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Is a mix of display ad & lead gen more effective than just lead gen online?
For online marketers - do you see that a mix of display and lead gen create a 'halo effect' to drive higher white paper and webinar registrations?
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8 Answers
Vincent-
Display advertising (which I'm defining here as contextually relevant, online banner or text ads) can sometimes be a big conversion driver. One example of effective use of context-driven display is in micro-targeted/niche product categories. These product categories often use language that is very specific to the buying process, which means that the web content (e.g., blogs, discussions, third party reviews) for these products attract highly-targeted audiences.
I have a client in the medical device industry whose only online advertising vehicle, prior to our project, was paid search (Google AdWords). We decided that contextually-targeted text ads, purchased on a per-click basis, were a no-brainer for them. This is because the traffic/audience on the pages where those ads would appear is so well-targeted and high-value (doctors and healthcare professionals) that, even with display click-through rates well below 1%, the branding value of "the other 99%" is considerable. And this branding is "free" in the sense that it's paid for by the clickthroughs.
So, especially in cases like this and other highly considered purchases, display advertising plays an important role in informing brand perception and building preference.
BTW, here's a white paper I co-wrote that elaborates a bit on the importance of display in niche markets like medical devices.
http://bit.ly/9KR2Iq
Absolutely. I like to think of brand equity as one of the major influencers of the various conversion points that exist in a sales and marketing funnel. Some of these conversion points are classic marketing metrics such as click through rates on ad creative or registration rates on forms. But they may also include non-traditional marketing metrics such as voicemail response rates or willingness to take a meeting with a salesperson. Strong brand equity only helps drive these conversion rates highers. If you want to see this at work, check out Salesforce.com - they are masters at this.
So then you have this question which is: does display help build or reinforce brand equity? Most of the studies I have seen say yes, including a seminal one by Aquantive a few years ago.
Scott
Most of the time, no. We rarely recommend print advertising as part of a client's demand generation mix unless there are compelling reasons to do so – for example, if a client's market is a niche vertical and there just aren't the online options available. But otherwise, print's value is greatly diminished given the spectrum of options available these days: search, social media, heck – even Twitter ads.
To Scott's point: yes, brand equity is important but in my view there are more efficient, and targeted, ways to build that equity without resorting to print.
Vincent, just so Howard and I are clear, did you mean print or online display? If you meant print, I am with Howard.
FYI - I am referring to online display.
Vincent,
I'd be hard pressed to say that the combination is more effective in every case with the conviction of a trial lawyer, but intuitively, my answer is yes. I came across a report (Marketing Sherpa) several years ago that contained hard evidence that it does.
Particularly, If both campaigns ran concurrently (or display ad prior) on the same media properties/network, I'd expect a greater volume of registrations as opposed to stand-alone lead generation for the reasons listed by the experts in this string.
-Chris
It's amazing that this is even a question these days. The google adwords/lead generation revolution going on has led marketers to forget the basic tenets of branding. Similar to a billboard making it more likely you might check out a store, banner advertising/online content drives higher conversions both at the point of registration for a whitepaper or a webinar but also in conversion from lead to opportunity. The economics of online advertising is more compelling than ever. Think of online advertising beyond the click- there is higher likelihood of conversion when someone hits your registration page
I withdraw my answer, your honor ...
Apologies for the earlier response when I misinterpreted Vincent's question as referring to print and not online display. However, I would still count myself as a branding skeptic. Yes, in theory, I agree - a stronger online presence will reinforce and support direct response tactics, though it's still a tough sell (to me anyway) to translate that theory as demanding online display ads in conjunction with lead gen activity. Unless the advertiser could afford real critical mass - i.e. a high number of impressions and share of voice - I can't see it making much of a difference.
But maybe I've been a direct marketer for too long ...
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