A long time ago, at the dawn of the Internet era, there was a particular form of advertising marketers loved. It was known as display advertising, and thanks to bright colors and bold graphics, banners were seen as the way to go. Then Google introduced keyword advertising, where with a nice bidding system, you could place your ads to specifically targeted markets. And for a while, display advertising took the back seat.
But today, marketers know that to promote your brand, you need to consider displaying it. Display Advertising has made its reentry in a more sophisticated and targeted manner. In fact, according to eMarketer.com, “The US display advertising market is set to grow 12.9% to $8.56 billion this year, up from $7.6 billion in 2009. By 2014, display spending is expected to reach $14.71 billion and take an estimated 40.5% share of the overall online ad market, up from 34.1% this year.”
However in order to get those higher conversions, display advertising needs to be targeted. Anyone can use banner or display advertising, the trick is know the right websites which will raise awareness and increase conversion rates.
While Yahoo is the king of display advertising (they generated 455 million revenue from display advertising), Google has tried to catch up by acquiring YouTube and DoubleClick, both vehicles aimed at display advertising.
It’s hard to turn prospects into customers, and while an online campaign can show much higher conversion rates than say a more traditional DM campaign, you are still going to struggle to get those numbers up. Add to this a generous bounce rate (often underestimated, but a reality nonetheless), and your numbers can fall lower than expected.
Having said this, your audience doesn’t always act as predicted and they will move through various marketing channels. Build the right funnels and you can capture them through a variety of parallel campaigns. The data this generates is also invaluable if analyzed and used correctly. Adobe for example has a number of solutions to help you refine segmentation and read and understand the data captured from it.
How do display ads work on your website?
Generally, a customer will visit your site and browse your products while deciding whether to make a purchase or leave the site. A display ad, which appears when the prospect is browsing, can typically push the prospect into making a buying decision. The ad must be relevant and resonate with what the customer is looking for, in order for it to work.
Here’s how sophisticated software works when it comes to recognizing and targeting your website audience:
- It will segment your audience, so you can select who on your site to target and for what. In the past, display ads would attract a wider audience, a lot of them not potential customers. The modern-refined version as seen in Adobe products can correct this problem and encourage the ‘right’ kind of buyer.
- It will track your audience after they leave your site and help you assess the other sites they visit. This lets you calculate the frequency with which they visit other sites so you can base your own promotional campaign around it. One of the best known examples of this is Amazon.com, which has perfected display advertising and uses it to leverage a whole new client base.
- It can create a target profile through captured data. This is the data visitors leave behind, which when pieced together can give you a strong picture of what your ideal target audience is like.
- It allows each click to count. Clicking through an ad can bring in higher numbers, but it does not necessarily increase your conversion rate. While click-through rates have become the standard in any search engine analysis, it’s the actual testing of your audience that will determine how valuable this approach is. This can be done through split testing, where the ad is tested on two groups and the conversion rate is then analysis. Alternatively, you can create two different ads and test them to see which works better as can be seen in this case study with a leading financial group.
Your end objective is to a) get all the groups – potential customers, early abandoners, late abandoners, and current customers to become aware of the brand through specific messaging developed for each group and b) increase your conversion rate through niche targeting. If you cannot see a conversion within a specified time period, say 14 days, it might be time to pull the ad and develop a new one.
A testing program is important and is based on identifiable benchmarks and a definitive test selection, be it return on investment or click per views. While the test may be to find specific answers, be prepared to collect data which can be used in parallel analysis.
Using specific software will help you carry out your objectives and testing rapidly, so changes that need to be made can be done with minimal fuss or collateral damage. Bringing all the relevant departments together – IT, creative, and marketing – will also help unify the process and result in a better awareness throughout the company.
