Types of Display Advertising

Different Types of Display Ads

Ad Category

Example: You are advertising a new beauty cream so you would publish your ad on websites that have a largely female audience like fashion or beauty sites.



You choose to advertise in this category of websites because their visitors are your target audience and your ad is of topical interest to them. This type of advertising is best for raising brand awareness as it involves a long list of websites for your ad to be published on.

Ad Retargeting

Example: You checked the Groupon website and later on, while you’re surfing online elsewhere, you see Groupon display advertisements. With retargeting in display advertising, visitors who have already been to the specified website are served the ad when they continue browsing elsewhere on the Internet. This form of advertising is more expensive and targets a smaller audience, but promises a good end result as the viewer has already established an interest in the product or service by visiting the publisher’s website before.

Contextual

Example: Placing display advertisements about the latest Jeep model on a car forum website.



Your display ad matches the content of the web page and is of topical interest to its visitors. This type of advertising works best combined with category advertisement.

Behavioral

Example: If you have been visiting a list of different real estate websites in search of a new apartment, you will be served an ad for real estate listings.



Behavioral display advertising targets a specific audience based on their web history with the help of cookies. This form of display advertising focuses on a smaller audience but provides more solid leads in the end.

A 2010 Display Advertising Study conducted by Advertiser Perceptions Inc. shows advertisers prefer demographic and behavioral targeting.