Understanding how to leverage the internet to gain more customers is a top priority for businesses. Business owners are focusing their advertising efforts on display ads due to their effectiveness. In fact, appearing in mobile search ad results can increase brand awareness by 46 percent. Display ads increase brand awareness, boost website traffic, help businesses engage new audiences, and re-engage past site visitors. At this point, every business looking to maximize their business potential needs to take advantage of the powerful benefits of display ads.
Understanding Display Advertising
Display ads are widely used by businesses to help gain a competitive edge. While display ads are an effective way to engage your audience if the ad itself is not appealing, it will not bring you more leads. Many businesses don’t take the time to think about the layout of their ad, and how it impacts the user experience. They want to get their ads up quickly without considering the goal of the actual ad and the process that the user must go through to complete that goal. This results in an ad that drives little to no results.
Businesses that want to incorporate display ads into their advertising strategy need to think about the overall layout of their ad in terms of the design, color, and information that is included. Due to their small size, display ads should be simple and appeal to the viewer. This way your ad won’t disrupt the user experience and will be much easier to absorb.
Your ad is a representation of your business. With that said, if it doesn’t appeal to your audience, they may perceive your business as unprofessional or worse — untrustworthy.
Aside from design, your display ad won’t be effective unless you have a bold call-to-action that lets your audience know exactly what you want them to do. Do you want the viewer to sign up for your newsletter? Or do you want them to purchase your top-rated products? Your ad will circulate to a wide audience, and that is your chance to reach them at different stages of their buyer’s journey and move them through the sales funnel. However, if your call-to-action isn’t present, your audience will easily overlook your ad.
Businesses also need to ensure that their ad copy is precise and minimal. Under 10 words is preferable. Your brand’s message needs to be clear and visible. If not, your audience will easily ignore your message and you will lose out on potential leads.
It is essential that you have a designated landing page for each display ad. When a viewer clicks on your ad, you want to ensure that they are going to land on the correct page and take the desired action. If your intended goal is for the viewer to purchase a product, then they should be taken to your products page. Otherwise, if a potential customer is interested in what your ad is promoting but they have to spend too much time trying to find it, they will likely leave your website and get back to what they were doing.
Moving potential customers through the sales funnel should be a seamless experience. If too many steps are involved in completing your intended goal, leads can easily get confused or overwhelmed. There are many working parts to an effective display ad but putting them all together will generate a powerful ad that will produce amazing results.
Which Type of Display Ad is Right for Your Business?
1. Static Ads
Static advertising has been around for a while and is widely used by many businesses. Simply put, a static advertisement is an ad that does not change. The message and call-to-action of a static ad remain the same regardless of the audience.
These kinds of ads are great for branding purposes as there will be one featured image to represent the business for that particular ad campaign. For this reason, businesses that are interested in increasing their brand’s visibility should consider static ads for their campaign.
It’s important to note that static ads differ from dynamic ads in that the content for a dynamic ad will feature things such as recommended products, top products, and previously viewed to serve the user’s needs.
2. Responsive Ads
In a world where consumers are using multiple devices to view content, responsive ads have become an important element of display advertising. Responsive ads automatically adjust their size, format, and appearance to fit the available ad space.
One of the reasons why responsive ads are so popular among businesses is because it has a positive impact on the user’s experience, which helps businesses generate authentic leads.
Potential customers aren’t going to spend their time on an ad that’s difficult to view. For instance, you don’t want to make the mistake of displaying an ad that is too large because it’s not optimized for mobile use. The potential customer is more likely to leave or ignore your ad if you can’t capture their attention within those first few seconds.
Another benefit of responsive ads is that businesses can reach a wider audience because your ad isn’t limited to just a portion of the available ad space. Instead, your display ad will generate in all the available spaces, making it an ideal choice.
3. Animated Ads
Animated ads can range anywhere from 5-10 seconds to create a looped image or video. These ads can either be a GIF, Flash or HTML 5. Animated ads are excellent for businesses that are really looking to boost engagement. These ads are probably one of the best ways to grab the attention of your audience as they are more interactive and eye-catching when compared to other options.
Another benefit of animated ads is that businesses can get more than one message across at the same time. Some businesses have a lot of information they want to share with their audience but are unclear on how to effectively do it in a small space. Animated ads bridge that gap by allowing businesses to share more information without overwhelming the viewer.
4. Smart Ads
Smart advertising is as the name suggests. These ads provide an immersive experience for users by combining interactive media, device motion, and AI that can be applied to any stage of the sales funnel. As a result, these smart ads produce hyper-targeting, intelligent data use, social integration, and interactivity.
Smart ads are personalized for the viewer, which is one of the main reasons why they are so successful. Additionally, smart ads make room for more precise targeting efforts so that businesses can increase their conversions by placing the ads in front of the right people. These ads work because they are more relevant to the viewer and they consider where individuals are at every stage of the buyer’s journey based on their search history.
Display ads are important assets when it comes to moving customers through the sales funnel and increasing brand awareness. The strength of display ads resides in its ability to not only reach a wider audience but engage them seamlessly with a pleasing user experience.
Businesses have options when it comes to the type of display ad they want to invest in. However, it’s important to consider your audience and advertising goals, along with what information you want to deliver to your audience when deciding on the right ad.
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