Google Analytics (Who's behind the screen?)

According to Wikipedia, web analytics is the study of website behavior. Any data that is collected is including in a web report, which shows clicks, views, number of unique visitors and how many times a person visits. Advertisers and web marketers use the material they receive to help determine behavior characteristics and to help generate click-throughs and benefit their advertising.

There are many advantages and disadvantages of web analytics and page tracking. Some advantages include that information is easily accessible, the data is raw and can be determined, it helps determine what people visit the site and can be used to help determine better advertising. Some disadvantages include, we don't know how long a person is on there, or even if they successfully view the page. The results do not explain the why (psychographics) to why someone views. Demographic data can be analyzed and may not explain the why. Also, there is a personal privacy issue, certain people may click on something in a fraudulent way. We are not sure who is clicking.

It is strange to me to look at my blog and see how many people have clicked, even though there aren't that many. They may not know they are being trafficked. However, I don't know who is looking at my site. It's strange when I am on Facebook and they have reports to show who viewed your site and for how long. The Interent is such a controversial topic because people can use the Internet and have anonymity, which in itself can be a hot topic. People can look up anything on the Internet from any source, but when something is measured in numbers and "hits", it gets a little shaky.

The "Click Fraud" article shows the disadvantages and complications of online advertising and click throughs. We learned in class that one of the best ways to have a successful advertising campaign is to get people to click, otherwise the ad is dead.
This may not be the case all the time. The article explains how fraudulent behavior can wreck a campaign and cost a lot of money. The article shows how people can corrupt the business by clicking and seeming to generate high interest, but when really they are causing a threat to the advertising industry.

The advertising industry is having a threat right now due to these fraudulent "clickers". Many advertisers are forced to put out many different advertisements, which may cause those who would click, not to, because they feel overwhelmed by the campaign itself. Many feel bombarded by advertisements.

Advertisers can use the information in the reports, however. They can determine which ads are successful by the number of page hits, frequency, reach, unique number of visitors and understanding demographics (which may not be accurate also, because we can't see behind the computer screen). Advertisers must understand this also, and not solely determine their advertisements on numbers alone.

People may click on something a lot and many different people may click. However, we must also remember that an advertising technique must be creative, appeal to the audience and generate attention, interest, desire and action. Using this information from the report is beneficial, but advertisers need to understand that it may be detrimental to their advertising campaign if it is solely based on web trafficking alone.

2nd life, YouTube and Chanel: Online Advertising Content

Before doing this assignment, I had heard of the YouTube Britney Rant, but I hadn't watched it. After watching it, I realized that there were two minutes and eleven seconds of my life I would never get back! But, by watching it, I have added to the craze! By adding pageviews and it is saved on my list of search history. How embarrasing.

About a year or so ago, YouTube really meant nothing to me. I had heard of its craze and how so many students were on it constantly. I took a chance one day and found that you can find vast amounts of information, whether it is geared towards entertainment, history, television shows and clips that you never thought you would see again. The video information and technology that has come together to produce YouTube is fascinating. I found clips from favorite tv shows from Fraggle Rock, Salute Your Shorts and Hey Dude. Also, you can use it towards education as well. :)

2nd life, however, I think is sort of a waste of time and technology. Last semester, someone came to my online journalism class to promote 2nd life. We all had to register and create our own characters. While the idea of gathering a vast amount of information from diverse groups of people is something that I agree with; 2nd life, to me, seemed a very creepy atmosphere where nothing was really going on. It seems important to me still, to develop REAL conversations, with REAL people. With people who like video games, maybe that is good for them, but it seems you should spend more time socially connecting with REAL people. As said in the article, not much really goes on in 2nd life. You spend a lot of time searching for nothing. If the technology were better developed, it might be different. Advertisers and developers tried to connect with a technology-driven generation and society and tried to portray that through a virtual world. The concept was creative and different, however, its reach has yet to be seen.

Chanel, however, had some really great ideas. An advertising promotion with a company like Chanel geared at so many different groups of people was creative, unique and has a strong lasting power.

What can advertisers and media creators do to keep up with this developing technology? That is a good question. Much of what is delivered on the Internet is largely unpredictable. Who knew Myspace or Facebook would generate such high volumes and a diverse group of people coming together? Myspace and Facebook are extremely popular because they are social networks that many people can connect with. There are people who I never thought I would see again that I can find on the Internet. Advertisers placing messages on those sites to appeal to such different demographics of people have very good strategies and reach frequency when delivering messages.

However, the Internet has a lot of content that is just for fun and should not be taken seriously. Some content generated is very fluffy and is generally for entertainment. Like much of the news, it is for publicity, entertainment and lifestyles of the rich and the famous. There are lots of sites to generate certain demographics and psychographics.

For example, IMDB gives a place for moviegoers to go and obtain a wealth of information about films, production, directing and producing. Certain websites, like the history channel offshoot give information about the past and links to references and resources that you can use in research papers or to learn about yourself. Many sites have online training seminars to learn about virtually anything.

