Everything You Need to Know About Display Advertising

As digital advertising spendings are expected to further increase worldwide, it is not surprising that display advertising accounted for the largest ad spend share in 2021 at 244 billion USD, according to Statista. In this post, we will go over all you need to know about display advertising. 

What Is Display Advertising

Display advertising refers to all the visual advertisements that are usually seen on the sides or top of third-party websites. These ads are visible on several websites found on a user’s search engine results page and typically have some type of call to action. In this form of advertising, the visuals used can include text, imagery, or video which users can click to visit a page to find out more about a product or service.

Now that you have a better understanding on what display advertising is, let’s get into how display advertising campaigns work. The most widely used networks for running display advertising campaigns are Facebook ads and Google ads. Let’s use an example on Google ads to better explain how they work. For instance, the display ads that are run through Google will appear on websites within the Google Display Network. They can include YouTube videos, Gmail, and web pages that are listed on Google’s search engine result page. 

Examples of Display Advertising

As with all other forms of advertising, display advertising aims to capture users’ attention by leveraging different tactics and styles to convey its main message. Some are more traditional and have come a long way while others are more innovative and novel. Here are four of the most common types of display ads you may come across.

Banner Ads

Being one of the most common and traditional forms of digital advertising, banner ads usually appear at the top, bottom, or sides of a website in a banner format. As for those that appear at the top, they typically span from one end of the screen to the other. Effective banner ads encompass good use of excellent visuals, branding, and targeted keywords to capture the user’s attention.

Video Ads

Video advertising is a great way for you to engage with your audience and boost their awareness about your business using visuals and audio capabilities. In addition, it is widely regarded to be one of the most effective means of advertising as video ads are more interactive and are associated with higher engagement rates. Some examples of advertising platforms that video ads can be run include YouTube and social media channels like Instagram and Facebook.

Rich Media Ads

Due to the abundance of display ads, most consumers have chosen to not give their attention to them when browsing a website. This is also one disadvantage of such display advertising. Nonetheless, a possible way to address this will be to make use of rich media ads. Rich media is a kind of ad with advanced and interactive features like video, audio, or other elements. They aim to increase engagement levels of the audiences with the content. 

Interstitial Ads

Interstitial ads are noticeable ad formats that take up the entire screen of the site. They appear as a webpage on a desktop and are useful in grabbing the viewer’s attention. Such ads differ from pop-up ads which appear immediately as they only appear when the viewer takes a certain action. In addition, there exists a limit to the number of interstitial ads each user receives in one hour. 

Benefits of Display Advertising

As seen, there are many display advertising formats which are more effective than most digital options out there. Here, we’ll walk you through some of the key benefits of using display advertising in your marketing strategy.

Cost-effective as an advertising option

Display ads are relatively inexpensive when compared to alternative advertising means. This is because these alternatives tend to incur higher costs in creation and production. Furthermore, they provide one with affordable rates and flexibility in paying. This can be especially helpful for brands that are running marketing campaigns on a tight budget.

Ease of tracking and monitoring ads performance 

In any marketing campaign, nothing is more essential than keeping tabs on how successful your ads performance is. With display ads, you can track key metrics like the total number of impressions and clicks on ads. As display advertising is fundamentally used in building brand awareness, the key metric you should focus on is the number of impressions. For the monitoring of ads performance, Google Display Network and Facebook Advertising provide comprehensive reports with relevant insights and data that will be useful for your current and future marketing campaigns. Moreover, Google Display Network offers another useful feature called a view-through window. This is a tool that can determine if someone has seen the display ad and if they have converted. 

Create opportunities to retarget customers

You may not know exactly what retargeting does, but chances are you will have encountered it before. If you have ever done online shopping and browsed a website, exit it, and come across an advertisement for that item again when looking at other things online, you have been among the retargeted customers. Display ad retargeting refers to the showing of display ads to customers according to their actions and behaviours on the web. They consist of those  who have indicated their interest in your products or services, but have not made the purchase. By showing your display ads to these customers again, you can encourage them to get back and complete their journey. 

Get Started With Display Advertising

Now that you are equipped with some basics of display advertising, are you interested to learn how you can use display advertising with other marketing techniques? Do you want to know how you can reach potential customers at all levels of their journey? If you do, consider signing up for our beginner-friendly Digital Marketing course at Vertical Institute today! Learn the fundamentals of display advertising, social media advertising, paid social media, Tiktok advertising, SEM, SEO, and more with our experts and instructors. You will also be able to earn an accredited certificate in Singapore. 

Besides digital marketing, Vertical Institute also offers UX Design and Data Analytics courses in Singapore. These are some tech skills that are highly in-demand today and will be helpful for your digital marketing career.

About Vertical Institute

Vertical Institute prepares individuals for the jobs of tomorrow. We specialise in teaching in-demand skills, building the next generation of changemakers and inventors through our world-class tech courses and certifications. Singaporeans and PRs can receive up to 70% IBF Funding off their course fees with Vertical Institute. The remaining fees can be claimable with SkillsFuture Credits or NTUC UTAP Funding.