Advantages of Digital Marketing

Digital Advertising is increasingly an inherent budgetary component of many organizations today.

Organizations of all sizes use the medium to promote their products and services. So well, why do so
many organizations use the medium? Simply put, it is due to the numerous advantages that online
advertising offers. These are discussed in the paragraphs ahead.

Reach - The ability of the online medium to target a certain demographic of users is one of the greatest
advantages of digital advertising. In addition, the geographical reach of the online medium is far greater
than that of traditional media. It’s not only cost effective to achieve a wider geographic area but the ads
can also be targeted to the desired audience. For example, if an advertiser is keen on selling his or her
products targeted to a certain demographic of people, it is quite possible through online advertising.
Digital advertising has matured to the extent that web publishers, media agencies and advertisers
themselves know the optimal ways and websites for a certain category of products or services.

Measurement - With various tools becoming available, tracking effectiveness of ad campaigns is

becoming possible today. In other words, measuring Return of Investment (ROI) is increasingly
possible today. Organizations that were previously reluctant to spend online, now realize that the online
medium does offer means to alleviate any such fears. Moreover, when properly designed online
marketing campaigns generate the desired results, advertisers are further encouraged to continue
advertising online.

Interactive and Engagement - The Internet is arguably the most interactive and engaging medium
among various others. Interactive campaigns have become a norm with the power of the online
medium. One such advertisement worth mentioning is the campaign by AXE where the end user could
alter the smile of a woman as he/she liked to i.e. in an interactive framework. The advertisement struck
an instant chord with the youth to which AXE the brand is positioned for Customers are basically just a
click away from the advertisers. In other words, direct response between end users and advertisers is
possible through the online medium.

Time - Through the Internet, an advertiser can reach a desired target group or demographic in a much
shorter time frame. For example, if an advertiser needs to plan some sort of ambush marketing, the
online medium can be an effective means of achieving it. Even otherwise i.e. for regular marketing
campaigns, the total time necessary to complete an online advertising campaign is less than that of
traditional advertising methods.
Cost - When compared to traditional forms of advertising, digital advertising is cheaper. Various
payment models are available between the advertisers and publishers. Many a time, advertisers are
charged only when visitors click on their ads. The various payment models are discussed in detail in the
next section.

Digital Advertising: Ad Avenues

SEARCH ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements made up of text (displayed largely as sponsored links

on search engines) come under this category. These are backed by hyperlinks that when clicked on, take
the potential customer to the advertisers website.

DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements that are placed at various points on a web page that
typically contain logos, photographs, other images or even text. Technologically these comprise of
Image, Simple flash and Rich media with& without video ads.

MOBILE ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements that are viewed or consumed on mobile phones or

tablets come under this category. These comprise of Mobile Web ads, SMS, MMS, Mobile Video &
TV ads and In-App ads.

SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements of any type: text, display, stamp pads etc
displayed on various social media websites like: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Orkut etc fall
into this category.

EMAIL ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements that involve sending across a commercial message to a

group of people using email comprise of this ad type. Emails are used to engage with existing
customers to get repeat business as well as to acquire new customers.

VIDEO ADVERTISEMENTS: Advertisements that fall broadly under the display type but have video
within them and are served before, during and/or after a video stream on the internet. This type
comprises In-Video ads, Standard In-Stream ads (pre rolls, mid rolls or post rolls) and TrueView ads.

Some of the Basic Terms in Digital Marketing

➢ Page View

Viewing the page is known as page view. It gets counted once the page loaded.

➢ Leads

When one person fills his details in the given box is known as lead.

➢ Conversion
 The percentage of people whose activity can be tracked while clicking on an ad or
visiting a website to actually purchasing a product or service. A high conversion rate
indicates that the link, ad or site was successful

➢ Inbound link

Link connecting to your website from a different website.

➢ Profiling

To build a picture of a target customer based on information from various sources

including customer transactions completed forms and demographic data.

➢ Unique Visitor

Unique IP address accessing a website.

➢ Landing Page

A custom we page designed to convert visitor into leads or sales. Email, banner ads
and even offline outbound marketing campaigns drive traffic to a landing page to
capture information or trigger a sale. Landing page is also called as destination page
or splash page.

Types of ads

Above The Fold: Above the fold refer to banners ads which are displayed at the top of a web page.

Rich- media: Online ads that contain motion, sounds or video are termed as rich media ads

Interstitial Ads: Ads that appears between web pages.

Banner Ads: Embedding an ad into a web page- know as a click through due to interactive actions
where the consumers clicks and is taken to the banner ad’s company websites

Pop-up: Ads that displays in a browser window either in the front or behind the current browser
window.
Monetary term in Digital Marketing

Cost –Per- Action (CPA): Cost of advertising based on a visitor taking some specifically defined
action in response to an ad. “Action” include such thing as a sales, transaction, a customer acquisition
or a click

Cost- Per -Click (CPC): Cost of advertising based on the number of clicks received.

Cost- Per-Thousand (CPM): The standard unit for buying or selling Internet advertising. The
thousand stands for ‘thousand advertising impression or views’.

Pay- Per- Impression: Online advertising where an advertiser pays a pre-agreed price each time a user
clicks on their advertisement. The cost for the click is often negotiated through auction, with ad
placement determined by the relative size of the bid, as well as other factors.

Pay-Per-Inclusion: Search engine marketing programs that guarantee web site listing for specific
keyword search term for a fee.

Pay-Per-Lead: Paying to acquire leads from an outside party at a set rate or amount per lead

Branding in Digital Era

Before doing this internship, I believed marketer is responsible for building a brand or marketer is a
custodian for a brand. But while doing internship, I understood marketer is not a custodian, he is a
person who guides a product to become a brand.

