Forget SEO and PPC, display advertising is hot for 2010

Google has made a number of acquisitions in the past month which it will next year be using to its full advantage as new players enter the search marketing war.

Online display advertising, viewed by many marketers as inefficient and time-consuming, has been a bit of a hard sell in recent years, but next year, Google is aiming to change all that.

Hundreds of thousands of advertisers use search advertising — short, highly relevant text ads alongside search results on Google and other search engines — to grow their businesses. Thanks to a decade of innovation, search advertising is an open platform that allows businesses to easily connect with customers.

But now, Google is expecting the “if you build it, they will come” model to pay off.

Display advertising, such as videos, images and interactive ads, connect users with products, services and ideas that interest them. For advertisers, display ads are vital in boosting awareness and sales. For websites and online publishers, they help fund investments in online content and the web services that we all use.

But with a multitude of display ad formats, and thousands of websites, it often takes thousands of hours for advertisers to plan and manage their display ad campaigns. With this complexity, lots of advertisers today just don’t bother, or don’t invest as much as they would like, which is why, for 2010, Google has made it a whole lot easier.

The search engine giant rolled out a new version of its DoubleClick ad exchange in September to open display ad buying to more marketers believing that if it could make it as easy as possible for people to buy display ads, the network can grow.

Display advertising is an important part of any digital marketing programme.

Marketers spent $7.7 billion (£4.7bn) on display ads in the US alone last year. Even though spending will be up 5% this year, according to marketing research company eMarketer, it’s still tiny compared to the search advertising market.

So far though, Google is only just get started when it comes to web display ads.

Improved display technology will make ads more appealing to web users and, therefore, more effective for more marketers. Google knows that advertisers, big and small, are looking for measurable results – and consumer data that will help them target potential customers.

And don’t forget about Google’s purchase of AdMob in November – the mobile ad service will let Google draw analysis from consumers’ phones, as well as their computers, and enable the company to provide insight on which display ads are most effective and which delivery formats perform best.

The AdMob buy and an October launch of Campaign Insights, a data compiling tool that helps marketers track how often consumers are searching for terms and which ads they click, is part of a broader strategy at Google.

It believes that by growing the display advertising pie, everyone will greatly enhance the web experience for advertisers, publishers, and ultimately users.  But will display ever take over search…or social media?