Display Advertising

Display advertising is a form of online advertising that uses visually engaging banner, image, or video ads to promote products or services across a network of websites, apps, and digital platforms. It's commonly used for raising brand awareness, retargeting users, and supporting broader digital campaigns.

Understanding Display Ads

Display ads can appear in a variety of formats, including static images, interactive HTML5 banners, video content, and even personalised dynamic creatives. These ads are typically served on platforms like the Google Display Network (GDN) or via programmatic advertising exchanges using Demand Side Platforms (DSPs).

Targeting Options

One of the key strengths of display advertising is its precise targeting capabilities. Advertisers can select audiences based on demographics, interests, past behaviours, content consumption, and more. Custom segments, contextual targeting, and retargeting are all standard practices in display campaigns.

Campaign Objectives

Whether you're aiming for brand recognition, user engagement, or lead generation, display advertising can be tailored to meet various objectives. Performance is measured through impressions, clicks, conversions, and view-through data, making ROI tracking straightforward when set up correctly.

Display advertising works by delivering tailored visual ads to specific audience segments across the web, helping businesses remain visible and relevant.

Display and search advertising serve different roles in the customer journey. While they can complement each other effectively, they target users in distinct ways and at different stages of intent.

Audience Intent

Search ads target users who are actively searching for something—showing high intent. Display ads, by contrast, are shown to users while they consume content elsewhere online, targeting more passive audiences and focusing on awareness or nurturing.

Format and Placement

Search ads are text-based and appear in search engine results pages (SERPs), whereas display ads use visual formats like banners and videos that appear on a wide range of sites and apps.

Targeting Strategies

Display advertising relies on behavioural, contextual, and interest-based targeting, while search is keyword-driven. This makes display powerful for branding and retargeting, whereas search excels in driving direct response.

While search advertising captures demand, display advertising creates it by keeping your brand in front of potential customers before they even start searching.

What types of businesses benefit most from display advertising?

Display advertising can benefit a wide range of industries, from retail and ecommerce to B2B services and hospitality. The key is matching the campaign strategy to the business goals and customer journey.

Brand Awareness Campaigns

Brands looking to increase visibility and recognition can use display to build familiarity with target audiences over time. This is especially useful for new product launches or market expansions.

Retargeting and Conversion Boosting

Businesses that rely on multi-touch decision journeys—such as travel, healthcare, or B2B—can benefit from retargeting display ads that remind users about your services after they’ve left your site.

Local Businesses and Events

Local businesses, events, and restaurants can use geo-targeted display campaigns to reach audiences in specific areas, using mobile ad formats and time-of-day targeting to boost footfall or bookings.

Any business that wants to stay visible, competitive, and connected to its audience can benefit from a well-managed display advertising strategy.

At Doublespark, we utilise a range of industry-leading platforms and technologies to deliver high-performance display advertising campaigns. The platform choice depends on campaign objectives, target audiences, and budget scope.

Google Display Network (GDN)

GDN provides access to millions of websites, videos, and apps. It’s ideal for small to medium-sized businesses that want broad reach and easy integration with other Google Ads products.

Display & Video 360 (DV360)

For more advanced campaigns, DV360 allows programmatic media buying, giving access to premium inventory, real-time bidding, and detailed audience segmentation options.

Social and Video Networks

In addition to GDN and DV360, we also run display ads across YouTube, Facebook Audience Network, and other high-traffic platforms, depending on your audience’s behaviour and content preferences.

Choosing the right display ad platform ensures your brand reaches the right people, in the right places, at the right time.

Measuring success in display advertising involves analysing multiple performance indicators. Success is not only about clicks and conversions but also brand visibility, engagement and user journey impact.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

We monitor impressions, click-through rate (CTR), conversions, cost per acquisition (CPA), and view-through conversions. These metrics offer a full view of user interaction and downstream impact.

Attribution Modelling

We use advanced attribution models to understand how display ads contribute to conversions over time—even when they’re not the final click. This helps us track their role in awareness and consideration phases.

