“Data-Driven Thinking” is a column written by members of the media community and containing fresh ideas on the digital revolution in media.
Today’s column is written by Amiad Solomon, Founder & President at Peer39.
Over the past ten years, the search advertising industry has grown tremendously. In no small part due to companies like Google and Yahoo, advertisers have largely formed their online footprint with text-based ads adjacent to contextually relevant search results. This approach was long perceived to be an advertiser’s best friend from an ROI perspective, and it was also safe and simple. However, I believe display advertising will steal the mantle from search as the most effective and efficient strategy on the web.
The shift in balance is largely attributable to the vast improvements that have been made in display targeting technologies in the past year. Additionally, brands can target display ads on a very granular level and create a safe environment for their brands. Now, it’s safe to come out and play.
Advertisers are seeing greater bang for their buck using display in an increasing number of content categories. With search advertisements, if an advertiser wants to appear alongside automotive results, the CPC will likely be upwards of $5, and very often more than $10. However, with display, that same spend can get an advertiser thousands of relevant auto impressions. And given the increased click-through and conversion rates that brands are seeing, that ROI is massive compared to search.
Campaign performance levels that were seen as successful only a few years ago in search are now better in the display field. It is my belief that brands who are willing to take the leap from search to display will see huge jumps in their campaign performance, as they target to relevant categories which serve as a proxy for their target audience and align with their brand and creative messages.
Follow Peer39 (@SemanticizeMe) and AdExchanger.com (@adexchanger) on Twitter.
