• What makes a display ad successful? 
• Find out what you need to start a display campaign
• Make the three C’s "Clear, Concise and Compelling" work for you

What are display ads in a nutshell?

Display ads are a marketing strategy aimed to attract your online audience to your website or product using banners, social media advertising and other electronic mediums to a targeted audience. You will have probably seen these many times in your daily web browsing habits. It is a highly successful method of raising awareness of your products or services. If you’ve wanted to start a display ad campaign and are curious about how to create a display ad that raises your online profile, read on to find out how.  

What are the best/most common display ad sizes and file types? 

The great thing about display ads is that is there are many options, templates and colours you can employ to create an attractive ad. There are even options such as animated ads these days so your imagination can run wild. However, try to keep in mind that your ad will still need to align with your brand’s values and ethics. Attractive ads are great, but useless if it doesn’t educate or enlighten your audience who you are. 

A great ad network such as Google Ad’s can help you with the creation, planning of placing your ad and the analytics to judge its effectiveness. Many people choose to custom create their ads from marketing agencies or use software such as the Adobe Creative Suite or Canva. Many online ad providers have size restrictions for the type of ad you are after. However, be aware that your ad must conform to the ad platforms specifications so keep that in mind when creating your logos, images and copy. The most popular digital ad platform is Google Ads. Google Ads has the following size and file type restrictions to create on upload a display ad in Google:

Ad Sizes and File Types:

The accepted file types are: GIF, JPG, PNG

The maximum file size is 150 kb. 

There are also requirements for animated ads and HTML5 ads. Keep in mind that the country you are advertising in may have slightly different requirements depending on the restrictions in said country. The ad network will probably let you know when you try to upload your display that this is the case. 

What makes a great display ad? 

Clear, Compelling, Concise

The best kind of display ad is a simple ad, with a direct call to action (CTA). This means clear and compelling text and eye-catching graphics. The audience needs to understand or know what they are responding to. If your ad is vague, people may not want to click through as they don’t know what they will receive on the other end. Many online consumers are wary. Google Ad’s has an 80 character limit and many other ad providers are similar. Make sure your font is clear and easy to read. Avoid hard to read fonts such as cursive. This is also because many consumers online won’t give your ad the time of day if it’s hard to read. 

Sales or Promotions

Another brilliant strategy employed by successful display ads is to advertise a special price or promotion on a popular product with copy such as ‘50% off all winter products’. This is a successful strategy that generates more click-throughs than a regular CTA. This method can also create a sense of urgency through copy such as ‘While stocks last!’ or ‘For a limited time only!’. These urgent calls to action are usually quite effective as everyone loves a bargain! The consumer also feels very lucky to have nabbed a bargain of their favourite products. 

Links to relevant pages

It is crucial to have a relevant landing page for readers to click through to. If you want potential customers to click on your display ad for a sale on your eCommerce site, make sure the consumer is directed straight to the sale page. Many potential customers won’t enjoy having to search around your site to find the sale page. It’s minor details such as this that can make a big impact.

Create multiple ads

Another strategy that is considered best practice is to create 3 or 4 ads for your promotion. With slightly different wording or image to target would-be consumers. You can also then create what we call A/B testing with your different ads and find out what messaging and images work best and generate the most click-throughs. 

Don’t be afraid to be cheeky or fun in your ad copy 

The most successful and memorable ads make the reader feel an emotion. Whether it be relief, excitement or intrigue these feelings will usually lead to the user clicking on the ad to find out more. Don’t forget the character limits in these ads are quite small so you need to be economical with your word choices. Who can forget simple lines of copy from your favourite ads? Sometimes they can even become part of the online vernacular. And if you love a good pun….this is your chance to put your abilities to the test!

What should I avoid putting in my display ad? 

Misleading CTA

Your CTA should not be misleading or make the user feel negative about themselves or your brand after clicking through to your advertisement. You want to empower your viewer with their choice not make them feel ashamed. You also want to make sure your CTA tells the consumer who you are and what it will show them by clicking through to your ad. 

Using hard to read font or confusing images

You shouldn’t make people scrolling past your ad work hard to understand what your product is. Whether you’ve chosen a cursive font that is really hard to read or just chosen a really generic image of a blue sky without your products or a CTA explaining what your product is, these are sure-fire ways to ensure a low click-through rate and a low ROI. 

Determine your target audience

Before you advertise your product, make sure you outline exactly what your target audience is and what sites and ad networks you want to use for your online display ad campaign. Without an obvious idea of demographics, the campaign may very well be unsuccessful. 

Not having a wide range of ad formats 

Having an ad campaign that is only desktop ad-friendly is a surefire way to create an unsuccessful campaign. Most online display advertising audiences are mobile users. Your desired users will have more chance of viewing your ad in a Google response format. This means they will show your advertisement in multiple formats with very little extra work from yourself. 

Display ads are amazing at creating impressions and awareness of your service or products. With clear and concise graphics and copy you can create a very successful ad that will raise your profile and create sales both now and in the future. Even if your click-through rate is lower than you like, many display ads create brand awareness and recall, which significantly increases future sales and increases the prospects of your upcoming display ad campaigns. 

If you are keen to start a display ad campaign there are many services available to make it a fun, easy process. Prior to starting display advertising, you will need to have a clear understanding of your audience, a decent web presence and a great landing page or website where customers can contact you or purchase the products.