What Is Display Advertising? Understanding the Essentials

In the dynamic realm of digital marketing, display advertising remains a cornerstone of effective brand communication and engagement. As brands navigate the ever-evolving landscape of online advertising, display advertising continues to demonstrate its resilience and effectiveness, offering a powerful medium for capturing attention, conveying brand messages, and driving meaningful connections with consumers.

If you have ever been on a website and noticed ads on the sidebar or top banner, that’s display advertising. By venturing into it, this allows your ad to fit seamlessly into an audience’s daily life, whether they are browsing online, watching YouTube, or even checking their email.

Throughout this blog, we’ll delve deep into the world of display advertising, including the good, the bad and everything in between.

What Is Display Advertising?

Display advertising is online advertising designed to show your company’s ad on a relevant third-party website. People use display ads for the same reasons traditional ads are employed: to grab attention and raise awareness. However, display ads have an added advantage: they allow you to target specific demographics to find the people who’d be most interested in your business, rather than leaving it to chance like most traditional advertising methods.

The latest data underscores the enduring relevance of display advertising. According to eMarketer and WPP Media, global advertising revenue is confirmed to have topped $1 trillion in 2025, with digital channels now capturing a dominant 73.2% share of that total expenditure.

Display vs Search: Understanding Intent

In the competitive online marketplace, display advertising provides a unique opportunity to cut through the noise, capture consumer attention, and establish a strong brand presence. Through the strategic use of display ads, brands can effectively communicate their value proposition, engage with potential customers, and drive desired actions, such as website visits, conversions, and brand awareness.

Unlike search advertising, which relies on a user explicitly typing a query into a search engine (pull marketing), display advertising “pushes” your brand in front of targeted audiences during their content consumption. Search advertising captures “high intent”, the user is looking for a solution now. Display advertising captures “interest and context”, the user is browsing a news site, watching a video, or checking their niche interests.

For UK businesses, where the average consumer is exposed to thousands of digital touchpoints daily, display advertising serves as the visual anchor that keeps your brand top-of-mind when that search intent eventually triggers.

The Core Mechanics: Beyond the Static Banner

Display advertising is tailored, effective, cheaper and relevant to your intended market. For digital advertisers far and wide, this ticks important boxes. There’s no wonder why worldwide display advertising is expected to continue growing, according to Bannerflow.

Modern display advertising encompasses:

• Rich Media: Ads that involve HTML5 features, allowing users to interact, scroll, or play within the ad unit itself.

• Native Display: Ads that mirror the look and feel of the publisher’s content, reducing “banner blindness.”

• Video Interstitials: High-impact placements that appear between content transitions, particularly effective in mobile gaming and news apps.

• Static Banners: Traditional image-based advertisements that remain the foundation of many campaigns.

Display advertising’s performance is showing robust resilience. Latest industry benchmarks for December 2025 reveal that the average click-through rate (CTR) for display ads on the Google Display Network has stabilised at 0.46%–0.57% across all industries. This represents a steady climb from the 0.44% seen in 2021, signalling an enduring receptivity among consumers. This trend is attributed to advancements in ad creativity, targeting precision, and the ability to deliver relevant messages across multiple devices.

How Display Advertising Supports Your Website Design and SEO Strategy

For competitive brands in 2025, mastering display advertising is not just an option, it’s an imperative. To harness the full potential of display advertising, brands must embrace a data-driven approach, using audience insights, targeting strategies, and creative optimisation techniques.

By understanding their target audience’s preferences, behaviours, and online habits, brands can tailor their display ad campaigns for maximum impact. Advanced targeting options, such as demographic targeting, interest-based targeting, and behavioural targeting, make certain that display ads reach the right audience at the right time.

ProfileTree combines display advertising expertise with comprehensive web design and SEO services to create integrated digital marketing strategies. When your website is designed to convert display traffic effectively, and your SEO builds organic visibility that complements paid campaigns, the synergy between these channels amplifies results significantly.

“Display advertising has transformed from a brand awareness tool into a full-funnel marketing channel,” notes Ciaran Connolly, Director of ProfileTree. Our clients see the best results when they integrate display campaigns with their website design, content marketing, and SEO strategies to create a cohesive digital presence that drives real business growth.

Beyond targeting, creativity plays a pivotal role in the success of display advertising. Engaging and visually appealing ad formats, such as native ads, video ads, and interactive ads, capture attention and resonate with consumers. By embracing innovation and storytelling techniques, brands can create memorable ad experiences that leave a lasting impression and drive desired outcomes.

