No one would dispute the power of audio to convey a message; online audio advertising is an effective means of getting the attention of an online audience. When paired with online video in the form of pay per play video advertising, it's an engaging and cost effective way to increase your market share among consumers on the web. Professional and powerful, these ads are an exciting way to make an impact on a highly targeted audience.

Online audio advertising may be a newer medium, but it's already big business. As you read this, there are more than 140 million audio advertisements reaching an online audience globally. By 2012, this is projected to be a $35 billion industry; any business that wants to stay ahead of the curve would do well to claim its own share of this enormous and fast-growing medium.

Online audio advertising which is served contextually, a la the text advertising already common online will provide advertisers unprecedented reach to highly targeted consumers. 5 second pay per play advertising delivers a quick message to viewers; unlike text based contextual advertising, this is a guaranteed impression. These audio ads can even be geo-targeted to allow advertisers whether local, national or international to reach precisely the market they're aiming for.

The potential of online audio advertising on a pay per play model is something which has never been seen in web-based advertising. There are nearly one billion internet users worldwide; the BPA is currently testing this new technology and analyzing statistics to develop a completely traceable and verifiable deployment model for these newest of new media advertising strategies. Whatever the results, I am sure their findings for this type of media format will go some way in reassuring advertisers and listeners that this is a wholly acceptable media which is growing in popularity.

Text ads and banner advertisements are fine, but there are many consumers who find it off putting to read a website which is littered with this kind of commercial content. Visitors are particularly turned off by those ads whose placements are designed to obscure the content of the site which visitors have, after all come to see. By contrast, online audio advertising is much less intrusive on the visitor's web surfing experience; it is a brief message played once and only once per visit.

Online audio advertising using a pay per play business model is a development which advertisers should keep an eye on with a view to finding the best placements to reach their markets. This is a format which offers new possibilities for online advertising and has great potential for advertisers.

Creating an audio ad is a simple task; Windows, MacOS and Linux systems all offer built-in recording tools with free recording software also being readily available to those who want something more sophisticated to record their online audio ads; the only other thing you need is a microphone!