Despite the immense numbers of advertisers that have allocated a majority of their time and ad dollars to new and innovative advertising techniques, such as things like mobile and social, display advertising is still a method that remains the main priority of many digital advertisers. The problem is, these display advertisements do not seem to be performing quite as well as they used to in past years. A recent comScore report that was released on Valentine’s Day entitled the “2013 U.S. Digital Future in Focus,” tells us that about three out of every ten display ads never rendered in-view. As we know, this number is not good for display advertisers, and performance seems to be taking a significant drop.
In the report, comScore writes,
comScore research showed that an average of 3 in 10 ads are never rendered in-view, leading to significant waste, weaker campaign performance and a glut of poor-performing inventory that imbalances the supply-and-demand equation and depresses CPMs.
Needless to say, the poor performance of display ads has negatively affected display advertisers in multiple ways, those ways which are listed by the company above. However, the report found that in the fourth quarter alone, somewhere around 1.4 trillion ad impressions came in. When compared to the year prior, this would stand for a 6 percent increase and improvement for Q4.
Now, hearing of these numbers, and seeing how so many ads were never even rendered in-view during 2012, marketers clearly need to make some changes. According to their report, in looking to predict the turnout of display ads in 2013, comScore sees marketers making these big changes. The company expects display advertisers to use data in more effective ways, which will essentially lead to a decrease in these useless and wasted display ads. In addition, marketers will be using data that shows the ability of ads to monetize and they will also use more targeting techniques, helping to improve their advertisements and hopefully bring up performance quite a bit.
In the report, Linda Abraham, comScore CMO and EVP of Global Product Development is quoted in making the following statement.
2013 is poised to be digital’s most exciting year yet as the growing ubiquity of digital platforms presents marketers with nearly endless opportunities to connect and engage with consumers. It’s clear that the dynamics of the marketplace have fundamentally evolved through the adoption of smartphones and tablets and the increasingly ‘digital’ nature of all media. Navigating this changing landscape requires a holistic understanding of the key trends, underlying drivers and new opportunities that the digital ecosystem will bring in the year ahead.
Although comScore’s report covered many types of advertising across the web, the state of display advertising struck me as particularly interesting. Although display is one of the oldest forms of marketing on the web, marketers are still having trouble delivering them properly, due to data issues comScore suspects. The company has high hopes for display marketers this year, and we can only hope that they are right in their predictions.