The Good and Bad of Display Advertising

Like everything in life, weighing up the pros and cons of something before diving straight in is important. That’s why we’ve created this blog, so you can see for yourself whether display advertising is the right move for you.

First of all, we’ll start on a positive note with the good parts of display advertising.

Display Advertising: The Good

Display ads are relatively inexpensive when compared to other online advertising efforts. You just need one potential customer to convert into a paying customer in order to get a return on investment. Here are a few more reasons why display advertising is beneficial:

They’re Visually Appealing

People tend to respond much more to innovative, visually-led ads. If you think of an ad you saw recently, think about why you remember it. It is probably because of its visual elements, whether it be an image or a video. 

With high-quality graphic content, these instantly trump lengthy character counts on text-heavy ads. Luckily, with these ads, you can use images, video or audio in order to grab the attention of users.

For businesses investing in video production and animation, display advertising provides the perfect distribution channel for your visual content. The 15-second promotional video or animated explainer you’ve created can reach thousands of potential customers through strategically placed display campaigns, maximising your content production investment.

Increase Brand Awareness

Display ads are a great way to build brand awareness. As these ads are visual, they can be styled using your logo, company colours, slogans and other attributes that people can instantly associate with your brand. 

Display ads are extremely handy for boosting brand familiarity and initiating product attraction. The more people are exposed to your ad, the more they will become aware of you and trust you. This all contributes to engaging viewers and encouraging them to click.

Allow Accurate Targeting

Display ads will allow you to target relevant people to your website. Using geographical and behavioural data, you can reach users who will benefit the most from your product or service. 

You can also retarget, meaning you can reach out to people who have previously expressed interest in your business. This clever technology plays on a person’s existing curiosity, and helps lure ad viewers to take the plunge due to the familiarity, accessibility and convenience. 

This acts as a win-win-win for everyone involved. The third party for securing funding, the advertiser for reaching a tailored audience, and the consumer for being conveniently presented with information that is relevant to them.

For UK businesses, particularly those in Northern Ireland serving Belfast and the surrounding areas, geographic targeting prevents wasted advertising spend on audiences outside your service territory. This precision makes display advertising significantly more cost-effective than traditional advertising methods.

Provide Measurable Data

Display ads provide data that can help enhance your ads for future use. By gaining useful insights into your respondents’ reactions, you can monitor the success of your ad. From this data, you can see how many times people viewed or clicked your ad. You can even see if your visitor converted into a customer by making a purchase. 

By learning more about your ad’s performance, you understand where you need to improve, if you need to adjust your budget or consider new audiences. This means your business can constantly evolve and better your practice.

Display Advertising: The Bad

With everything, there are good and bad sides. While there are plenty of benefits that come with display advertising, it is useful to be aware of the disadvantages so you can make an informed decision.

Lower Click-Through Rate

Click-through rates (CTR) relate to how many times people actually click on your ad. Typically, display ads are there to act as a visual, meaning while people may enjoy looking at them – they are less inclined to click. 

One way around this is by including a noticeable call to action (CTA). This means if someone is actively looking and is interested in your ad, if you provide them with a clear CTA, this will help hugely with the conversion journey.

Lower Conversion Rate

A low click-through rate can also have a knock-on effect with lower conversion rates. This relates to when a person purchases something at the end of their journey with your ad. Often, with it being difficult enough to get a person to click, getting them to buy is added pressure on top.

This also relates to people’s intentions. If a person is scrolling through a news website, they are not necessarily thinking about purchasing. Therefore, they may not be ready to buy. Display ads are more suitable for long sales processes than for selling high volumes. 

Ad Avoidance and Blockers

People nowadays are programmed to automatically reject ads as we are exposed to so many so often, this ad avoidance culture is a major downside.

Ad blockers are also a display ad’s worst enemy. With people wanting a break from ads when they are working online or simply enjoying some downtime, plenty of people have ad blockers downloaded. This prevents potential viewers from seeing your ad, thereby reducing the ad’s effectiveness. 

As we can see here, after reviewing the pros and cons, there are certainly a lot more advantages associated with display advertising that outweigh the disadvantages when campaigns are properly implemented.

4 Things to Consider Before Setting Up a Display Ad

Before you embark on setting up your display ad, there are a number of things you should think about first. Without considering these vital aspects, you could risk making an ad that flops, as well as lose valuable budget money.

To ensure best practice is maintained, consider these top 4 things:

#1: Think About Your Goal

As a business owner or manager, you will know the importance of setting a goal before going forward with any important decisions. The same goes for display advertising. Without a clear intention, your ad will not succeed. By giving yourself something to aim towards, this will help you in the long-run.

