The Most Common Types of Display Advertising – Ted Dhanik

Online display advertising has become extremely commonplace today.  However, there are various types of display ads.  There are four major types of display advertising, which include category, contextual, behavioral and retargeting.

Category ads focus on the category of the audience members.  For example, you might place display ads of trucks on websites that are related to men’s interests.  This might include video game or men’s magazine websites.  Category display ads center on the target audience.  These are somewhat similar to contextual display ads.  Contextual and category ads are often put together in order to increase the results of the ads.  Contextual ads are usually even more specific than category.  An example might be truck ads on a car or truck forum or website.

Retargeting display ads are somewhat different than the others.  Retargeting display ads target viewers who have already been to a company’s website before.  This type of advertising is one of the more expensive types of ads and they are usually used very specifically for a small audience, but because of the specificity, these ads are usually very successful with clients.

Behavioral ads are another type of display ads.  This type of ad relies on cookies and web history.  Advertisers will track the web history of a target audience and tailor the ads to them.  Just as with retargeting, this is usually a small audience, but these ads can be more successful, due to how precise they are.  Many advertisers rely on behavioral targeting because it is usually a big hit with clients.

Author bio: Guest post is submitted by Ted Dhanik, the president and co-founder of engage:BDR.  engage: BDR was founded in 2008 and revolutionized the world of online marketing and advertising.  Engage: BDR helps drive performance for direct response marketers.  Ted Dhanik has his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing from California State University, Hayward.  Ted Dhanik was previously the VP of Strategic Marketing for Myspace for over five years.