Intro to digital marketing - Chapter 7: Display advertising

Display network

Consists of a group of online publishers that agree to a set of advertising standards and ad size set by the company who coordinates what ads are displayed and at what time

Display network (con’t)

It collects payment from advertisers and pays publishers a portion of the advertising revenue; ad performance metrics to the advertisers

Publishers

Must create an account and meet the criteria set by the ad network as well as implement code given by the ad network; they’re paid a % of the revenue charged by the ad network and own the site

Advertisers

Creates and uploads content that meets the criteria of the display ad network and manages their budget provided by the display ad network; they also earn traffic, receive reports, and set parameters on what types of users they want to see their ads

How do the display network, publisher, and advertiser all benefit?

• The advertiser makes money from traffic to the site

• The display ad network makes money by charging the advertiser

• The publisher gets a paid a % of the revenue each the display network charges the advertiser

The difference between bidding for a search ad and bidding for a display ad

Display ads have multiple bidding options

Cost per click (CPC) bidding

The advertiser only pays when the displayed ad is clicked

e.g. If an advertiser pays $0.50 CPC and gets 50 clicks, they would owe $25 regardless of how much the ad was shown

Cost per mile (CPM) bidding/ cost per thousand impressions

The payment method of traditional advertising

e.g. If a magazine charges $20 CPM for an ad and it circulates 250,000 times, the advertiser would have to pay $5000

Cost per action (CPA) bidding

Allows advertisers to pay only in successful conversions

e.g. A site that sells shirts would only have to pay $10 everytime an ad leads to a shirt purchase

How do ad networks compare multiple types of bids?

They track the click-through rates of advertisers so they can convert CPC bids into CPM bids

What must an effective display ad do?

1. Attract attention and get the reader to engage via bold colors and simple

2. Communicate a good and unique value proposition

3. Have a call to action

Retargeting

Ads shown to users who have previously visited the advertiser’s site and can be very profitable for companies

e.g. When someone visits eBay.ca, the browser displays an ad for eBay when the user visits another site

How’s retargeting possible?

It’s done by site’s placing cookies onto a user’s browser, and the display network recognizes these cookies and displays ads from the site that placed the cookies on another site

A major advantage of online display advertising

Ads can be directly measured as companies will receive reports on ads from sites they bought ad space

The effectiveness of small changes in ads

Even the smallest of changes (e.g. changing text colors), can increase conversion and click through rates

Three ways keep ads consistent

1. Have the same value proposition(s)

2. Utilize similar calls to action

3. Have the same design elements (e.g. color scheme, characters, fonts, pics, etc

Setting display targets on Google Ads

Google will:

• Set initial ad targets whose interests align with landing page content

• Constantly update said targets based on ad performance

What can advertisers base their ads on?

1. Audience segments

2. Demographics 

3. Keywords

4. Topic

5. Placements

Selecting display ad targets

Allows advertisers to pick people of a specific demographic to get their needs and pick segments based on their interests/habits

The 6 options for picking selecting display ad targets

1. Who they are

2. What their interests and habits are

3. What they’re researching or planning

4. How they interacted with your business

5. Combined audience

6. Customer audience segments

In-market audiences

Internet users who have been judged by Google based on their recent browsing history who are actively looking to buy something from a specific product category

Life events targeting

Lets advertisers target internet users who have just had, currently have, or will soon have an important event occur

Custom audience segements

Lets advertisers make a target segment and save it for future campaigns 

e.g. If an advertiser determines their best audience consists of 10 targets, then the advertiser can save said list of targets, name it, and choose it for future campaigns

Combined audience segments

Lets advertisers combine custom audience segments to expand potential targets, narrow the targeting, or exclude certain segments

Fat-finger ad clicks

Accidental clicks on stuff that occurs due to poor placement

Fat-finger ad clicks and mobile display ads

Could lead to higher bounce rates and low conversion rates

What can be done if mobile display ads are found to be unprofitable?

They can be turned off or have their bids adjusted; verification of their unprofitably should first be verified

Ads that show up on the SERP (PPC)

• Ads that show up when people search for keyword related phrases

• Keywords targeted by advertisers

• High CTR and CVR of 4%

• High purchase intent

• Actively searching

Ads that show up on webpages, apps, videos, etc

• Ads that show up when other users are on the site

• Advertisers target audiences, interests, and websites

• Better for brand awareness

• Low CTR and CVR 0.05%

• Caters to those browsing instead of shopping

• Competing for attention (i.e. reading an article)

Top of funnel marketing (TOFU)

The awareness stage of the AIDA model

Bottom of funnel marketing (BOFU)

The action (conversion) stage of the AIDA model

Middle of funnel marketing (BOFU)

The interest and desire stages of the AIDA model

What must the customer do in response to a display ad?

1. See the ad

2. Process the ad

3. Decide to investigate

4. Convert

Guidelines for effective ad copies

1. Attract attention

2. Communicate value proposition

3. Invite action

How to optimize banner ads

A/B Testing to maxmize KPIs like impressions, clicks, CTR, etc

What can banner ads be used for?

Selling something that’s visually appealing

How many sites have banner ads?

Over 200 million sites

Demand harvesting

Demand generation

Creating demand for an ad

Demand harvesting

Activities that increase the likelihood of a conversion from an already interested consumer