Consider your digital marketing strategy. Do you want to increase your online sales? Or boost brand awareness? This could be a huge determining factor before you proceed with display advertising.

Different objectives require different approaches:

• Brand Awareness Campaigns: Focus on reach and frequency, using visually striking creative that builds recognition. These campaigns work well when you’re launching new services or entering new markets.

• Lead Generation Campaigns: Target users who show interest signals, directing them to landing pages with clear value propositions and lead capture forms. ProfileTree often implements these campaigns alongside content marketing strategies, promoting valuable resources that attract qualified leads.

• E-commerce Conversion Campaigns: Focus on product promotion with clear offers, directing traffic to product pages or shopping carts. These campaigns benefit from dynamic creative that showcases products users have previously viewed.

• Retargeting Campaigns: Re-engage website visitors who didn’t convert initially, keeping your brand visible as they continue their research. These typically achieve the highest conversion rates of any display campaign type.

#2: Who Do You Want to Target?

Before you start, it is essential that you consider who your target audience is, otherwise you will not know what websites to feature on and you will already be at a loss.

One way to consider your target market is by thinking of who your main customer is. Will they relate to the message you want to put out there? You can refine your audience even further by considering keywords, demographics, locations and interests. This will all help you categorise who will be seeing your ad and potentially taking action if they like what they see.

For businesses throughout Northern Ireland, Ireland, and the UK, geographic targeting becomes particularly important. If you operate a Belfast-based business serving local customers, there’s no reason to pay for impressions in London or Manchester. Precise geographic targeting makes certain your budget focuses on users within your actual service area.

Demographic targeting adds another layer of precision, but works best when combined with other targeting criteria. A Belfast web design agency might target business owners aged 30-55 in Northern Ireland who have shown interest in business services, creating a highly qualified audience.

#3: Consider the Design

The design of a display ad is make or break. Too busy and it’ll put people off. If too simple, it won’t stand out. This can apply to every element involved, the imagery or video, the copy, the colours, everything.

What’s important is making sure your design resonates with your brand. You want to catch people’s eye, but you also want them to recognise you. This is probably one of the tougher considerations to think about. But when you spend enough time trying to get it right, you will benefit in the long-run. 

#4: Set Your Budget

This is where your strategy comes in again. With display advertising, you decide on a budget and pay for results, like when people actually click on your ad to visit your website.

Luckily, display advertising is quite flexible to suit a variety of budgets. However, you will want to make sure you get a return on investment for your design and copywriting efforts to make the ad in the first place. This is why each of these points goes hand-in-hand to make display advertising work.

Understanding Display Advertising Costs

Cost per thousand impressions (CPM) represents the standard pricing model for display advertising. UK CPM rates typically range from £2-£15 depending on targeting specificity and placement quality. Premium placements on high-traffic quality websites command higher CPMs than programmatic inventory aggregated across many sites.

Your budget determines your potential reach, but market inflation in 2025 has tightened the margins. A £1,000 monthly budget at a current average £10 CPM (Cost Per Mille) delivers 100,000 impressions. At a stabilised average 0.5% CTR, this generates 500 clicks. However, in today’s privacy-centric landscape, cold traffic conversion is more conservative; if 0.6% of clicks convert, you achieve 3 conversions.

Understanding this updated math helps assess whether display advertising can deliver sufficient volume for your objectives at your available budget, or if a shift toward higher-converting retargeting, where conversion rates can still reach 2%, is necessary to meet your targets.

Testing Budgets and Scaling

For businesses new to display advertising, ProfileTree recommends starting with testing budgets of £500-£1,000 monthly. This budget allows you to gather meaningful performance data without major commitments. Testing at lower budgets often fails to generate sufficient data for confident conclusions about effectiveness.

Once testing proves successful, scaling budgets allows you to capture more opportunity. The beauty of display advertising lies in its flexibility; you can increase or decrease spending based on performance, unlike traditional advertising that often requires long-term commitments.

Average Metrics and Benchmarks for Key Display Ad Formats and Placements

These benchmarks provide context for evaluating your campaigns, but remember that performance varies significantly based on industry, targeting, creative quality, and many other factors. Your business might achieve substantially better or worse results depending on your specific circumstances.

Measuring What Matters for Your Business

Different objectives require different measurement approaches. Click-through rate matters for awareness campaigns, but conversion rate and cost per acquisition matter more for lead generation and sales campaigns.

• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of users who click your advertisement after viewing it. During CTR provides a basic engagement indicator, it should not be your sole success metric.

• Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who complete desired actions after clicking your advertisement. This metric matters far more than CTR for campaigns focused on lead generation or sales.

• Viewability: Measures whether users could actually see your advertisements. An impression counts as viewable when at least 50% of the advertisement appears on screen for at least one second (two seconds for video).

• Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) or Cost Per Lead (CPL): Measures efficiency by calculating how much you spend to achieve each conversion. UK B2B businesses typically see CPL ranging from £15-£45 depending on industry and lead quality requirements.

• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Calculates the revenue generated for each pound spent on advertising, where a 2.87:1 ROAS currently represents the 2025 industry average, though a 4:1 ratio remains the target for profitable retargeting campaigns.

Implement comprehensive tracking and measurement for all display advertising campaigns, connecting advertising exposure to business outcomes. This data-driven approach allows continuous optimisation based on what actually drives results for your business rather than assumptions or industry averages.

Optimising Landing Pages for Display Traffic

Landing pages serve as the final destination for display ad clicks, and their effectiveness plays a crucial role in determining the overall success of your display advertising campaigns. Since display traffic tends to be more brand-aware and receptive to messaging compared to search traffic, landing pages for display campaigns should be tailored to align with this audience’s expectations and preferences.

Key Considerations for Display Landing Pages

• Relevance and Alignment: Ensure your landing page seamlessly aligns with the messaging and branding of your display ad. The landing page should reinforce the key message conveyed in the ad, maintaining a consistent brand experience and avoiding any disconnect that could lead to confusion or disappointment.

• Focus on Visual Appeal: Display ads are inherently visual, so leverage that strength in your landing page design. Use high-quality images, captivating visuals, and a visually appealing layout to maintain the engagement gained from the display ad.

• Compelling Headlines: Display ad audiences are likely to scan quickly, so make your headlines concise, attention-grabbing, and relevant to the ad’s message. Use strong verbs and highlight key benefits to pique their interest and encourage them to continue reading.

• Clear and Concise Copy: Keep your landing page copy concise, focused on the core message, and easy to read. Use a clear and consistent tone that aligns with your brand voice. Avoid lengthy paragraphs and focus on conveying the most important information in a digestible manner.

• Strong Calls to Action: Display ad audiences are often ready to take action, so provide clear and compelling calls to action (CTAs) that encourage the desired behaviour. Use actionable verbs, highlight the benefits of taking action, and make the CTA buttons prominent and easy to find.

• Mobile Optimisation: A significant portion of display ad traffic comes from mobile devices, so ensure your landing page is optimised for mobile viewing. Use responsive design, ensure elements are tap-friendly, and optimise loading times for a seamless mobile experience.

A/B Testing for Landing Page Optimisation

A/B testing is an invaluable tool for optimising landing page performance and identifying the elements that resonate most effectively with your display ad audience. By testing different variations of landing page elements, you can gather data-driven insights to continuously improve the user experience and conversion rates.

Examples of A/B Tests for Display Landing Pages

• Headline Variations: Test different headlines to determine which one captures attention most effectively and drives the highest click-through rates.

• CTA Text and Placement: Experiment with different CTA text, button colours, and placements to optimise the visibility and effectiveness of your calls to action.

• Landing Page Layout: Test different layout variations, such as the position of key elements, the use of white space, and the overall design structure, to find the layout that optimises user engagement and conversions.

• Imagery and Visuals: Experiment with different images, colour schemes, and visual elements to determine which ones resonate best with your display ad audience and enhance the overall appeal of the landing page.

• Form Design and Length: Test different form designs, such as the number and type of fields, the placement of the form, and the use of progressive profiling, to optimise form completion rates and minimise friction.

By continuously testing and refining your landing pages based on data-driven insights, you can create a landing page experience that is tailored specifically for your display ad audience, leading to improved conversion rates and a more successful display advertising strategy.

Integrating Display Advertising With Your Complete Digital Strategy

Display advertising works most effectively when integrated with complementary digital marketing efforts. Businesses that treat display as one component of a comprehensive strategy achieve better results than those using it in isolation.

Display Advertising and SEO: A Powerful Combination

Search engine optimisation and display advertising support each other effectively. SEO builds organic visibility that attracts users actively seeking your solutions. Display advertising creates awareness among users who have not yet begun actively searching, priming them to recognise and click your organic listings when they do search.

