What are the Best Practices for Display Ads

Back in the day, businesses used to put billboards around popular streets to advertise their products and services. Over time, we've digitalized everything around us, including this marketing method. Nowadays, this method goes by the name "display ads", and in today's blog, we're going through some of the best practices for display ads, in the hopes of helping you create better and more effective ones for your business.

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What are Display Ads?

Display ads are a kind of internet advertising that targets your potential clients on applications, websites, and social media platforms with promotional messages via visuals, videos, or interactive content. Display advertisements, in contrast to text-based search engine advertisements, are visual and intended to draw people in with captivating and eye-catching creative components. 

So what would you need to create better and more creative display ads? Let's get to it.

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Best Practices for Display Ads:

Effective and creative display ads, as we just discussed, may substantially boost your brand's awareness, improve your business's website traffic, and enhance your sales or conversions. Following recommended practices is crucial if you want to get the most out of your display ads. Here's our quick and comprehensive guide for display ads best practices. Try to follow as many as you can, and you'll start noticing some improvements soon.
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Define Clear Objectives:

The basis of any effective display advertising campaign is having well-defined goals. Your campaign's goals will determine everything from the style of your advertisements to the metrics you monitor. For instance, you should focus on producing aesthetically appealing advertising that highlights the personality and values of your brand if your primary objective with your creative display ads is to raise brand recognition. The KPIs that you ought to monitor in this scenario are brand recall, impressions, and reach. On the other hand, create ad layout ideas with a clear and attention-grabbing call to action that entices users to go through to your website if you're looking to increase website traffic. Track data like website visits and click-through rate (CTR).
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Know Your Audience:

To come up with relevant and eye-catching ad layout ideas that appeal to potential clients, it is crucial to understand your business's targeted audience. For effective targeting and messaging, find out as much as you can about the age, gender, income, education, and other pertinent demographics of your audience. To produce relevant and interesting advertisements that appeal to your audience's requirements and preferences, you should also examine their online activities, hobbies, and spending patterns. Additionally, you have to take your target audience's geographic location into account as it's very important for tailoring offers and ads to their precise region and time zone.
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Optimize for Multiple Sizes:

Make sure your creative display ads are responsive, meaning they will adjust and show properly on a range of screen sizes, such as tablets, smartphones, and personal computers. To optimize visibility and reach across many platforms and locations, develop your ad layout ideas in multiple common sizes, such as Medium Rectangle (300×250), Leaderboard (728×90), and Wide Skyscraper (160×600).
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Utilize Strong Branding:

Building brand awareness and trust is facilitated by consistent branding, which makes your brand easier for consumers to recall and identify. To strengthen brand identification and preserve a consistent brand identity, use your business's logo and color scheme in all of your creative display ads. Additionally, establishing your brand's consistency and audience trust requires maintaining your brand's voice and messaging throughout all of your ads.
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Implement Clear Call-to-Action (CTA):

In order to increase user engagement and conversions, a clear and compelling call to action is necessary. Make your call to action (CTA) stand out in the advertisement so that users can see and understand it with ease. To make the CTA stand out, use bold fonts and contrasting colors, and indicate clearly what you want people to do, be it "Shop Now," "Learn More," "Sign Up Today," or "Get Started." Use time-limited offers or exclusive bargains to instill a sense of urgency and motivate quick action.
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Use Engaging Animation and Video:

Creative display ads with animation and video can effectively capture attention and deliver your message more effectively than static graphics. Try to use subtle animations to highlight important aspects of the advertisement without overpowering or confusing your viewers. The visual appeal of your display ad design can be improved by animated components such as moving images, effects, or transitions. Include quick, high-quality videos to highlight your products and services or provide an engaging backstory for your business. Make sure to keep your videos interesting, pertinent, and optimized for fast loading and playing.

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FAQ’s About Display Ads:

Now that you know some of the best practices for display ads, it’s time to move on to answer some of the frequently asked questions about this topic to provide you with more valuable information that will help you craft your own perfect ad layout ideas and designs.
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What is the difference between display and search ads?

1. Display ads: Visual advertisements known as display ads can be found on social media sites, apps, and websites. With the use of visual content like photos, videos, and graphics, display ads’ main objective is to expand your audience and raise your brand's awareness.

2. Search ads: Text-based advertisements known as "search ads" are displayed on search engine results pages (SERPs). They are made with the intention of drawing in visitors who are actively looking for certain products or services that you provide by using keywords to target them and directing them to a landing page or website.
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How do I create engaging animation and video ads?

1. Subtle Animations: To highlight important aspects of the display ad design without overwhelming or distracting visitors, utilize subtle animations. Animated elements could consist of effects, transitions, or moving visuals that improve the advertisement's visual appeal.

2. Short Videos: Include quick, quality videos to highlight your products and services or provide an engaging backstory for your business. Make sure the video content loads quickly, is interesting, and relevant.
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How do I implement A/B testing for my display ads?

1. Testing Variables: Try out several creative element combinations, including headlines, graphics, content, and call-to-actions (CTAs), to see which ones work best for your audience and produce the best results.

2. Performance Analysis: Examine each ad variation's performance data to find patterns, revelations, and areas that could use improvement. To increase your creative display ad's performance and return on investment, use A/B testing tools and platforms to monitor important indicators and make data-driven decisions.
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What are the key metrics to monitor for my display ad campaign?

1. Click-through Rate (CTR): This shows you the exact percentage of users who clicked on your ad after they saw it.

2. Conversion Rate: This rate shows you the percentage of users who not only responded to the ad, but also completed a desired action, like purchasing something or signing up for your website’s newsletter.

3. Cost Per Conversion (CPC): This is the typical expense incurred for every conversion your advertising campaign produces.

4. Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): The amount of money made for each dollar spent on your advertising campaign, and it's usually calculated as (Ad Revenue / Ad Cost) x 100%.

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Conclusion:

Careful planning, creative display ad design, accurate targeting, and ongoing optimization are necessary for effective display advertising.  Keep up the hard work and you'll start noticing some improvements very soon. Just as long as you keep track of your metrics and how your ads are doing to be able to keep improving and properly modifying them to be even more efficient.