A successful campaign hinges on the programmatic ad format. And choosing the right ones demands what truly matters- resonance and strategic insight.
In 2001, a Seattle-based digital retailer called X10 Technologies chose to blanket the Web with “annoying” pop-up ads, especially across popular websites. “Tiny Wireless camera — Goes Almost Anywhere!” screamed most of the typical ones.
Gartner’s e-CRM analyst had called out X10’s marketing strategy, stating that the ‘see what sticks’ approach won’t get them anywhere in the long run.
2001 was an era of experimentation when the world was still adapting to digital advertising. But in the last 14 years, not much has changed. The overall response to online ads has remained stagnant.
What modern consumers are searching for in ads is downright practical value, i.e., a balance of information and entertainment. If the ad doesn’t deliver any value to the viewer, they gloss right over it.
And it all depends on how it’s presented- the format.
Different ad formats influence how the ad is perceived, i.e., how long its effect persists, which is why there’s much focus on the “right” format. But honestly, there’s no “right ad format” per se. Standard formats, such as banner ads, can sometimes prove to be highly creative or very basic.
It all truly trickles down to your ad’s capability to command and capture attention amidst this cluttered market. But it’s not just about that.
Programmatic display ad formats can be deemed successful and attract unique visitors to your website. But they can also prove detrimental to the company’s image, generating negative publicity, if not leveraged correctly.
The key is focusing on the overall presentation- from the content to the format.
Programmatic Display Ad Formats
The secret to a successful campaign isn’t just encased in crafting a compelling message, but in choosing the right canvas. Light paper can easily buckle due to wet paints, or oil paints can degrade commonly used paper over time.
Think of this. A static banner is non-intrusive and concise in messaging. It’s effective for getting the story across while building awareness. Whereas, video ads remain unbeatable in imbibing a strong emotional connection.
It boils down to making the most of the medium.
Display Ads
Display ads are the cornerstone of digital advertising. They are animated, static image-based, or responsive advertisements that you often see on different websites. And are adjustable depending on the device you’re using.
These ads often come in different sizes- leaderboard, skyscraper, and rectangle. They are displayed to users across publication websites, apps, and even emails. And generally placed on the header, footer, and sidebar for maximum viewability.
Source: Adobe Experience Cloud
Display ads’ actual edge lies in their simplicity, i.e., concise delivery of the ad message. This conveys the brand story in a way that’s clear to viewers and doesn’t distract them from its actual purpose- resonance.
There are no fancy graphics. The color, font, and logo placement of every element are strategically placed. They seem basic, but across B2B, this component is what truly drives conversions.
Programmatic display ads are served to the audience according to user behavior, preferences, and demographics. It’s hyper-targeting. And makes these display ads stand apart from their non-programmatic counterparts.
Display ads are generally sold on a cost-per-mile (CPM) or cost-per-impression model through Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs.
Programmatic Native Ads
Native ads are the stealth mode of programmatic advertising. They are curated to match the look, feel, and function of a publication website.
Native ads operate on a simple logic. They must seamlessly fit in with the content that they appear alongside. This is where they differ from traditional display ads. Native ads don’t stand out.
Instead, they might be a “recommended article” at the bottom of a news piece or a promoted product on an e-commerce website.
Or it could even look something like this-
Source: LinkedIn
Programmatic native ads format thrives on one peculiar functionality: being non-disruptive. These ads blend in. Hence, they are efficient at bypassing the rampant ad blindness, where users subconsciously block traditional ad tactics.
Programmatic native ads ensure that the ad’s effectiveness is elevated. It also ascertains that the ad is relevant to the user and its surrounding editorial pieces, elevating the likelihood of engagement.
To ensure this, they are styled most often by the publisher rather than the advertisers themselves. These ads are made to align neatly with the user’s path through the publisher’s website and apps.
With this, publishers are curating customized ad experiences for their viewers.
Transparency remains the focal point for programmatic native ads. And must be marked as “sponsored” or “promoted” to maintain the audience’s trust.
Video Ads
Videos have always remained the most strategic and powerful storytelling medium. They are available in fundamentally two formats, such as in-stream ads that play before, during, or after the video content.
Source: Think with Google
And outstream ads that appear amidst a website’s text content.
Source: ZeroGPT
The same logic drives video ads across the programmatic arsenal. They are the No. 1 creative asset for marketers to make a positive impression. By nature, it’s shareable and memorable than just texts, converting video ads into a compelling brand-building tool.
