The difficulty in spending, specifically the internet advertising dollar, is determining which media mix will bring the best return in product/service revenue. The Question to be asked while performing media planning should be: Is the product suitable for branding, and increased sales, with direct-to-consumer advertising? The ROI for that expenditure varies considerably and is surprisingly low. What portion of budget should be allocated for Display advertising knowing that Search brings direct results? In current scenario, display advertising while being a relatively small component of a promotion plan, bring a high ROI.

Insight into solving this complex problem has been provided by an independent study: Search and display together provide a 22% rate lift over Search alone. Basic question which should strike any online marketer is – what if the end-user searches their brand directly or in other words what could make an end-user search for their brand while looking for a service or product in a particular category. Answer is obvious, a user get exposed to a display ad one day and a video or an email ad the other day and may be the day after searches for the service and make a purchase. Do we now see how Display advertising plays its role. The research clearly showed that users exposed to both channels, search and display-two of the biggest online channels, are more likely to convert than users exposed to search advertising alone. A few points in favor of Display advertising as per the above mentioned research:

– Display messaging can help win over a user who is interested in a brand or product that they have previously searched on, but may be on the fence about purchasing.

– Display also likely drives brand searches – a valuable initial step into the purchase process. Display advertising is a proven method to generate brand awareness, message association and increased purchase intent. Thus, it’s a great way to reinforce both acquisition and brand messaging that users may receive from other channels.

– Finally, search is often used as a navigational tool for users who cannot remember a website’s URL. Consumers may first visit that site by clicking on a display ad, then revisit subsequently via search when they are ready to purchase or register.

Display Ad Frequency: Another important factor the research has emphasized upon is the impact of display ad frequency in driving conversion results for users exposed to both display and search. Generally those users who viewed three or more impressions in combination with at least one search click had better results than those who viewed only one or two impressions. Both conversion rates and search click-to-conversion rates climbed significantly for these users, further suggesting the benefit of display advertising when paired with search. Well said, done and researched, any Search activity should be combined with or preceded by Display Ad activity would lead to value for every promotional dollar spent.

Any traffic source or the means of driving traffic whether Online Display Advertising or Search Engine Marketing or Search Engine Optimization, can only drive interested users to the offer page. Final conversion depends mainly on the uniqueness of the offer that the advertiser make and the brand value advertiser maintains in the market. As there is huge competition in almost every vertical in the market, any marketing activity is worth doing as long as it reaches out to the right audience, as it not only drives conversions today but also build brand and prepare for confirming conversions tomorrow.