It’s impossible to get noticed these days online. Platforms are inundated with content and ads aplenty. User attention has cultivated a “white noise” effect for anything that even remotely appears promotional. Yet growing businesses have it worse as they don’t boast brand awareness out of the gate, they need to work even harder just to get a seat at the table.
But those that do get noticed don’t necessarily have the deepest pockets. Instead, those that do understand the collaborative potential between the format and message, when to throw caution to the wind and when to allow people to carry on with their passive scrolling.
The Formatting Dilemma
Companies use whatever’s easiest or what they already know as an ad placement. That’s how banner ads appear everywhere and that’s how sponsored social media posts are boosted. Unfortunately, if everyone’s going to do it, then no one stands out.
Different ad placements serve different purposes, various ads work better for brand awareness versus immediacy. So by companies already knowing the difference, they can stretch their dollar far beyond what competitors do via standard campaigns without varying placements per need.
As banner blindness grows because users have trained themselves to ignore anything remotely resembling an ad, it’s not sustainable for growing businesses to pay for placements that are systematically ignored. If users learn to ignore rectangular boxes across the page or side ads just as quickly as they learn where to find content on a page, growing businesses can hardly afford the placements that serve no purpose.
How Full-Screen Placements Work (When They Work)
It’s true that full-screen ad placements are becoming more prevalent in at least the mobile space, and when they’re placed correctly at a precise time where content breaks, it has the potential to connect. Yet that’s the caveat, placement and timing trump formatting altogether.
For companies with time-sensitive offers or product launches that need to be pushed to the forefront, an interstitial ad network and other full-screen placements allow for much faster delivery than display ads can ever match. This is especially true in the mobile space where screen space is smaller than on a desktop, meaning such acquisition doesn’t come across as intrusive but instead as a viable option before actively seeking an engaging experience (or reading passively without interest). Such placements boast much more engagement in this capacity because either they engage on their own terms or dismiss, whereas the passive scroll isn’t available here to easily ignore.
Not every placement is appropriate for full-screen use, however. Campaigns must assess goals, does the audience want to be interrupted and is there any point in doing so if the payoff isn’t viable? A brand awareness endeavor for a company probably doesn’t need a full-screen takeover while a limited-time offer that comes with value certainly does.
The Subtle Placement Approach
Conversely, not all companies who get noticed get attention; sometimes it’s better to blend in than to stand out. Native advertising has become a hot trend because it avoids being an advertisement altogether. Instead, when it’s done properly, the insights become native placements instead of pronounced marketing efforts that are blaringly obvious.
Yet subtler formats run into problems requiring better targeting and more effective creativity. A banner ad might get ignored but at least it’s an ad, a native that falls flat just wastes space. Companies that succeed with subtler formats have invested great time getting into the user psyche enough to realize what’s important instead of creating an effort not up to par with what users want to see.
Context is key here, placement suggestions within relevance work better than trying to suggest something when an ad does not apply. Growing businesses often lack the data needed for cutting-edge contextual targeting, which is why many settle for more outwardly obvious formats that don’t require perfection of placement for effectiveness.
Knowing When Not to Do Something
The best advertisers know when to overwhelm and when to let it go, part of this comes from testing but a great deal is psychological along with industry and geography. Some industries appeal more from blatantly aggressive positioning than others while some can rub audiences the wrong way.
For example, business productivity enterprises offering platforms should operate with subtly value-oriented positioning as users want their time respected in that arena. However, a gaming company can get away with aggressiveness because that demographic is used to promotional noise in that space.
Regional differences matter, growing businesses expanding into new territories must adjust their positioning accordingly. Where something works in one market it might backfire elsewhere. Avoid assuming what appeals works everywhere and appreciate subtle differences from culture to culture.
Format Strategy Accumulating Competitors Never Consider
The best companies do not arbitrarily select one format and stick with it forever. They test various avenues, assess honest results and adjust based on data rather than what’s assumed should work best for user appeal.
The most successful strategies tend to employ a mix of efforts, with awareness endeavors leading with more aggressive formats toward recognition. While retargeting efforts use subtler tactics, lean back instead of pushing forward aggressively. Different stages of the customer journey approach different levels of necessity and associated value for confidence.
Budget allocation for formats must operate based on performance instead of personal preference; what appeals most to a business owner isn’t necessarily what users want. Just because someone finds something annoying doesn’t mean an audience agrees, and buyers who let data dictate performance instead of gut reactions tend to come out ahead.
The digital advertising space will only get more crowded. The businesses that thrive will be the ones that understand how to use different formats strategically, matching their approach to their specific goals and audience rather than following what everyone else does.
