Television advertising has impact, but costs a lot.
In most cases advertising is a necessary part of business and a key to survival. With rare exceptions, advertising will be the primary way that consumers find out about what a business does. Although advertising can assist in bringing in more customers and higher profits, each type of advertising has its own specific advantages and disadvantages attached. Knowing these pros and cons ahead of time will help make the best use of an advertising budget.
Online Advertising
The newest form of advertising and a quickly growing portion of the advertising industry is that of online ads. Placing advertisements on websites that drive more traffic to a site as well as notify people about the physical location of the business and what it has to offer is common business practice today. A decade ago this type of advertising was just beginning to take hold.
The advantages of online advertising include a lower cost than other traditional means of advertising. There are no printing and distribution costs online and the ad is present all day and all night, every day of the week. The ads can also be changed regularly if needed and they can appear only in places where a target demographic is likely to see it.
The disadvantage of online advertising is the fact that it is in its early stages and it is far from perfect. According to the Web Design Library website, some people are losing faith in online advertising because of low click-through rates and consumer fatigue. People are being overloaded with advertising online and it may actually drive consumers away in some instances.
Newspaper and Magazine Advertising
Print advertising has been around longer than the other forms of advertising. From pamphlets that were distributed in the American colonies to the newspapers and magazines of today, advertising was there.
Print advertisements are inexpensive to produce and require only some basic marketing knowledge to complete a seemingly successful ad, according to AllBusiness.com. Rates for placing these advertisements vary depending on the readership of the newspaper. A small community newspaper ad is fairly cheap, while a full-page ad in a national magazine could run tens of thousands of dollars. Still, print has a sizable advantage over broadcast in the cost category.
In addition, print ads can be sized differently and changed somewhat regularly to adjust the price and focus.
Print advertising's biggest disadvantages is limited readership and the decline in numbers of subscribers who turn to television and online venues for information. It is also two-dimensional with no motion or sound like other forms of advertising. There is the additional problem of having no control over ad placement in many cases. Unless pays significantly higher rates, the ad could end up next to an item no one will look at.
Broadcast Advertising
Broadcast advertising remains king of the hill, particularly for television. Television ads reach the largest audience and people view them when they are paying specific attention to the screen as they watch a favorite program. Also, the nature of television allows the advertiser to add personality to the ad, which is transferred to the business. Radio offers much of the same advantage, only without video and for a more limited audience. Radio advertising is reasonably priced, however.
The big disadvantage of broadcast advertising is the expense, according to AllBusiness.com. It is expensive to produce commercials and to air them. Some ads may run into the millions of dollars. Changes are also all but impossible without a new production.
