Who do you reach with online ads?

According to a recently released study, 6% of people contribute 50% of clicks to online advertisements. This small group of people does a lot of ad-clicking.

But who are they? The study finds that this 6% tend to be younger, have a household income less than $40,000, and are “more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites.” If this is your target market, then by all means, continue with those ubiquitous motion/flash/video ads. Those Internet surfers who aren’t college students trolling for a free couch, a quick game of Internet poker, or an entry-level job will probably continue to ignore them.

But that isn’t to say that online advertising is a lost cause. Au contraire. There are those other 50% of clicks that aren’t made up of the above 6% of people, and these folks are – theoretically – open to your business.

So how can you reach more people likely to purchase your product or service online?

1. Target your ads. Make sure your ads show up on sites that relate to whatever you’re selling. 
2. Search engine optimize. Help the people actively looking for a product or service to find it through you.
3. Create an easy-to-use Web site. According to a recent study from Jakob Nielsen (called User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly), people are really not very good at navigating sites they’re not used to. Make your site extremely easy to use, so that people know what to do when online ads or a search engine sends them your way.

Easy for me to say, right? For guidance on online marketing, advertising, and search engine optimization, search the free Biz Info Library. Or, if you’re a HillSearch member, try searching the NetLibrary eBooks collection.

Update: Given enough time you can probably figure most of this online marketing/advertising stuff out yourself. Time being the scarce resource it is, however (especially for the small businessperson), you might consider hiring this work out. If you do, check out this SEM Vendor Checklist from SearchEngineWatch.com. It’ll help you ask the right questions of search engine marketing firms to better the chances of getting what you’re hoping for out of the transaction.