Ninety percent of marketers in a new study from Bizo reported that display advertising is just as important or even more important to their marketing mix than last year. What's more, 49 percent of respondents said they plan to spend more on display advertising this year than they did last year.
The survey comprised 130 responses from in-house marketers and advertising agencies.
Why is display advertising so important this year? "We believe strongly that the business consumer's appetite for online content has evolved such that display advertising is now the best way to reach and engage business professionals at scale," said Russell Glass, CEO of Bizo, in a company press release.
Helping to increase website traffic was cited by 54 percent of surveyed marketers as the top benefit of using display advertsing, followed by an increase in conversions (46 percent) and an increase in qualified leads generated (42 percent).
While display advertising helps in those areas noted above, 60 percent of respondents feel measuring the effectiveness of the medium hinders implentation. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they use Google Analytics, but that doesn't identify who's visiting their websites. Sixty-three percent said they track precise business segments on top of or in place of general site analytics. Other challenges of display advertising noted were directing ads to the right audience (42 percent), allocating resources to optimize and refine campaigns (32 percent), and developing compelling creative (30 percent).
While display topped the list of marketing initiatives for the next 18 months, other priorities for marketers included mobile (60 percent), search engine optimization (56 percent) and social media (46 percent).
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