Display advertising

When banners are bought by the thousand and seen by no one

Display advertising has a poor reputation, and often deserves it: ads shown on sites nobody chose, to people who will never be customers, measured in impressions that say nothing. Yet used with care it does something search cannot. It reaches people before they start looking, and it reminds those who have already visited.

How we approach it

We buy programmatically, which means every impression is bought individually, on the basis of who sees it and where.

• Objective. Brand awareness, visits from a new audience, or bringing back earlier visitors: each needs a different set-up and a different measure of success.
• Audience. Built from your own customer and website data where consent allows it, and from context: the subject of the page the ad appears on.
• Placement. Lists of sites and apps where your ad may and may not appear, requirements for viewability, and a limit on how often one person sees it.
• Creative. A small set of clear ads in the right formats, tested against each other.
• Measurement. Not just clicks. We look at what visitors do afterwards and, where the volumes allow it, compare with a group that did not see the ads.

What you get

• A media plan stating audience, placements, budget and expected reach.
• Reports that show where your ads actually ran and what they cost.
• Insight into the fees: what went to media, what to technology and what to us.
• Creative that fits your brand, or a clear brief for your own designer.