Category: Display Advertising

Borrell Associates Report: Expected Increase in Targeted Display Advertising

Borrell Associates, an expert in local online advertising, recently published an in-depth report on the automotive industry, paying particular attention to the way the car-buying path has become dramatically shorter. In recent years, digital media has shifted the car buying process, as researching potential car purchases has become increasingly easy and accessible. Now, most consumers perform nearly all of their research online before stepping onto a car dealership lot and, in turn, they are more qualified and prepared to make a purchase when visiting a dealership.

The access to online research has caused serious trouble for traditional media outlets. According to the report, newspapers, broadcast television, and radio advertisements have seen year-over-year declines, while online and mobile advertising increased 18.7%. Borrell Associates explains that the path to purchase has been transformed into a new shape due to the utility and ease of interactive media. Fueled by online research, the use of mobile devices, and brand- and model-specific searches, the typical 6-month buying funnel for purchasing a new car is now a 3-month buying “shot glass”, with more than 70% of the consumers entering the top making a purchase

So how will this affect online advertising? Borrell Associates expects that the auto industry will spend about 20% more on digital advertising this year and two out of five ad dollars will be spent on digital media. In the coming years, targeted display ads and online video will crush all competitive advertising media- even paid search!

In the coming years there will be an explosion of targeted display advertising, including retargeting of users, and online video as marketers transfer their immense success with television advertisements toward online viewing. Specifically, advertisers will have to invest more time and money in moving their video assets online and make them available on mobile and tablet devices.  The combination of online video, mobile device usage, and retargeting strategies will allow advertisers to remind their consumers of that gorgeous dark blue sedan wherever they traipse on their smartphones, tablets and PCs.

Why Every Small Business Should Be Using Display Ads

Advertising is and always will be one of the most valuable business tools to achieve greater brand visibility and business growth. The problem is traditional avenues such as print and other offline avenues are returning less ROI and less engagement. It is now essential that businesses find ways to reach the audience where they spend their time – online.

Many social media and web based platforms have been working to determine the most effective way to take advantage of the millions (in some cases, billions) of eyes that pass over the web every day.

Pop up and banner ads were introduced as a way to provide a platform for businesses to take advantage of the floods of people that were diverting their attention to online media. But those ads weren’t always deemed effective even by the big brands that had access to these early stage platforms because there was no to control who was seeing the ad making the return on ads run to unqualified buyers extremely poor.

But there’s good news!

Over the past couple of years, online advertising has been growing and maturing to become the most powerful tool for targeting qualified leads and putting your business in front of them. In other words, advertising is a numbers game. It’s all about reaching the most relevant eyes possible with the smallest amount of financial investment.

With today’s digital advertising options, it’s now possible to target ads precisely by demographic, behavioral, and even psychographic information. And even better, you can manage everything using a Hosted ELK as a service and measure the reach and effectiveness of ads with campaign metrics and web
analytics!

Rather than making your ad available to a wide audience and ‘hoping for the best’, you can get your ad in front of a ‘warm’ audience with a HUGE potential for conversion! This makes online display ads infinitely more valuable than any other traditional advertising medium.

So why should you, the local business owner, care?

Targeted display advertising can be focused to a local geographic area down to a 15 mile radius around a zip code. Compared to radio or print advertising which is often spread over 100s of miles, this form of advertising is not only more cost effective but it is PROVEN to generate qualified leads in your area.

But let’s be honest, any new form of advertising is scary so I’m going to let you in on a little secret… The key to taking full advantage of display ads is to create ads that not only gets the word out about your product or service but do so in a way that also enhances your brand image. Your ad has to be created in a way that will convert AND feels valuable and beneficial to your audience. A good display ad is not only creative and eye catching it’s also saying something the audience wants to see or hear.

When done well, the message in a display ad will stick with the members of your audience long after the ad is no longer in view. 35% of people who have seen a display ad will search for the business within 48 hours which is proof that even if someone doesn’t click on a display ad, it is still an effective tool for securing mindshare with your prospects. Visibility is integral to the success of your business. If your audience doesn’t know your business exists, they can’t become customers.

Targeted, online display ads can play a valuable role in the success of your business. But the key to taking full advantage of display ads is truly understanding their role and how to leverage them.

If you’d like to learn about the Lift Local Display Network provided through Summit Marketing, click here.