Back in the early days of the Internet, banner ads got a bad rap for not being trackable and not producing true ROI. So, usage tapered off – until site publishers and ad networks wised up and added in technology to better deliver and track online ad campaigns.

To avoid old ‘banner ad’ stigma, a new name was coined – hence the term Display Advertising.

Wikipedia defines display advertising as:

A type of online advertising that most frequently contains graphic information beyond text, such as logos, photographs or other graphical elements. Display advertising uses static and animated images in Web banners, as well as interactive media that may include audio and video elements. Flash is the preferred format for interactive ads on the Internet. 

It’s safe to say that everyone who has been on the Internet has seen display advertising at one time or another.

The most common form of display advertising is a banner ad, which is any square or rectangle image with a self-contained graphical element. Ads are almost always clickable through to a Web site and can contain anything from static images to expandable, multi-media, interactive ads.

Unprecedented Growth

Use of display advertising continues to grow, as new tactics and approaches are introduced. A recent eMarketer report projects that “US online advertising’s share of total media ad spend will more than double, from 6% in 2006 to more than 12% share in 2010 – and more than 13% in 2011.” Display advertising is a large part of that growth. The same eMarketer report estimates that display ads (such as static banners) will generate about 20% of Internet ad revenues through the decade. Rich media, which includes video advertising, will rise from 8% share in 2007 to over 13% in 2011.

One logical conclusion about all this growth is that display advertising quite simply works – for both brand awareness and direct response campaigns.