Display Advertising 101 An Introduction to Display for the Modern B2B Marketer
Display Advertising 101: An Introduction to Display for the Modern B2B Marketer
O
nline display advertising has become a powerful asset across all B2B marketing functions for its ability to target precise business audiences, integrate with other platforms, and be an “always on” full-funnel marketing
tool. Display enables B2B marketers of all types to impact objectives throughout the buyer’s journey, whether it’s increasing brand awareness and engagement, driving conversions, or nurturing known contacts from their CRM system. Whether you’re a marketing automation expert or brand marketer, new to display advertising or a seasoned veteran: let this be your display advertising reference guide.
Why Use Display Advertising as a B2B Marketer?
Precision. Targeted display advertising enables B2B marketers to precisely target ads to prospects wherever they travel online by using business demographic data such as job function, industry, seniority, company size, and more.
Scale. Relative to other marketing channels, display is unique in that it enables marketers to reach the largest possible audience within their target market, wherever they travel online.
Versatility. Display advertising can be used in multiple ways depending on where your prospects are in the buying process, whether you’re looking to build awareness of your brand, increase engagement, or close a sale with a known prospect.
Integration. Display boosts the performance of other programs in your mix (paid search, email, etc.) and can be fully integrated with marketing automation systems to systematically nurture anonymous and known contacts beyond the inbox.
Measurement. Full-funnel reporting and analytics give you deep insight into display advertising’s direct impact on your objectives throughout the buying process, as well as its influence on other programs.
How Display Advertising Impacts the Entire Marketing Funnel
T
he “marketing funnel” refers to the buying process from the moment prospects first acknowledge a brand (brand awareness), their self-education about a brand’s product and services (engagement), TOP
through to converting and becoming customers (lead generation and sales). While many B2B marketers fall into the trap of focusing strictly on bottom-funnel strategies aimed at generating leads, a full-funnel display advertising strategy influences the entire buying process, helping to generate
MIDDLE
awareness, nurture prospects before they’re ready to engage with sales, and drive new leads and customers.
Build Brand Awareness Display advertising’s ability to extensively reach target audiences with your messaging makes it the perfect vehicle
BOTTOM
for building brand awareness. Display advertising’s reach and scalability (think: millions of professionals in your target audience) enable a level of brand exposure that cannot be achieved through any other digital media.
TOP-FUNNEL TIP: Broadly target display ads to audiences based on job function or industry. Combine this with company name targeting to reach prospects from your top target accounts.
Increase Engagement & Audience Education With great marketing content in your arsenal such as white papers, product videos, demos, webinars, and more, you need a way to feed it to your prospects en masse. Display advertising gets your content to the right people and drives them to visit your landing pages, peruse your corporate website or blog, and more. Social advertising is also useful for engaging your target audiences. By using business demographic data layered into the delivery of ads on social networks such as Facebook, you increase your reach and ensure that your ads are seen only by the audiences that matter most.
MID-FUNNEL TIP: Target display ads to audiences based on their job function or seniority, and use social advertising to push content to precise business audiences on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Drive Conversions & Sales Once prospects have had the opportunity to educate themselves about the solutions you offer, they may convert without any further prompting—or they may not. Display retargeting enables you to deliver a constant drumbeat of conversionoriented ads relevant to the business audiences who have already visited your website or exist in your CRM database, and can be personalized to their unique digital body language.
BOTTOM-FUNNEL TIP: To truly personalize your retargeting ads, segment your audience based on their visitation to different sections of your website, and create separate ads addressing the interests of each group.
Combining Display Advertising with Marketing Automation: Convert More Anonymous Website Visitors and Known Contacts with “Always On” Multi-Channel Nurturing
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or years, marketers have relied on email to nurture their known contacts. Now, display advertising can be used to systematically nurture both anonymous website visitors and known contacts wherever they travel online.
Develop custom nurture paths for anonymous prospects with display ads that are personalized to their unique website navigation patterns. This gives you an “always on” solution to converting anonymous site visitors into known prospects. If done correctly, this approach can increase conversion rates by 2–5x. Integrating display and social advertising directly with your marketing automation system also enables you to nurture known contacts beyond the inbox. With 20 percent email open rates for the average B2B marketer (on a good day!), wouldn’t it be great to guarantee that contacts see your nurture messaging? By synchronizing the messaging and delivery of display and social ads with email, you increase the reach and relevance of your nurture content and accelerate known contacts through the buying process. It’s an “Always On” World Would you ever turn off your website? How about your email nurture campaigns? Never! Why? Because you want to make it easy for interested prospects to learn
about your brand, engage with you, and become your next customer. The same is true for integrated online display. In fact, as part of an “always on� marketing strategy, display advertising not only drives direct results, but also boosts performance across your entire marketing mix.
Ready to Get Started? Whether you’re a brand manager, demand generation marketer, or marketing automation expert, getting started with display advertising is simple. Contact a Bizo representative today for your own custom display advertising Roadmap to Success by calling 866-497-5505 or email us at contact@bizo.com.
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