The Power of Two: Search + Display

In today’s digital world, marketers have so many options when they want to get the word out about a product that it can seem daunting. Should you create a search marketing ad? A display banner? Write some content ads? Tweet it? Post it on Facebook? Make a mobile ad? Create a promotion on Foursquare? Write a blog about it?

In fact, this overload causes some advertisers to use only one advertising medium, therefore limiting their reach. However, we can’t think about online advertising any differently than we do traditional advertising. In offline advertising, doesn’t it seem, well, silly to advertise only in the phone book? Consumers would traditionally view ads in a phone book directory when they were specifically looking for a particular product or service – much like search marketing today. However, how would they have even known about that product or service if they hadn’t seen it advertised on television, on a billboard, on the radio, or in a newspaper?

The dynamics of traditional media work in the same manner as online media does today. Instead of limiting yourself to search (or sisplay) only, let’s examine the benefits of combining your marketing efforts.

In the Numbers: Research Studies

In this Atlas study from 2007, consumers who were exposed to both search and sisplay had higher conversion rates than just search or sisplay on their own. A combined effort resulted in a 22% conversion lift over search alone.

Microsoft Advertising UK also released two case studies in 2008 that illustrate the effectiveness of Search and Display advertising combined. This case study for a leading High Street bank client shows that traffic to the bank’s website was seven times higher with search and display ads combined, in comparison to display ads alone. Another case study for a major international airline indicates that search and display together resulted in 47% uplift in traffic to the airline’s website – 15 times more than the display ads alone, and twice as much as the search ads alone.

In another case study, Office Depot found that adding both display and content ad offerings to their search campaign resulted in the following:

• 46.5% incremental lift in ad recall
• 49.1% incremental lift in brand recall
• 19.7% incremental lift in message recall
• 21.6% incremental lift in purchase intent

Why so Effective?

The combination of search and display clearly works in delivering results – but why? Let’s go back to our “traditional media” comparison for a moment. If you were looking to order a pizza, you might go to the phone book to find a restaurant. When presented with the various restaurant options, how would you choose one? Perhaps the ones that stand out would be the ones whose brand you’ve heard of – likely from other forms of marketing, such as television or radio.

Just like our “traditional media” comparison above, consumers interact with search and display ads differently when in different phases of their purchase cycle. Search is very “active”; consumers are typing in products, brands, or queries when they are ready to buy or research. Display, on the other hand, is “passive,” but generally very effective in terms of brand recall & recognition.

Utilizing both search & display allows you to capture your audience when they are both casually browsing the web (showing them memorable display ads) and when they are actively ready to purchase (presenting them with a search ad when they’re ready to convert).

How to Get Started

If you’re interested in getting started in display advertising, some recent blog posts by my colleagues provide excellent insights & explanations that will get you going in the right direction. Annie Lee blogs about our display ad network, a.k.a the Microsoft Media Network, and Katie Atkinson gives a break-down of all of our display options in her recent post, Expanding Display Advertising Reach with Microsoft Advertising.

Thanks,

Jennifer 

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