5) Experts Also Said SMS Would Fail

10 years ago, we were brought forward a new form of online advertising called Display Advertising (banner ads) which were introduced mostly by ad networks such as CPX Interactive and Clicksor. These were somewhat successful and brought a ton of new possibilities to the online advertising market.

This advertising form quickly disintegrated into long-tail brands which used Google AdSense to fill up ad spots around the web and into independent Ad Networks which offered a more personalized approach and took care of delivering results and customer service with its clients. Low CPM and bad & awful ad targeting are still common place.

For a long time this tactic wasn’t seen as very effective for many companies, many of those shift their marketing dollars to more reliable solutions such as Google AdWords. Business Insider mentions in this article, something along the lines of, Online Display Ads Will Fall Sharply In 2009. But what if the experts where wrong (again) ?

With Adwords former chief Grady Burnett pimping Facebook ad platform as we speak, and Google latest acquisitions of display ads companies, the least we can say is that display advertising is not dead (yet) simply preparing for the next evolutionary leap!

Google Acquires Teracent, Intelligent Display Advertising Technology

4) Google Is Placing A Bet

Google has been playing the Online Web game for quite a while now, and it sure kicks ass at it! Google boasts over 90% of it’s revenue from it’s performance-based platform: AdWords. It literally owns the Search Marketing business and is ready to take on the new Online Advertising Market by dipping it’s nose into Intelligent Display Advertising.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said this summer that display advertising is likely to be « the next billion dollar business » at Google.

3) The Newspaper, As We Know It, Is Dying

Probably the most traditional form of Display Advertising was first seen in Newspapers. Where local companies would create their own promotional advertisement block to then pay the local Newspaper company depending on size, color and page, to publish their ad in their next issue. With traditional news coming online, display advertising will be highly targeted to Online News Portals. A lot more control and flexibility will prove to companies the benefits to use display advertising online on News Portals.

2) AdSense Just Isn’t There Yet

When I think of AdSense, I think of an extension of contextual advertising campaigns. You create SEM campaigns for brands to go on Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. and put in relative trending keywords so that you can get clicks. It’s probably the best PULL advertising technique you can get at the moment and Google is owning that.

Now an extent of that can be to put a certain percentage of your budget into Google AdSense which will fill Ad spots around the web with your Brand Images and PUSH your product to relevant websites. Unfortunately, at the moment, the PUSH technique isn’t your best option if your brand isn’t known. Apple has there own way of using the web space to create an impression:

Apple creates custom full page ad for home page of The New York Times to promote it's new OS, Leopard.

Online Display Advertising will evolve into something much more scalable, flexible, creative and will most likely be used on more local websites being relevant to searches, your Facebook profile, your interests, your city, etc.

1) Context is King

In an online world where in the last few years we have been told that content is king, and we have been forgetting all about staying in context, we are starting to notice that you are pushing away potential visitors that just doesn’t see a goal to your publishing platform, that you are losing focus.

There is no greater turn-off than a skateboarding mag starting to push you news about mountain biking. People will ignore your brand, those of your sponsors, and eventually stop buying your magazine. Although my example is pretty broad here, in a world where one greatness factor is just not enough, we will start seeing great content as well as great context.

This is what brings me to (better) targeted Display Advertising where from no matter what platform you come to the site from (Search Engine, Direct or Referral) it will be able to display relevant ads so that you keep focus on what your main objective was when you first hit that Power Button.

Conclusion

Now to say that Display Advertising will evolve into giving us higher conversion rates, more clicks, or even more searches in regards to our brands, it is still highly debatable. In my opinion however, the future of display advertising can only offer smarter targeting, more creative copy, visual and video integration, and more opportunities for known/unknown brands to deliver brand recognition, trust and sympathy online.

What do you think Online Display Advertising will evolve into?

Do you think it will play a key role in Online Advertising over the next few years?