Advertise on other websites

Hello! It’s time to cover the different components that make display advertising work, including how you’ll find and target the right audience, how you’ll build your adverts, and how you’ll organise your campaigns.

First, you’re probably going to be using a display advertising network - that is, a system that lets you advertise on many different websites - to help you build and run your display campaigns, and almost all of them will allow you to decide where your adverts will show up, and who will see them.

Like all digital advertising, display advertising platforms offer many targeting options. You can limit your ads to people who speak certain languages, or to certain days or times. You can even combine multiple things together. For example, you can target local people heading out on their morning commute by choosing to advertise to English speakers who are using smartphones within 20 miles of your shop in the morning. But there are many more - so let’s take a look some targeting options that are unique to display adverts.

For example, you can really zero in on where you want to be advertising by defining specific websites, individual pages on those websites and even specific areas on those individual pages that you want your adverts to appear on.

These are known as a “placements.” The idea here is that if you know the kinds of sites your target audience is likely to be visiting, you can get your ads in front of them by targeting the exact placements you want.

Or, you can aim for a broader audience. If we take our example of a film review podcast, you could decide to show your adverts on any website that fits into general, high-level topics like “cinema” or “art” instead of targeting specific websites.

You can even target specific groups of people, and even the things they do online, regardless of the sites they’re browsing.

Depending upon what options your ad network offers, you might be able to target by gender or age group. Or by very specific locations, such as people who are located on a university campus. You can even target people who have demonstrated an interest in film based on the kinds of websites they have visited in the past.

Finding the right audience to target is essential, but your display campaign also needs actual adverts to show them. With display advertising, you have lots of options for what form they might take or how they can look.

There are banner adverts in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and video adverts that can use motion and sound to show what’s going on behind-the-scenes of your podcast.

There’s no reason why you can’t use many different kinds of adverts. In fact, you’ll be maximizing all the potential places where your adverts might appear. Just remember: you’ll want to match the content with the audience you are targeting.

So now you’re probably seeing how to accomplish your different advertising goals using many different combinations of audiences and adverts. And you’re probably also realising just how important it is to keep things organised. That’s why nearly all display advertising solutions allow you to keep things under control by creating and managing what are known as campaigns.

You could have one display campaign aimed at indie film fans, with adverts featuring your interviews with up-and-coming directors.

At the same time, another campaign could be dedicated to everyday moviegoers. These adverts might target cinema sites or film review sites. They could run on specific days of the week, like Fridays and Saturdays when people are going out to the movies. The message could be different as well, perhaps suggesting people come to decide which films to watch this weekend.

Display advertising can be used to target very specific audiences, and even multiple audiences at the same time, depending on the message you want to send. Thinking about who you want to reach and what you want to tell them will not only keep your campaigns organised, it will also help you figure out the message, the tone, and the style your display advertising should take.

Understanding how these things work together will help you match the right message with the right people—and you’ll be well on your way.