Display Advertising: Boost Your Online Strategy

Display advertising can be a decisive factor in your online marketing strategy. Discover how to successfully incorporate it.

Our online activities are mostly influenced by our offline behavior, and advertising is no exception to this rule. These materials first appeared in the form of prints or banners, and they found a way to catch our attention in no time. They also managed to startle our senses until we acquired new products and services.

Fast-forwarding to the digital era we’re in, our relationship with online advertising seems to mimic the initially existing one. Meaning that these eye-catching banners still get our attention involuntarily in the digital space.

Ever wondered what these materials that seem to be tailored just around your needs are called? They represent our next topic to pursue — display advertising. We’ll go through its purpose, benefits, and how you can use it to advertise your business.

What Is Display Advertising?

An important part of efficiently positioning and marketing your brand in the online world is display advertising. This form of publicity is usually showcased on third-party sites as text, images, video, or a combination of the three. Its main purpose is to encourage customers to view or purchase certain products and services. Or to put it simply — it is a display method that drives website visitors to take a certain action.

The success of display advertising campaigns is generally measured on a CPC (cost per click) basis. This means that whenever someone engages with your online ad, you’re brought one step closer to success.

Benefits Of Display Advertising

A successful marketing campaign consists of an omnichannel strategy. Each activity you do or provide plays a significant role in effectively putting your product/service on the online map.

In the case of display advertising, these are its major perks:

Brand awareness

Display advertising has the potential to connect you with a wider audience. It can also help raise brand awareness among your target niche. Not only does it offer you exposure, but it also enables your brand to be marketed in a creative way across different devices.

Catchy visuals coupled with powerful messaging can reach a substantial number of people if targeted right. This leads to the desired brand awareness, which is vital for any online strategy.

Access to your ideal audience

One defining aspect of display advertising is that it appears on networks of websites. The most popular display network is Google. Other than Google, we can find display advertising on networks of Facebook, Youtube, and so on. How does this benefit your brand? It allows you access to your ideal audience.

It’s no secret that Google and Facebook are two of the go-to platforms for online browsing, so most of the online audience is already there. With personalized targeting and adapting to their online behavior, there is a substantial opportunity for quality leads.

Effective targeting can be a mix of:

Keywords
Demographics
Interests
Behavior

This is a great method that can be used to familiarize your desired audience with your brand. It can also convey your message easier. It has been proved that people retain information 65% better when they’re confronted with an image paired with text, which is the most common type of display advertising.

A solid foundation for your overall strategy

As part of a broader online marketing strategy, display advertising can represent your cornerstone.

Most marketing strategies are built on the four stages funnel method: awareness → interest → desire → action.

Source: Smart Insights

For a full-funnel marketing strategy, you have to blend various marketing techniques, from social media to SEO or lead generation. The best news about display advertising is that its insights can benefit each step of this funnel.

By using behavioral targeting, we can go from gaining brand awareness to driving leads, meaning from awareness to action. Not only does display advertising have the potential to fulfill each funnel of your marketing strategy, but it can also help you understand the customer decision journey. Thus, you can apply all these insights and make the best out of your marketing efforts.

How to Include Display Advertising in Your Online Approach

We’ve seen how display advertising can benefit your overall marketing efforts, but what is a constructive way of implementing it in a comprehensive online strategy?

Well, to start, let’s take a look at your objectives. Do you want to:

Increase your sales?
Build customer loyalty?
Create engagement with your audience?
Raise brand awareness?

These objectives are the foundation of any online strategy. For example, if you want to build brand awareness, you can leverage your social media presence, combined with a healthy mix of in-depth SEO and behavioral display advertising.

Keep in mind that an omnichannel strategy creates a personalized experience and it is proved to be more effective than a single-way approach. So even if you’re aiming for effective display advertising, it is important to always incorporate it into a wider approach.

Bonus points:

This is one of the only methods through which you can target consumers on the go. By making the best use of geo-targeting, consumers can engage with your creative ads while passing through a certain location.
As mentioned, you can target customers at any stage of the marketing funnel. With this in mind, you can create different ads for every step of the decision-making process.
Other stages of your campaign can be complemented or even jumpstarted by display advertising. For example, by raising brand awareness through these ads, you can further encourage customers to look your brand up and engage with your SEO strategies.

Tips:

Strong CTAs are a decisive factor in the success of display ads. Consider adding complementary calls-to-action to their messaging.
Because display advertising is such an effective method, it is also widely spread on the internet, sometimes leading to saturation on the audience’s part. We need to be respectful of their online experience and not overcrowd the internet with unwanted ads.
Consider retargeting. This is one of the most powerful methods of getting in touch with our audience, as we’re targeting users who have already presented interest in our brand.

Conclusion

A successful marketing recipe consists of understanding your audience’s preferred channels, tailoring content around them, and consistently adapting to their needs based on your campaigns’ insights. If you don’t know where to start, we’re here to help you.

If you’re looking to kickstart your display advertising campaign, you can contact us!