How relevant are (your) online ads in a social media world?


I posted a text about the rise of performance based online advertising a while ago on my personal blog but, given all the recent positive reports about the growth of online display advertising, I am going to post it here in an adapted and more elaborated way.

Because I don’t know if the rise of the online display ad spend and also of performance-based advertising is good or bad news in a social media world. So, please read and comment away.

When the Internet rose as a “commercial” medium, everything was about the ‘almighty click’. At last a medium that was measurable and had an immediate impact. Internet was seen as the new direct marketing. Email was broadcasting, banners were meant to generate traffic, click, click, click.

Later, research companies – not coincidentally often sponsored by online publishers – made lots of effort to prove that online advertising also has a significant impact on a variety of brand parameters. And of course it does. Everything a brand does has an impact on the brand.

Online advertising is mainstream now and new data from, among others IAB and Econsultancy, show that search, PPC and display ad budgets are on the rise.

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The role of display advertising in an inbound marketing world: what makes a brand?

J-P De Clerck looks at the role of display ads in the inbound marketing and social media era. Please share your thoughts.

Next month, IAB Europe organizes its annual Interact Congress, this time in Barcelona. As you know, the IAB, in Europe at least, is predominantly about interactive advertising (yes, it’s in the name of the organization).

For a few years, I’ve been posting now and then on the blog of the event and, after a break, I started again this year. But what was I going to write about, especially in regard to the more traditional forms of interactive advertising like display ads and even search engine ads (do you still spend PPC budgets on AdWords? I rarely do, CPL too high). What is, in  fact, the role of online advertising, and more specifically, display advertising in a world where inbound marketing increasingly rules?

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