Display Advertising: What’s behind it and why is it so successful?

Over €6.2 billion spent on display ads – and the trend continues to grow

Whether on news portals, blogs, or apps – visual advertising media such as banners, attention-grabbing videos, or interactive ads ensure that brands become visible and reach their target audiences at the right moment. Mobile display advertising plays a central role here because more and more users consume content via smartphones and tablets. Just in 2024, the market volume, according to the Online-Vermarkterkreis, part of the German Digital Economy Association, amounted to over 6.2 billion euros – and the trend is rising.

The success of this advertising format lies in its versatility: Display advertising offers companies numerous opportunities to place attention-grabbing content – from classic booked placements to innovative, interactive formats. It’s no longer just about reach, but also about relevance and user experience.

Advertising that reaches the right people at the right moment – that's the idea behind display advertising. But how exactly does it work? And why is this advertising format so successful?

What’s behind display advertising?

Display advertising, also known as banner advertising or display marketing, is a form of online advertising where visual media such as images, animations, or videos are displayed on websites and apps. The goal is to capture the users' attention, spark interest, and prompt a specific action – such as clicking on the ad, visiting a website, making a purchase, or recognizing the brand later.

How digital ads are delivered

To ensure that an ad appears where it is relevant to the target audience, display advertising is usually delivered via ad networks or programmatic platforms. These systems automatically connect publishers and advertisers.

An ad network bundles numerous websites and apps that offer ad space. Advertisers can book placements there and define which target audience they want to reach. The network then ensures that the ad is appropriately delivered on the respective platforms.

A large part of today’s display advertising is delivered via programmatic platforms. When a website is opened, a realtime auction takes place in the background. Various advertisers compete at that moment to display their ad to that specific person. They place automated bids, and the highest bid wins. The corresponding ad then appears on the user’s screen in real time.

Thus, display ad formats reach the right people at the right time, in the right places, with minimal waste coverage and high reach.

These formats reach your target audience

For placement on websites or apps, various ad formats are available. These can be divided into two categories: standard formats and high-impact formats. Native ads take a special position since they cannot be clearly assigned to one of these categories.

Standard formats are common, unobtrusive, and used in various digital environments. They are designed by advertisers and usually contain a graphic, a logo, or text. Apart from clicking, they offer no interaction opportunities for the user.

• Banner Ads: Classic rectangular ads, often placed at the top or side of a page.

• Rectangle: Square or slightly rectangular ads, often embedded within the content or at the page edge.

• Video Ads: Short video spots embedded directly into editorial content or feeds.

High-impact formats are attention-grabbing ad formats that go beyond classic banners and focus on visual presence, interactivity, and immersive user experiences. They offer advertisers numerous opportunities to convey the advertising message of the products and the underlying brands.

• Scroll-Ad Formats: Ads that dynamically unfold while scrolling, move with the content, or come into view through movement.

• Large Branding Areas: Formats that fully utilize the background or frame of a website for a brand message – ideal for memorable branding.

• Interactive Rich Media Ads: Ad media with animations, zoom effects, or playful elements that respond to user actions.

• Sticky and Sidebar Formats: Ads fixed to the side that remain visible while scrolling – often animated or interactively designed.

• Understitial Ads: Ads that appear while scrolling, temporarily overlay the content, and then automatically disappear.

• Inline Video Ads: Videos embedded directly into the content that automatically start when they come into the visible area.

The fact that high-impact formats not only stand out visually but also have a significantly stronger advertising effect is demonstrated by a recent eye-tracking study by YOC in collaboration with the market research institute Lumen Research: Attention-grabbing ad media generate up to 5.8 times more attention than comparable standard formats.

The average viewing time is also up to 215 % higher according to the study. Especially impressive is, that almost every second person surveyed remembers the advertising displayed via a high-impact format – a clear sign of how effective these formats perform in branding.

Native Ads take a special role: They visually and contextually adapt to the editorial environment and, therefore, appear less like classic advertising. Their goal is to appear less intrusive and instead create relevance and trust – for example, through sponsored articles, product recommendations, or content teasers.

Since they neither follow the typical standard logic nor rely on striking visual effects like high-impact formats, native ads are difficult to categorize as one of the two main categories. They combine elements of both worlds: the integration and restraint of classic formats with the content depth and impact of modern, contextual advertising.

How to measure the success of a campaign

To evaluate the success of a display campaign, the following metrics are commonly used:

• Impressions: How often was the ad displayed?

• Click-Through Rate: How many users clicked on the ad?

• Conversion Rate: How many clicks led to a desired action, such as a purchase?

• Viewability: How many ads were actually visible and not just loaded?

• Attention: How intensively did users actually engage with the ad?

What does the future hold?

Display advertising is undergoing significant change.

Artificial intelligence and automation enable tailored and context-based ads in real time. As classic cookies lose relevance, first-party data and privacy-compliant targeting approaches gain importance.

The trend toward personalization goes hand in hand with the comeback of contextual advertising. At the same time, sustainability and value orientation are becoming more important. Programmatic advertising remains central and new, interactive formats such as swipeable ads, playable ads, 360° videos, or gamified ads offer additional opportunities for attention-grabbing brand experiences.

With its diverse formats and the ability to precisely target audiences, display advertising remains an indispensable part of digital marketing strategies and is an integral component of the modern marketing mix.

Would you like to learn more about how to use display advertising successfully for your company? Get in touch with our experts at YOC!