Web-Based Marketing
1. What is Web-Based Marketing?
Marketing products/services using digital channels on the WWW — websites, search engines, email, social media, mobile apps — where the user leaves a measurable trace at every step (this traceability is the core difference from traditional marketing).
2. Channels
| Channel | Mechanism | Key metrics |
|---|---|---|
| Search Engine Marketing (SEM) | paid listings (Google Ads) above organic results | CPC, CTR, ROAS |
| Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) | rank organically via content/links/technical quality | SERP position, organic traffic |
| Display / banner ads | images/video on publisher sites | impressions (CPM), viewability |
| Social media marketing | organic + paid on Facebook/Instagram/X/LinkedIn | engagement, CAC |
| Email marketing | newsletters, lifecycle mails (welcome, cart abandonment) | open rate, CTR, churn |
| Affiliate marketing | partners promote for a commission | cost per acquisition (CPA) |
| Content / inbound marketing | blogs, videos, guides that attract leads | traffic, leads, share of voice |
| Mobile push / SMS | app notifications, offers | opt-in rate, conversions |
| Influencer marketing | endorsement by creators | reach, ROI |
3. Pricing Models for Online Advertising
| Model | Meaning |
|---|---|
| CPM | cost per 1000 impressions |
| CPC | cost per click (search ads) |
| CPA / CPL | cost per action / lead |
| CPS | cost per sale (affiliate) |
| CPV | cost per view (video) |
4. Programmatic / Ad-Server Ecosystem
USER visits publisher page
-> ad request -> Ad Exchange (RTB auction in ~100 ms)
-> Demand Side Platform (DSP) bids for the user
-> winning ad served -> impression/click logged
Publishers monetise via Supply Side Platform (SSP); advertisers target by
cookies/device ids/segments; Data Management Platforms (DMP) build audiences
Real-time bidding (RTB), contextual vs behavioural targeting, retargeting (re-engage cart abandoners), look-alike audiences.
5. Personalisation and the Customer Lifecycle
- Acquisition → Activation (first purchase) → Retention (email/push, loyalty) → Referral (affiliate, share) → Revenue expansion (cross-sell/up-sell).
- Recommendation engines (collaborative filtering) on product pages; dynamic pricing; A/B testing of landing pages.
- CRM + marketing automation — segment users by RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) and send triggered campaigns.
6. Metrics, Attribution and Analytics
- Funnel: visitors → product views → add-to-cart → checkout → order; conversion rate per step; cart-abandonment recovery.
- Attribution models — last click, first click, linear, time-decay — decide which channel gets credit.
- Web analytics tools (GA4, Adobe Analytics) — sessions, bounce rate, pages/session, UTM tracking.
7. Legal, Ethical and Practical Issues
- Privacy — cookies, tracking pixels; consent under GDPR/India's DPDP Act; cookie banners.
- Spam — unsolicited email regulated (CAN-SPAM, IT Rules); need opt-in/opt-out.
- Ad fraud (click farms, bot traffic), brand safety, ad-blockers, banner blindness, rising CAC.
8. SEO Essentials (short)
- On-page: keyword research, titles/meta, headings, clean URLs, image alt text, page speed, mobile-first.
- Off-page: backlinks, domain authority, social signals.
- Technical: sitemap, robots.txt, structured data (schema.org), HTTPS, Core Web Vitals.
9. Exam Points
- Explain web-based marketing channels with examples — 10 marks (very frequent).
- Explain CPC/CPM/CPA pricing models and compute CTR/ROAS — 5 marks (numerical).
- Explain the online advertising ecosystem (ad exchange, DSP, RTB) with a diagram — 5-7 marks.
- Discuss issues: privacy, spam, ad fraud, ad blockers — 5 marks.
- Short note on SEO vs SEM — 5 marks.