Let’s start with the basics. There are three main types of digital advertising that can be used to advertise your business: banner, native, and video ads. All of them have their specifics and particular situations they work best in.
BANNER ADS
This type of advertisement is also known as display, or visual ads – as opposed to text advertisement.
Basically, a banner is an image that leads to advertiser’s website or a specific landing page on advertiser’s website. The image could be static or animated, big or small – there is a lot of variety in how banner ads can look.
Banner ads are used for the following purposes:
- Raising brand awareness – eye-catching banners are a great way to get people to notice and remember your product and/or your logo.
- Retargeting – if someone visited your online store and viewed certain pages, seeing a banner ad with the products of their choice on another website might entice them to come back and complete the purchase.
- Lead generation – banner ads work well to attract new users to your website, expand your user base or simply increase the traffic.
Banners are normally placed on websites with high traffic, where they will be noticed by as many users as possible.
NATIVE ADS
In primitive terms, native ads are paid content disguised as organic content. The form it takes can vary: from paid articles to videos to images. In the most common meaning, however, native advertising is display ads that match the content of the website.
Unlike banner ads, they are not obvious. Most users are not too fond of in-your-face ads, but ones that naturally fit into the website’s content are more likely to be clicked on, so they yield higher engagement.
Native ads are used for the following purposes:
- Finding your audience – if your product or service belongs to a certain niche, advertising it on websites dedicated to the same topic will bring you the most relevant visitors.
- Selling a very specific product – there are products and services that some people need, and others have no interest in at all. If you know that your product will only be of use to a very particular demographic, no other type of advertisement will work as well as native.
VIDEO ADS
This type needs to explanation: it’s been employed by advertisers since well before Internet times. In the era when 500 million hours of videos are watched on YouTube every day, video ads are becoming a part of every marketer’s strategy. In 2018, 81% of businesses are using video as a marketing tool, compared to 63% in 2017.
Most people are visual thinkers and visual learners. An attractive video ad will catch their attention, help them remember the product, and if they like the visual enough, they might even share it on social networks. There are advertising videos that have gone viral – which can’t be said about other types of ads.
Video ads are used for the following purposes:
- Convincing the customer to purchase a product – watching a video review is likely to end in a purchase.
- Establishing a name – there is nothing like a creative video ad campaign to make your brand known to the public.
There is, however, one thing to remember: creating quality videos takes time, effort and money. But if you are ready to invest, it will bring you great results.
The various types of ads available on the market all have their advantages and applications.
In general, banner ads are the easiest to create, native ads attract the most relevant audience, and video ads have the highest reach.
You can choose one type or combine several to see which brings you the best results – everything is up to you. Experiment, try various tactics, and get your business to the top!