Online display ads, formerly as “banner ads,” have grown-up. Today’s ads are better targeted to visitors, have increased customer interaction, and utilize technology like flash to provide dynamic compelling alternatives to plain old image ads. However, even with all these improvements the pricing guides have stayed consistent.  Advertisers pay for display ads in various ways: by thousand impressions, by click or by acquisition (also referred to as cost per sale).

Many retailers place online display advertising low on the list of marketing priorities—if they do any online display advertising at all, focusing, instead, on paid search, e-mail marketing and affiliate marketing, and sometimes television and other media advertising. However, times are changing. Internet users are now spending more time online, and therefore seeing more display ads. According to research from The Nielsen Co, in May the average American used the Internet 26 hours and 26 minutes, up 9% from May 2007.

What’s more, consolidation of the online display advertising industry is creating monolithic ad networks with great reach and targeting technology that outshines the conventional method of buying placement across an ad network’s sites with little or no targeting by demographic, context or behavior. AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo all have purchased numerous companies—ad networks, ad servers, targeting technology providers and others—to create one-stop shops for companies looking to use online display more effectively.

Retailers can approach individual sites, request media kits and place advertisements on just those sites. However, it is more common for companies to use the dozens of ad networks, some large with huge reach and others small with focused themes, to place online display ads.

One of the most important ideas behind successful online ads is one size does not fit all. Consider any major ad campaign; the ads themselves are targeted to the demographic. For instance, ethnic model choices are displayed in different areas to help consumers better identify with the product. The same is true for online advertising. The goal is to place your ads contextually. That is to ensure that your ads blend in and look as if they belong to the site. This is the theory behind Google’s popular and successful AdSense campaign, which places contextual text ads on web pages within their Content Network.

This is often a hard concept for business owners to grasp. They mistakenly believe that it’s better to have their ads JUMP at the consumer. However, as we stated in last week’s column purchases are often reliant on the trust factor. By creating a highly targeted campaign and ensuring that your ads fit in with the page they are presented, you extend that site’s trust to your own brand.

Again, with trust becoming more and more the major determinant in online purchasing create ads that cut to the bone. Less is more. A good base for any online display ads is a logo, a call to action and bullets to attract your potential customer’s interest. Your goal should be to make your ad appear to be just more content on the page. It should not be intrusive.

What’s more, online ads can be tied directly into your search campaign. Using contextual targeting technology available with Google’s Content Network, the e-retailer can set up “ad groups ” for each display ad it runs. Google spiders search the Internet for web pages that contain the keywords. When a user goes to a web site within the Google Content Network, Google places the appropriate ad on the page with the keywords.

While it’s doubtful that online display ads will ever replace search ads they do offer and extremely productive marketing opportunity that can be targeted to qualified customers.

Interested in taking advantage of the online display ad trend? This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and let us create an integrated marketing campaign.