There’s no other form of marketing that catches the eye more than display campaigns. By Creating visually appealing and engaging digital advertising displays that draw the user’s attention can significantly increase traffic to your site. No wonder the fight to buy ad space on platforms like Google and Meta is so competitive: businesses know the power of the right digital ad and placement, along with many other benefits of display campaigns.
We’ll cover what exactly this form of digital marketing is and how it works to boost your brand.
What is Display Advertising?
Display advertising refers to using online graphics and media to create advertisements on third-party websites. Usually interactive in nature, display ads can combine images, videos, audio, text, and more to entice the user to click through to the target website.
Typical forms of display advertising include banner ads and popup ads. However, the term is generally associated with any ad on a third-party site that uses a range of media to present a call to action (CTA) to the viewer. Understanding these benefits of display advertising is crucial for leveraging its full potential in your marketing strategy.
Now you know what it is, here are our 7 benefits of display advertising to show why you should use it in your next digital marketing campaign.
1. Increased Brand Awareness
The primary benefit of display advertising and why display campaigns are such a powerful advertising tool is that they are the perfect way to get your brand’s name and philosophy out there. Creating a striking visual ad that reflects your business increases engagement and fosters familiarity with the user. Among the key benefits of display advertising is its ability to enhance brand recall through repeated exposure.
Display ads have a broad reach across multiple websites, with the Google Display Network reaching 90% of all internet users. The chances are that users will see your campaign a fair few times, especially if they are in a user demographic being targeted. Repeatedly viewing the display campaign will lead to brand recall and make it more likely for users to see your business as a trusted site to visit, resulting in increased conversions and click-throughs.
2. Targeted Advertising
When setting up display campaigns, who can you target? The answer is whomever you want, which is why this style of digital marketing is so popular. Here are some ways you can optimize your audience using display campaign targeting.
- Demographic targeting allows businesses to show their ads only to users who meet certain criteria. These include things like age, interests, and location. Demographic targeting is particularly effective when combined with geofencing display ads to target local browsing sessions.
- Behavioral targeting uses the browsing habits and search history of users to display related ads to them. For example, if you run a clothing store and a user’s search and browsing history correlates with fashion or your aesthetic, they are more likely to see your display campaign. Similarly, retargeting will also take place and display your ad more prominently if the user has visited your site recently.
- Contextual targeting works similarly to behavioral targeting, except it primarily focuses on the user’s search history to recommend related ads.
- Placement targeting is when businesses choose the websites on which their display campaign will be featured. This allows them to prioritize certain websites where they feel they will gain the most conversions and block other websites that may not suit their advertising purposes.
The beauty of display ad targeting is that it’s incredibly flexible. Switching up your criteria is easy to implement and doesn’t require much heavy lifting. Just switch up a few settings, and your display campaign will be in front of an entirely different audience — a benefit of display advertising that other marketing channels find challenging to provide.
3. Cost-Effectiveness
For such a powerful advertising tool, display campaigns are remarkably budget-friendly. The competitive pricing of the Google Display Network, where the cost per click is usually less than $1, makes it an affordable option. When we compare native ads vs display ads, the cost per click can be three times more than some, making display campaigns a reassuring choice for your marketing budget.
You can use display advertising with PPC (pay-per-click) or on a CPM (cost-per-impression) model. Although you may think that the CPM model could be costly, it is, in fact, weighted to still be an affordable option, perfect for when you know what sites you want to target with your display campaign.
The granularity with which you can run your display ads means that your budget can be easily controlled. Your money goes exactly where you want it to go, and you know exactly who it will reach. If we compare this to other advertising models, there is often a different level of certainty than a display campaign provides.
If you are a small business or have to spend your marketing budget wisely, this is a benefit of display advertising you can take advantage of.
Related: Top PPC Trends to Follow This Year
4. Measurable Results and Analytics
Gone are the days of creating a marketing campaign and leaving its fate in the lap of the gods to see whether it will be successful.
