Key To Ads Is “Segmentation”

Newspapers seeking to make money from advertising online must identify the separate markets making up their audiences.

That’s the view of Mark Smith, the managing director of a classifieds organisation which made a profit last year of £6 million.

Speaking at this week’s Society of Editors conference, the head of Newsquest’s S1 ads portfolio told attendees that the key to effective web-based advertising is to create segmented target groups.

Smith said: “One single thing is key, getting your market segmentation right. The internet is not a mass audience medium,” reports Press Gazette.

He added that these stratified groups are particularly attractive to advertisers and relatively easy to create with online tools.

The S1 portfolio includes specialist sites such as s1cars.com and the advertising sections on the websites of Glasgow’s Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times.

[Picture:- Gaetan Lee on Flickr.]