Display advertising: four strategies for advertising success in 2018

Consistent, personalized and relevant - consumers' expectations of their digital shopping experience are high. At the same time, the path to purchase is less often than ever a straight line with a clear start and end point. Unless consumers convert immediately, they come into contact with a brand almost ten times and via a whole range of channels before making a purchase. It is not for nothing that the discussion on approaches to attributed reporting is in full swing.

Advertisers can use innovative display campaigns to take advantage of this development and ensure that customers stay on the ball throughout the entire purchasing process. Provided that advertisers are able to deliver consistent messages and experiences across multiple devices at every stage of the customer journey.

Four strategies for targeting consumers along the customer journey with display advertising:

Strategy 1: Branding

Creating messages that people talk about is still a challenge when addressing new customers or existing brand fans. Create the necessary attention with dynamic and interactive advertising formats. Video formats are particularly suitable. Be sure to pay attention to brand safety and book premium inventory.

Strategy 2: Acquisition

Keyword: accuracy of fit. To minimize wastage, the target group definition must be done with care. To do this, you should use your CRM data and combine it with psychometric data. You can then address potential customers online who have similar needs to your existing customers, which significantly increases the likelihood of conversion.

Strategy 3: Retargeting

For consumers who have already engaged with your brand, the focus is on personalized ads. Refer to interactions that the consumer has already had with your brand.

Strategy 4: Binding

Keep your brand present with existing customers and consumers who have not bought recently. Reminder ads that focus on certain relevant products and possibly grant discounts are suitable for this purpose.

Stefan Bernauer, Director DACH at Rakuten Marketing: "The sustained investment in display advertising underlines how this channel helps advertisers to reach their target groups at the right time, on the right device and with the right message. With the development of programmatic infrastructure and advertising technologies based on machine learning, there are also completely new opportunities for display advertising in Germany. The decisive factor here is the harmonious interaction and integration of human and artificial intelligence, which is particularly important in the creation and delivery of display advertising."

The complete guide "Advertiser's Guide - Display Marketing" from Rakuten Marketing is available at here ready for download.