Display Advertising

Display Advertising 

Online advertising is a fierce game, especially when so many brands are trying to compete for your target audience’s attention. Consumers are becoming increasingly aware of spammy ads and are not likely to engage with ads that aren’t relevant or personalised to their needs and interests. Compared to other types of online advertising, display ads can be a great way to create highly relevant, valuable and well-placed ads that turn passive browsers into leads or customers. 

Display advertising may be a good option for your business if:

• You rely on visual promotion for your products or services
• You have a longer sales cycle that requires you to plant seeds and put your brand in consumers’ awareness 
• You want to target consumers in the discovery or awareness stage of the sales funnel
• You want to reach niche markets 

This guide will help you understand the fundamentals of display advertising including:

• What is display advertising:
• The difference between display and native ads
• The different types of display advertising campaigns and ad formats 
• The pros and cons of display ads
• Display advertising costs 
• How to create display advertising campaigns

What is display advertising?

Display advertising is an umbrella term for many different types of paid ads that feature on websites, apps and social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. They are created using a combination of text, static images, video and other rich media, as well as specific targeting options, to convey personalised messaging to your target audience. When someone clicks on your ad, they are redirected to your website or landing page. Display ads can help you generate brand awareness and push consumers further along your sales funnel. 

Online advertising is broad and there are some crossovers between native, search and display advertising. However, each one serves a different purpose and it’s important to understand what they are and when to use them.

Display vs native advertising: What is the difference?

Unlike display ads which are purposely designed to stand out from the surrounding content, native ads are designed to blend in and provide complimentary or educational content that captures users’ attention and drives traffic to your site. Native ads can be effective if you know your target audience is spending time on a small handful of sites. On the other hand, display ads may be more suitable if you are targeting various market segments that are spread across different platforms, or if your main goal is retargeting.

You can see the difference between display ads and native ads below. The pop up display ad stands out and is obvious in its approach, whereas the native ad blends in seamlessly.

What is the difference between display advertising and paid search advertising?

Paid search advertising, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, is a type of online advertising where you pay to feature your ad at the top of search engine results pages above organic results when users search for specific keywords. The key difference between search and display ads is that search ads are a type of “pull” advertising whereas display ads are a type of “push advertising”. In other words, search ads are shown to people who are already looking for your product or service while display ads are shown to people who may or may not be interested based on certain targeting options. 

Look at this example of paid search ads for “women’s shoes”:

Let’s get back into display ads. 

What are the different types of display ads?

There are many different types of display ads to use depending on your product or service and advertising goals:

• Standard banner: A standard banner, or static ad, is a simple image ad that usually appears at the top, side or bottom sections of a web page. They are visible and seen by website users instantly. 
• Animated ads: An animated display ad uses any type of animated media such as video or GIFs to grab users’ attention. They often stand out more from static ads.
• Video ads: Video is one of the most powerful mediums for engagement and YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and other social platforms allow you to connect with consumers on a more personal level. Learn more about the benefits of video marketing.
• Expandable ads: Expandable ads are like banner ads except they expand either when a web page loads or based on user-initiated actions.
• Lightbox ads: Lightbox ads are interactive ad formats for the Google Display Network. They can feature images, videos or both. Lightbox ads are effective for reaching and engaging new audiences. 
• Interstitial ads: Interstitial ads take the form of a web page or pop-up box that is shown to a user before they are redirected to the web page they originally requested.

What are the pros and cons of display advertising?

There are of course both pros and cons of display advertising. Check out the table below:

How much does display advertising cost?

Display advertising costs can be categorised into three groups:

• In-house and outsourced services - e.g. will you hire a display advertising agency or keep everything in-house?
• Display advertising software and tools - you may need to use certain tools to create and manage your ads
• Publishing costs - the costs you pay to publish ads on your chosen display network, e.g. Google Ads

Most display ad campaigns are charged on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. In other words, you will be charged every time someone clicks on your ad based on your bidding strategy. There is no one-size-fits-all pricing model due to the number of variables such as your customer lifecycle, industry trends, user search demographics, ad relevance, landing page relevance and more. 

To give you an idea, the average cost-per-click on the Display Network is under $0.58 (WordStream).

So how does display advertising actually work?

How does display advertising work?

Let’s run through the basic steps of creating and running a display ad campaign:

1. Set your campaign objectives 
2. Set a budget 
3. Choose your display networks
4. Determine your targeting options 
5. Design your ad 
6. Create a landing page 

1. Set your campaign objectives

The first step in any advertising campaign is deciding what you want to achieve. Is it to get more sign-ups? Is it to get more people to enrol on your course? Do you want to generate sales for a product? You then need to think about your target audience. Which sites and platforms are they spending time on? Where do they live? What are their interests? These are all key factors that will underpin the strategic and creative elements of a campaign. 

