How to maximise the return from your online display advertising
by Millward Brown
As it has matured, we have learned that online advertising can improve awareness and brand perceptions. For a medium where frequency levels can be capped, it is worth noting that the first exposure is the most effective, so aiming for reach among your target is a useful objective to set. Improvements on most key brand measures tend to stabilize after around four exposures.
There are many factors which affect an ad’s ability to perform well online. Placing the ad on a relevant site can make a big difference for some categories, and the amount of clutter on the site can affect most performance measures. Beyond these aspects, the creative itself has a huge influence on the ad’s ability to perform, with the best ads sharing some key characteristics.
IntroductionIn the last decade there has been, and continues to be, a lot of speculation about what the web can realistically bring to marketing. Here we focus not on speculation, but on what we have learned.
How the medium worksOnline advertising achieves more than just driving behavior via click-through. In thousands of research studies comparing exposed to non-exposed respondents of various campaigns, online advertising has demonstrated its ability to drive key brand metrics – brand and advertising awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase interest.
Further, when used in a multimedia campaign, online advertising can enhance brand awareness, ad awareness, intended communication and favorable brand opinions.
Brand StatusOnline advertising works regardless of how well known the brand is. Average ad performance is similar for well known and lesser known brands for most key brand metrics, although the indications are that it is easier to generate purchase intent for less well known brands. This is consistent with our offline learning.
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