Creative Programmatic: The Need for Better Rich Media Ads

Three distinct factors determine whether a digital ad is effective: where it’s placed, the design, and the call to action. Programmatic advertising is gaining a lot of excitement in the advertising space because it handles the first of those factors: placement. Programmatic advertising places the right ad in front of the right person at the right time. You’ve seen it before. You’re visiting a website and notice the sidebar ads feature a product you were just looking at or a website you recently visited. It’s as if the Internet knows your thoughts, purchasing history, and interests. Although it can seem like a trade-off for consumers (i.e personal information, data), programmatic advertising is powerful and has been hailed as the future of the industry due to its ability to place ads directly in front of consumer most likely to purchase that brand or product. Programmatic advertising increases the effectiveness of ads with more powerful targeting, but does it engage consumers? Programmatic advertising aims to reach every addressable ad spot, but often limit creativity and the ability to engage with the consumer, putting tension between interactivity and reach. Although programmatic advertising is generating buzz, rich media advertising presents better opportunities to connect with consumers. There’s a number of reasons publishers need media-rich ads in a programmatic world: Static Is Dead Banner advertisements were once the way of the future, but they are suffering a painful death. Static advertisements are no longer interesting or eye-catching to consumers. They’re boring and don’t offer anything engaging — consumers can, and do, just ignore them. But the Internet population has a much harder time ignoring rich media content. The 2014 performance metrics report from eMarketer found that rich media banner ads are 267 percent more effective in gaining click-throughs than traditional static banners. In addition, rich media ads are eight times more engaging than standard banners. A larger reach doesn’t mean more click-throughs. Rich media grabs and keeps consumers’ attention, while static ads struggle to do so. Video Is King In the new media landscape, visuals reign supreme. The popularity of Buzzfeed, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest demonstrate changing media habits and the desire for more and more visual content. Videos are popular and effective because they engage the viewer with a story. Although print content uses stories to reach readers, video does so without requiring the viewer to do any work. Creating quality videos can be expensive, and print publishers and other businesses have been reluctant to adopt more video strategies based on cost alone. Although videos are pricey, they are worth the investment. According to FreeWheel’s latest Video Monetization Report, video ad views are growing 32 percent year-over-year and video views are increasing by 25 percent year over year. Rich Media Is Uninterrupted When consumers click on banner ads, they are taken away from the ad and to a landing page. This disrupts the consumer’s experience with your ad, interrupting their thought process and removing them from the ad’s message. Rich media ads keep consumers in place to create a better connection and experience. In fact, a study conducted by AdTheorent Inc. found that rich media ads drove greater secondary action rates. Secondary actions are steps consumers take after clicking an ad to engage with that brand, like following the company on Facebook or clicking on a map to the brand’s store. AdTheorent found that secondary ad engagement was 76 percent higher within rich media units than the industry average. Rich media ads that include easy purchase or reservation buttons keep consumers looking at your ad. In that environment, they can make purchase decisions in fewer steps. Although programmatic advertising does offer advantages, using rich media advertising to power programmatic is truly the way of the future. Explore rich media content to deliver unique, high-impact functions for your target audience. What do you think? How can brands leverage the power of rich media ads?

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Creative Programmatic: The Need for Better Rich Media Ads

Keith Ahern

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Keith Ahern