/service or even comparing brands. 

An important question to consider for online marketers is the underlying “why?” this shift is occurring.  Perhaps the strongest reason lies in the ever-expensive nature of the online market.  Costs for effective email campaigns or profitable banner positions are rising increasingly higher.  Even the CPA market has seen the costs of operating rise due to regulation and industry consolidation.  In effect, the “convincing factor” that was once the foundation for online marketing has been priced out.  It is now too expensive for most advertisers to support a “convincing” campaign that motivates new consumers to buy their product/service.  Instead, the contextual platforms allow advertisers the ability to pinpoint consumers already interested and advertise exclusively to those consumers.  The return on investment is increasingly higher for consumers brought to an advertiser by the contextual model rather than from the traditional forms of convincing campaigns.

Sam Harrelson is the Co-Editor of the Digital Moses Confidential.  He can be reached at sam@digitalmoses.com