Display Marketing
Display marketing is yet another tool you can stock in your search engine optimization (SEO) arsenal. As a part of an overall digital marketing strategy, this approach can provide a number of impressive benefits.
Display marketing, sometimes called display advertising, is a form of search engine marketing (SEM) that uses visual elements to encourage click-throughs. Although the misuse (and overuse) of this technique has left some businesses ambivalent or adverse to its use, it can provide exceptional benefits when used correctly.
What Is Display Marketing?
Display marketing is the online equivalent of a billboard or bus stop ad — but clickable.
This technique combines paid and native display ads, although it can be hard to tell the difference. Essentially, paid display ads look like ads. They typically feature a brief message and a call to action. Native ads are incorporated into a website or app in such a way that it is not obviously a paid form of marketing.
Although most examples of this technique use still images, it can be used with videos and interactive HTML text. In the future, you may experience these ads as product placements in movies or TV programs, and you will be able to use your smart remote control or mobile device to make a purchase immediately.
Until that time comes, however, we have a variety of other strategies at our disposal.
Effective Uses of Display Marketing
Overuse of banner ads and other obvious methods of display advertising have made consumers more cautious about clicking. However, the research demonstrates that internet users from all demographics click on visual ads that meet their needs, especially if the visual elements convey the correct message.
This means that effective visual marketing must simply be well-designed and targeted to the right users. Reaching prospects is easier today than ever before, thanks to the information that Google collects through cookies and search history.
So if a prospect has recently searched on a product or service that your business offers, targeting a campaign to them is more likely to lead to click-through and conversion.
Geo-targeting offers some of the most beneficial applications of this approach. Because Google’s algorithms provide the location of internet users, we can narrowly target our efforts to those prospects located in a specific geographic area — and who are in the market for your products or services.
This makes display marketing especially cost-effective for many businesses.
Using Display Marketing to Build Your Brand
Today, display marketing is also highly effective for branding your business.
In the heyday of print marketing and advertising, agencies used an axiom that said you must expose consumers to your advertising six times, on average, to make an impression.
Although that rule of thumb doesn’t apply to today’s marketing techniques, we do know that visual exposure to a brand builds brand recognition and awareness.
Consumers can be resistant to banner and display ads that want them to click for some purpose. However, when these techniques are used to tell your brand’s story, it permeates the consciousness of internet users. And brand awareness has a powerful influence on the ultimate decision to purchase.
The key to leveraging this technique to improve your brand is careful design and placement. Be Locally SEO specializes in search engine optimization and search engine marketing, along with website design, content marketing and social media. Contact us today to learn more about how display marketing can benefit your business.
