If you’re a small business, online advertising is a wonderful option for many reasons:

1) It’s very inexpensive. Placing small ads in online magazines, newsletters, or on web sites can cost just a few dollars. Even bidding on keywords for pay per click sites can cost just a little bit of money. Some forms of online advertising — such as pay per click and pay per call — only require that you pay when someone clicks on your ad or calls you. Web sites that can reach millions of customers cost only a few dollars a year. This makes online advertising very cost-effective.

2) It can be free. Many businesses love the fact that there are forms of online promotion that are completely free. Setting up your own business blog can cost you nothing if you lose use a public blog software. Similarly, link exchanges are free, as long as you are willing to promote someone else’s web site on your own. Social networking sites are another great place for you to advertise your business at no cost whatsoever.

3) It can be very effective. While you can only reach so many people with print ads — only the people who pick up a particular magazine have a chance of seeing your ad in that magazine — online advertising is virtually limitless. Millions of people could potentially see your web sites, online ads, or banner ads. There is really no limit as to how many people could find your URL online. Thanks to the fact that web sites are archived, it is possible that customers could continue to see your ad even after a newsletter is no longer online or a website is closed down.

4) It allows customers to click right to your company web site. If you run a print ad, customers who are interested in your product or services need to call you or contact you in some way in order for you to make a sale. However, with online advertising, converting leads into customers is simpler, because you can easily have customers click to your online retail site and buy your products. Whether you’re selling Trapp candles and Tocca candles or designer shoes, you can start making sales quickly online. In many cases, it’s only one click from ad to completed sale.

5) It’s time effective. In fact, you can farm out your entire online marketing campaign to a good web design company. The firm can take care of all the details – from designing a campaign to implementing it. Even if you do not have the budget to hire such a company right now, you can get started today. Setting up a blog takes only a few minutes. Publishing an article on a directory takes only a few seconds. Fifteen minutes a day spent on online advertising, every day, can lead to an impressive marketing campaign in just a few weeks.