What Works Best: Display Ads Vs. Search Ads
While search engine advertising allows consumers in direct need of your products or services to find your company, display advertising allows for higher visibility across multiple websites. Here is some information to help you decide which method is best for your company.
Search Engine Advertising
Any time you conduct a search online, you come into contact with search engine advertising. Search engine advertising is a paid strategy that operates with a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) method, helping your business or products appear on a Search Engine Result Page (SERP). When a user searches for keywords pertaining to your business, those keywords should be included in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on your website, and they should prompt your ad to be displayed in the sponsored section. Because this method is centered around consumer intent, it’s a great way to directly target people who are searching for your products or services. If you have a local business, it allows your business to be found based on geographical location. Search engine advertising also allows you to directly test and analyze effectiveness because you can track the clicks that lead to conversions. When using this strategy, it is essential to consider the right mix of quantity and quality for your business.
Display Advertising
Display advertising works to build brand awareness by featuring your ads on search engines or websites, regardless of what consumers are searching online. They can show up as text and a URL in website sidebars, banners featuring images, and in emails to name a few. Display advertising allows you to focus on increasing visibility and creating demand by serving as a gentle push towards consumers to keep you in mind. For example, if a consumer were to browse a clothing website and decide to make a purchase, the display ad for that company would then appear on other websites that the consumer visits. This is a subtle way for the company to stay in the mind of the consumer in the event they need to make another purchase or wish to continue browsing. When devising your ads, it’s important to tailor them to the nature of the platform they’ll appear on. Take displaying ads on Facebook, for example. People don’t browse through Facebook with the intent to make purchases. Occasionally, they may give in to an ad or two, but for the most part, they browse to interact with other people and engage with informative content. Aligning with the goal of display advertising, to build brand awareness and inspire further action, maybe try and create an ad that shares useful information relevant to your product. You’re not pushing your product into a consumer’s face, but rather providing them with useful information that will help them keep your company in mind going forward.
Things to Consider
While both marketing strategies are highly effective when used correctly, there are a few factors you should consider before deciding which one to use. Start by taking into account the kind of visibility your company has and how much you’d like it to have. If your goal is to build awareness, display advertising gets the job done by showing your ads not just to people who have already visited your website, but also to people who weren’t searching for you directly. You should also consider the type of service you have. Companies that offer specific products or services such as doctors, plumbers, etc., may wish to push more search engine ads because they are mostly found through specific searches. Consumers don’t browse the internet hoping to stumble upon ads for plumbers; if they need one, they’ll search directly once the need arises.
Better Together
Because both search engine and display advertising can target different points in a customer’s journey, it can also be smart to employ both tactics. However, be wary of how you use the two strategies together. Avoid using the same ad campaign and try to break the two up into separate campaigns specific to their respective networks. Search engine advertising tends to reap more visible benefits because they are tracked click-by-click. Display ads are more about building awareness and are harder to track based on clicks. This being said, using the same campaign for the different methods can make it complicated to track since they are effective in different ways.
Still confused about which method of advertising will be most effective for you? Kraus Marketing is your all-in-one agency specializing in integrated digital marketing strategies that include comprehensive branding, social media marketing, SEO & paid search, website design, and everything in between. Contact us today!