Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Watch for training for online interactive advertising agencies

Take the time to regularly watch the employment sites, as you look for opportunities online to advance your career. You'll find a number of online training programs that will be most helpful as you search to upgrade your skills and credentials. Check out the requirements and look for training to make you more suitable for the position you seek.

I recommend: Choose from instructor-led or self-paced online training courses at Train Up. The Laredo Group specializes in online advertising training that they can customize for a company or put on for individuals and public seminars.

Look for online advertising agency training through associations

While you are pursuing a career, you also should be accruing a list of connections that will help you. Trade associations are great places to get involved with experienced professionals and make those important contacts. At the same time, most associations offer a wide variety of professional development courses that will look good on your resume.

I recommend: Find professional development courses and training through the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Get special certifications and other important career skills through the eMarketing Association.

Enroll with online ad company programs

Recruiters and headhunters know the landscape and can point you in the direction of the companies that may hire rookie advertising pros. Send your resume to recruiters so that they can at least know about your credentials and your availability. Update the service with a new resume after you complete additional certificate courses.

I recommend: Get online training for your own business at How 2 Succeed Online. e-Consultancy offers a wide range of classes and training programs fro all levels of online ad pros.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Find an Internet advertising agency manager that is willing to mentor you while you continue your training for online ad agencies to help you find the right training and credentials to advance.

Guide to Online Advertising Agencies

Online advertising companies can make Internet advertising work for you

By Jenni Simcoe

1. Online advertising firms provide search engine optimization (SEO), which uses keyword phrases to improve your ranking in search engine listings.
2. Internet ad agencies are pros at creating blogs on your website to pique your customers’ returning interest.
3. Web advertising companies can create pay-per-click ad campaigns that work within your budget constraints.
4. Online advertising agencies can use viral marketing and social networking sites like FaceBook and MySpace to reinforce your brand to your target audience.
5. An interactive ad agency can use tools like webcasts, podcasts and interactive media solutions to add value to your website.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Look for online advertising firms for search engine advertising and pay-per-click advertising

If you need to increase traffic to your online presence, hire an Internet ad agency that researches the best search engines to place your website links or pay per click advertisements.

I recommend: TopSpot Internet Marketing Solutions is an online advertising agency that focuses on business to business advertising through a mixture of natural search engine optimization, pay-per-click management and locating search engine advertising opportunities. Website Pros has several small business advertising packages that include pay-per-click, search engine marketing and advertising and banner ads.

Turn to full service online advertising agencies for a variety of advertising solutions

If you want to run the whole gamut of Internet advertising options, choose full service online advertising agencies. Services provided by online advertising companies include search engine marketing, search engine optimization, paid inclusion, web analytics, pay per click advertisements, banner ads and social networking.

I recommend: SendTraffic is an online advertising agency that offers a full menu of services, including search engine marketing, search engine optimization, paid inclusion and feed management, website analytics and pay-per-click solutions. Online advertising firms like 360i specialize in web based advertising services including paid search and search engine optimization, behavioral and social media. Reinvent Business is an Internet advertising agency that focuses on helping e-commerce businesses to be more competitive on the web by using SEO, keyword research, lead generation, search engine marketing, social media optimization, link popularity and behavioral targeting techniques.

Interactive ad agencies can go beyond the basics

Some online interactive advertising agencies offer specialized services that deliver your advertising content via numerous platforms, such as blogs, webcasts, podcasts and social media marketing.

I recommend: Novocom is an interactive ad agency that specializes in creating branding and advertising campaigns across multimedia platforms, including television, Internet and mobile technology. Brick Marketing provides social marketing services, including blog creation and copywriting, social bookmarking, podcasts, viral video marketing, social marketing and blog search engine optimization.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Ask online ad agencies to use your business intelligence to attract customers to your website. You can use blogs or podcasts to provide training or education to consumers about your products or field of expertise.
• •  Ask your Internet ad agency about their policy regarding pop-up ads. Consider your target market and decide if pop-ups will annoy your customer base.
• •  Online ad agencies know their business, but not necessarily yours. Provide your agency with all of your marketing materials, along with information on your products and services, so they can determine the best ways to reach your customers on the web.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find your place among the online advertising agency trends

As web advertising companies learn more about how consumers navigate the Web and use their Internet connections, they are becoming savvier about where to place your ads to reach your audience. B2B Internet advertising is facing more of a challenge so you need to stay on top of the trends.

I recommend: Adweek is the place that all advertising professionals log into regularly to keep up with the news and trends of the trade. Advertising Age is another must-read for industry experts who want to keep up with the latest news.

Stay on top of the online ad company business

While you can't spend your whole day reading about what every other ad agency is doing or what latest ad scheme your competitor has come up with, you need to stay informed about the latest news affecting your industry. Find niche publications that can narrow your focus and regularly feed you with the important news that you need so have each day.

I recommend: DM News is a great place to collect news and research articles that follow the online advertising agency arena. Check out ClickZ for the news about emerging ad agencies and what they are doing in the world. Keep up with the trends through a number of media avenues.

Get involved with online ad company pros

You often can hear about the latest news affecting your industry before it even hits the press from a good networking group. Find ways to interact with your peers and be prepared to give and get important information on marketing.

I recommend: Blogs and news coverage of Internet media outlets and the advertising they do is widely available through the vast store of info at Media Post. Check out the news and trends that may not be on the traditional grid at Anti Advertising Agency.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Develop a corporate culture of information sharing by asking each team member to read an industry publication and present regular reports on the online advertising consulting news that they've found.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

House ads

House ads refer to ads sold by a host Web site in order to promote its features and products. It is one way a Web site can fill its advertising space when it doesn't get enough advertising business. Another way to view house ads is as a way to fill blank banners.

I recommend: You can find a discussion of house ads and their place online at Click Z.

Log file

Web servers use log files to track the activity of a Web site. The server can generate reports to determine which pages visitors request most often. Because log files reveal information about the Web sites on the server, online ad agencies can use the log files to determine whether or not a campaign is successful.

I recommend: Boxes and Arrows has a discussion of online log files, including their benefits and limitations.

Cookies

Cookies provide a way for Web servers to keep track of visits to a Web site. The small parcel of text, called the cookie, communicates between the server and a visitor's browser to track the visit. Online advertising agencies can use cookies in a way that's similar to how they use log files.

I recommend: Lexur offers information on the role of cookies in online advertising.

GIF

GIF stands for graphical interchange format, which is a commonly used bitmap image. The majority of graphic design artists use the GIF format, which allows them to create images, including those that are animated.

I recommend: At Jupiter Images you will learn how to manage and operate GIFs in the same way that online advertising agencies do.

Rich media

Rich media often attracts more clients because of its higher-quality images. Online ad agencies can use rich media as a way to advertise to clients without the visitors having to leave the Web site.

I recommend: The Access IT page from the University of Washington tells readers how to work with rich media and how to make it more accessible.

Incentivized click

Incentivized clicks allow click-throughs inspired by an ad offering a reward. Some say that incentivized clicks can make a Web site appear busy but won't always increase sales.

I recommend: A good definition of incentivized clicks is available at Open X.