Display Ads Raise Brand Awareness By 12%, IAB UK Finds

Display advertising continues to be an effective format for advertisers as analysis of 675 digital ad campaigns finds that brand awareness rose by 12% on average, with some campaign hitting as high as 55%.

An IAB UK (Internet Advertising Bureau) commissioned report in collaboration with Kantar, OnDevice Research and Research and Analysis of Media (RAM) explored the effectiveness of display ads through advertising campaigns from 2008 to 2017. The metrics used in the analysis measured the impact of display ads across four key campaign objectives – brand awareness, brand perception, brand education and purchase intent.

Findings from the report found the use of display ads was effective across all four objectives – increasing brand awareness (12%), brand perceptions (2%) brand education (2%) and purchase intent (3%).

Tim Elkington, chief digital officer at the IAB UK commented that the overall average scores across the metrics “were really positive” with some brand campaign objectives increasing by as much as 55%.

Ad standard concerns

This report comes despite ongoing concerns around trust, transparency and brand safety; some 60% of marketers according to NewBase’s Marketing Priorities Report found that open talks around transparency and viewability standards of ads had failed to translate to real-world results – with high profile brands such as P&G reducing agency ad spend by $750 million in the last three years.

Where video was also highlighted as an effective format, opinions are far from united across the industry when it comes to what formats are acceptable; last week saw ad tech provider OpenX ban one of most prolific and intrusive video ad formats from its network to improve the quality of display ads and reduce poor user experience.

Today’s research by the IAB UK follows research last year revealing the positive degree to which online display ads drove sales of popular household supermarket brands in particular, both online and in-store – with every £1 advertisers spent on online display ads delivering an average of £1.94 in sales.

Nonetheless, where the industry is making efforts to improving transparency over ad spend and brand safety, display ads can be effective so long as adhere to appropriate standards and don’t intervene with user experience.