2. Set a budget 

The next step is setting a budget. How much can you afford to spend on a campaign? Will you keep certain tasks in-house and hire an agency to do the rest, or do you want full campaign management? Below are some key considerations to help you plan your budget:

• How will it fit into the rest of your marketing/advertising budget?
• How much are your competitors bidding/spending?
• What is the cost-per-click (CPC) for the keyword you want to bid on?
• What are your top metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs)?

3. Choose your display networks

There are many different display ad networks to choose from depending on your goals and target audience. Some of the most popular networks include:

• Google Display Network: With over 2 million websites that your ad could be shown on, the Google Display Network is one of the most popular ad networks. It can also promote ads on other platforms and apps. 
• Facebook Audience Network: Facebook has over 1 billion users globally and is a great opportunity to reach large audiences. Ads appear across the Facebook platform.
• Media.net: Media.net lets you display ads on the Bing Network and Yahoo!, and while it’s a much smaller ad network compared to Google and Facebook, it may be a great option for contextual ad campaigns. 

These networks are the biggest and most popular, but there are many more ad networks to choose from that may be more cost-effective and suitable for your target audience. Do your research to suss out the options.

4. Determine your targeting options 

Getting your targeting options right is vital or else you run the risk of serving your ads to people who aren’t interested in your product, service or offering. Some of the key targeting options include:

• Keyword targeting: Your ads are shown on pages with content that has the same keywords you’re targeting. 
• Demographic targeting: Your ads are shown to a target audience that aligns with a specific demographic profile. 
• Audience targeting: Also known as remarketing, this allows you to target people who have already visited your site.
• Topic targeting: Your ads shown on a cluster of websites within a certain topic.
• Placement targeting: You can choose which websites your ads appear on.
• Interest targeting: Your ads are shown to certain people based on what they are searching for on a search engine. There are two segments of interest targeting: in-market targeting (relating to products and services) and affinity targeting (relating to topics and interests a user is interested in).
• Retargeting/remarketing: When your ad is shown to someone who has already visited your website. This is done using cookies (the data used to track which web pages you have visited).
• Contextual targeting: When you place an ad on a website that has similar or related content, e.g. advertising gardening tools on a seeds and bulbs website. 

5. Design your ad 

Once you’ve determined the best targeting options it’s time to get creative. Writing compelling ad copy and creating visually appealing graphics is what will capture your audience’s attention and get them to click on your ad. 

Don’t worry if your design skills aren’t polished, there are some great tools on the market today to help you create stunning ad assets including Canva, Crello, Giffy and Soapbox. You can also consider outsourcing creative work to an agency. Below are some tips to help you create effective ad creatives:

• Pay attention to colour: The colours you use should align with your brand, but also pay attention to the psychology of colour and the emotions they evoke. Your colour palette may also differ depending on your target audience.
• Use simple, on-brand imagery: Whether you’re using photos, illustrations or graphics, try to keep it as simple as possible. While it’s tempting to get carried away by trying to cover it all, your message needs to be conveyed clearly and quickly. 
• Write compelling copy: The premise of display ads is their visual appeal, but the copy is just as important. Choose your words wisely and try to evoke curiosity or a sense of urgency that makes them want to click on your ad. Use numbers and symbols where possible as they’re eye-catching and easy to understand.
• Typography: Make sure your copy is easy to read by choosing an on-brand and striking font. You could also use a bold typeface for certain words or sections of the copy for impact. 
• Include a strong CTA: Your call-to-action should be clear, compelling and stand out from the rest of the copy. You can play around and test out different options but aim to highlight the benefit of clicking, e.g. “Get your free trial!” or “Download your free copy”.

6. Create a landing page 

Landing pages play an important role in all online ad campaigns. A landing page is a web page designed specifically for when people click on your paid search and display ads to convert this traffic into leads and customers. It should build on your ad and provide more information on your offer including social proof and a clear CTA. 

The goal is to keep people on the page, so consider removing your website navigation bar and avoid providing too much information. Testing and optimising CTAs, imagery, video and page layout is the key to increasing landing page conversion. 

What are the best practices for display advertising?

Below are some tips to improve your display ads and increase conversions:

• Use captivating visual media: Using unique, creative or visually interesting media can make a huge difference in conversion rates even if your product or service is that interesting. 
• Create multiple ad formats: If you have time, experiment with different ad formats to see which ones get the most impressions and clicks. 
• Include a CTA button: Your call-to-action (CTA) button should be strong and help drive clicks. It needs to tell customers exactly what you want them to do and why. 
• Create a compelling headline: Craft clear and compelling headlines that hook your audience and spark a curiosity to learn more.
• Test, test, test: Make A/B testing part of your strategy to see which ad components drive more conversions. 

Display advertising opens up a wealth of opportunities for small businesses – it’s cost-effective, has extensive reach and can be set up quickly. That said, you’ll need to make sure you choose the right ad networks and do your research and know how to use different ad formats and media. 

To save time, stay on top of best practices and get more bang for your buck, you can also hire a display advertising agency. Display advertising agencies are experts in creating highly effective display ads and know how to build a CPC bidding strategy that helps you maximise your return on investment. Learn more about display advertising agencies and the services they offer.

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