An investigation into search engines as a form of targeted advert delivery

The process of marketing encompasses three functions: to inform, remind and persuade. The growth of the Internet signified a dawn of a new age of marketing; a low cost form of marketing that presented vast economies of scale. It can further be said that using the Internet provided a business advantage [Aldridge et al. 1997]. However, the Internet's business advantage is not as great anymore as most medium and large sized companies have a web site. In the mid and late 1990's, e-commerce companies were willing to spend vast amounts of money on advertising, apparently without concern for the returns on the investment. Companies who were keen to harness the potential of the Internet soon became disillusioned with over-hyped expectations. E-commerce companies are now reducing expenses and investment in online marketing and technology [Aldridge et al. 1997:162, Bonanos 2001, Mollison 2002, Joseph & Poon 2001]. It stands to reason that a more targeted approach would be more efficient and cost effective. Customizing of advertising messages to be appropriate for individuals receiving the information would reduce resources required to generate revenue. The main benefit of this marketing technique is that advertisers are able to target individuals with advertising that is related to their interests or needs. However, a major issue with Targeted Marketing is privacy. The reason is that a collection of information is required about individuals in order to make it effective. The more detailed the information, the more accurate the targeting. The use of targeted marketing does not guarantee commercial success as many other factors are involved; there are numerous examples, which prove this to be the case [Bonanos 2001]. Search engines currently play a significant role in targeted online marketing. It is even claimed to be highly successful for advertisers. Although this may be a general belief, little investigative research has been done on this topic. Related areas, which this paper will attempt to investigate, include search engines and their ability and effectiveness of delivering targeted advertising. In summary, the problem addressed here is value of Internet marketing. It would appear that marketing via search engines is not a straightforward process. This paper is an investigation into Keyword Targeted Marketing as provided by most search engines. Issues that are discussed include the reasons for using this form of advertising, the media used in the advert presentation, the various levels of accuracy in matching keywords to banner advertisements, the metrics used to evaluate performance and challenges that have been discovered in its implementation. A company that wants to increase its exposure to potential clients via search engine usage, may do so by 'buying' certain keywords which describe their business. Usage of any of these keywords by a potential client of this search engine will result in a pop-up advertisement on the user's screen. Marketing and advertising on Internet websites have entered an exiting new era with many possibilities to be explored. However, some less invasive measures to explore these possibilities might have to be found.