THE ONLINE ADVERTISING OF SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED
BUSINESSES
Cristina Bălteanu, Babeş – Bolyai University of Cluj–Napoca
Mihaela Marcu, Hyperion University of Bucharest

ABSTRACT: The recent decades have brought a new concept, namely the digital communication, which
allows information to travel at a much more rapid rate and promotional messages (video, audio or simple
texts) to be perceived in real time in different parts of the world. In the online environment, interactivity
is the key term, the user being the one who sets up an online profile according to which he gets
personalized messages. Thus, the organizations can more easily interact with customers, allocating
budgets much lower than those used for traditional media. Therefore, SMEs have a real opportunity to
promote themselves in a more efficient manner, at low cost and globally, the Internet offering them the
possibility of becoming known among consumers from other states than their home country. In this
context, the paper's main objective was the analysis of online advertising market in Europe and also the
identification of the main results arising from the implementation of the SMEs promotion campaigns in
the virtual environment. The results showed the huge potential of the Internet in terms of online
advertising and the main tools that can be used successfully in the efforts of attracting and making
customers loyal.
Keywords: online advertising, small and medium sized enterprises, social media
JEL Codes: M37, L82, M15