Display or banner ads are a good way to build awareness to a large potential audience. They can be placed on blogs, special websites or on third party websites which offer an ads programme.  Most are very short, text based and include an image and a link to drive traffic to your website. Including a short video instead of an image can increase the number of people focusing on your ad and therefore improve click rates.

You may also consider placing advertorials on online retail sites and/or in market specific publications. While a display ad is a small ad, often placed predominantly at the top or side of a webpage linking to your website or a landing page, advertorials are longer advertisements, presented as informative articles. Although promotional, they highlight the advantages of a product or service in a less sales driven manner. Sometimes it is even difficult to separate from an editorial article written for the site you are visiting. You will only be able to see this from the word ‘advertorial’ or ‘advert’ written at the top of the page.

SEM or search engine marketing helps your website achieve increased visibility by placing your ad and link to your website in an improved position (normally on the first page) of the search results page when people search for specific keywords. A key advantage of such ads is that they appear in front of potential customers who are already interested in the topic they are searching for so more willing to buy your product or service.

Digital signage can be used to advertise at bus stops, in shopping malls, exhibition halls, waiting rooms and other public venues. This is slowly replacing traditional billboards and points of sale displays. People like to be entertained while they wait and in this increasingly digital era, digital signage and its dynamic content is being successfully adopted.

A remarketing or retargeting ad enables you to target potential accounts who have previously visited your website as they move around the internet, but did not buy, or leave their email / contact details etc. A small snippet of code or pixel which comes from their cookies, adds them to a remarketing list from which you can retarget with a follow up message. Such ads (similar in look to display ads) give you the possibility to remind the account of your brand and value proposition, which can lead to improved conversions. You can also update your retargeting ad to be even more relevant as you can base it on the previous action taken by the visitor.

Affiliate marketing enables you to advertise and promote your products and services online with the help of a third-party who receives a commission. The main objective is to drive traffic and generate sales on the e-commerce part of your website. The affiliate will use his/her channels to promote your products e.g. blog, social media, etc. Payment is normally based on a closed sale calculated as a percentage of the selling price or as a fixed amount.

Display ads

• Look carefully into the different placement options and which are most suited to best reach your target audience
• A/B test everything (image/title/descriptions/call to actions/audience/placement) to see what works best
• Make your value proposition and call to action easy to see and understand
• Keep the design simple but attractive and opt for high quality images (embed short text in the image if you think it makes sense to improve visibility)
• Include your logo to reinforce your brand
• Make your ad really stand out compared to the design and content of the placement page to maximise clicks

Protect your business

No company with an online presence is immune to a cyberattack. However, there are several precautions you can and should take to protect yourself and your business.

You might think there is no specific risk connected to online advertising. However, online advertising is an easy channel for attackers to spread malware through the web. How does this work?

Malicious or malware-laden advertisements are injected into legitimate online advertising networks and webpages. This technique called “Malvertising” is widespread because it allows the attackers to infect a large number of computers silently and at low cost. When they manage to spread malware across high-profile and reputable websites, they can reach millions of potential victims.

Some malvertisements can even infect a vulnerable computer even if the user never clicks on the advertisement.

Example of malvertisement:

Malvertising is an increasingly popular tactic for cybercriminals — some estimate that as many as 1 in 100 ads are malicious or disruptive.

The malvertising is, in essence, a potential danger for the users of your website: be it your clients or your employees:

• Employees might unintentionally download malware on a company computer, thereby granting cybercriminals access to sensitive company data. An attack like this could have serious consequences, including ransomware.
• Customers could click on a malicious ad featured on your website and infect their computers. This type of malvertising breach can damage the reputation of your business.

Make data-driven decisions

You should ideally take the following into account when measuring display ads:

• Total number of impressions
• CPM (Cost per mille or per thousand impressions)
• CTR (click-through rate)
• Engagement rate (on rich media ads)
• Bounce rate linked to your ad (it shows if people find what they were expecting after seeing your ad)
• Conversion rate
• Cost per conversion (the most important one)