We've been hearing more and more about
the value of Display advertising, and for good reason. A study released
this week by Fetchback demonstrates that its retargeting technology
outperforms paid search in tangible returns on the dollars invested in
each. Their comparison tests showed between 74% and 112% higher ROI,
compared with search campaigns. It's nice to have the validation, but
we're not that surprised. The beauty of online advertising has always
been its ability to deliver the right message to the right person, and
the success of paid search is only a testament to that fact. So it's not
surprising that display targeting technologies are rushing to close the
gap, and succeeding in spades.
Not only can a well designed, targeted display campaign beat search, but data compiled on how display and search interact shows unequivocally that consumers' exposure to display ads has a definitive impact in lifting search conversion. An MSN/Comscore study in 2008 showed that a combination of search and display doubled site visits over Search alone, and tripled the size of the average purchase spend.
This week reports show U.S. consumer confidence up in April, so it's a great time to closely examine multicampaign attribution, and rethink online budget distribution. Smart advertisers can take advantage now with a good display/search media mix, as consumers shop and research online, gearing up for purchases as confidence in the economy improves. In their Multi-Attribution report from February, Forrester said "Given today's challenging economic times...marketers should begin measuring multicampaign attribution now, before it becomes a corporate mandate."
– Layne Salter
And
what about those Gen X-ers? Recent studies show that
Consumers
don't shop in a vacuum, but rather ingest visual ads, search
online, comparison shop, ask friends, and read blogs. An
effective marketing mix shouldn't overlook the basic tenet
of advertising - eliciting emotion. What better than the
graphical magic of display and rich media?
You
may be reading this while on hold with your 401K or stock
broker. OK, so we may have made a bad joke a few weeks ago
about stock brokers jumping out a window. That hasn't happened,
thank goodness, but this week's "Black Sunday"
is going down in the annals of Wall Street as the worst
slump since — well, since the last one. With the Dow down
504 points on Monday, and a similar slide on Wednesday,
it's hard to view it is as business as usual, even though
broker's and analysts across the country are tirelessly
touting the "hang in there" speech.