Ebook: Understanding Targeted Digital Display Ads

Need a starting point or “101 lesson” on the different types of targeted display advertising available today? Looking for more ways to get your brand in front of your most important audience? This ebook is perfect for both!

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Digital Display Ads

Digital display ads are not unlike billboards. They are visual components of a campaign and representative of the overall digital marketing of a strategy. Digital display ads are sold through third-party advertising networks (such as Google or Bing) and show up on websites signed up as publishers. There are different types of display ads, but they all have a lot in common: They’re designed to be noticeable, brief, and appealing.

What is digital display advertising? It’s designed to target those who are already looking at a website. A website focused on boating equipment will likely have ads that are about boating. Since the person is already looking at boating news, they may be interested in boating parts. In this way, digital display advertising is actually far more useful than a billboard. It can target audiences on a very specific level.

Many marketers play with the format of display advertisement images and display advertising placement to determine what is going to be most successful for their brand. While it’s easy to answer “What is digital display?” it’s not as easy to say what will work for a business. Every industry and every customer is different. This leads to something known as split testing or a/b testing, under which multiple ads are shown at once to determine which is most likely to get a response.

While some marketers can create display advertising on their own, many hire professionals. Display advertising is a form of graphic design and marketing that often requires a professional touch. There are free solutions out there, but most of them aren’t very robust, and won’t give the polished look that the marketer demands.

Google Ads

Google Ads is the most popular third-party network for running ads. When you sign up as a company on Google Ads, you create a selection of ads to put either on their query pages (search ads) or on other websites (display ads). Google then starts running the ads based on your budget and will tell you how they’re performing. A Google Ads certification is something every marketer should have.

Display ads Google are highly effective because the Google display network is so large. Google can display ads on the websites they will be most effective on. Google also has advanced features like the Google Ads keyword planner and Google Ads customer service, and Google Ads pricing is based on your results.

As you create an ad, you will need to know the right Google display ads sizes. You can look at Google display ads examples. Google also publishes on a wide variety of platforms; Google Ads YouTube can run both ads and video. When considering types of Google Ads, many marketers end up trying multiple types to see which perform best. There are no free Google Ads, but there are coupons from time to time.

A Google Ads blog can cover important features such as the Google Ads console and dashboard, Google display ad sizes 2019, and Google display network examples. It can also go over the basics of Google display network sites and Google display network targeting. But if you want to know how to set up Google display ads, and the basic types of Google display ads, it’s often best to engage with a consultant or agency.

A major component of Google display ads value proposition is the sheer amount of data Google has on its audience. The Google display network explained ties into the browsing history of its users. Google smart display ads examples can leverage this information for better matches, as can Google display network native ads.

As far as how to optimize Google display ads or how to run Google display ads, Google makes the entire process so simple it’s almost foolproof. It’s easy to create a display ad. But it can be harder to ensure that the ad is getting the results that you want. Before you look into how to set up Google display ads, you also need to understand your ultimate goals for your business and your marketing campaigns.

Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is a very broad field. In addition to display and video advertising, there’s email advertising, mobile advertising, web personalization, re-targeting, and more. For every display marketing channel, there’s a different technique and strategy. When looking to advertise a new business online (or even an old one), it’s critical to leave no channel unexplored. It’s always best to do more advertising rather than too little.

Email marketing is still one of the most effective forms of marketing out there. But it’s also very active. Other types of marketing, such as content marketing through a website, or paid search advertising, can bring people in without significant overhead. Customers will come in on their own, which makes this type of advertising remarkably scalable. It doesn’t require a lot of human capital in order to scale up.

Why is display advertising an effective acquisition channel? Simple. It’s targeted. It presents a product or service to a customer who is already likely looking for that service. In doing so, it’s able to pre-score these leads. Additionally, it’s affordable. For display advertising you generally only pay for a click. So if someone just views your ad and moves on, you don’t pay a dime.

Of course, display advertising and online advertising still work hand-in-hand with other traditional forms of advertising, such as cold calling, mailing, and billboards. But the difference with online advertising is usually a matter of cost and ROI. Digital advertising is simply more affordable than other types of advertising, and more likely to yield results because of its broader scale approach.

If someone is new to digital marketing, display advertising is usually the best first step. Display advertising is simple and straightforward, and a marketer will be able to see whether it’s effective nearly immediately. Display advertising can also help build credibility for a new website, such as a new website that has just launched, and can also encourage social media likes, views, and shares, as long as the funnel is designed properly. Digital marketing is extremely accessible and display advertising is an affordable, high ROI option that most companies will find valuable for their overall digital marketing strategy.

Display Ads Example

Whenever someone breaks into something new, they often ask what makes that thing good. Looking at a display ads example can give a marketer some fairly precise ideas as to what makes effective display ads. Banners in digital marketing need to be:

  • Easy to read. The customer needs to be able to scan it and quickly get the gist. If the customer decides to take a better look at it, there should be slightly more information, such as a “tagline.” With a glance, the customer should understand what the company is about and what is being sold.
  • The right colors. Colors should be bright but shouldn’t clash. They should be noticeable but not tacky. They may change or flash, but they should never flash too fast or too obnoxiously. Flashing images can actually cause health issues for some people.
  • A call to action. Once the user has viewed the ad, they should know exactly what they should do next. Without a call to action, even the most evocative display ads don’t become effective display ads. When testing banner ads, it’s very common to test out multiple CTA types. It isn’t always obvious what type of call to action is going to inspire people, so frequent testing is the best way for advertisers to figure it out.

Banner ads in digital marketing are tailored to company and industry, so a banner ad for a car salesman isn’t going to be the same as a banner ad for a zoo. Still, the principles of how to write a display advertisement remains consistent. You need to be clear and concise. You need to be eye-catching without being garish. And you need to make sure that the right audience clicks on the ad, rather than an audience that may not ultimately be interested.

Benefits of Display Advertising

It’s clear why many companies invest so much in digital display marketing. There are many benefits of display advertising: It’s affordable, it’s fast, and it’s effective. The benefits of using responsive display ads are many and varied: You can take advantage of multiple channels at once, reach out to a highly targeted audience, and ensure that your audience transitions to your sales funnel.

But it’s important that a business also have a display marketing strategy before they start investing. Understanding the benefits of display advertising over search advertising is a start, but they also need to understand the complete display marketing ecosystem.

Businesses can look into travelling display advertising or the display network Wordstream for more information, but they need to first look at their advertising needs. Once they’ve identified the needs that they seek to fill through their advertising campaign, they can then identify the audience they want to target.

Understanding an audience and buyer personas is easily the most important key to creating digital advertising. And display advertising requires optimization and maintenance forever, it isn’t a set-and-forget process. Users are going to need to assess whether their display advertising is working or whether it might need to be improved.

Because most companies advertise through multiple channels, it should be noted that a complete digital marketing strategy is also going to include everything from email to mailers. All attempts at marketing have to be integrated together for the best results.

At the end of the day, the reason digital display ads are so popular is because they have such a low barrier to entry. But they are also extremely powerful. With display ads, a company can start focusing on an audience that is most likely to be interested in its products and services. The company simply needs to start developing a plan first.