This way, video ads lend success and reach easily to B2B brands, if tied to their upper-funnel approach. You can illustrate a quick sneak peek of your webinar or preview an event. And the impact of your video ads is measurable throughout.
Marketers can also add lead-gen forms to their video ad campaigns to capture relevant, qualified leads across their LinkedIn community.
Why they prove effective
Video ads actively curate immersive viewing experiences by combining audio and visual components. This helps brands evoke specific emotions, inform users, and make a positive impression.
And programmatic advertising only amplifies its capabilities. It ensures that the video ads reach relevant users at the right time, i.e., it’s seen by people who are highly likely to engage with your brand.
In B2B, most video ads tend to be explainer videos. It helps dissect complex topics into digestible formats, in hopes of effectively persuading the audience. This ad format typically runs between premium content. It is integrated with any display format available across multiple platforms.
Even after grasping the benefits it affords, the max potential of video ads still remains ungauged.
Digital advertisers and publishers must tap into their full potential to amp up the value of their content.
And unlock the treasure trove of video ad impressions.
As powerful as video ads are, they have been mainly confined to players and in-stream content. This approach overlooks consumers’ key online moments, such as playing a game, scrolling through a news app, or using a social media platform.
This limitation led to the launch of programmatic outstream ad services, especially by Google Ad Manager. It facilitates advertisers to publish video ads amidst non-video content. And engage audiences in places never thought of before.
Ad Manager’s outstream ad solutions help publishers serve video ads in-feed and in-article. These ads then align with the user’s scrolling behavior and are usually muted to avoid disruption. And if users wish to engage with the ad, they can unmute it directly.
Brands leveraging this programmatic display ad format facilitate user autonomy. This video ad approach not only respects user experience but also choice, increasing the ad’s performance.
Rich Media Ads
Rich media ads transcend the use of static images. Viewers can interact with this ad type due to its numerous multimedia features.
These ads are typically served as a game users can play in different game apps, or a form that they must fill out. They are interactive and engaging. And aims to root itself into the user’s memory.
Remember coming across random game-related ads presented in the middle of another game, often with a timer to fast-forward it? Those are rich media interstitial ads. And don’t allow users to exit the ad until after a few seconds of viewing it.
When an interstitial ad plays, it suspends your app from continuing an action, such as its audio or video output. The ad takes advantage of this pause in the user’s actions to deliver what it must.
But how exactly do they work?
Rich media ads leverage coding techniques, such as HTML-5, Java, and JavaScript, to curate these dynamic experiences. For example, CB2’s banner ad is illustrated below.
Source
The above ad is a rich media in-banner ad that uses audio, video, text, and animation. These ads entail a side-scroll option to scroll through them while their placement remains static.
The objective? Urging interaction, whether it’s touching, swiping, dragging, spinning, scratching, or clicking on a specific feature. They are made to maximize ad engagement and grab attention. Ultimately, the goal is to amplify brand recall and CTRs.
Rich media ads prove effective for brands that want to highlight a complex product/service. While they are tricky to produce, the intricate and detailed storytelling can be worth the capital, time, and effort expended.
This approach to ad production is meant to bring ads to life. And transform viewers from passive onlookers to active participants.
There are multiple layers to rich media ads. And a strategic use of them in your ad campaigns will help you learn about your audience, while their versatility will unlock your audience’s preferences.
They add a new dimension, helping you gauge your own creative prowess and audience interests.
Digital Out-of-Home or DOOH Ads
Digital-Out-Of-Home ad formats are ads served on digital screens in public places such as bus stations, inside elevators, in retail stores, malls, and train stations, among others.
It’s one of the growing programmatic display ad formats. Unlike traditional ad media, DOOH ads are dynamic. They are the most effective means to deliver a relevant message to the right audience at the right time.
DOOH ads follow the meet your audience where you are formula. They reach people on the go. And strategically leverage foot traffic to deliver customized ads.
Ever witnessed the huge digital billboards in Times Square? That’s what DOOH advertising really implies.
Screens are high-impact communication channels that actively grasp attention. And when combined with online AdTech and real-world media, it offers successful and innovative DOOH campaigns.
Owing to this, the ad format has become an integral component of multichannel marketing strategies.
The impact of DOOH is hidden in its ability to transform static images into dynamic, data-powered ads. They are considered highly impactful and gauge whether a digital screen is:
- Addressable: Capability for programmatic activation
- Accountable: Ad effectiveness
- Attributable: What is the real-world business outcome?