Real-Time Reporting

Using tools like Google Analytics 4, Looker Studio, and Conversion APIs, we provide detailed reports that give you transparency into every pound spent.

Success in display advertising is measured by a blend of visibility, engagement, and return on investment—tracked with precision every step of the way.

Display advertising offers some of the most granular and flexible targeting options available in digital marketing. The ability to pinpoint audiences is a major reason why display is so effective.

Demographic and Interest Targeting

Advertisers can reach users based on age, gender, income, and life stage, as well as predefined or custom interest groups like travel enthusiasts or tech lovers.

Behavioural and Contextual Targeting

We target users based on their browsing history, purchase behaviour, and current page content. This ensures your ads appear in the right context and reach likely converters.

Remarketing and Lookalike Audiences

Remarketing shows your ads to people who’ve previously visited your site, while lookalike targeting allows you to reach new users who share characteristics with your current customers.

These diverse targeting options help us reach your ideal audience efficiently, boosting relevance and increasing campaign impact.

Remarketing is a powerful feature of display advertising that allows you to re-engage users who have previously interacted with your website, app, or digital content.

Behaviour-Based Retargeting

We create audience segments based on user behaviour—such as product views, cart abandonment, or time spent on site—and show relevant ads that encourage return visits and conversions.

Dynamic Remarketing

For ecommerce and catalogue sites, we use dynamic remarketing to show users the exact products or services they previously viewed, making the ads more personal and persuasive.

Time and Frequency Controls

Remarketing campaigns are carefully timed to avoid overexposure. We set frequency caps and schedule ads to align with user intent and your sales cycle.

Remarketing display ads keep your brand in mind and help convert interest into action by targeting users when they’re most likely to return.

Yes, when structured properly, display advertising can be an effective tool for lead generation—especially when combined with compelling creative, strategic landing pages, and accurate audience targeting.

Top-of-Funnel Awareness

Display ads introduce your brand to new audiences, sparking curiosity and leading users into your funnel. This is critical for expanding your lead base beyond existing search demand.

Mid-Funnel Nurturing

Through retargeting and sequencing, display campaigns can nurture leads over time, warming up prospects with educational content or timely offers.

Conversion-Focused Creative

We design visual ads with strong calls-to-action (CTAs), benefit-driven messaging, and streamlined paths to lead capture—whether that’s a form fill, call, or download.

Display advertising can generate qualified leads by reaching prospects early and guiding them toward meaningful engagement with your brand.

Display advertising budgets vary depending on your goals, industry, competition, and the platforms you use. However, there are general guidelines that can help you plan effectively.

Budget Factors

Key considerations include your targeting scope (local vs national), campaign duration, creative costs, and whether you’re running programmatic or managed placements. Higher competition sectors may require more investment to stand out.

Test-and-Optimise Approach

We often recommend starting with a pilot budget to gather data, refine targeting, and validate performance. Budgets can then be scaled based on clear ROI and audience response.

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)

We track ROAS meticulously to ensure your display investment is delivering value. With ongoing optimisation, even modest budgets can achieve strong results in the right hands.

There is no one-size-fits-all budget, but with proper planning, display advertising can offer a highly cost-effective return at every level of spend.

A successful display ad campaign is the result of strategic planning, creative excellence, precise targeting, and continuous optimisation. It’s not a set-and-forget process—it’s a dynamic system that evolves over time.

Clear Objectives and KPIs

Setting realistic goals and measuring the right KPIs from the start ensures campaigns are built with purpose and allow for performance tracking.

Quality Creative

Eye-catching visuals, concise messaging, and strong CTAs are crucial. We test multiple ad variants to find the highest performers and rotate creatives to avoid fatigue.

Audience Intelligence

Deep audience insights allow us to fine-tune targeting for relevance and impact. We leverage first-party data, remarketing, and lookalikes for high-value engagement.

With the right strategy and constant refinement, display campaigns can consistently deliver high-impact results for your brand.