Week 13a: Online Advertising - Analysis of the Marketplace

 I have to say, that most of the “sponsored” posts I see on Facebook almost all fade into the background of my scrolling. I can almost subconsciously ignore them as I scroll. They are all designed almost exactly alike, to the point they just fade into the background. Most use standard “photo stock” looking images with a tagline or a few sentences of copy to “grab” your interest. It may be based on what I have been looking for recently? Maybe the search algorithms stored for my sign on that keep showing me the simplistic boring “adds” over and over again? In any case almost all of the “sponsored” posts I click on lead me to a “Sales Funnel”, where the call to action is sign up for an e-mail list or download a free sample of information with the opportunity to buy a book or cheep chotskies from China (with a month or so shipping time). I can say for me, most of these adds are annoying, so looking for them as examples was a bit of a chore. At the least, it gives me ideas on what not to do.

Most traditional advertising tries to encompass a massive “target market” with a “shotgun blast” approach to spreading awareness of their product or service. They drill down as far as they can into the statistics and sales data, but at the end of the day, there are only so many vectors of approach to their target market that can be utilized to get their message out to potential customers. This costs companies lots and lots of money to advertise traditionally. Add space in magazines that “might” reach a target customer needs to be bought, commercials on television and radio that “might” reach a potential customer needs to be paid for, and even billboard space needs to be rented in the hopes that a potential customer “might” be driving by and see it. That’s all after money is paid to an advertising agency to make the add that “should” appeal to the potential customer.

Just by viewing the adds and sponsored posts that show up in my own personal feed on Facebook, I know that the Social Media adds can be more specifically targeted to true “potential” customers. That is before even targeting me on my group interactions and “likes”. So I believe that the Social Media advertising model is way more effective at reaching potential customers and clients than traditional methods, as well as being incredibly more cost effective.