Advertising is on its deathbed.If traditional advertising still works for you, I bet you aren’t really advertising. You’re persuading.

Before I explain, let me pose a question: What’s the difference between advertising/marketing and sales?

Truth is, they’re almost identical. Or they should be. The only true difference between the two is the ability to accurately measure cause and effect. It’s easier to fire an ineffective salesman than an ineffective ad firm. At least, it used to be.

Ineffective advertising has finally been exposed, and, like a vampire, it’s withering away under the rays of sunlight.

Where does the light come from? Web analytics. Web analytics is a cure for not only bad advertising but also bad sales. We can now measure the effects of offsite ads and online conversion. We can measure what actually happens rather than speculate. We see when email or banners are working but the site is failing. We know more about our customers, what they do, and in some cases why they do it.

Slowly, companies are getting wise to this ability to measure the buying and selling processes. Online, accountability is built in at every turn. Companies are posing questions about their offline campaigns. They’re losing patience with advertising and all its promises. It’s not that advertising is getting worse. Actually, it seems better and more relevant. It’s just too little, too late.

Continue reading my column on ClickZ…