Five Reasons to Rethink Online Display Advertising
Posted on February 17th, 2010
“Keep costs low while growing revenue”. This maxim is being focused on like at no other time. Recessions have a tendency to make people focus on the cost side of the equation – but the revenue side must return as well to restore the many ailing companies back to health. Recession is a time when businesses need to re-think what they do. Now is the time to re-think display advertising.
This month’s moves and announcements by Yahoo! and Google have made it clear that both giants are re-thinking how they see the online banner advertising channel. Why? Accountability for performance, a growing pie, the boundaries of search and a brightening economic future.
1) Time Spent Online Is Growing
Right now, the average user spends at least 13 hours per week online, up from 9 hours in 2006. Naturally, that figure grows for younger groups. This means that to reach your audience you will have to move to internet advertising at some point in the future. All traditional media channel growth patterns are either declining or flat.
2) Search Accounts For A Small Fraction Of Time Spent Online
The way I figure it*, the September 2009 ComScore study on internet usage means that at absolute most, total time spent on search sites adds up to no more than 11% of the 26 billion-hour year total. The real number is likely lower, but 11% is a top end. That means at the absolute least, around 90% of time online is time spent away from search.
I love search. It has its roles. But if search is the only part of your online marketing strategy – then you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself to find them in that relatively small window of usage time. The internet is so much bigger than just search – expand the ocean you are fishing in.
3) Local Web Business Is Taking Off
If you are not a large multi-national company, or you don’t sell products over the internet around the world, the net still beckons. The world wide web is now the local web. Look at sites like Yelp.com, Yellowpages.com and the search results the next time you look on Google for a local service. Local search is a big driving force at Google. Local consumers are consulting the web, before making local buying decisions. With every major ad network and publisher offering geographic targeting for advertising, display is no longer confined to just “local” web sites to reach your local audience.
4) Display Advertising is what you need it to be.
You only have so much budget – that is a fact and there are a lot of decisions to make on how best to use that budget. The display channel is what you need it to be. It is local and national, it is mass-market and niche, it is for budgets big and small, it is for direct response and name awareness. Online banner advertising is an incredibly flexible and adaptable advertising channel that can grow your business. It also helps raise the performance of your other channels, including search.
5) Search’s Performance Accountability Is Coming To Display
Traditional media is very untrackable. When compared to that, display advertising is a data gold mine. But when compared to search, which has that nice CPC model, advertisers can still wonder in some cases if their display ads worked. The explosion of data sources, ad networks and exchanges now allow for display the kind of trackable ROI that search delivers. Google’s display advertising revenue just hit $1 billion this year, and Google is no slouch when it comes to trackability. Expectations are changing and display is justifying itself like never before. By mixing good creative, defining your metrics, and planning your targets – you can track the results of display
Doing new things and changing existing programs can be seen as a risky proposition – especially if the outcome seems uncertain. And we have heard all the reasons why people don’t do display ads – for some businesses there are better options. From what we have heard from our clients is that 2010 is the year they make display advertising an aggressive part of their marketing mix. The ROI is starting to flatten in their email and search programs – and they need new growth. They are rethinking display.
* calculation method:
1.3 billion hours for google (all Google minus youtube)
1.7 non windows messenger hours * .1 to get bing = 0.17
1.6 billion for Yahoo sites= for “search” 1.3 +0.2 + 1.6 = 3.1 bil
Against total = 26.9 bil – 3.1b / 26.9 b = 11.5%
Filed under Digital Advertising, Display Advertising |
One Response to “Five Reasons to Rethink Online Display Advertising”
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5 raisons POUR la publicité d’affichage en ligne « Le Blogue de Samuel Parent Says:
March 27th, 2010 at 11:45 pm[...] 5 raisons POUR la publicité d’affichage en ligne Posté en IAB Canada – Québec, Investissements médias, Marketing / Publicité Interactive, Mesure, Moteurs de recherche par titaninteractif à mars 28, 2010 Ce billet s’inspire largement d’un article « Five Reasons To Rethink Online Display Advertising » sur AdBean (http://adbean.net/2010/02/17/five-reasons-to-rethink-online-display-advertising/).à [...]