Where advertising is concerned for your business, you always like to know that you’re getting what you’ve paid for. There are multiple ways for you to get your name out there, and there are some which are much better than others, it doesn’t really matter which method you use, but in the end it’s always about the numbers. How many visitors, how many conversions, how many sales have been made etc.

Organic search engine optimization is one of the most cost effective means to advertise your business old or new. And unlike more traditional advertising methods, like television or print media, it is fairly simple to use analytics software to track your website. Television and print media can offer you metrics of a fashion, they can offer you market saturation numbers, but actual return on your advertising investment is questionable at best. The metrics that you can gather from an online campaign, are much more comprehensive when you compare them to traditional media. Not only can you track how many people have seen your website, you can see what those visitors have done on your website. And one of the greatest aspects of being able to track your online campaign with analytics software is it gets more accurate over time, so you can really begin to determine where your conversions are and fine tune your marketing goals.

By comparison, the Adwords platform has a great suite of analytics software. It lets you track every aspect from impression, to saturation, to conversion rate. Unlike using organic SEO however, you can begin to make changes to your campaigns and start to see results almost immediately. Paid online advertising is a great avenue for newer businesses to explore, as well as successful online businesses to test other avenues for new products or services for your marketplace.

Both organic search optimization and Adwords have their place in an online marketing scheme, and the strength of the data you have available make them the clear cut choice for your business. That is assuming of course that you would like to have information like visitors, keyword activity and conversion rates so you can make your business even more successful.

Is this the beginnings of the death rattle for the Yellow Pages? The advertising giant of the 70s to the 90s is quickly becoming more frail in its later years as businesses large and small, are turning more of their advertising dollars towards the internet. Yellow Pages themselves have had their hand in selling online ad space, with the idea in mind that it would help boost their shrinking print media, but with little success. Is it time to start writing the eulogy? The answer, while slowly becoming clearer, is a resounding.. maybe.

While their use by both advertisers and people who actually use their books has dropped, there are still people out there who use the yellow pages print books. They’re still there, but as a business owner you need to make a decision as to whether or not your advertising dollars are worth spending there. There is also the added allusion that having a yellow pages ad lends your business some credibility to the 45+ business consumer. It’s a dated model of advertising, but a great deal of the business world does still depend on who you know, not necessarily what you know.

You need to have a look as well at the market that the yellow pages book is being delivered too. Is it a major city with millions of people and thousands of businesses to bury your ad? Or is it being compiled and delivered to a city of only a couple hundred thousand, a small local brand where you still have the chance to stand out for a modest price. Yellow Pages do still show higher than larger center averages of use in small towns. Also bear in mind your business, and the type of consumer you’re interested in attracting. If you’re a highly motivated emerging tech company you’ll probably want to be more concerned with online branding and marketing as opposed to making sure you choose the right font for a Yellow Pages ad. If you’re in the vacation business, you’ll probably want to seriously think about placing an ad, as visitors may not have an internet connection at their finger tips to find what they want.

While the value, both real and potential, has dropped and continues to drop with Yellow Pages advertisements, they’re not quite dead yet. They’ve been making money saving efforts for the last few years, and are continuing to ramp those efforts up, but for the moment they’re still here with us. For how much longer however, is yet to be seen.