Today, brand custodians are the connected users who exist across digital platforms. They are
multifaceted. They are the publishers, circulators, ambassadors, instigators and at the same time they
are the custodians as well. Their digitally connected existence has power, credibility, influence,
depth, and reach. Their digital messaging has the velocity, acceleration, and momentum required to
impact brands. Yet brands and their default custodians continue to live blissfully in an illusion about the
control they exercise over their brand.

Brand is an enabler in the current age. It is the participants, the brand conversations and the platforms
that amplify the brand and drive the brand philosophy. Businesses need to, therefore, understand the
consumers and the evolving digital sphere better and continue to build brands within the digitally
connected ecosystem by focusing on the following 3 elements
 Peopl
e

Channl Engageme
es nts

People

The digital age has democratized individuals. They are no longer passive consumers, but active and
creative participants. They expect and believe in the co-creation of an experience, thereby evolving
from consumers to users. They are becoming the most credible and reliable source of the true picture of
a brand.

Consumers are beginning to seek a relationship of fair exchange between themselves and the businesses
where each contributes and everyone gains. Individuals are seeking a multidimensional relationship that
provides them with more than just the brand product/service.

The fair exchange relationship is also offering new opportunities to the business to build more human
connections. Businesses will have to become receptive to this new age definition of relationship that
consumers seek. They may do well to go a step ahead and create an environment that is receptive to this
fair relationship.

Channels

With consumers evolving into users and participating in co-creation, it is important for brands to offer
those channels and platforms that allow them to participate in this process. Users are seeking channels
that offer them more than just digital promotional activities; they want channels that allow them the
freedom to be publishers of content, information and data, that give them control over what content
they produce and consume, that allow them to co-create brand experience.

The channels also need to be device agnostic. Users are adapting to the usage of different
devices throughout the day to execute tasks at hand. They might use a smartphone or tablet to
complete functional tasks etc. while on the move, but they use a PC for heavy content creation
and research. According to a google research, 90 percent of people move between devices to
accomplish a task, with virtually all of them completing their task in one day. The most popular
starting point is the smartphone. In most cases, the tasks are continued on a PC though tablets
are also becoming a popular option for continuing social networking and watching videos.
Businesses and brands need to accept that it is the consumer who has become a more credible publisher
by virtue of their access to a device which is always on and active. Creating an environment of device
agnostic platforms and channels that allow co-creation of content between brands and consumers will
address this shift.

Engagement

It is about creating a window with enhanced attention to influence behaviour and motivations. With
every business eyeing the opportunity to engage users, it is critical to focus on engagement by
increasing brand salience and influencing buyer behaviour and choice. Brands should be able to map a
customer’s journey to understand where they can add value and create an opportunity to engage them.
Brands need to understand that engagement is not about pushing product messages; it is about capturing
the imagination and the attention of the user. It is about designing a naturally engaging experience.
Gender Wise

India currently have online population of 213M, among them 60% are males and 40% are
females. In have 110 M mobile internet users, among them 80% are males and 20% are
females. 176M of the total internet population are part of Social Medias.

According to the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user base in
the country stood at 190 million at the end of June, 2013. For the whole year 2013, the
internet user base grew 42% to 213 million, from 150 million in 2012. With more and more
people accessing the web through mobile phones, the internet user base in the country is
projected to touch 243 million by June 2014, a year-on-year growth of 28%.

Younger males and women aged 35-44 emerge as power users

India males aged between “15-24” are major users among Males and in females 35-44 are
major users of internet. Age wise distributions are given below.
Online Behaviour of Indian Internet Users

Trends in online behaviour are changed a lot, social networking is leading now. Early people
will use internet to access email and for searching information. But now people like to be
social, they are interested in sharing their life with others. 25% of the population are doing
social networking in India followed by 23% in services. Services include emailing and instant
messaging.

Mobile Internet Users

Internet penetration in India is driven largely by mobile phones, with some of the cheapest
and most basic hand-sets today offering access to the internet. According to IMAI, India has
110 million mobile internet users of which 25 million are in rural India. The growth of
internet penetration in rural India is driven largely by the mobile phone; 70% of rural India's
active internet population access the web via mobile phones. This may have to do with the
difficulty in accessing PCs. Forty-two percent of rural India's internet users prefer using the
internet in local languages. The high prevalence of content in English is a hurdle for much of
rural India.
Social Networking

Social Networks capture the largest percentage of consumers’ time in the region. comScore
data’s showing 86% of the Indian web user visit a social networking site. Facebook continues
to be the number one social network with a 28% increase in traffic and a reach of 86%.
Average time spend by a Indian user on facebook is 217 minutes. LinkedIn emerges as
number two, while Pinterest and Tumblr are the fastest growing networks but growth of
twitter is declined by 15% in 2013 while comparing with 2012.

Number of Indian user on Social Networking Platform

(Facebook- 90 Million) (Twitter – 30 Million) (LinkedIn- 18Million)

Entertainment and Online Video

According to comScore data, the online video audience in India grew an astounding 27
percent in the past years; YouTube continues to be the top video property with more than
55% share. International publishers including Facebook, Yahoo and Dailymotion get a
majority of the 54 million who watched videos. YouTube is the most popular with 32,519
visitor.

Social Video report saying 46% of internet users watch brand related video every week. 54%
watching videos that are informative or entertaining often leads to a number of other positive
activities such as visiting the brand website. Peoples are now likely to regularly watch videos
using their smart phones. Almost six in ten internet users have gone to purchase an item after
seeing it in an online video.