What is display advertising?
Display advertising is the banners and video ads shown on websites and in apps, usually bought automatically in real-time auctions. Unlike search, where purchase intent is sharp, display buys cheap reach and is strongest when it reaches people who have already visited you. This guide explains how the programmatic buying works and when display pays off.
By Angelica Sandblom · Partner and specialist· Published · Updated Our view
Display buys reach and reminder, not sharp purchase intent. Measured against the business, not against impressions, or you pay for banners no one sees. And remarketing rests on the pixel, which is your asset, not the agency's.
What display advertising is.
Display advertising is visual ads, banners, boxes and videos, shown on websites, in apps and on YouTube. It is the third basic type of paid media alongside search advertising and advertising on social media, and it differs from both in a decisive way:
- The ad appears while someone is doing something else, reading an article, checking the weather, playing a game. Purchase intent is therefore low: no one is looking for you, and most do not click.
- The strength is reach and price. An impression on display costs a fraction of a click in search, which makes display cheap for appearing broadly and building recognition.
- The strongest use is remarketing: showing ads to people who have already visited your site. Then the low cost is paired with a warm audience.
Display advertising↗ is not measured in clicks the way search is. A display campaign that chases clicks misunderstands the channel; its job is usually to build recognition or remind, not to close the sale in the same second. That does not mean it should not be measured against the business, only that the metrics are different: did it contribute to conversions that happened later, in another channel?
How programmatic buying works.
Banners used to be bought by calling a website and booking a space. Today most display ads are bought programmatically, automatically and in real time. The mechanics are invisible but worth understanding:
- Every time a page loads, an auction runs in milliseconds over who gets to show their ad to that particular visitor. Advertisers bid automatically based on how valuable the person is to them.
- The targeting follows the person, not the page. You pay to reach a certain audience wherever they browse, not for a specific website. That is why the same person sees your ad on several sites.
- Budget and bidding are governed by rules and goals you set, but run by the system. That makes it scalable, and dangerous on autopilot: without a cap and follow-up, money can drain toward low-quality impressions.
Programmatic advertising↗ and Google's display network together reach a very large part of the web. Google's documentation↗ covers targeting and bidding. The point is that automation does not replace judgment: someone has to decide which audiences, which sites to exclude, and what cap applies. Otherwise the system optimizes toward cheap impressions, not toward your business.
Remarketing at its sharpest.
Most people who visit a site do not buy on the first visit. Remarketing, sometimes called retargeting, is showing display ads to exactly those people afterward, and it is often the most profitable form of display:
- The audience is warm. It has already shown interest by visiting you, looking at a product or starting but not completing a purchase. Reminding them converts more cheaply than reaching someone new.
- It requires the pixel. A snippet of code on the site registers who visited what, so the ads can be directed to them. Without a pixel there is no list to target.
- Frequency must be controlled. The same ad too often becomes annoying and damages the brand. A frequency cap keeps the reminder on the right side of useful.
The remarketing lists and the pixel are yours. It is worth repeating, because they are often the most expensively earned thing you have: a list of people who have already shown purchase interest. An agency that builds them in its own account takes that list with it if the cooperation ends, and then you start over from zero. With us you own the pixel, the lists and the data.
Common pitfalls.
Display is easy to buy and easy to waste on. Four traps recur:
- 01Banner blindness. People have learned to ignore ad boxes. A banner that says nothing in half a second is wasted, however many see it.
- 02Impressions that are not seen. A large share of bought impressions ends up at the bottom of pages no one scrolls to. Measure viewability, the share of ads that were actually visible, not just the number of impressions the system reports.
- 03Where the ad ends up. Programmatic buying can place your ad next to content you do not want to be associated with. Exclusion lists and control over where you appear are not a detail, they are brand safety.
- 04Chasing clicks on the wrong channel. Display is rarely clicked. Optimizing a display campaign toward click-through rate often leads to clickbait and low-quality traffic. Measure against the business: did it contribute to conversion, not just to clicks?
The common denominator is that display looks cheap per impression and therefore tempts you to buy a lot without looking at what actually happens. Decision support, not status: a good report shows viewable impressions, where the ads ended up and contribution to conversion, not a big number of raw impressions that looks impressive.
When display is right.
Display is a lever for some goals and the wrong tool for others:
- It is right if: you want to build recognition broadly and cheaply, remind previous visitors through remarketing, or support other channels by keeping the brand visible during a longer customer journey.
- It is less right if: you mainly want to capture sharp purchase intent now. Then search advertising does it better, because the buyer is already looking.
- It works best in concert. Display at the top of the funnel and remarketing along the way, search capturing the purchase at the end. On its own display is weak on direct response, together with search it is a complement.
What we do is set up remarketing, steer where the ads end up and measure against the business, not leave a plan and an invoice: we bring it in. Specialists with decades of combined experience quickly see whether display adds value in your customer journey or just burns impressions. To find out whether remarketing and reach fit your business, see how Memorise works with advertising.
Get a free review of your display and remarketing.
Send your web address, and we will look at the situation: whether remarketing is set up, whether the impressions are actually seen, where the ads end up, and whether display adds value in your customer journey. You get a concrete picture.
Write to us →Frequently asked questions about display advertising
What is display advertising?
Display advertising is visual ads, banners, boxes and videos, shown on websites, in apps and on YouTube. It is one of three basic types of paid media alongside search advertising and advertising on social media. Purchase intent per impression is low because no one is actively searching, but the reach is cheap, which makes display strong for building recognition and for remarketing to previous visitors.
What is the difference between display and programmatic advertising?
Display describes the format, visual ads on websites and in apps. Programmatic describes the buying method, that the ads are bought automatically in real-time auctions instead of booked manually. Most display ads are bought programmatically today, but programmatic buying also covers other formats like video and audio. In practice the terms often overlap.
What is the difference between remarketing and retargeting?
In practice they mean the same thing: showing ads to people who have already interacted with you, usually visited the site. Sometimes retargeting is used specifically about ads on the open web via a pixel, and remarketing more broadly about reaching previous customers including via email. The difference is small and varies between platforms. Both require a pixel to have registered the visitors.
Does display advertising work?
It depends on what you measure. Measured in direct clicks and purchases, display often looks weak, because purchase intent per impression is low. Measured in reach, recognition and contribution to conversions that happen later, often in another channel, it can be valuable. Remarketing is the form that most clearly pays off directly. The key is to measure viewable impressions and contribution to the business, not raw impressions.
Do we own the pixel and the remarketing lists?
With us, yes. The pixel, the remarketing lists, the account and the data are yours. It is especially important for display, since the lists of previous visitors are the most expensively earned and the hardest to rebuild. An agency that sets them up in its own account takes them along when the cooperation ends. Check the ownership before you sign.