Page 291 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

9.5 Online Advertising Methods: From E-Mail to SEO and Video Ads 277

from person to person about a product or service. This can be
achieved in many cases through a complementary pro- done by e-mails, text messaging, in chat rooms, via instant
gram—AdSense (both are offered on mobile devices). messaging, by posting messages on social network walls
(e.g., Facebook), and in discussion groups or by microblog-
Google AdSense ging (e.g., using Twitter). It is especially popular in social
Google’s AdSense is an affiliate program. In other networks. Having people forward messages to friends, tell-
words, website publishers can earn money by display- ing them about a good product is an example of viral market-
ing targeted Google ads on their website. In collabora- ing. Viral marketing has been used offline for generations,
tion with Google, participating website owners but now, being online, its speed and reach are multiplied and
(publishers) can add search engines to their own sites. is done at minimal cost to vendors, because the people who
Then, when someone is searching for a term related to transmit the messages are usually paid nothing. The process
the content of the affiliated websites, she(he) can see is analogous to the spread of computer (or regular) viruses
the Google ad and, if interested, will be directed to the using a self-replication process. Viral messages may take the
advertisers’ text, video, or image ads, which are crafted form of text messages, video clips, or interactive games.
by Google. An ad agency supplies Internet users with something of
The matching of the displayed ad to content of the value for free, which encourages them to share with others,
affiliates is based on Google’s proprietary algorithm. so as many people as possible can see the message. For
This matching algorithm is known to be fairly accu- example, advertisers might distribute a small e-game or a
rate. The key for success is the quality and appearance video embedded within a sponsor’s e-mail sent to thousands
of both the affiliate’s pages and the ads, as well as the of people hoping that they will forward it to tens of thou-
popularity of the affiliate’s sites. Hundreds of thou- sands of people. Viral marketing also was used at the pio-
sands of companies and individuals participate in the neering of Hotmail (now closed), a free e-mail service that
affiliate program. Google provides the affiliates with grew from 0 to 12 million subscribers in its initial 18 months,
analytic tools and procedures that help convert visitors and to more than 50 million subscribers in about 4 years.
to customers (see the information at google.com/ Each e-mail sent via Hotmail carried an embedded advertise-
adsense). Google’s affiliates earn money when visitors ment to the recipient to sign up for a free Hotmail account.
click on the ads. The advertisers pay Google. Google Facebook’s initial reputation was achieved in a similar way,
shares the revenue generated from advertisers with the but much faster. Viral marketing can be effective, efficient,
affiliates. and relatively inexpensive when used properly. eWOM can
AdSense has become a popular method of advertis- also influence consumer judgment about products. For fur-
ing on websites because the advertisements are less ther details, see learnmarketing.net. For six steps to an
intrusive than in other programs, and the content is effective viral marketing strategy, see Wilson (2012). For a
often better targeted. For an example of a site using strategy, see Wright (2014).
AdSense, see rtcmagazine.com. eWOM constitutes a multitude of activities, which can be
Google’s success is attributed to the accuracy of the divided into specific categories (see Wilde 2013). One cate-
matches, the large number of advertisers in its net- gory is a “higher degree” of e-word of mouth (e.g., viral mar-
work, the ability to use ads in many languages, and the keting, e-referral marketing), and the other is “lower degree”
clarity of the ads. Google offers several types of marketing (e.g., social networks, brand communities).
AdSense programs. See details at webopedia.com/ One of the downsides of eWOM marketing is that many
TERM/A/adsense.html. Competing programs are customers complain about receiving unsolicited e-mails, com-
offered by eBay and Yahoo! (see eBay Partner Network paring them to telemarketing calls. Consumers may use spam
at partnernetwork.ebay.com). For an overview on blockers to filter out unsolicited e-mails, which may appear to
how AdSense works, see google.com/adsense/start/ be spam. For a comprehensive review, see Wilde (2013).
how-it-works.html. The messages circulated in viral marketing may be in dif-
ferent formats and serve different purposes. A typical one is
a text message about a product or service sent for persuading
consumers. Another format is video ads, a topic we will dis-
cuss next. Online videos are also discussed by Scott (2013).
Viral Marketing (Advertising)
Viral marketing (viral advertising) refers to electronic Line and Mobile Activities
word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing—the spreading of a word, Mobile messaging platforms such as LINE and WeChat have
story, or some media. It is a marketing strategy where a com- created a messaging app featuring cute and funny “chat
pany encourages the spreading of information and opinions stickers.” These stickers are localized and tailored to the taste