Take over the open web with Display Advertising

Display advertising has evolved significantly from the days of booking directly with individual publishers for guaranteed impressions. While direct buys are still common, especially for premium placements, programmatic buying has become a popular and effective way to purchase display inventory. Rather than selecting publishers based on their audience demographics, programmatic buying allows you to target specific audiences wherever they go across the open web—all with brand safety measures in place, of course.

That’s a fair concern. Most brands want to avoid any risk of their ads appearing on low-quality or inappropriate websites. Fortunately, there are several tools and methods to ensure brand safety. Start by implementing an up-to-date blocklist (sites where ads should not appear) and a robust allowlist (approved publishers for your ads), which helps filter out suspicious or unsuitable sites. Please note that an allowlist needs to be sizable enough to allow any type of scale.

Additionally, ad verification tools are essential. They confirm proper ad placement and can even gauge page sentiment before displaying your ad. For example, while news sites are generally reputable, you may not want your ad to appear alongside negative news stories. Ad verification tools help prevent this, ensuring your brand’s reputation is protected.

It’s natural to want the most cost-effective rates. However, a low CPM doesn’t necessarily equate to quality. Low CPM rates can be achieved by including low-quality inventory or reducing targeting precision. While this may lower costs, it also increases the likelihood that your ads will be shown in less desirable placements or to audiences that aren’t relevant to your brand, potentially compromising both campaign performance and brand reputation.

While it’s important to keep CPMs in check for value, CPM alone shouldn’t be the only measure of media effectiveness. The key is finding the right balance among cost, reach, and performance to ensure your campaign’s success.

Display advertising is a highly versatile channel, offering scale, advanced targeting, and greatly diverse ad formats and placements. If your primary goal is to drive sales, Display can certainly play a role within your channel mix. For instance, Dynamic Creative Optimisation (DCO) is particularly effective for driving sales as part of a retargeting strategy. However, Display works best when integrated with other channels as part of the broader customer journey. Contact us to discuss how Display advertising could complement your sales objectives.

While DCO can be a powerful tool for driving results, it does require scoping, some initial development and technical setup investment. First, the data source(s) and ad tags need to be properly connected to enable seamless, on-the-fly ad creation. Data sources can include a product feed (for an eCommerce site) or a structured spreadsheet—what’s crucial is that the data is well-organised so the right information can be fed into the ad tag.

Additionally, correct tagging on both the website and ad tags is essential to accurately capture audience interactions, which feed back into the DCO algorithm for continuous optimisation and performance improvement. For DCO to be a worthwhile investment, it’s usually recommended to be implemented as an always-on component within your campaign.

It depends on what you’re comparing it to. Compared to traditional static banner ads, the production costs for animated or interactive banners can be higher, as they require more time and specialised skills to develop.

From a buy price (CPM) perspective, rich media ads placed in premium, prominent locations (like expandable ads) tend to be more expensive than standard placements with less screen space.

However, these additional investments are often worthwhile, as rich media can be a powerful tool for achieving your campaign objectives.

Promoting NSFW products can be challenging, given the restrictions and approval processes involved. However, because mainstream brands generally avoid NSFW websites, Display advertising can actually be one of the most effective channels for this type of product. While certain guidelines must still be followed, we can design a campaign tailored to thrive in a specifically curated display environment. Contact us to learn more.