Much research has been done to demonstrate the combined power of search and display. Here are some links to ClearSaleing, Eyeblaster and Microsoft research, for example. What made this panel at SMX West 2010 interesting is the best practices and advice shared by the speakers - Dax Hamman of iCrossing, Brian Kaminski of iProspect, Justin Merickel of Efficient Frontier, Jonah Spegman of Scripps Network Interactive, David Oliver from Yahoo!, moderated by Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence.

If you're a search advertiser and have never done display or successful display campaigns, I hope you will find these tips helpful:

1. Integrate your teams and your messaging for search and display - although you may choose search and display at different stages of the purchase funnel, these campaigns should not be run in isolation. If your banner ad talks about "chicken recipes during Thanksgiving", the keywords and search ad should be aligned to this message as well.

2. Increase search during heavy display spend - whether you're using display for brand awareness or direct response, you'd want to make sure "leaked" leads are converted through search.

3. Learn about and start using media exchanges - also called ad exchanges, they could deliver display reach on a high-quality inventory at auction-based prices.

4. Don't forget about the "art" component of display - the emotional and visual connection of an image plays a big role in the ad effectiveness. Partner with a creative agency or use tools for dynamic creative optimization that would allow you test which creative performs best at a relatively low cost.

5. Integrate search and display with the offline channels - while search must always be "on", display can be tied to events, PR and other marketing activities.

6. Examine the impact of search and display campaigns holistically - speakers gave several examples where display drove search and where search drove display. Attribution models are not always easy to build, but are very important for ROI measurement (P.S. Microsoft has a tool and service called Engagement Mapping through our Atlas platform).

7. Optimize display for inventory and audience - inventory optimization involves ad size, frequency, time, site, placement. You can optimize for audience by examining your own data more closely and by bringing 3rd party sources.

8. Follow privacy and data ownership discussions - your digital marketing might be affected by the developments in these areas.

Display used to be available only to advertisers with big budgets, but small and mid-size companies can start running display ad campaigns and align them with search and rest of marketing activities.

Thanks for reading!

Rimma