Display advertising is growing at a rapid pace. Forrester Research predicts that by 2017, online display ad spending will reach $28 billion. If you have considered dipping your feet into the waters of targeted display advertising as part of your B2B account-based marketing strategy, here are a few reasons that will encourage you to take the plunge.
Display Advertising For Brand Awareness
As marketers, we want people to know about our brand and what we do, leading them to want to do business with us. According to a report by Forbes.com: “90% of marketers say online display advertising is good for branding.” It can fast track brand awareness quickly, delivering your brand’s imagery and messaging to your desired audience by targeting the best-fit customers. Even if your ad isn’t clicked, your audience is still being exposed to your brand, which will be top of mind when they are ready to make a purchase.
Types Of Targeting for Account-Based Marketing
The technologies available to target audiences are another reason why display advertising has so many advantages as a part of your account-based marketing strategy. These technologies grant you the flexibility to reach your audience through a variety of methods. If you would like to focus the bulk of your attention on a certain organization, company targeting allows you to serve display ads to a specific set of companies using their IP address. Have a specific list of people you want to target? Great! Employee targeting allows your to serve ads with nothing more than a list of email addresses. Successful B2B account-based marketing campaigns start with targeting the best audience, therefore engaging the decision makers and influencers at each company.
A Full Funnel Approach
One of the biggest benefits of using display advertising is the ability to influence each stage of the marketing funnel. The use of behavioral targeting and contextual targeting in account-based marketing can be employed to gain brand awareness at the top of the funnel. In the middle, your focus will be on engaging and educating your prospects on their terms. Using your ads to entice prospects into downloading white papers will ensure they are well-informed about your products and services. At the bottom of the funnel, retargeting can be used to focus on people who have previously visited your site. Keeping your brand in front of prospects who have shown interest will increase leads and drive sales.
Real Time Reporting
Display advertising allows you to laser-focus your efforts on the accounts and prospects you really want. As key component of a B2B marketing strategy, account-based marketing techniques like display advertising are financially beneficial as well. By concentrating on those who have shown interest in your product, you avoid wasting budget on those that don’t make the buying decisions. Display advertising is also highly effective when used in tandem with other B2B marketing strategies such as paid search, social engagement, content marketing, etc. Within these ABM campaigns, real-time reporting allows marketers to see the effects of their campaigns immediately and optimize quickly based on results. Monitoring and optimizing your campaigns gets easier and more effective over time, leading to better campaigns that drive more productive leads and boost sales.