Programmatic DOOH advertisers can trigger ads on real-time data, whether it’s live sports scores or the time of day, instead of letting a single ad play on for weeks. This adds a fresh layer to traditional OOH advertising, fostering contextual relevance and precise targeting to amp up the campaigns.
The latest tech innovations have only amplified DOOH ad capabilities. Media networks can now stream ads in bustling metro stations and shopping malls, or even high-visual ads on digital billboards at populated intersections.
DOOH advertising is about being seen.
And for programmatic platforms, DOOH offers another key advantage.
The content is often controlled by software, making it extremely easy to manage creatives and align them with real-time customer insights. Now, advertisers can access a network’s inventory and rent placements depending on their desired demographics. This way, advertisers reach just the audience that truly matters.
This DOOH approach has turned every digital screen into an opportunity.
Whether it’s an interactive kiosk or a small screen at a bus stop, programmatic DOOH is one of the most innovative channels to interact with your audience.
Audio Ads
With the rise of podcasts, online radio, and music streaming, audio ads are gradually gaining popularity. These ads are mostly short, unskippable audio bits that play before or after the audio content.
Their functionality lies in their ability to connect with the audience on a more intimate and emotional level. Because they make maximum use of the user’s attention window, even if for a few seconds.
Audio ads must be creative and attention-grabbing, whether it’s pre-roll ads or podcast sponsorships. And can help brands reach customers while their visual attention is occupied and listening is focused.
A strategically-placed audio ad delivers feels like a seamless part of the experience, instead of an abrupt pause.
Choosing the correct display ad format: The right canvas to paint your narrative
Selecting the correct programmatic display ad formats boils down to your brand objectives.
To ensure this, advertisers are left with little choice but to employ intuitive ad solutions, i.e., use programmatic display ad formats. It’s really about selecting the right canvas for your storytelling.
Programmatic display advertising and display ads are drastically different.
Programmatic display advertising is most often used synonymously with display ads.
This minute overlap can lead to a fundamental misstep and undermine your entire marketing strategy.
And this is why it’s fundamental to gauge the inherent differences.
Display ad is an ad format, whereas programmatic display advertising is an automated process of buying, bidding on, and selling ad spaces.
The latter includes using the right tech and methodologies to serve ads to the right audience automatically. Programmatic display advertising uses multiple platforms to run campaigns, and the use of display ads is merely a tiny aspect. Meanwhile, display ad campaigns run on one ad network.
Programmatic display advertising disperses your brand story across multiple channels, whether traditional or emerging. And hones your ad’s effectiveness.
Where a display ad is just a minute facet of the overall ad campaign, programmatic display advertising is the whole engine. Display ads are just a format, i.e., the what, meanwhile, programmatic advertising is the methodology, i.e., the how.
Why the right programmatic display ad formats matter
For the methodology to prove efficient, every nitty-gritty is paramount. Just like the ad formats used across the campaign are a token of an attempt to understand what resonates with your audience.
So, you can’t base your entire campaign on a guess. It must be a strategic decision. It’s a prerequisite to find the right railway track that can drive your campaign’s engine. And help your message reach its destination successfully.
To effectively understand what works and what doesn’t, a good programmatic advertising campaign mixes things. It’s imperative to establish what resonates with the audience.
It’s ultimately a test and an experiment. Because an ad campaign’s performance isn’t just driven by what ads look like. It’s more nuanced.
- Your target audience
- The platform they’re using
- The story you want to convey
All three factors influence how your ad campaign is perceived. And the ultimate action taken by the user.
The aim, after all, isn’t to increase eyeballs. But deliver value and instill a positive impression.
Be immersive, immediate, and relevant with your programmatic display ad formats.
It’s observable that the ad-blocking software industry has grown. Ads that make users wait for seconds (or even minutes) before moving to the next page lead to frustrating experiences. They are downright substandard and disruptive.
Programmatic display ad formats that interrupt the flow of information, distract, or clutter the web pages are less likely to perform well. And compel users to abandon specific websites.
Meanwhile, good ad experiences help the Web thrive.
Ads should exist with the content. And not take control of the audience.
This means tapping into what your audience cares about on your website. It’s always more effective to deliver ads that enhance the website experience, without hampering the loading time.
And a strategic use of programmatic technology can help you establish ad relevance.
And deliver the right ad experiences. One that keeps the visitors engaged due to its compelling nature, not forcefully clamped against their will.