Display Advertising — Why, How, and Why CTR Isn’t Key

We know, most of you are no stranger to display advertising and its many charming, lovely, and often confusing caveats. But we also know that there are some of you that are getting into the industry for the first time, or after a bit of a break, trying to convince your clients to incorporate a certain type of display ad into the media plan, or just trying to solidify some basics! Let us tell you, we’re here for all banner folks, old and new; all banner needs, big or small!

No matter your expertise in the banner and display advertising world, we are here to help, steer, suggest, and gently nudge you in the right direction.

First things first.

Why Utilize Display Advertising and Banner Ads?

Veterans of this industry know that the benefits of using banner ads cannot be summed up in a humble blog post alone but we’ll focus on the main highlight—display ads are everywhere your customers are.

One more time for the people in the back!

In our ever-increasingly digital world, a brand simply cannot afford to miss out on having a digital presence and nearly everyone agrees. How do we know?

It’s been estimated that nearly $106 billion was spent on display advertising in 2018! Another way to put that is 51.5% of total global ad sales.

Aim for the Target

Display advertising also lets you target and segment your audience(s) like no other.

You can control and creatively personalize your ads and creatives to appeal to certain sectors of your customers. You can even target them geographically! Research shows that customers are more appreciative and ready to receive advertisements that are somewhat personalized to their interests.

And people love to shop local. With global consumer focus turning to sustainable, eco-friendly practices, people are wanting to support their local shops and suppliers and so it pays off to target your local customers. Actually, studies have shown that nearly 75% of people would rather see ads from local businesses rather than non-local.

Having specifically and specially targeted ads that speak and relate to your audience only helps highlight your brand in the minds of your local and far-reached client-base. And if you look at the global spend for display advertising, you’ll see that lots of other brands have caught onto this too.

Ever-increasing Display Advertising Budgets

Brands and advertisers are spending BIG bucks on display advertising. According to Marketing Land, display advertising is forecasted to grow 19% in 2019 to 129.34 billion, making up more than half of the total of ad spend in the United States.

The growth of display advertising is largely fueled by social media, mobile, video ads, and other formats that replace a solitary static image. Display advertising is a broad term that incorporates all sorts of banner ads, social ads, rich media ads, video ads, and other formats, and is expected to grow by more than $44 billion between now and 2020.

There’s pretty much no end to the massive, mind-boggling numbers you can dig up that show how much display advertising is supposed to grow in the coming years. With activity and daily tasks becoming more and more convenient through personal devices, your customers are spending more and more time in the digital world—which is exactly where you should be meeting them. Being a big part of the display advertising world will allow you to not only meet them anywhere, but it will allow you to connect with them and imprint your brand in their subconscious.

Visibility is the Real MVM (Most Valued Metric)

While we spend the majority of our day making and touting the many benefits of banner ads and other display advertising assets, it always seems to come back to the same question(s): How do I know I’m getting my money’s worth? What’s the best way to measure the success of my display advertising?

Well, CTR is the obvious answer here. But though it’s obvious, it’s not really correct. Sure, CTR can tell you how many people clicked on your ad. But that’s about as far as that metric goes. And with display advertising, especially banner ads, there are SO many more factors that go into figuring out your real ROI. In fact, the best way to tell your display advertising ROI is often in a sales lift, which you’ll notice, has nothing to do with online metrics. The brain processes information in two different areas; one that holds information for immediate recall and one area that holds information to be recalled at a later date, possibly when a certain need arises.

Display advertising pertains to both of these areas of the brain and often, the fruits of your beautiful display ad labour can come to fruition down the line or when your customer again encounters your brand in a few days’ time.

Ensuring your brand is placed, messaged, and positioned appropriately and pointed at the right audience is an immense help in making sure your messaging lands on the most open and receptive of ears.