Optimize display advertising

The term display advertising encompasses all online advertising media that, unlike pure text ads, are placed in the form of images, animations, or videos. Most often, these are advertising banners. Therefore, display advertising is also referred to as banner advertising. There are a variety of different formats for display advertising, including the so-called standard formats. The success of a display campaign depends on various factors. In this blog post, we show what matters in creating and placing display ads and why the click-through rate is not always the best measure of a campaign's success.

Creating Effective Display Ads

Before selecting images, writing texts, and setting layouts, the first step should be to develop a strategy for the display ad. The user's intent from the chosen target group and the available data about them are particularly important here. Is the user looking for something, and is there data about user behavior or geographic data available? Depending on that, local offers are shown to the user, attractive prices are offered, or specially tailored advertising messages are displayed.

A display ad can pursue two main goals: to increase the sale of a product or service (sales) or to raise awareness of a brand, a company, or a logo (branding). Before creating the ad, the intent should be clarified to focus on it: Ads optimized for sales should display a price or discount and prompt the user to act with a call-to-action. In branding ads, the image, logo, and slogan are particularly important.

The next step should clarify the resources available. What images, logos, and slogans are available? In creating the ad, remember: the message of the ad is the most important point, and priorities should be set for the materials used. If too many images are used, the ad quickly seems overloaded and overwhelms the viewer. After all, remember: ads are only shown for a fraction of a second, so every part of them should be relevant. One element should generally be highlighted: in most cases, the slogan or image. Also, less is often more!

The design of the ad depends heavily on the target group and intention, but some basic rules can be established: no more than three different colors should be used. The colors should exactly match the logo or corporate design. Consistent fonts also contribute to a harmonious overall appearance. The logo, fonts, and general style of the ad should match the design of the website (the landing page). Bright colors are also recommended for the focus of the ad. The images used should definitely be in high resolution and embedded in high quality to avoid a small or pixelated ad. In general, the hierarchy of information should be expressed through order, font size, and font style.

Finally, different versions of ads should be created and tested to find out which ad is the most successful. Pure theory, after all, cannot definitively determine which ads are more frequently noted and clicked.

Gender-specific Factors

The interactive media study on effective advertising targeting women and men on the internet, available through the BVDW, identifies additional factors for successful gender-specific targeting of men and women, alongside general guidelines. Clearly different browsing behaviors and perceptions, as well as tolerances and effects of display advertising, were observed between male and female participants in a study.

Particularly important for the male target group is the clear marking of ads as advertising media. Men generally appreciate transparency and the freedom to make choices. Thus, while ads should be chosen in large formats to generate attention, overly intrusive formats such as layers are not advisable. Clear ads with a straightforward advertising message promise the greatest success with a male audience, while emotional imagery is less important. Men place great value on the benefits of ads and therefore tend to react positively to theme specials with display ads. Online sponsorship also promises success due to its integration with content. Video formats are also popular because they are perceived as serious.

For female users, aesthetics play a particularly important role. Additionally, entertainment and relaxation while surfing the web are important. Display ads targeted at a female audience should therefore be particularly visually appealing and harmonious with the overall website appearance. Expandable display ads also work well with female audiences: they arouse curiosity and draw attention to themselves. Video ads work particularly well for female users, as they can tell stories and convey emotions. Theme specials with consumer tips, on which brands are advertised, are also promising with female users. Female users deliberately seek out these specials when they're interested and perceive thematically appropriate display ads less as advertising and more as information.

Common to both genders is the desire for added value from the banners. Additionally, involving users with interactive ads promises success. Further attractive are interesting display ads that pique users' curiosity.

Display Ads and Click-through Rate

The click-through rate (CTR) is still considered one of the most important metrics for measuring the success of ad campaigns. However, the BVDW's 2010 study on the "Implicit Effects of Display Ads" challenges this view and shows that banner advertising changes user behavior on the web and that success can often be measured independently of actual clicks.

The click-through rates of display ads are low and seem to have been declining over the past few years. From this fact, one might infer that banner advertising is outdated and that companies should choose other channels of online marketing. However, judging solely by click-through rates is too short-sighted. According to the BVDW study, it can be determined that users who have seen banner advertising are more likely to visit the website of the advertising company or search for the advertised brand terms than users who have not seen banners. Success can also be observed weeks after the banners have been displayed. Moreover, the image improvement through display ads should not be neglected.

It should be noted that the click-through rate provides a value on the immediate effect of an ad, but it completely fails to consider long-term successes. Measuring the actual newly generated visitors or customers over this long-term effect is, of course, not possible. Nevertheless, an increase in traffic following a banner campaign should be analyzed and considered in connection with it.