Ad Spending: don’t be shortsighted!

I recently read an article in REUTERS regarding ad budgets and expenditure. We all know that the online ad spending is projected to grow exponentially year after year. However the big question is will that budget be enough to support sites that are banking on selling their ad space to support their company? Is the alternative a subscription based model? Bottom line… will there be enough to go around?

Yes and here is why. Because local small to medium size businesses will begin to shift their ad dollars onto local websites. Companies that are not even online themselves will be doing this. Even with the advent of geo and behavioral targeting thanks to companies like Double Click and Dotomi, local business will simply not be able to afford this. Instead they will be looking to smaller local websites to play vehicle for their messaging. Build a kick butt local site that locals want, and you have your ad support.

But there is another side of this story. Although I do agree with the comment “there is not going to be enough advertising dollars in that marketplace [ad supported] no matter how clever we are, no matter what the format is.” Maybe because of my role as a local web strategist I see the world a bit differently. I think there is money, I just think we have to redefine what advertising budget consists of.

I think we get used to being in the online world and forget that many companies still have not tapped into this market. Not only does that mean that they will be allocating ad dollars to online, but they will need help catching up to everyone else in this space. That means building out a website in some cases. Easier said than done. Simply put these companies need someone to guide them. Here is where my definition takes a different route. Advertising is not limited to IAB ads, email campaigns, and content integration; it expands into web development, SEO, and best practices. There is a market for this… you just have to be in the right business. Instead of building it so they will come… try helping them build it and see what kind of cash is out there.