It's *!#& tough to advertise online

There has been a clear explosion of ways to advertise online, and more are coming - Microsoft's new Live software, AOL's new online TV network, Google's grand ad-supported Wi-fi plan, ads before web page views, context-based mobile advertising, banner ads that induce calls, even pixel advertising (like on the Million Dollar Homepage and the equally silly million dollar toolbar).

I think this is good and bad for advertisers. It's good in that there are more places to advertise and so more opportunities to find channels that work well for their business. But it's really bad because how the heck can they test every channel and figure out what works? To do that, they'd need a team of analysts (maybe 300) to stay on top of everything, and hiring those analysts would dissipate the efficiency gains the advertiser sought in the first place. Alternatively, they could just not seek those efficiency gains and be content buying only Google and Yahoo ads - but even that's tough as keyword lists grow into the tens or hundreds of thousands. Plus, as everyone focuses on just Google, or just Google and Yahoo, the prices there get out of whack as demand outpaces supply.

It's tough to get it right. I'm glad I'm not an advertiser right now.

Related Tags: online advertising, search engine marketing, sem