Display Engine Marketing: How smart and sexy are your display ads?

A 2010 Eyeblaster study found that 72 percent of online conversions were a direct result of display ads exposure and only 23 percent of conversions were as a result of search. This unquestionably demonstrates the powerful effect of display ads in enhancing marketers total campaign results
Key industry forecasts to look out for:

• Display ad market will reach $50 billion by 2015
• Video will be the single largest driver in the digital market.
• Display will continue to shift to an audience buying model.
• In 2015, 50% of all ad buying will be done in real time.
• By 2015, 50% of online display ads will feature rich media, from 6% in 2009

Ad Spend
Despite continued economic downturn, online ad spend grew throughout 2010. Growth in display ad spend grew larger than Search for the first time since the recession hit the industry. This trend is expected to continue through 2014. The long awaited return of display was fueled by robust platforms including Ad Exchanges, Real Time Bidding, Social Media, Video and backed by a growing demand in brand advertising.

European online ad spend closed the year with double digits growth. During H1 2010, growth in Spain, Poland, Italy, and UK were up by 20%, 18%, 15%, and 10% respectively. IAB Europe predicts the European online ad market to overtake the US market in value by the summer of next year. On the other side of the Atlantic, US H1 Online ad spending were up by 11.3%. Display back on the lead with growth of 16% compared to search with just 11.6%.

The impact of innovative Rich Media
TV ads may be ahead in terms of creativity, but they lack fundamental aspects that are possible with rich media ads in an endless way. The possibility to dynamically customize display ads to provide an exceptional user experience is at the heart of the current digital advertising landscape. With the explosion of internet enabled mobile devices, location aware/geo targeted advertising apps, embedded rich media ads can be used to enhance campaign performance in real time.

Moreover, Google/DoubleClick research found the following about rich media ads: When embedded with video, rich media ads increases purchase intent by 4 times as compared to standard banner ads, awareness can increase by five times and favourability by 15 times.
Additionally, one in three internet users click on ads and one in five perform a related search about the exposed brand or products of the company.