SoKy Local Business or "SoKybiz"

I've had mixed feelings about online ads over the years. I could not decide for myself how effective they were or could be and based my decisions on nothing more than my own browsing habits.

I learned that online ads can work if carefully planed, creatively written, strategically placed and well tracked. This opinion is based on my personal experience with Google ad-words. I've seen sales for an online shoe store go from nothing to thousands of dollars a day based on the above mentioned.

From a providers standpoint, I have always wanted to find ways to make online ads work because hey... that's my job. And from SOKY.NET's point of view, the following article gets this small businessman excited.

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. online advertising revenues grew for a third consecutive year as keyword ads targeted to specific search queries continued to dominate, an industry group said Thursday.

Online advertising set a new record of $12.5 billion last year, a 30 percent increase from the previous high of $9.63 billion in 2004, the Interactive Advertising Bureau said.

Search remained the largest generator of revenues, accounting for $5.1 billion, or 41 percent, of the 2005 figures. That's slightly higher than the 39 percent share in 2004.

Internet ads also set a record for the fourth quarter, with revenues totaling $3.6 billion, a 34 percent jump from the same period in 2004 and 15 percent more than the previous record of $3.1 billion, set in the third quarter of 2005.

"Interactive advertising continues to experience tremendous growth as marketers experience its overall effectiveness in building brands and delivering online and offline sales," Greg Stuart, chief executive of the IAB, said in a statement.

Full Article at MYWay.com

Many in the advertising and marketing area have said, "Look at what the Fortune 100 companies are doing and notice where they spend their advertising dollars." Well I've noticed. This rule is not the end all of rules by any stretch, but ignoring what successful companies do is just plain stupid. Take what they are doing and mold it to make it work for your small business. That's my theory.

The point is, successful marketing now includes a web presence as well as online advertising. These are two things that SOKY.NET will focus on to help the small business community grow and prosper. Keep reading, keep watching and keep growing your small business.

This was posted by SoKy : 2:41 PM