Use These Quick Tips To Get The Most Out Of Your Display Advertising

Display advertising can be a powerful and far-reaching tool, but too many times the full potential is not released, costing you money and returns. If they aren’t set up correctly, or are not being properly maintained, then don’t expect your display advertising to get you the results you’re expecting! Display advertising is just taking off, with projections mapping growth of 90% by 2019, or over $37 billion, so if you’re embarking on your own journey into display and PPC advertising then read our tips, to ensure maximum results.

1. User Experience, from mobile to desktop.

With the mobile experience only booming, and desktop users starting to slow down, there are many nuances of each device to accompany these trends, and make it easier for us to plan our next move. But listen to your own audience, as well as the research. While there are countless reports which will tell you which device to optimise for, and which trend to implement, keep your eyes on the prize and make your advertising accessible and comprehensive across all devices. If you don’t have any previous data to work off, create a campaign and start monitoring which devices are showing the most positive feedback. Even within the same industry, the same company,  there can be differences between marketing campaigns or goals which will need different approaches, depending on the targeted audience.

2. Buy viewable impressions.

The pay-per-click system hasn’t always been bulletproof, with as much as 30% of online traffic being fake display impressions. Computer programs were designed specifically to view ads, in order to create a huge advertising bill for a competing company. Although this malpractise is now rare, there are ways to cut your costs to ensure you are only paying for meaningful interaction.

For example, when you purchase guaranteed impressions, you only need to pay for the ads which have been seen for a minimum duration, which is 50 percent of pixels for one second of display, and 50 percent of pixels for two seconds of video. This will eliminate any user interaction which is not focussed or intentional, or any bot behaviour. A great trick is to aim for an impression longer than the minimum time. For example, if your ad takes four seconds to cycle through a sentence or message, then you’d be better off with a four second slot which will only be charged to you once the ad has completed its message.

3. Get down to business

If you’ve read this much of the article without looking away, or sending a text, then good for you! Attention spans are dropping like a bowling ball from a skyscraper, and if your ads are too long-winded or vague, your audience will keep scrolling. Keep your message clear, concise, and appealing to your audience, to keep their interest peaked and to get the most out of your display advertising.

4. Implement behavioural targeting

While you might think targeting is fairly straightforward -people who like dogs will read dog blogs, swimmers will read swimming blogs- there is a lot more to powerful targeting than your basic context. Behavioural targeting can help you to find a specific buyer persona, across a range of web locations. For example, you may want to target women between 24 and 44, who walk their dogs, and alert them to a sale you’re having on a specific product tailored to that market. This target profile can be easily assembled from web data, such as web searches, social activity, browsing pattern, and any number of digital data. Offline data sources can also be utilised, like census data, and in-store transactions. For example, if a woman purchases a holiday flight to the Maldives, she may need somewhere to stay. And, if you run a hotel in the Maldives, then it’d make sense to promote your service to her with targeted ads.

Quick Fire Round: Two-Sentence Tips

• Split test your ads, to test your audience on which is more effective. Use the results to shape your campaigns further, but ensure you have achieved your results correctly.
• Consider your targeted sites when designing your ad, and make it complimentary and cohesive. If it’s unpleasant or disruptive to the user, you might find they’re less likely to interact.
• There are tools to adjust where your ads are shown, so if you wish to avoid a particular market, you can opt for your ads to not be displayed there. This can be great to streamline to your audience, but it also means you can decide if you want your product displayed on socially sensitive websites, such as promoting your weapons company on a webpage flagged as ‘death and tragedy’.

With so many new and exciting ways to take on display advertising, there’s no better time to start. PPC advertising allows us to control and refine our advertising strategies, and ensures a better experience for the browser- no more obstructive, irrelevant, or useless ads. Feeling a little out of your depth? Call us here, at Dilate. We’re a team of digital marketing experts, who form Perth’s leading display advertising agency. We can create an entire web strategy for you, and we even offer free small business consultations, for an hour of obligation-free tips and pointers on how to develop your online business.