WebProNews

Online advertisers should be open to placing their ads on smaller sites and not always focus on large sites according to new research from Media-Screen. The "Net pop| Response" study found that small long-tail Web sites are valuable to consumers and online advertisers.

The interest in products on smaller sites is more than on larger sites. Forty-two percent of the sites with less than a million unique visitors a month advertise products of interest to their users, while 39 percent of sites with more than a million visitors do the same.

"Consumers have gained control over the content they consume online and advertisers need to adjust their strategies to match," said Josh Crandall of Media-Screen. "By advertising on smaller Websites, those that consumers are visiting based on their personal interests, companies can reach a highly engaged consumer with a message that relates to a subject that is important to them."

Most online advertisers focus their budgets on Google or Yahoo and maybe a few other sites. While the difference between advertising on large sites versus small maybe minute it could be worth experimenting.

"Search engines are a driving force behind these trends, enabling broadbanders to venture beyond the major brands to the niche sites they previously never knew existed," said Cate Riegner of Media-Screen. "62% of sites that respondents mention receive less than one million unique visitors."

Merrill Lynch forecasts that both search and branded advertising will grow online next year. They say search will be up 27 percent and that branded online advertising will be 21 percent.

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Mike is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.