For ProfileTree clients, we often see display advertising campaigns drive increased brand search volume. Users exposed to display advertisements become curious about your brand and search for it directly. If your website ranks well for your brand name through our SEO services, this search traffic arrives with high intent and converts well.

Content created for SEO purposes often works excellently for native advertising distribution. Comprehensive guides, how-to articles, and educational content that ranks well organically can be promoted through native placements to reach broader audiences. This approach maximises the return on content creation investment by distributing it through multiple channels.

Website Design That Converts Display Traffic

Your website serves as the destination for display advertising clicks, making web design directly relevant to campaign success. Display traffic often arrives earlier in the customer journey than search traffic, with different expectations and information needs.

ProfileTree designs websites with display advertising in mind from the start. This means:

• Fast loading speeds that prevent bounce from impatient users
• Mobile-responsive designs that work flawlessly on smartphones
• Clear navigation that helps users find what they need quickly
• Trust signals like customer testimonials and security badges
• Multiple conversion points appropriate for different stages of readiness

The combination of effective display advertising and conversion-optimised web design dramatically improves results. When you invest in both channels simultaneously, the returns compound significantly compared to either channel in isolation.

Content Marketing and Video Production for Display Success

Content marketing provides the substance that display advertising promotes. Businesses that invest in creating valuable content have more advertising options than those relying purely on product promotion.

Educational content attracts earlier-stage audiences. Display advertisements promoting helpful guides, how-to content, or industry insights appeal to users in research phases. This approach builds awareness and positions your brand as a helpful expert rather than just another advertiser.

ProfileTree’s content marketing services create resources specifically designed for promotion through display advertising. We understand what content formats work best for different audience segments and how to structure content that attracts, engages, and converts.

Video content created through ProfileTree’s video production services can be repurposed for video display advertising. A comprehensive product demonstration video, customer testimonial, or educational piece can be edited into shorter formats suitable for display placements. This repurposing maximises production investment by distributing content across multiple channels.

UK Compliance and Ethical Advertising Practices

UK businesses must navigate specific regulatory requirements when implementing display advertising. Understanding these obligations helps avoid penalties and builds consumer trust.

UK GDPR and Cookie Consent

The UK GDPR establishes strict requirements for collecting and processing personal data, including data used for advertising targeting. Display advertising campaigns that use cookies or similar tracking technologies must obtain user consent before placement.

The ePrivacy Regulations require websites to obtain informed consent before placing non-essential cookies. Since advertising cookies fall into the non-essential category, users must actively opt in to tracking. Pre-ticked boxes and implied consent do not meet regulatory standards.

ProfileTree implements compliant consent management during web development projects, making sure your website meets current UK requirements. This proactive approach prevents costly retrofitting later while protecting your business from regulatory penalties.

ICO Guidance for Advertisers

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) provides specific guidance on online advertising practices. Key principles include transparency about data collection and use, lawful basis for processing, data minimisation, and respecting user rights, including the right to object to marketing.

Your privacy policy should explain that you use advertising, what data you collect, how targeting works, and how users can opt out. Vague language or hidden disclosures do not meet transparency requirements.

Advertising Standards and Content Requirements

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) regulates advertising content in the UK, including digital display advertising. Display advertisements must not be misleading, must be clearly identifiable as advertising, and must comply with category-specific rules for regulated products and services.

Native advertising faces particular scrutiny about clear identification. Advertisements must be obviously distinguishable from editorial content. Labels like “Ad,” “Sponsored,” or “Promoted” in prominent positions help meet this requirement.

Conclusion

Display advertising remains a powerful tool for increasing brand visibility across digital platforms. By combining eye-catching visuals with strategic placements, businesses can reach the right audiences at the right time. When supported by clear messaging and consistent branding, display ads help reinforce awareness, support other marketing channels, and keep brands top of mind throughout the customer journey.

As technology evolves, display advertising continues to become more data-driven and measurable. Advanced targeting, retargeting, and performance analytics allow advertisers to refine campaigns and improve ROI. When optimised correctly, display advertising not only drives traffic and conversions but also builds long-term brand trust and recognition in an increasingly competitive online landscape.

FAQs

At ProfileTree, we are here to help businesses grow online. With our extensive knowledge of the digital world spanning web design and development, video production and animation, AI training and implementation, SEO and content marketing, and comprehensive digital strategy, we can help you make a start. Our Belfast-based team serves clients throughout Northern Ireland, Ireland, and the UK, bringing business growth through integrated digital marketing approaches.

We look forward to working with you to build display advertising campaigns that drive real results for your business!