From banner ads to pop ups: display ad­vert­ising is un­avoid­able, and every internet user, whether using a desktop or mobile device, en­coun­ters it on a daily basis. As the original means for online ad­vert­ising, display ads have undergone a drastic trans­form­a­tion in recent years. Thanks to real-time auc­tion­ing, re­tar­get­ing strategies, and the arrival of other new tech­niques, this tra­di­tion­al form of ad­vert­ising is still an integral part of a robust marketing mix. Find out more about the basics of display marketing, the latest trends that are driving the industry, and the growing res­ist­ance against ad blockers.

Display marketing: defin­i­tion

The term display ad­vert­ising en­com­passes all marketing tech­niques that involve graphic elements within the ad­vert­ise­ments. These include video and animation as well as more tra­di­tion­al media, like banners and images.  

The most important players in display marketing are ad­vert­isers and pub­lish­ers. Ad­vert­isers seek to promote their companies, products, or services, while pub­lish­ers offer up their resources (ad space) in exchange for money. Different ad­vert­ising forms are booked via a display network on third-party websites. These ads are then displayed according to the terms and con­di­tions that were agreed upon by both buyer and seller prior to the purchase. But before this step can be carried out, a thorough target group analysis needs to be done in order to make sure that the ads are displayed in the proper en­vir­on­ment.

Goals of display marketing

The goal of most ad­vert­isers is to provoke a reaction from their viewers. Online, users most often end up reaching the ad­vert­iser’s site or a specific landing page by first clicking on some sort of ad­vert­ising material. Ad­di­tion­ally, a well-po­si­tioned ad can help influence a company’s overall repu­ta­tion. This is where we really see striking dif­fer­ences between display ad­vert­ising and SEA and SEO strategies. While search engine marketing mostly revolves around texts, display marketing deals primarily with images. The visual character of ads both in­di­vidu­al­ise and strengthen the image of companies and their brands.

Forms of display marketing

There’s much more to display ad­vert­ising than just your good-old-fashioned banner ad. In addition to methods like banners and buttons, graphical elements, like text, image, or video content can also be used. There’s a dif­fer­ence between display ads and mobile ads, with the latter format being used for mobile devices. Here’s an overview of some typical ad­vert­ising forms used in display marketing:

  • Banner: the sizes of banner ads can vary, and they can feature static, animated, or in­ter­act­ive designs. An overview of different types of banner ads can be found here.
  • Pop-up: ad­vert­ising screens that ‘pop up’ when a user carries out a specific action, like scrolling over a certain word. This method relies on JavaS­cript.
  • Pop under: works the same way pop up ads do, but appears after a website has been closed.
  • Layer ads: unlike pop ups, which open a separate window, layer ads cover a site’s entire content.
  • Content ads: these are banner ads that are embedded directly into the content of a page.

But this is only a small sample of the different types of display ads, as display marketing offers an extensive arsenal of different formats that vary from one another in more ways than just an ad’s form, size, and position. Depending on which ad­vert­ising strategies a company pursues, in­ter­act­ive ad­vert­ising, storytelling marketing, or cross-media marketing can also play sig­ni­fic­ant roles.

Billing models for display ad­vert­ising

The prin­ciples behind display marketing function in a similar way to those of the print ad­vert­ising sector: ad­vert­isers book ad­vert­ising space and the publisher then runs an ad there. The billing process used for display ad­vert­ising is more exact; here, different para­met­ers are involved. If cal­cu­lated according to the per­form­ance marketing model, then the CPM (cost per mile) is used. In theory, the ad­vert­iser pays in units of 100 in­di­vidu­als who’ve been exposed to their ads. Recently, success-based billing models have become more common; these only require ad­vert­isers to pay when users click on an ad or finalise a purchase or contract (CPS).

Typical billing models for display ad­vert­ising are:

  • CPM = cost per mile
  • CPC = cost per click
  • CPL = cost per lead
  • CPS = cost per sale  

Chal­lenges of display marketing

Launched over 20 years ago, the first banner ads had CTRs (click through rates) of 44%. No doubt many ad­vert­isers long for these golden days, as today’s average CTR is only a measly 0.1%–meaning that out of 1,000 users, only one person will end up clicking the display ad. The main reason for this is that users have become de­sens­it­ised. Some marketers refer to this phe­nomen­on as banner blindness. Ad­vert­ise­ments, es­pe­cially poorly designed ones, are im­me­di­ately neg­at­ively perceived by viewers, and this is es­pe­cially true for pop-ups.

The rise of ad blockers has put a further dent into the vis­ib­il­ity of run-of-the-mill banner ads, which has made display marketing an in­creas­ingly difficult practice. But instead of proph­es­ising an end to display ad­vert­ising, experts are beginning to observe a change in the quality and ef­fi­ciency of ad­vert­ising.

Native ad­vert­ising and video ads

One par­tic­u­larly important fad that’s trending nowadays is native ad­vert­ising. Embedded in editorial content, the current direction of online ad­vert­ising is one that in­creas­ingly seeks to appear credible while still remaining discrete to viewers. Mobile ad­vert­ising in par­tic­u­lar has been quick to adopt this strategy. This is due to the con­straints that the smaller smart­phone screens put on the vis­ib­il­ity of tra­di­tion­al banner ad­vert­ise­ments. User behaviour for mobile devices also doesn’t lend itself as well to banner ads as tra­di­tion­al desktop search patterns. This is where native ad­vert­ising can be a viable solution.  

A further shimmer of hope for display marketing is the use of videos as marketing in­stru­ments. The boom in video ad­vert­ising seems to be main­tain­ing its course, and in-stream video ads have proven to be par­tic­u­larly promising. The latter feature functions by running ads before or after the desired content is played.

In terms of quantity, automated ad­vert­ising markets seem to be es­pe­cially lucrative sources of growth. A recent flood of ads, and hence an increase in supply, has driven down prices and resulted in more and more websites being bombarded with ads. Pro­gram­mat­ic ad­vert­ising and real-time ad­vert­ising are key to more efficient campaigns. Higher ad­vert­ising costs are com­pensated for through better quality, less scatter loss, and increased vis­ib­il­ity.

Go to Main Menu