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So it seems that online paid advertising spending is here to stay, no? The latest estimates show that online advertising spending will crest at $31.3b this year, which is an increase of 20% over 2010. That’s “b” … as in “billion”. This is more than a case of an industry that has reached its peak and is slowing its growth rate — it is an industry whose growth rate is double what it was projected to be at the end of 2010.
I’ve already spent time in this space talking about how paid search marketing is set to take off for the rest of 2011, but now come some new details about where that search growth is coming from. Paid search marketing is comprised of many components, including the familiar Google search results. But now we know that, behind that explosive increase in online ad spending is something called “display advertising”. Display advertising is a marketing tool that allows you to show eye-catching ads across various Google search properties (web sites) that are relevant to your business.
The difference between traditional paid search advertising and display campaign advertising is twofold:
- With traditional search, your visitor is pre-qualified for your business by viewing your ad after searching on one of your PPC campaign’s keywords. With display advertising, the user is shown an ad when they visit a web site within Google’s Display Network.
- Traditional search ads are text-based ads that have three components: a headline, two descriptive lines, and a destination URL. Display ads are image or video-based and are more eye-catching and engaging for the user
Why is that important for you? It highlights the idea our familiar “search real estate” is always changing. Five years ago the only conceivable avenue for those forward-thinking enough to engage in paid search advertising was to run ads with Google AdWords for PPC. Now, we have to pay attention to different areas of growth in the industry, where people are getting their ads from different web properties, no longer just from a Google search. Consider these three pieces of information regarding display advertising:
- With Facebook advertising, I can run a hybrid image/text ad that only shows my advertisements to women, ages 18-35 in the state of Rhode Island. (Side note: Facebook hit 687 million users worldwide in the month of May)
- With LinkedIn (the world’s largest professional network with over 100 million members), I can reach all users who have listed “insurance agent” in their profile
- Twitter (one of the world’s most visited sites) has started serving third-party text ads on its webpage (how long can it be before it incorporates display ads?)
At this point, I want to take a step back for a reality check. The latest comScore data shows that Google Search advertising continues to dominate the landscape, and it shows no signs of slowing down. The fact is Google’s current market dominance and innovative approach to business means that it isn’t going away, or in the words of Mike Tyson, “fade into Bolivian”.
However, as the projections show that Display advertising is the driving force behind an overall growth in online marketing, I ask you two questions:
- Can you afford to ignore this new mode of digital advertising?
- Are you the type of company who is going to be at the forefront of a growing advertising trend, or will you be left out?
Contact me with any questions that you have about expanding your SEM advertising into display marketing.
