Display Ads in 2010
If your target audience is a rhino, why should an elephant see your ad?
In an era where things change on the Internet at light speed, digital marketing has progressed more in the last few years than anything. During the first part of this millennium, Pay Per Click campaigns such as Google Adwords were, arguably, the most effective online way to reach your target audience. Through the display of a text or image ad on a search results page to a person searching for a related keyword, advertisers benefited from the growing amount of online searches. The evolution of online marketing is now at the stage where display ads offer more relevant ad copy to a better-defined audience. Here’s why:
Dynamic Display Ads
Display ads are no longer static banners or Flash animations that show the same content to everyone. Ad templates can hold a variety of headers, copy, and images. A version of the ad is displayed according to the rules set up by the ad system, which can be based on the visitor’s online background and behavior.
Behavioral Targeting
The amount of data collected from users on the Internet is staggering. Most people do not realize how much of their browsing is tracked and recorded. Through tracking pixels and cookies, data collection companies, called Data Exchanges, are able to know which sites a person visits, where they live, their friends, income levels, search history, and even what they purchase. The Data Exchanges comply with legal requirements keeping the visitor’s contact information anonymous, but the information is used to build a reputation for each person. This information is used by Ad Exchanges to determine who sees an ad.
Ad Exchanges
An Ad Exchange is an advertising platform that contains a network of sites that show display ads. Similar to Google Adwords, users of an Ad Exchange bid to determine which ad is displayed. Instead of bidding on a keyword and position of the ad, users bid on behavioral and demographic criteria. The user has little control over where the ad is displayed but has better control over who sees the ad.
Retargeting
One of the easiest and most effective ways to improve lead and conversion numbers through an online ad campaign is to use Retargeting. A Retargeting campaign places an advertiser’s display ad on a third party site visible to people who visited the advertiser’s own web site within a certain amount of time. For example, a person visits a hotel website but does not make a reservation. Sometime in the near future, they visit a news site. On the news site, there is a display ad for the hotel site they visited earlier. The visitor sees the display ad and is reminded of the hotel site. Retargeting is very popular today. It is not hard to see examples of this in everyday browsing.
If a rhino is your target market, only show your ad to rhinos.
Digital Marketing advances allow advertising campaigns to be much more efficient. The success rate of advertisements shown to the right audience is increased. It does add some work for marketing companies. Knowing and defining your target market is increasingly important. Building effective and creative advertisements for each segment of the audience is also crucial. The benefit is certainly worth it.
At Softscribe Inc., we are ready to help our clients in the hospitality industry and those selling to the federal government navigate the world of digital marketing. We can assist in building the profile of your target market and then use the most effective ways to reach that audience with a custom message.
The online advertising trend towards targeting a smaller, better-defined group and away from achieving a broad reach is a huge change. Is it time for you to jump on board and create an effective, efficient online advertising campaign?