What are advertisers to do then with such a wealth of information? I think it all boils down to maintaining the advertising sense of sending a message, gathering attention, desire and action from the consumer (AIDA). Using the basic fundamentals of advertising, you can incorporate this into online content and strategies for promotions. One main element is convergence. Many media strategies can be converged into online, billboard, and television strategies. Using banner headlines, creative ideas, commercials on the net will reach large groups of people at certain dayparts. Although much of it is unpredictable in the business, advertisers must learn to take the basics and turn them into marketing strategies by understanding the certain groups that are on the Internet and using that in their strategy. It's taking the basics and tranferring it to online reach, just another form of technology that has been developed; just as radio and television changed the medium, so has and will continue with the Internet.

Banner Advertising

A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising on the web that is intended to attract traffic to the website by linking them to a website of an advertiser. Many banner ads just have one static image. However, commonly, the advertisement is usually an image created from JPG files, GIF files and are usually created by Flash media. These are rich media banner ads.

It is similar to an advertisement in a newspaper, in that it is targeted at someone for trafficking purposes and to make money. However, with the technological aspect, you can ad graphics, make movable images, and also generate interest by content.

When the visitor clicks on the banner advertisement, they are directed to the site of an advertiser. Sometimes banners appear at the top of your screen, across the front top of the website. Sometimes they appear on the sides of the site, as skyscrapers (long vertical banners). There are various shapes, determined by pixels, width and dimensions. There are many different types of banner ads, but they are different in shape, size, color and content.

Every time I surf the web, I see banner advertisements. Sometimes, I don't usually pay attention to the ads themselves, unless it is something interesting to me. One time, I saw an ad for earning 40% off on my next Barnes and Noble purchase. So, I clicked on it, it directed me to the website and had me answer a few questions about my shopping habits at Barnes and Noble. It then generated a printable coupon. It was fast, efficient and not time consuming.

It depends on the person whether or not the advertisement is effective. I don't really like flashy banner ads that hurt your eyes or have a long process to get to the point of what they are trying to sell. There are several characteristics that determine what makes banner advertisements effective.

• Positioning them at the top or sides of the website, so they are visible to consumer
• Use simple, easy to understand messages
• Use animated or moving images, not static, but don't get too flashy and bombard the customer
• Make the customer click is extremely important, spark some curiosity
• Keep the banner size smaller, and make sure it is easy to download from multiple computers
  

Banners that I am likely to click are those that spark my curiosity. I don't like flashy ones, but I like creative sayings, creative use of color and ones that are obviously not going to be ridiculous or far-fetched. I really enjoyed the Volkswagen Pill Beetle Banner creative.

The article that discusses banner blindness is very interesting and honest about portraying users. Most people do not look at anything that looks like an advertisement. I would probably not look at an advertisement if I wasn't curious by taking classes that I've taken or trying to get a certain discount or free sample.

It's interesting that three elements drive banner advertisements: text, faces and body parts. The text makes sense because there is no clutter, faces because of emotional connection and body parts which drive at sexual desires or physical attraction. The article is successful in its approach at targeting certain demographics.

People generally look at sites the same way. The article shows that most people don't like unethical advertising, they enjoy "get to the point" advertisements. A user generally wants to save time, look out for their best interests. Banner advertisements that are generally unobtrusive, kept at certain placement levels and generate the highest click-through rates will be usually be successful in gaining consumer interest.

Would you like to learn how to make a banner ad?

Behavioral Targeting

Behavioral targetting is an advertising method, used to create advertising messaged directed at an audience based on the sites they visit and collecting information from their browsing history.

Advertisers can use behavioral targetting in many different ways: they can use information based on the site a person visits, key word searches, and what a person does on the site that they visit.

For example, if I go to www.imdb.com, which is a movie database website, an advertiser can see that I love movies, what kind of movies that I like and how often I spend my time going through that site. They store the information in a list of cookies. The next time I visit IMDB, there may be pictures of the movies that I like, or several different links to movies that are similar to the genre that I like. For example, I wanted some information on Sin City for a movie review I was doing in a class, so I spent quite a bit of time looking at that site, the actors in it, and other films in that genre. The next time I looked at the site, there were movie suggestions that were similar to that plot; like Pulp Fiction. There were also listings of other movies that the certain actors I searched for were in. There were also listings of movies by the director of Sin City.

Based on my screen browsing history, I would say that most of the websites I visit are hotmail.com, imdb.com, facebook.com, amazon.com and myspace.com. According to this information from my PC, certain advertising products that are targetted to me are
1) posters,
2) movies,
3) books,
4) textbooks,
5) poetry,
6) novels,
7) college loans and
8) how to save time.

Many advertisements that pop up on my computer are for books, student loans, credit card approval, movie tickets and concert entries.

Before this assignment, I really didn't notice it too often. I didn't realize how much I was actually being targetted as a consumer. The feeling is a little scary. I noticed when I went to Amazon.com to search for textbooks, the next time I went on there, a list of books came up similar to that topic. I guess to an advertising perspective, they are meeting my needs, interests and consuming habits. However, there is the issue of personal security that still bothers me quite a bit that I am being watched. For example, posting a screen capture of all the information on my home computer really bothered me. Due to someone else living in the house, I posted it from a classroom after I spent the normal amount of time browsing, searching and doing what I normally do. It really bothered me and I believe it is an invasion of privacy in many different ways.