Website Promotion: Big Is Not Always Better

Well-known internet sites might seem like the obvious location for people working in website marketing and website promotion to place a brand online, but new research suggests big may not always be better.

A new study by Addvantage Media reveals there has been a 40 per cent decline in people paying attention to ads on major portal sites compared with last year.

However, as Louise Jack writing for Marketing Week reports, that doesn't mean internet users are ignoring website promotion altogether.

Addvantage Media's annual Online Advertising Report for 2010, which polled 2,232 British internet users with YouGov, showed that consumer responsiveness to adverts on large websites, such as MSN, Tiscali and Yahoo!, has shown a marked reduction since early 2009.

But, Ms Jack suggests, this is because brands are placing too much stock within the reach of generic portal sites.

The research found that 88 per cent of internet users rarely or never pay attention to adverts displayed on these big portal sites.

Meanwhile, only one in ten claims to pay attention to adverts displayed all or some of the time.

This is a reduction of 40 per cent since last year's edition of the study, in which 37 per cent of respondents claimed to pay attention to these types of adverts.

Addvantage Media managing partner Edward Tijdink says he was expecting a decline in the number of people who pay attention to ads on large portals but admits he is surprised by the 40 per cent reduction.

Mr Tijdink suggested the figures revealed internet audience were 'growing up'.

"Think of your own internet experience; perhaps you started off surfing the generic portals, then moved on to investigate special interest sites," he said.

"The more the internet has grown up, the more you'd expect people to do that."

One way to get around the problem is to try experimenting with new methods of website marketing.

According to eMarketer, online video advertising will become an increasingly popular marketing channel in 2010 as demand for video advertising networks and video on demand (VOD) grows.

For example, the UK-based online video advertising network, Web TV Enterprise, has reported a four-fold increase in demand for online video advertising over the past year.