Audience engagement is critical at developing the revenue streams necessary to run your website if you’re a digital publisher or media company. It’s the driver behind sustained web traffic and can make the difference in your success with bringing in ad revenue or employer listings on your site’s custom job board. While you may think that television advertisers are out of your reach, maybe it’s time to think again.
SEE ALSO: 4 Reasons Why Television Marketing Still Works for Audience Engagement
Today marketing professionals consider digital and television advertising as channels that complement each other and deliver well-rounded ad campaigns. A 2013 survey found that over half of media companies, and over two-thirds of advertisers and ad agencies want their ad campaigns to appear across a range of viewing platforms. Here’s why digital and TV ad campaigns work together, and can really make your audience engagement efforts pay off in coming years.
Dominance of Television Advertising Through 2018
Television advertising is still the gold standard, and ad spending on TV is expected to grow steadily over the next few years. While the growth rates aren’t explosive, the enormity of the TV advertising market still makes for clear advertising domination. In 2014, television advertising is expected to make up close to 40% of total media spending, and its nearest competitor – digital advertising – will gradually catch up over the next four years. The balance is expected to tip in favor of digital advertising in 2018.
How Will Digital Advertising Eclipse Television?
Already, television commercials are released online before the Super Bowl, which is the biggest television advertising day of the year. Brands are also starting to pursue audience engagement by tying television advertising in with social media. This strategy has increased ad views by 600%. Early ad releases also help web traffic, with studies showing that pre-television release of ads online increases web traffic to advertiser sites by 20%.
Viewers of online ads don’t necessarily just stumble across them, but often specifically seek them out. Four million dollars, the cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad, buys 50 million displays on the first page of Forbes.com, eight days on the YouTube homepage, and enough Twitter trending topics for a month. With those numbers, it’s no mystery why digital advertising is growing in popularity.
Why TV Advertising Will Remain Important
Television audience engagement still operates on a scale that digital advertising can’t match. Advertising on television generally gives advertisers predictable results. Moreover, television ads still influence people more than ads in other media, so scale is coupled with impact. A survey from August 2013 found that audiences agree with this sentiment, with nearly 84% of internet users in the US saying they believe television commercials are the most effective type of advertising. It will take time for that attitude to change.
Digital Plus Television Advertising: A Holistic Approach
Digital and television advertising can team up for maximum audience engagement impact, and marketing professionals are coming to the realization that digital and TV advertising do not cannibalize each other. Fifty-six percent of television ad buyers believe that digital video provides a critical ”missing piece” due to digital advertising’s more targeted audiences and the ready availability of informative metrics with digital advertising. More than half of digital ad buyers believe digital plus television creates a holistic advertising strategy that powerfully combines reach with targeting.
Audience engagement is the key to bringing in ad dollars from television advertisers for your digital publication. Some brands are clinging to television more tenaciously than others, because digital advertising is still evolving and there are still many unknowns. But an increasing number of advertisers are breaking television and digital advertising out of their silos so as not to miss out on great cross-channel opportunities. This is great news for digital publications as they strive to develop multiple revenue streams that include video advertising, banner ads, sponsored content, and proven site features like custom job boards.
RealMatch offers recruitment advertising solutions for digital publications and media companies that address traffic development and audience engagement, all while developing a rewarding revenue stream.