Disadvantages of Digital Advertising

Since many consumers spend time shopping online for everything from groceries and clothing to electronics and cleaning supplies, many businesses include online advertising in their marketing strategies. While the benefits of advertising online include the potential to reach a large market and the ability to measure results, online advertising also presents some disadvantages.

Customers Ignore Ads

Consumers are so used to seeing advertising on television, hearing radio commercials and flipping through advertisements in magazines, they've developed an aversion to all forms of advertising. This is also the case with online advertising, where consumers can avoid clicking banner advertisements, bypass ads in online videos they watch and close pop-up advertisements as soon as they come up on their screens. Customers are in control of which advertising messages they want to click and respond to.

Viewing Problems

Website downtime, lags in website or video loading and browser complications can reduce the number of times consumers see online advertisements and how well they see them. When technical issues occur, companies lose the opportunity to broadcast advertisements for their products and services and may lose potential sales. Viewing problems can occur because of problems with a website or if a consumer is using a smart phone or other mobile device to view a website, has a slow connection speed or does not have the correct applications and programs installed on his computers for proper viewing.

Expensive Ad Prices

Pricing for advertising online can range from inexpensive -- $20-a-month placements on local parenting blogs -- to thousands of dollars on popular sites such as the New York Times. The cost for banner, text and video ads vary depending on the amount of traffic and the type of readership a website or blog receives. Online advertising through pay-per-click campaigns and social media sites can also wreak havoc on a company's marketing budget, potentially yielding little to no return on investment.

Consumers Get Distracted

When customers visit a website, they typically have a goal in mind, whether it's to catch up on the latest celebrity gossip, read the news, chat with friends, and download music or shop for a specific item. Websites present customers with various options that can easily distract them and pull their attention from your online advertisements.

Too Many Options

The Internet offers a wide range of websites on which companies can place advertisements. This can be overwhelming, especially for small business owners. With so many options, it's difficult to narrow down the choices to the websites that will attract the most potential customers and sales. Once a company selects a website, it is then presented with a variety of ways it can advertise its products or services on the site, such as through banner advertisements, video marketing or by sponsoring a post. Companies have to determine which type of advertisement yields the best response from their target markets.

Source: smallbusiness.chron.com