Have you ever surfed the web and seen a banner ad for a local home improvement company on a Do-It-Yourself Home Improvement website? Or perhaps you have encountered a banner ad for a local auto dealer on a nationally recognized sports website (like cbssportsline.com, for example) just a few days after browsing reviews on CarandDriver.com or, perhaps, after researching used car prices on MotorTrend.com. Both are examples of effectively leveraging display advertising’s advanced targeting technologies to reach the right people at the right time.
What are Display Ads?
Display ads are simply online graphical banners placed on websites by advertisers that, when clicked on, takes the surfer to the advertiser’s website. Localized banner (display) advertising is arguably the most cost-effective way to market your brand and create brand awareness to people browsing and surfing the Internet.
Advanced Targeting Capabilities
What makes display advertising so effective is the robust targeting capabilities available to the advertiser. The following advanced targeting technologies are available for organizations that incorporate display marketing as part of their overarching digital marketing strategy:
- Geo-Targeting – Displays the banner ad to people in your geographic location – so even if you are displaying an ad on a nationally recognized site such as cnn.com, for example, your ad will only be displayed and accrue impressions to those within the geographic area you specify.
- Contextual Targeting – Displays your ad to people on sites featuring content related to your business (the local, home improvement company mentioned above that displays an ad on a Do-It-Yourself website is an example of contextual targeting).
- Behavioral Targeting – Undoubtedly the most effective, behavioral targeting occurs when your ad is displayed to people who have shown recent online behaviors / interests that are relevant to your business (the local, auto dealer ad that was displayed on cbssportsline.com because of the surfer’s recent history of viewing car reviews and prices is an example of behavioral targeting).
- Remarketing – Many consumers visiting your website leave without ever converting. These are your most valuable prospects — they have shown an interest in your business by visiting your site. Remarketing remembers consumers who visit your website and then displays your ad on other media sites they visit. This technique creates top-of-mind awareness for your brand and helps bring consumers back to your site.
As you see, display advertising is a very effective strategy for creating brand awareness and generating leads. And now, for the first time, the technology is readily available so that local businesses can make localized display network buys the same way that larger companies (like the Fortune 500) do.
By taking advantage of display advertising, your organization can now build a big brand on a relatively small budget by advertising on nationally recognized sites and a mix of relevant niche sites with good traffic.
Have you added display marketing to your branding and lead generation strategies?