Over the last two years, we've seen companies develop display solutions that show ads based on the keywords prospects search as they navigate the Web. The introduction of search retargeting represented a major leap forward for direct response and brand marketers who were thirsty for new audience acquisition and engagement solutions that performed better. What they got was transparency and insight into the data used to reach consumers -- they could use consumers' actual online searches instead of the 3rd party data shoved into a fixed, black box audience segment that had become the norm. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Google today launched a new form of expandable display ad that it calls a "Lightbox ad" -- it begins as a standard display ad, but expands to a super-sized image after a two-second hover -- long enough, the company says, to eliminate nearly all accidental expansions. Marketers pay when users interact with the ad, rather than when they click through. The company calls it "smart hover," and says this type of expandable increases engagement by 6 to 8 times over click-to-expand ads. When the ad expands, it appears in the middle of the screen and dims the rest of the page behind it. The p [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Display Advertising | Google: Display Advertising | Google: YouTube | Top News

Last month, Google’s famously streamlined white homepage was plastered with something different: an animated banner ad. Since Google has been credited as an ad-free (or, at least, display-ad-free) search engine, the animated banner ad for the Nexus 7 Android tablet came as a bit of a shock to both Google users and the wider industry. While this wasn’t the first time Google used its homepage to showcase products, was it a smart move by Google? In today’s shareholder-value-centric paradigm, companies are principally run by profitability. Whenever a company says that it will never d [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Search Marketing

Flash back to the 90s to a time when interactive Flash ads were fairly fresh. Do you remember those "shoot the duck" leaderboard banner ads that, for a time, converted no matter what the message?  Not only did those Flash banners integrate movement but they gave you the ability to interact when you put your mouse over the ad. As advertisers pushed Flash ads to the edge of annoyance, most ad networks began outlawing all ads that shivered, blinked, had flashing backgrounds or tricked you into clicking the ad. These truly tricky banners made us believe that the ad was interactive but it reall [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

 Google and Facebook are by far the dominant players in the display ad space, together expected to command 30% of the overall market in 2012. And their substantial lead is set to become even greater, according to an eMarketer report that predicts the two will sell 37% of all display ads by the end of 2014. Among the two, Google comes in slightly ahead with 15.4% of the market this year ($2.31 billion), compared to Facebook's 14.4% ($2.16 billion). Yahoo, which once dominated the display ad market, is on the decline with 9.3% of the market ($1.39 billion). Google and Facebook have been l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Statistics: Market Share | Statistics: Online Advertising | Statistics: Spend Projections | Top News

After a beta period lasting a couple of months, the doors are open on the new Facebook Ad Exchange (FBX), which makes the social networking giant's inventory available to real-time bidding (RTB) and retargeting. Facebook is working with the exchanges of a generous number of partners, including AdRoll, AppNexus, Brandscreen, Criteo, DataXu, MediaMath, Nanigans, Kenshoo, Optimal, RocketFuel, Tellapart, TheTradeDesk, Triggit, Turn, Xaxis, and X+1. The company says that through these partners, advertisers can access capabilities like multi-touch attribution, view-through conversions, global fre [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Facebook Exchange | Features & Analysis | Top News

I am sure you have heard the expression "the only constant in life is change".  If you make a living buying, selling and evaluating online display advertising then you understand this all too well. The days when companies in the ad tech industry fit into simple-to-define silos seem to be behind us. Company capabilities continue to expand through innovation and acquisition while sales teams advocating their value multiply.  The end result is that those individuals left trying to make the best decisions about their display budgets are genuinely more confused than ever. The lines are far less [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Content Marketing | Content Marketing Column | Display Advertising

As with buying stocks, timing is everything when it comes to leveraging data to reach your target audience. Today, brands have the opportunity to capitalize on the abundance of inventory and data available to plan their marketing initiatives. When combined with media, these ingredients create the perfect recipe to apply targeted advertising to seasonal events. From the Super Bowl to holiday shopping and political events, there are a multitude of seasonal opportunities for marketers to strategize against. Below, I have highlighted the most effective times during the year for marketers to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Just go ahead and admit it. We've all had a fascination with spies since we were kids. That’s why we flock to spy movies like Mission Impossible and secretly pretend we could live a life as adventurous as Jason Bourne and James Bond. So maybe that’s why we look for marketing software that gives us the feeling that we are spying on our competitors. Well, that and the competitive advantage we can gain. SEO And PPC Spy Programs For SEO and PPC, there are software programs with cool spy names like SpyFu and SEO Spy Glass along with many more tools that may not have cool spy names but [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Big data seems to be the buzzword around our industry these days, and is there any wonder based on the recent explosion of data in terms of growth, availability and use? IBM does a pretty good job of explaining big data and I’m not one to mess with a good thing. According to the company's definition, the three core components of big data are volume, variety and velocity. Volume refers to the growing mass of terabytes and petabytes being generated and converted into analysis and real time decisions. Variety refers to the structured and unstructured data pouring in via thousands of so [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

To date, branding has often been associated with billboards, magazine spreads and million-dollar TV spots. In online advertising, this translates to large media buys with premium publishers, including spots such as site sponsorships and homepage takeovers. However, where do data and ad targeting fit into the branding equation? Is there a place for branding campaigns within the world of ad targeting and real-time media buying? The answer is yes. Large brands such as Proctor & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever have already commented publicly about moving brand dollars to digital -- crediti [...]

