Business owners are constantly looking for ways to stand out and get one step ahead of the competition. This is especially true in the digital space, where competition gets tougher and tougher with each passing year.

Because of this, it has never been more important to look for new ways to expand your strategy and get your brand and products pushed across the internet. Display ads offer a completely unique user experience depending on how they are implemented.

They allow businesses to get in front of potential customers in new and creative ways through a variety of online channels, helping business owners create a well-rounded digital marketing plan. 

In today’s article, we will be taking a close look at a few of the different types of display ads available and how to effectively utilize them to increase your brand awareness and generate more leads for your business, regardless of size.

What Is Display Advertising?

Display ads use eye-catching creatives (images, videos, GIFs, etc.) to promote products, generate leads, and increase brand awareness. These types of ads tend to stand out much more than other digital marketing strategies, such as native ads, which aim to integrate seamlessly into the content being displayed.

Many people have negative feelings about display ads and view them as jarring or even obstructive to their overall user experience. Yet, they have been shown to be effective when implemented effectively as part of a holistic marketing strategy. Studies show that 91% of customers prefer to buy from brands they are already familiar with. Display ads allow you to expedite this process by placing your business in more locations across the internet.

The Benefits of Display Advertising

There are many benefits of display ads that combine to help you grow and scale your business efficiently, regardless of size. Some of the more popular display ad platforms, such as Google Ads or Facebook Ads, allow you to reach millions of potential customers through highly targeted, data-backed creatives.

This targeting is where you can pull ahead of the competition and get your ads, and, by extension, your brand, in front of the people who matter most. Not only can this help increase conversions, but it can also decrease your average cost per desired metric, such as leads generated, clicks, or form submissions.

What Are the Different Types of Display Ads?

There are many types of display ads, each of which can be successfully leveraged depending on the context and desired outcomes. Some of the most popular formats include static banner ads, responsive ads filled with rich media (animations, audio, video, etc.) that users can interact with, social display ads that embed directly into social media platforms, and even webpage pop-ups.

Some of the most common display ads include banners or even pop-ups, which typically include some sort of text-based call-to-action (CTA) designed to generate a specific action, such as a click or email submission.

Choosing the Right Display Ad For Your Business

When choosing which type to implement, it is important to carefully consider what you are trying to accomplish with your advertisement as well as who you are trying to reach. Your answers to these two questions will help guide you through the process and increase conversions.

Sometimes, it is not obvious which ad type is the best fit for your campaign. When this is the case, it can be helpful to rely on metrics gathered from previous campaigns. Always consider the cost implications of each ad type and its return on investment (ROI). If you do not have any meaningful data, experimentation can be the best option. It can prove beneficial in the long run to try different things to generate data that can later be used for optimization.

3 Tips to Create Effective Display Ad Campaigns

Once you have successfully narrowed down your target audience, you should use that information to inform your decision-making as you build out your display ad campaign and prepare for launch.

1. Figure Out Your Desired Outcome

The first step in creating a successful display ad campaign is to clearly define and articulate its goals. To do this efficiently, think not only about your desired outcome but also how you can measure and create data about its success or failure.

This metric-based goal is known as a key performance indicator (KPI) and will provide you with the information needed to make adjustments to the creative, copy, and CTAs in real-time to maximize the campaign’s positive outcomes.

2. Make Sure Creatives Are All Properly Sized

One of the most common mistakes made with display ad campaigns is failing to properly size and format the creatives. This largely comes down to the fact that most advertising platforms require specific sizing and formatting that is not always clear or intuitive to new users.

Anything that violates these guidelines will either be rejected by the platform or look unprofessional, causing your conversions to plummet. Taking the time to learn the specifics of your chosen platform will pay dividends in the long run.

Additionally, make sure that your sizing and formatting work for all device types. It is critical that your display ad can function properly regardless of whether it was viewed on a desktop monitor or a mobile device such as an iPhone or Android.

3. Save Meaningful Data For Future Campaigns

The data collected during each campaign is useful not only during that campaign's lifecycle but can also be stored and studied for all future campaigns. This will allow your entire team to understand what works and what does not and empower them to refine their creatives, copy, CTAs, and targeting.

Get Started With Display Ad Marketing With Alan and Company

Alan and Co. is a full-service marketing agency with decades of experience in digital marketing. Our team has implemented highly effective display ad campaigns for small businesses looking to improve their reach, generate leads, and increase brand awareness.

If you or your team are looking for a specialized digital marketing agency in the US that can help you begin implementing digital ads into your strategy, reach out today for a complementary 45-minute consultation with Alan and Co. Marketing.

For additional free resources about digital marketing best practices or to simply get a better idea of what we do here at Alan and Co., be sure to check out our blog, filled with hundreds of free articles just like the one you’ve just read.