21 Jul Moving Forward With Digital Advertising

Are display ads making a comeback? I think the obvious answer is yes. Major publications including The New York Times have reported a net income of $12.8 million for the first quarter of this year. With circulation still suffering and print ad revenue continuing to drop, the newspaper saw an increase in online ad spending that helped them post a profitable quarter.

There are other big online publications that are seeing an increase in display ad spending. This really isn’t a surprise as most experts predicted an increase in digital ad spend once companies begin expanding their overall advertising budgets. The difference is that most of the money will go away from print advertising and towards digital advertising including digital display ads.

All the hype around interactive advertising and social media is completely warranted. I also think there is still a place for search engine marketing and display ads. It’s important to analyze how each of these can work within a marketing strategy. Search engine marketing and display ads can only go so far when compared to social media. The idea is to integrate them. Why not have your display and search ads link to your social media profiles and blog? This seems to be the best strategy going forward. If you are going to advertise on these platforms, you should make sure your message is uniform.

The brands and companies that are doing it right are developing a central strategy and then using the numerous advertising tools to execute the strategy. If your strategy doesn’t make since on Twitter, don’t use it. Use only those that effectively execute the strategy and can compliment each other. If not, then your message will either confuse or get lost along the way.