For many, display advertising came first. For others, search was their first medium.  For current advertisers and agencies alike, search and display are both equally important, regardless of your objective.  Over the past few years, their once disparate relationship has grown into a closely forged bond.

For many search professionals, display advertising used to feel like another world; a world that worked in fancy creative, sponsorships, contextual placements and reach to audience metrics. A stark contrast from the predominantly direct response focused, highly measurable, two lines of text and a link of search.  Even those who became exceptionally prolific in Content Ads or Image Based Ads still felt that there was a distinct disassociation.

Up until a few years ago, this belief had some validity, but the rapid onset of scale display, or selling remnant display inventory at scale, has forced display advertising to become smarter, more measurable and more accountable. This forcing function has seen targeting audiences and/or outcomes on scale display inventory grow into a multi-billion dollar business today with data interpretation and targeting delivery platforms being pivotal to achieving success.

But hold on… what’s this got to do with search?

The answer lies in the data. It is arguable that there isn’t a better measure of consumer intent than search; it’s the foundation of the search medium. A user declares their interest and an ad is shown. That same insight now powers display advertising and by interpreting data such as search queries, an advertiser can make display advertising far more targeted and move a display buy further down the purchase funnel. There are many applications for search in display targeting. The two most common are in behavioral targeting (BT) and Search Remessaging (retargeting).

In BT, a consumer’s search patterns, combined with page views and a few other variables can produce targeted segments. These segments then find those consumers on huge pools of inventory. Similarly, Search Remessaging is far simpler in concept. A user is shown a targeted ad on a network of display impressions based upon searches they’ve conducted on Bing.

The increased focus on display advertising, at scale, with intent or profile based targeting means that display should no longer be considered a pure reach to audience or branding vehicle, but an intricate and advanced medium that has the sophistication of search but the creativity of display. It has the capability to push a message to a consumer but equally pull them toward their purchase based upon their behaviors or actions.

To learn more, visit the Targeting section on MicrosoftAdvertising.com.