Marketing executives in television work with a relatively stable advertising medium.

In many
ways, the television ads aired today are similar to those aired two decades ago. Most television
ads still feature actors, still run 30 or 60 seconds, and still show a product. However, the differing
dynamics of the Internet pose unique challenges to advertisers, forcing them to adapt their
practices and techniques on a regular basis.
In the early days of Internet marketing, online advertisers employed banner and pop-up ads to
attract customers. These techniques reached large audiences, generated many sales leads, and
came at a low cost. However, a small number of Internet users began to consider these
advertising techniques intrusive and annoying. Yet because marketing strategies relying heavily
on banners and pop-ups produced results, companies invested growing amounts of money into
purchasing these ad types in hopes of capturing market share in the burgeoning online economy.
As consumers became more sophisticated, frustration with these online advertising techniques
grew. Independent programmers began to develop tools that blocked banner and pop-up ads.
The popularity of these tools exploded when the search engine Google, at the time an
increasingly popular website fighting to solidify its place on the Internet with giants Microsoft and
Yahoo, offered free software enabling users to block pop-up ads. The backlash against banner
ads grew as new web browsers provided users the ability to block image-based ads such as
banner ads. Although banner and pop-up ads still exist, they are far less prominent than during
the early days of the Internet.
A major development in online marketing came with the introduction of pay-per-click ads. Unlike
banner or pop-up ads, which originally required companies to pay every time a website visitor
saw an ad, pay-per-click ads allowed companies to pay only when an interested potential
customer clicked on an ad. More importantly, however, these ads circumvented the pop-up and
banner blockers. As a result of these advantages and the incredible growth in the use of search
engines, which provide excellent venues for pay-per-click advertising, companies began turning
to pay-per-click marketing in droves. However, as with the banner and pop-up ads that preceded
them, pay-per-click ads came with their drawbacks. When companies began pouring billions of
dollars into this emerging medium, online advertising specialists started to notice the presence of
what would later be called click fraud: representatives of a company with no interest in the
product advertised by a competitor click on the competitor's ads simply to increase the marketing
cost of the competitor. Click fraud grew so rapidly that marketers sought to diversify their online
positions away from pay-per-click marketing through new mediums.
Although pay-per-click advertising remains a common and effective advertising tool, marketers
adapted yet again to the changing dynamics of the Internet by adopting new techniques such as
pay-per-performance advertising, search engine optimization, and affiliate marketing. As the
pace of the Internet's evolution increases, it seems all the more likely that advertising
successfully on the Internet will require a strategy that shuns constancy and embraces change.

Which of the following words best describes the author’s tone in the passage?

A) Critical

B) Analytical

C) Frustrated

D) Biased

E) Surprised
The passage implies that which of the following attributes will be the most important for future
success in online advertising:

A) Flexible creativity

B) Disciplined patience

C) Uniform approach

D) Ruthless tenacity

E) Eclectic approach

According to the passage, the largest point at which the television and Internet differ as an
advertising medium is:

A) The type of individual each medium reaches

B) Whether the medium is interactive

C) The pace at which the medium evolves

D) The cost of advertising with each medium

E) Whether each medium contains drawbacks

According to the passage, which of the following best describes the practice of click fraud?

A) Clicking on the banner advertisements of rival companies

B) Using software to block advertisements

C) Utilizing search engine optimization to visit the pages of competitors

D) Fraudulently purchasing products online

E) Clicking on the pay-per-click ads of competitors

According to the passage, which of the following best describes the current status of pop-up ads?

A) Widely used

B) Less popular now than at earlier times

C) A frequent target of click fraud

D) Non-existent due to pop-up blockers

Which of the following most accurately states the main idea of the passage?

A) Although pay-per-click advertising remains a wide-spread and effective online advertising

B) Internet advertising is not well received by Internet users, causing independent

C) Unlike the television, the Internet has experienced dramatic changes in short periods of
time.

D) Unlike the television, the Internet has evolved rapidly, forcing online marketers to develop
new advertising strategies and mediums.

E) The pace of the Internet’s evolution is increasing and will only increase in the future.

The author implies what about the future of pay-per-performance advertising?

A) Although it improves on pay-per-click advertising, it is still vulnerable to click fraud

B) It will one day become extinct as Internet users discover drawbacks with it

C) Internet users will develop free software to block its effectiveness

D) It will eventually become less popular with advertisers as the Internet evolves and
drawbacks emerge

E) It will not face drawbacks due to its differing approach to online marketing