It’s no secret the recent economic crisis has forced many businesses to rethink their marketing and advertising expenditures. While, not long ago, many were once satisfied with ad reach and exposure, ad executives and business owners have become increasingly concerned with ad efficiency and ways to increase ROI. If you currently spend money advertising online, or are interested in advertising online you should do your research; there many potential pitfalls, and no shortage of ways by which money is spent with little to no conversion impact. For businesses large and small, the following constant the ten most commonly made mistakes in online advertising — and should be avoided at all cost:

Turning Potential Shoppers Away

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While high-conversion traffic should be a primary goal of advertisers, discouraging all types of traffic is never a good idea. One way advertisers can seriously curtail multiple flows of traffic is by turning potential shoppers off from their brand. Aesthetically unappealing, offensive, or altogether annoying (ie., pop-ups, or forced advertisements) can turn customers off.

Pegging Success to Traffic, Not Conversions

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While a lot of advertising is about grabbing attention, the end goal is ROI. Many new advertisers become excited by the opportunity to build brand awareness and web traffic, but neglect potential customers’ experience while on the site. The sales cycle is ever-changing, and with a slower economy, and increasing number of shopping comparison sites, advertisers must present a site that educates and assists consumers.

Poor Ad Placement

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Today many turnkey ad solutions are available to the aspiring advertiser, and understanding where and how ads are placed is extremely important. For example, with Google AdSense, leaving the content network on and allowing broad match can lead to increased visibility, but also increasingly less-targeted ads. Additionally, if search terms are more specified, including the use of long tails, and commercially-linked terms, a more customer-targeted strategy will be realized – one that may generate less traffic, but it will most likely have better conversion rates.

Not Having a Call to Action

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The intention of generating web traffic is to eventually generate conversions. Having an extremely well-targeted ad campaign – display or search – without a (or with a difficult to find) call to action, is a very bad idea. By sending web visitors to a homepage, from which they have to then navigate to the product that initially sparked their interest, makes it more difficult to complete the transaction. Effective advertisers are those that make purchasing as easy as possible

Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket

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While new technology has enabled small-level players to reach broader audiences, one mistake many advertisers make is restricting ad placement to one channel. Recent research indicates that customers spend significantly more when multiple channels are used, and a failure to embrace new channels, such as m-commerce and social networking traffic, can seriously limit a campaign’s effectiveness. Similarly, this can also include restricting ad spending to only certain type of sites, especially when similar audience and presumably similar conversion rates exist elsewhere.

Not Understanding Reach of An Advertising Plan

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An online advertising campaign should be thought of as integral to part of a larger marketing plan. Advertisers should be able to account for where their ad dollars are being spent. Effective advertising includes accounting for where ad spending is allocated and tracking levels of efficiency. The tools for tracking conversions are better today, and , under-performing ads should be scrapped, in favor of new avenues being explored. This will help to save money in the long run.

Wasting Money

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While this might seem like a very broad statement, it is not. Many online businesses, look to expand their reach and allocate specific budgets to advertising, without a plan for creating customers. If are looking to advertise online, and do not have a plan to reach as many targeted audiences as possible your learning curve will be very gradual. Ad spending should be increasingly specific and targeted -– awareness has been replaced by effectiveness, as it is more easily measurable.

Ignoring the Competition

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The Internet has increased competition. There are more players in each industry trying to get the attention of the same audiences. Failure to pay attention to your competitors efforts can be hugely detrimental, in that trends in how to generate customers can be altogether missed. Additionally, keeping a watchful eye on competitors can help you to avoid making the same mistakes they do, which will always save you money in the long run.

Writing Off Social Communities

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Social Media, Social Networking, Social News. While many thought they were just trends, the last several years have proved otherwise. Each social community is increasingly commercializing, and each offers new channels through which advertisers can appeal to new audiences. Similarly, they increase dialog and engage existing audiences in new ways. Sites like Twitter and Facebook in particular, allow businesses and customers to interact in a way not possible five years ago.

Failure to Measure Results

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Failure to measure, or failure to understand measurement are common mistakes made by many advertisers. Using analytics tools to understand ad effectiveness will lead to increased understanding of: which ads are more efficient, which sites send more conversions, and what customers do when they get to your site. Understanding how customers navigate your site can not only help refine your ad campaign, but also illustrate shortcomings in the user-friendliness of your site. Failing to measure is a conscious decision to ignore the most precise measurement tools in all media.