Digital marketing has transformed the advertising industry tremendously. In fact, it has become pivotal to developing advertising strategies. But, there are two forms of digital advertising: search ads and display advertising. The former was the most popular in the advent of digital advertising, but display advertising has outdone text ads by a pretty significant margin in the last three years.

Experts predict a 25% increase for the next five years due to the soaring demand for display content among consumers. Here’s an in-depth overview of what display advertising is and the types marketers should use to foster growth.

What Is Display Advertising?

It is a form of sales and marketing that attracts the audience to a website, social media platform, or other digital channels to perform a particular action (click-through a landing page or purchase an item). The ads are also used for retargeting a campaign encouraging a visitor to return to the website to take action. The adverts may be in the form of images, videos, flash or audio and may appear on specific websites on the internet. Here’s a breakdown of the different categories:

1. Banner Ads

It is an advertisement displayed on a web page that consists of an image (gif, .jpg, .png) or a multimedia object. Banner ads can be animated or static, depending on the media used to create it.  Banner ads function the same way as regular table banners, and other forms of print media advertise products, inform customers about a new product and create brand awareness. Some advantages of using banner ads include:

• Announce sales offers and discounts
• Increase sales: Customers are then encouraged to purchase certain products
• Increase customer traffic: the banners encourage visitors to go to the advertiser’s website

2. Rich Media

This kind has interactive features like audio, video, and clickable elements that encourage visitors to engage with the content. The ad provides more ways of engaging an audience as it can float and expand. Additionally, marketers can access aggregated metrics like the audience video completions, their behavior, and the number of expansions.

Rich media display advertising allows marketing agencies to create elaborate ads that can trigger a user’s response. What’s more, the introduction of HTML5 technology enables advertisers to include different content (tweets, videos, games) in one placement. Some advantages of using rich media are:

• Access to better metrics than traditional advertisements
• Increased view rates, conversions, and click-through rates
• A better user experience

3. Interstitial Ads

They are full-screen ads designed to cover the interface of a website. Interstitial ads are a popular form of advertisement used on mobile ads due to their high impression rate. Since they appear between the content, they are best placed at natural breaks, e.g., in-between game levels. This full-coverage differentiates them from other ads like banner ads and pop-ups. Other reasons marketers use these ads include:

• High click-through rates that lead to higher conversion rates
• Their large sizes that leave large impressions on the target audience

4. Video Ads

It is the use of video content to advertise products. Marketers use this form of advertising because it allows them to connect with the audience on a personal level and is relatively cheap to create. Also, the proliferation of mobile devices has spurred the growth of video advertising.
A report by IAB Video Advertising Spend shows that two-thirds of video ad revenue originates from mobile devices. There are three types of video ad formats, which are Linear video ads that mimic TV commercials, non-linear video ads that run along with video content, and companion ads that include images and texts.

Conclusion

When display advertising is used effectively, it can help a business increase brand awareness and attract new customers. Video ads have particularly outdone other forms of display ads due to the ease of ad creation and low cost. Also, the insatiable need for video content from customers makes it easy for video ads to increase conversion. Online marketplaces like eBay and Amazon confess to increase conversion by 35% after adding a video ad to product descriptions.