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Your Guide to Display Advertising

Your Guide to Display Advertising

Sonal Agarwal
Aug 26, 2024
Your Guide to Display Advertising

Display advertising is a popular type of online advertising that involves the use of visual elements, like text, images, animation, etc., to promote a product or service. The first display ad was served in 1994 by AT&T on HotWired, a commercial web magazine, and since then, display advertising has come a long way, not only in the appearance of the ads but also in the frequency with which users come across different types of display ads online.

Here’s a comprehensive guide to help understand what display advertising is, what display ads are, and the different types of display advertising that advertisers can add to their marketing mix.

What Is Display Advertising?

Display advertising uses visual elements, like videos or images, engaging ad copy, and a call-to-action that compels users to take action. Display advertising can be used to promote products, services, or content marketing efforts. Advertisers can use different types of display ads to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive traffic to the brand’s website. Display ads can be created using multiple ad formats and served across a range of digital platforms, like apps, websites, etc.

What Are Display Ads?

Display ads can be static ads with an image, or they can be animated ads with multiple images, changing text, or even a video. These ads can be created in a variety of formats, from banner ads to rich media ads. They can be used to promote offerings or to engage, inform, or educate the audience.

What Are the Elements of Digital Display Ads?

There are three main elements of a display ad – the visual, ad copy, and the CTA. The visual must be appealing, but it should also successfully convey the brand’s message and story. The copy should be able to transform the interest generated by the visual into action, which is expressed in the CTA. The CTA should drive action and also instruct the audience about the next step to take.

What Are Display Networks?

A display network is a platform where advertisers can buy ad placements across websites and apps for their display ad campaigns.

Benefits of Display Advertising

Display advertising is a preferred choice for advertisers aiming to reach a large audience base. Once you understand what online display advertising is, you should consider the many benefits it has to offer:

  • Better Visibility: Display advertising can help advertisers reach a larger audience. With the help of engaging, attention-grabbing display ads, it gets easier to reach more users, which leads to better online visibility.
  • Reach Is Targeted: Display advertising allows advertisers to target audiences based on demographics, user interest, and online behavior. Targeted display advertising allows advertisers to define what display ads are to be served to what audience.
  • Engaging Ad Units: With the availability of several different ad formats, it is easier for advertisers to create compelling ad campaigns that easily grab user attention.
  • Cost-Effective: Display ads usually have a low cost-per-impression. Display advertising is considered to be a cost-efficient option as compared to several other digital advertising methods.
  • Real-time Analytics: You can easily track the performance of your display advertising campaigns with the help of key metrics such as click-through rate, conversion rate, engagement rate, etc.

What Are the Types of Digital Display Ads

  • Static ads: Static display ads are the ones that don’t dynamically change and adapt based on user information and behavior. These ads contain fixed elements, including the visual, copy, and a CTA.
  • Animated Ads: Animated display ads consist of some animated elements that help capture user attention. As compared to static display ads, these ads are known to be more captivating and impactful.
  • In Banner Video Ads: IBV  ads are the ones that contain a video component along with any image or plain text. These ads leverage motion, sound, and dynamic visuals to capture and maintain viewer attention.
  • Interactive ads: An interactive display ad requires users to interact with the ad unit in some way. These ads can include elements like surveys, quizzes, etc. that encourage user participation. Since the user interacts with these ads, they have higher conversion rates as compared to other types of ads.

What Are Digital Display Ads Formats?

In display advertising, various types of ad formats are available for use in advertising campaigns.

  • Banner Ads: Banner ads have a minimalistic design with a focus on the imagery. These ads are displayed at the top of a webpage and can easily capture user attention.
  • Interstitial Ads: Interstitial ads are those that usually cover the entire screen of the webpage they are being displayed on. These ads look like a separate webpage and are displayed briefly before redirecting the user to the original webpage.
  • Rich Media Display Ads: These ads include rich media elements, like video, audio, interactive elements, etc. When used in combination with text and visuals, these elements entice users to interact with the ad. These ads are not only visually appealing but also known for their high success rates.
  • Retargeting Display Ads: Retargeting ads showcase your offerings to potential customers based on their online behavior. These display ads are designed to recapture the attention of users who have already shown interest in a particular product or service by a brand. 
  • Native Display Ads: Native display ads appear on a webpage as a part of its original content. Although these ads are used to promote a product or service, they don’t stand out due to their cohesive design. 

How to Create Display Ads

The best way to create engaging display ads is by using an efficient ad builder. Ad builders are advanced digital platforms that come with all the necessary features and capabilities that you may need to create, launch, manage, and optimize display advertising campaigns. Offering a wide range of ready-to-use templates as well as customization options using a drag-and-drop ad builder, these platforms can help you streamline the ad production process.

What Are Online Display Ads Best Practices

The Visual

The design and visual components of a display ad are crucial, as an effective design is key to better engagement and combatting banner blindness. It is important to keep it simple and focus on a single image. Readability is also important for actually making an impact, while complex graphics and cluttered visuals tend to overwhelm viewers and reduce engagement. You can also consider using custom images to maintain consistency across all digital platforms.

The Message

It is important to segment your target audience and tailor the brand message to different segments. The message should also have a clear value proposition that is clear and compelling. The CTA is another crucial component of the ad. It should drive action and clearly instruct the audience about the next step they are supposed to take.

Follow a Well-Thought-Out Strategy

Creating an attention-grabbing ad is not enough to ensure the success of an advertising campaign. You need to have a strong strategy in place to drive results. Align your ads with relevant landing pages to ensure a seamless user journey, and you should also ensure that your display ads align well with your search ads. You can also check out the latest industry trends to give your strategy a better direction.

Over the years, display ads have become a staple of digital marketing, being integrated into almost every digital advertising campaign. Offering several benefits, display ads can be expected to stay as important, if not more, as they are today.

Expand Your Reach the Right Way
The last few years stood witness to the boom in Connected TVs and Over-the-Top platforms, which established themselves as the primary source of video content for a majority of the world’s population. As more people shifted to these platforms as compared to linear TVs, for brands and advertising companies, CTV and OTTs represented new opportunities to reach a new, diverse, and growing audience base. Whether it is brands or advertising companies, integrating connected TV into their digital campaigns can significantly improve the impact of their cross-channel marketing strategies.
Communicate Your Message Loud and Clear with ADCTV
Despite the significant growth OTTs and CTVs have showcased, the platform still has a lot of untapped potential that is just being discovered by brands and advertising companies. OTT and CTV brand experiences can help maximize returns on your dollar spends as your connected TV advertising campaign takes your communication to a variety of channels and platforms across the CTV landscape.Whether you are a brand or advertising companies, OTT and CTV advertising with ADCTV offer top features and capabilities to help you create immersive, interactive, and engaging connected TV advertising experiences. Companies can use turnkey templates, or build their own templates, to build engaging rich media ads for their campaigns, which are created with universally accepted ad tags. Additionally, ADCTV also offers transparent real-time reports that allow you to measure and analyze campaign performance and optimize ROIs.