Do blog ads generate buzz?
Yesterday at Ad:Tech New York industry experts debated the issue, presenting different opinions. Mediapost collected the points of view in a brief article: Nick Denton, founder and publisher of Gawker Media said he can’t really point to any examples of posts that originated from ads themselves. Steve Rubel said that advertising on blogs assisted marketers in “finding the customer evangelists out there” and “empowering them with tools.”
Personally I think that “do blog ads create buzz” is a tricky questions. It would be more correct to ask: do blogs generate buzz? OR how do ads on blogs perform?
Blog advertising is very much cheaper than the traditional advertising media, thats because it is not a very popular form of advertising yet. Advertising on blogs that deal with topics of interest to the clients and their target audiences may help. Relevance is the key in online advertising.
Old school marketers have yet to understand the true potential that blog advertising holds. Blog content reflects the narrow interests of their users, and that makes targeting very efficient. You know you’re hitting the right audience every time. Marketers obsessed with metrics will always cry foul when numbers on blogs don’t perform as well as on more traditional sites. Well, that’s because blog surfers (for now) are among the elite of internet surfers, savvy enough to understand RSS feeds and consumer generated content. They won’t click on ads, but will notice them in the proper context.
Advertiser on Blogs would, in my opinion create more brand awareness than a desire to purchase. As Michale said, blog readers are the tech saavy and most likely do not click on advertisements. I myself will very rarely click on an advertisement unless it is extremely specific to what I am looking for. Blog offer an extreme niche in most cases. It is another factor that does have to be taken into consideration in the marketing mix.