Display advertising

Since display advertising is entirely online, the 3 methods of display advertising all utilize online algorithms or programmes to help with targeting advertisements.

Display Ad Network: These are websites that groups unsold advertising spaces together according to similar target audiences, then sells these advertising spaces to advertisers altogether. These networks can help you package buy multiple advertising spaces which could all reach your target audience. Prominent display advertisement network includes Google Display Network.

Ad Exchange: Ad exchange is another type of website that facilitates buying and selling of ad spaces. Advertising spaces are bought in forms of ad inventory where advertisers go through Real Time Bidding (RTB), a type of auction online, to determine the price of the advertisement spaces.  This allows you to buy advertisement spaces quickly from different display advertisement networks.

Programmatic Buying: By using programmes and algorithms, AI can be able to calculate the most cost-effective advertising spaces for you, essentially eliminating the need of human calculation and consideration to make decisions on the best advertising space. Due to the high speed of computer calculation, it allows programmatic buying to get ahead in time and purchase in larger amount of ad spaces.

Display Advertising Cost and Format

As it is online advertising, the cost of display advertising is also estimated by cost per mil (CPM), cost for each 1,000 impressions. The price for newspaper online displays can range from HKD $150 per CPM to HKD $20000 per week, factor in the display advertisement placement and the website itself. The average CTR for display advertising across different formats and placements is around 0.06%, something to consider in order to enhance brand awareness and brand recall.

Formats of Display Advertisements:

1. Banner Ads: Image advertisements in various sizes, either square or rectangular, that could appear at the top, beside, or in the bottom of the website that displays the advertisement.
2. Lightbox Ads: Lightbox advertisements appears like banner ads, appearing on the side of the websites. When the user hovers the mouse on top of the advertisement, the lightbox ad will expand, dim the background, and take up the entire screen, leading the readers’ focus towards the advertisement.
3. Pop-up Ads: A more interruptive format of display advertising as it appears as another window that covers the contents of the original website; the pop-up ads usually appears as soon as the website loads.
4. Native Ads: Native ads detects and imitates the style of the website, merging with the contents of the website. The advertisement automatically adjusts itself to make it look natural.
5. Rich Media Ads: Advertisements that could be a series of images or video which prompts user interaction. When users interact with rich media advertisements, there could be a few actions which could draw users in and engage them.
6. Interstitial Ads: It can act as a transition between sections of a passage or in the beginning of the passage. Unlike pop-ups, interstitial advertisements do not appear as separate windows and do not cover any contents, so they are less intrusive.

>>>Learn more about the types of advertising and their formats

Why Use Display Advertising?

1. Re-exposure increases the purchase probability. Since display advertising targets users with their behaviours and advertisements they receive are based on websites or products they have recently browsed, they would be reminded of the products they were interested in, even after the windows have been closed. This way, potential customers are always reminded of the products they are interested in and there is a higher probability for them to purchase them.
2. Display Advertisements are hard to ignore. With numerous types of display advertising, some expanding, some interactive, and some even interrupting, The users’ gaze would ultimately be directed to the display advertisements. Even if the CTR is not high, brand awareness for your business could still be improved once they have seen the advertisement.