Related Topics: Branding | Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Today Google Analytics announced that its tracking code will now enable AdWords customers to create remarketing lists based on certain audiences or users that show interest in specific products. This means that instead of adding the remarketing tag, websites that use Google Analytics can use their code. If you are not acquainted with the remarketing feature, here is a short explanation taken from an AdWords help article: Remarketing is a feature that lets you reach people who have previously visited your site, and show them relevant ads when they visit other sites on the Google Display Netwo [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Google: Analytics | Google: Display Advertising | Top News

A lot of companies say they offer dynamic creative. It’s a loosely defined phrase, so it can be hard to know exactly what to expect from a company that offers it. Before choosing a dynamic ad provider, my advice is to consider two sets of criteria so you know you’re getting a truly dynamic solution: 1.) degree of interactivity; and 2.) depth of customization. Interactivity Interactivity is measured by how much ability consumers have to play with content in the ad. There are three levels of commonly seen interactivity: Highly Interactive Rich Media– Incorporates features like soc [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Over the last 24 months the display ad space has continued to see rapid acceleration of budgets moving through programmatic media buying platforms such as Demand Side Platforms (DSP).  The forces behind this growth are well documented: Impression level price transparency Ability to “cherry pick” desired impressions with granular focus Hands-on control of campaign data & optimization levers Deep campaign insights due to transparency of price & delivery data Increasing volumes of real-time bidded inventory for display, mobile & video Initially there were many ar [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

Engagement will go down in history as the most ambiguous advertising buzzword of all time. Influencers all over industry are talking about it, but the lack of a definition for engagement in online advertising is creating confusion. Is it the amount of time consumers spend with their mouse on an ad? Is it how long they watch a video? Is it a “like” on Facebook? Is it an ad’s recall-ability? In the interest of full disclosure I'll admit that my company, mediaFORGE, is guilty of contributing to the convolution of engagement. But we’re repenting. So what is engagement? It’s m [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

[caption id="attachment_15024" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Chairman Tom Bedecarré and Founder and CEO Ajaz Ahmed"][/caption] WPP PLC, the world's largest advertising company, has added one of the last and largest independent digital agencies, AKQA, to its ranks, agreeing to purchase the firm for a reported $540 million. The purchase price, if correct, makes it one of the largest digital advertising agency acquisitions. The San-Francisco-based agency will remain an freestanding unit within the holding company and will retain its leadership -- founder and CEO Ajaz Ahmed and Ch [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Internet Marketing Industry | Internet Marketing Industry: Acquisitions | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

At a recent birthday party for one of the children in my neighborhood, I had my hopes for a slice of delicious birthday cake dashed. As the singing began, Mom came out with a candle-covered pizza. It turns out that junior just won’t eat cake. You can imagine my angst at learning that a three-year-old child’s palate has already ruled out the seemingly infinite varieties of cake flavors, textures, and ingredient combinations. How does this happen? It turns out our young friend recently discovered a five-month-old, partially eaten fruit cake in the back of the refrigerator and helped hi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column | Retargeting & Remarketing

In the coming weeks, Facebook plans to allow advertisers to begin purchasing its Marketplace ads on a real-time bidding basis. The idea is to increase the value of this inventory by allowing advertisers to use their own data for targeting. Though there's been much speculation about Facebook starting an ad network like the Google Content Network, this is not that -- it will only involve Facebook inventory. Ads will be sold on a CPM basis via third-party demand-side platforms (DSPs) and will be targeted via browser cookies -- which will enable retargeting and other behavioral options. Bloo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Facebook: Advertising | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Top News

There is an abundant amount of digital inventory available to brand advertisers looking to purchase ad space, but what is the best way to spend ad dollars? On one hand, there is premium ad space that is well known to everyone. Think ESPN.com or NYTimes.com. You know what you’re buying, you can integrate your content, and you know the audience you are reaching. This is how advertising has been bought and sold since it was invented. But there are fewer and fewer spaces with known audiences at scale because the media landscape keeps fracturing down to smaller and smaller niche sites [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Display Advertising Column

If there's one thing that's characterized the digital marketing universe, it's fragmentation. Marketers use one tool/platform to implement one campaign element, another tool to implement a second, and never the twain shall meet -- not in trafficking, and certainly not in reporting. And, of course, there are usually many more than two elements. This Achilles' heel is starting to pain marketers more than ever now, as their target audiences are engaging with messages on a multitude of devices and expecting consistency. "It’s hard to reach the right audience at the right moment with the ri [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Google: Display Advertising | Google: Search | Top News