Display advertising has been so successful, it remains one of the most important features of the marketing mix. Here’s a quick explainer.
Imagine we had a time machine and could jump back 30 years to when the internet was just beginning to be a thing.
While most of us were getting excited by the familiar sound of dial-up connection via our phone lines, businesses were already beginning to think about how they could use this new technology to build their brands and grow their businesses – and one of the first forms of advertising was what we now call display advertising.
So successful has display advertising been, it has evolved and remains one of the most important features of the marketing mix.
Here’s a quick explainer on display advertising and how it can work for your business.
What is display advertising?
Display advertising is a form of digital marketing that is placed on a web page, normally on the sidebar, but sometimes across the top or between copy on the page.
Display advertising contains eye-catching images and copy and link to a specific landing page, normally created specifically for the marketing campaign.
What are the differences between display ads and banner ads?
In marketing, display advertising is sometimes called banner advertising – essentially because display advertising grew from the early days of digital marketing when banner ads were commonly used – but they are not the same thing.
Display advertising and banner advertising both contain some of the same elements, like eye-catching images and text, but banner advertising is specifically 468 x 60 pixels and sits at the top of the page only.
What are the common sizes for display ads?
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Australia Standards and Guidelines Council have created a list of digital advertising standards and specifications. Here’s what they are for display advertising:
- Billboard: 970 x 250 pixels
- Smartphone banner: 300 x 50 pixels
- Leaderboard: 728 x 90
- Super leaderboard/pushdown: 970 x 90
- Portrait: 300 x 1050
- Skyscraper: 160 x 600
- Medium rectangle: 300 x 250
- 20×60: 120 x 60
- Mobile phone interstitial: 640 x 1136
- Feature phone small banner: 120 x 20
- Feature phone medium banner: 168 x 28
- Feature phone large banner: 216 x 36
How to create a display ad campaign
The most successful display advertising campaigns have one thing in common: they have their roots in a marketing strategy that follows a robust process.
- Define your audience: Define your audience according to demographics, shopping habits, and the learnings from previous marketing campaigns.
- Set your campaign goals: Choose the key performance indicators that reflect the business outcomes that you are striving for, such as number of sales or return on investment (ROI).
- Create compelling copy and design for ads: Copy and design should work together to powerfully communicate the desired messaging and branding.
- Size display ads to specifications: You’ll need to create every single piece of display advertising in all the display ad formats and sizes, as outlined above.
- Distribute ads: Schedule the display advertising across all selected media platforms. This should reflect your media plan and campaign timeline.
- Monitor metrics: As the campaign is running, monitor its performance and tweak where necessary.
- Review learnings to inform future display ad campaigns: At the end of the campaign, review its performance in detail, including platforms used, target audience, which designs performed well versus those that didn’t, and use this information to inform future ad campaigns.
What are the benefits of display advertising?
One of the great benefits of display advertising is that the results are highly measurable, meaning you can learn from past campaigns and tailor current marketing campaigns to be most effective.
The flexibility of display advertising means you can conduct A/B testing to discover what works best. The same display advertising campaign may test marketing elements such as different headlines or images.
Display advertising can also be very cost effective. Display ad costs vary, but display advertising is dynamic and they do offer flexibility to suit different budgets.
Display advertising also works with and supports other marketing tactics in your marketing mix, and vice versa. Display advertising can work in conjunction with social media posts and website content to create strong and coherent messaging and calls to action.
Speak to the marketing experts
Assemblo is a full-service marketing agency based in Melbourne, and we can help you develop a display advertising campaign that elevates your brand and grows your business.
To find out how we can help your business, give us a call on (03) 9079 2555 or send us a note via the contact form below.