8 simple ideas for a display advertising plan

 “Creative without strategy is called ‘art.’ Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising.’” – Jef I. Richards

So getting your display advertising plan ready is vital to your next year success. And this is why I came with a short guide that can help you establish your plan.

Let’s get started!

1.  Start with researching

Before you actually start writing down your plan you need to do some research. This step should answer some questions like, who are your customers and potential customers? What kind of people are they? Who are your competitors? Or maybe you have in your mind your own questions that need some good answers. Great answers will get you a great strategy.

And if you need some help with this part you can check this 5 marketing research tips.

2. Determine your marketing objectives

Now that you have the research part you need to set up your marketing objectives. You can start with the well-known SMART approach – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-specific objectives.  Those marketing objectives should also be consistent with and indicate the priorities of the organization and also will help you understand better why you are doing display advertising.

Don’t forget to integrate your online and offline marketing strategies.

3.  The big 3 W

What is the “Big 3 W”? Are the questions that will help you organize you and make it more clear – What? Where? When?

• What do you want to advertise? Maybe a specific product/service/event, a blog post or a landing page. Put it on the plan and be specific. This is where your marketing activities and objectives will help you get through.
• Where do you want to advertise? Today your customers live in a multi-screen world. So you can reach them with the right ad at the right time wherever they go. That’s why targeted advertising is a must.
• When do you advertise? Timing is the secret and today people are spending a lot of time on the internet. Find out when your customers and potential customers are online. This is why is so important to know about your buyer persona.

4. Create the banner ad

When you design your banner ad, keep it simple and clear, make your message easy to read and don’t forget about the call-to-action. It must jump out from the rest of the message. And if you need some design tips you can check our Slideshare presentation or you can work with professionals.

5. Implement and make it happen

A plan without action is just a piece of paper (or document) that has no value. Many marketers believe that planning ends once it is defined however this is really only the beginning. The next step is to implement the plan and make it happen. So the true work just begins! Start implementing your display advertising plan.

6. A/B testing

One of the beautiful solution in digital advertising that the internet provided us is testing. This is why I think that A/B testing is a must in every digital campaign, even if it’s social media marketing, display advertising, inbound marketing etc.  And if you don’t know where to start, check out these 7 basic banner A/B testing ideas.

7.  Track and measure

You need to know if your campaigns are effective or not. This is why at Bannersnack we think that conversion tracking is the key for measuring online advertising performance.

8. Results

And we finally get to the results that every marketer want. Have you reached your marketing objectives? How do your ads perform? How many leads did you generate? And the numbers will show you if you made a good job or if you still need to work on your plan.

So, do you have a display ad plan for 2015? Let us know what you think about this by leaving a comment below!