B2B marketing is undoubtedly not a piece of cake, whether you have just stepped in or spent years to create a pace in the industry. In both cases, advertising plays a crucial role in raising awareness and encouraging conversions, if done right. When it comes to “display advertising”, many B2B marketers were left with a bad taste in the mouth and for a significant amount of time ‘display ads’ were claimed as untrustworthy. However, the ineffectiveness of display advertising is associated with a lack of context and value of ads.
Today, display advertising is back with a bang. Thanks to niche targeting that allows placement of ads on versatile websites and influence target customers as per their unique browsing behavior. On the other hand, for most B2B marketers display advertising is no less than a ‘blanket tool’ – a way to advertise their special offer or products and raise brand awareness to a fairly broad audience.
In a B2B context, marketing standards are significant to meet certain standards like accurately targeting the audience, and the promotional message is direct yet precise. For both the conditions, display advertising is extremely relevant for impacting conversion rates.
The Power Of Display Advertising
Among many B2B marketing trends in previous years, display ads marked impactful since it strongly supports the idea of result-oriented marketing.
It is reported in a whitepaper by Bizo, a leading B2B marketing company informed about their top 3 marketing initiatives. They highlighted display advertising as the most important initiative, even more than Search engine optimization.
Besides, up to 90% of B2B marketers report that display advertising is more crucial to their marketing mix today compared to last year and 49% are planning to invest in display ads more than they did previously.
Brand Awareness Via Display Ads
If B2B display ads are put to work cleverly in conjunction with accurate retargeting, then the audience that complies with segmentation requirements or the website visitors can easily be approached and engaged consistently.
Accurate targeting and relevant ads make the firm appear as a professional entity in terms of branding. Thus, it raises awareness among people and other companies.
A successful B2B marketer is the one that is interacting with the right audience over the right platforms and at the right time – just like the ones performing at the back of International B2B Trade Sites. Specific targeting combined with buying mechanisms is the key to achieve such ideal marketing goals.
Here, display ads play a crucial role in effectively persuading the target audience and leave a lasting impact with creative and catchy images.
1. Precise Targeting
Those who have even a little experience with responsive display ads know that it’s no less than an opportunity for extensive reach and precise targeting at the same time. This also means that you are wasting bucks on such segments that are less likely to take interest and respond.
A study reports that display advertising impacts the buying behavior from the very first exposure to brand to after its sale.
According to ComScore, paid search only reaches 8% of the audience that matters to the marketers and email marketing is usually triggered by the size and value of the leads or email list.
On comparing multiple marketing initiatives with display advertising, it’s pretty clear that responsive display ads are the only way to maintain precision and scale at the same time.
2. Versatility
Every marketing initiative is grounded on a specific purpose, and the same is the case with online display advertising, but the motive behind it has no defined limits. For instance, display ads are not only meant for promotion; these can be used for any phase of the customer’s buying cycle.
Display Ads can be designed to raise brand awareness, educate prospects, enhance engagement in specific target segments, and to close a deal as well.
On the other hand, display advertising allows the brand to stay on top of the competition by keeping the current customers updated with new offers, services or products.
3. Measurement
For every marketing practice, there must be a way to track progress. For online display advertising, deep insights can be obtained via full-funnel reporting and analytics that help analyze the direct impact of display ads on the company’s objectives and other programs.
Here, the salesforce also gets an advantage to understand customers better by having insights on their buying journey.
How Display Advertising Impacts The B2B Customer Experience
For a successful marketing approach and desired results, B2B marketers need to emphasize on full-funnel marketing strategies.
A marketing funnel refers to the entire buying process that initiates brand awareness to the prospects, moves forward when they engage with the products or services and reaches the final phase of converting the prospects to the customers.
A common mistake that most marketers make is that they solely emphasize on bottom of the funnel to generate maximum leads.
On the other hand, full-funnel display advertising influences the entire buying process by raising awareness, educating prospects before they engage in sales and attracting new leads.
Display Advertising – The Flip Side
Few facts do not fall in favor of display advertising and one may get confused with the idea of investing in display ads after knowing about them.
Like for instance, a study conducted back in 2014, reported that people aged between 18-34 years are more likely to ignore online display ads that appear on search engines, social media as compared to those on TV, radio, and newspaper.
On the other hand, a significant proportion of people avoids responding to display ads. Here’s how:
- Up to 50% of clicks on display ads that appear on apps are accidental.
- Banner ads are avoided by around 54% of people because they find it untrustworthy.
- For 30% of people, display ads are not only uninteresting but completely intolerable.
How To Do It Right Preventing The Downside
As mentioned earlier, this marketing practice has moved up the ladder since its inception. Still, it’s reported by Unbounce that up to 98% of marketers seem to waste money on display ads. Then where the problem persists?
The core reason is the lack of understanding. The digital marketers don’t know about leveraging display ads in a way that makes sense for the business’s goals. Not only this, but they even don’t know how to operate the software for accomplishing tasks.
Effective display advertising no longer prevails in the face of banners skyscraper ad units; instead, it has worked its way up to Facebook newsfeed and also found alongside the updates from LinkedIn connections.
Recap
Initially, display Advertising somehow failed to deliver the expected customer turnout maybe because the expectations outweighed the input. However, over time, few tweaks in online display ads worked for marketers. It began to gain popularity. Today, it’s one of the most effective ways to modify the marketing funnel to obtain desired results.
