As a marketing columnist for Book Business Magazine, my latest article is entitled, “How Many Humans See Your Online Ads?” Below is an excerpt with a link to the complete article. If you buy any type of online advertising, you need to be aware of the corruption that is wasting your money!
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It’s common practice today for publishers and authors to buy online ads for promoting their books. The inexpensive cost and targeting capability make digital platforms, such as Google Adwords, Facebook Ads, and various high-traffic websites, seem like appealing choices. But, are real readers actually seeing the online book ads that publishers and authors purchase?
You might be surprised that I would raise such a strange question. Most marketers assume that people see the online ads they buy. Anyone can check the data that’s provided, such as the amount of ad impressions and the click-through rates. Yes, that may sound comforting. But, allow me to restate the question, how many humans actually saw the online ad?
For example, did you know that almost half of all Internet traffic is now robotic, rather than human? In many cases, more machines visit websites and click on advertisements, instead of actual people interacting online.
Here’s the reality. Corruption has crept into the digital ad industry at an alarming rate. The level of fraudulent digital advertising has the ability wipe out over half of a marketer’s budget. Put simply, for everyone dollar a publisher spends on online book advertising, 50 cents may vanish into cyberspace.
What’s causing this problem? In many cases, humans never see the online ad that they’re supposed to view. But, most people are unaware of the “wastage” they’re paying for. Below are three reasons why:
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