Display campaigns offer real-time performance tracking, allowing you to see the progression of your efforts every step of the way. This is particularly important when trying out new strategies or ads, as it will enable you to have an incredibly agile and iterative approach and switch tack quickly if things are not working out how you would like.
This ease of information gathering is one of the top benefits of display advertising. It makes it easy to carry out A/B testing while ensuring that it has a minimum impact on your budget and a maximum effect once you find the best ad to use.
You can get valuable insights on your click-through rates (CTR), successful conversions, and more in Google’s native Ads dashboard and through other third-party software and services. You can even track competitors display ads to see how market leaders and others in your industry are performing with tools like the Google Ad Transparency Center and other third-party ad libraries.
With such a wealth of information at your fingertips, display campaigns are the perfect addition to a data-driven digital marketing strategy, and a digital marketing agency like AnjasDev can help you hone this further.
5. Versatility in Ad Formats
With display campaigns, you can let your creativity soar. There are multiple ad formats that you can use to catch the eye of internet users, and you don’t have to stick to just a static banner, either.
To increase user engagement, you can choose to use many types of media, including animated GIFs, rich media ads, video banner ads, and even interactive ads, which we’ll discuss in more detail later.
Google can also help you take advantage of this flexibility in ad formats through its responsive display ads system. Collating the given material and using AI can create a range of different display ads to be used across the Google Ads network. One of the great benefits of responsive display ads like these is that they make it easy for anyone to create a display campaign, no matter their marketing and design budgets.
The flexibility in customization allows for much greater individuality, allowing companies to shape their display campaign in any way they wish. With online marketing being a competitive space, you must take full advantage of display ads to stand out.
6. Enhanced User Engagement
Thanks to the vast variety of media available for display campaigns, there’s no other form of marketing that drives user engagement quite like it does. Display ads unlock a world of visual storytelling, allowing you to get your message across in an appealing format without the user being required to read swathes of supporting text.
Interactivity is at the forefront of some of the very best display ads, with interactive elements such as games, quizzes, or call-to-action (CTA) buttons drawing the user’s attention rather than providing a passive message.
7. Complementing Other Marketing Channels
Display campaigns complement other marketing channels by enhancing brand visibility and reinforcing messaging across multiple touchpoints. Here are some key benefits of display campaigns working in conjunction with other forms of advertising.
Display Campaigns & Search Ads
Unlike search ads, which target users seeking specific products or services, display ads reach audiences during regular online activities, increasing brand awareness and recall. Users who click on search ads but don’t convert can be retargeted with display ads, keeping the brand top-of-mind and potentially bringing them back to convert. While search targets bottom-funnel, high-intent users, display ads can capture top and mid-funnel prospects, creating a comprehensive marketing funnel.
Display Campaigns & Social and Content Marketing
A massive benefit of display advertising is that it works synergistically with content marketing efforts, reinforcing key messages and driving traffic to blog posts, videos, or landing pages. They also support email marketing by retargeting subscribers who have yet to engage, reminding them of the brand’s offerings.
In conjunction with social media marketing, display ads extend reach beyond platform-specific audiences, creating a cohesive cross-channel experience. They can also amplify the impact of offline marketing, such as TV or print ads, by reinforcing messages in the digital space. Combined use of social and display ads ensures a broad reach, making sure your brand is displayed to users at multiple touchpoints.
Display Campaigns & eCommerce
Google ads for e-commerce can also strengthen brand awareness and lead to valuable conversions that could otherwise be lost. Retargeting users with products they have previously viewed and not bought could remind and entice them to purchase, while display ads for your site displayed to those who have abandoned carts could prompt them to complete their purchasing journey.
Wrap-up
So, it is high time you add display ads to your digital marketing campaign strategy. Cost-effective, versatile, and with fine-tuned targeting, there’s no better way to increase brand awareness and engagement on a large scale — the benefits of display advertising are many.
If you need some help implementing display campaigns, consider getting in touch with AnjasDev, a premier Google display advertising agency. As part of our Google Ads management service, we’ll help you create resources and media to position your brand in the best light possible and boost your traffic and conversions.
