Because of the power of repetition or as David Ogilvy and others have referred to it, the “anchoring” principle is still the golden rule. That is why SEO firms are doing such a strong business. You need a professional doing your search marketing or you can fail as easily as an amateur driver trying to qualify for a NASCAR race. It can be done-it just doesn’t make sense to waste your time and energy, does it? Yes, in search being first is better, even if being first is not at first blush important because you are already number one. Cyber squatting with your competition buying top bid with your brand name foils the search more often than most would like to admit. With respect to banners there are several augments worth considering and some innovations to keep you first.

One study on a gaming site suggests the 300×250 is the most effective ad size, but in my experience, 728×90 and 160×600 can keep pace with the 300×250. It all depends on being first, yes and on pleasing colors and limited text that entices interaction. “Join us”, “visit us” and other simple invites to interaction are winners and have little competition. Remember, people in the interactive advertising space are very quick scanners of ads-even as they read an article of choice they can be induced to click a banner that gently attracts their eye with pleasing colors and movement.

How is this possible? Well, on adotas.com, as an example, many of the click throughs come when a reader is exposed to the email updates and chooses a particular news item to read—they click on a news item— and they are brought to the article of their choosing and there’s your ad—first —among many, but most important— first for every reader that chose a link to follow from the email update!

How about the type of ad presented? DHTML ads that are viewed with dancing laptops and cars screaming across the page distract the reader—yes, they get your attention. Some actually intrude and interrupt the reader by covering the article they have chosen to read. But do they entice interaction? Only, in my opinion, when viewed repeatedly. No single expansion ad can compare with even a simple jpeg, animated GIF or Flash ad banner that is simple, elegant and repeated often.

Ads that flash in a strobe-like manner (three changes per second) are often ignored and feedback indicates they annoy far more often than they attract clicks. On adotas.com, the most effective ads are gently pleasing eye-candy with limited script and zero outlandish statements. Invites with the fewest words and pleasing colors are particularly well-received and —with sufficient repetition—- hugely successful.

The search for qualified talent in digital media jobs is quickly going white-hot. After a lengthy drought in opportunity, interactive talents are finding themselves in a world demanding their special skills: DHTML, PhotoShop, Flash, HTML, Java, and search engine algorithms, to name a few highly desirable guru level experiences that are highly desirable today. Media buyers and every digital skill set under the sun are in an ever increasing spiral of demand. Your problem is exacerbated by the demographics. Fact: the talent pool is getting smaller and will continue to shrink. So, what do you do?

Realize first that you have less than 2 seconds to capture the mind’s eye of your ad reader. The first quarter- to-half-second, the human eye scans colors and shapes and in the next 1.5 seconds drinks the bold type and entire first line. A headline with five words or less is where the viewer decides whether to continue or move on. If your job headline does not lead to a benefit or take longer than 3 seconds to “show the money” in your digital ad; guess what? You lose. The vast majority scan a job posts headline and pick up only the bold or italicized copy and dollar signs. Less than 17% of online job seekers read word-by-word. Your ad does not mention specific money or benefits? You lose a great number of your qualified readers in the blink of an eye.

The brick-and-mortar world is being crushed by higher costs. Simple truth: Everything you can see or touch, and everything you possess was delivered by truck. All trucks use fossil fuel; therefore all costs go up except for the digital space where the energy question is mute. So demand for your services will continue to grow for the rest of the decade, at the very least by virtue of the ever increasing utilization of the Internet.

More often than not the very talent that is in demand is fully employed and firms are now poaching from other media companies – in earnest.

When you deliver a message and that is what you are doing with a job post aimed at employed readers, what matters is what is acted on, never what was intended. The best way to evaluate your ad effectiveness is by the number of resumes received.

Surprisingly, HR people go to work each day and function adequately without understanding this basic principle of Internet job postings. The old-school approach does not work and adoption to the present environment is mission critical. All this will change this year. HR and others who write ads for mission critical positions that do not adapt to our new world will be replaced.

There is no abracadabra required. Pay attention to your copy in your job postings. You will hit the mark when your job mentions specific amounts of money and ends with a mention of your bonus and benefits before your call-to-action. Personalize your invite to achieve maximum response.