Effective Display Advertising: Improving Engagement with Suitable Creative Formats

Online advertisers have the non-trivial job of jointly assessing the effects of banner ad design elements available in a large number of such formats. Our research found that animated formats are superior to static formats in most settings. It confirms that they can improve engagement, since they can generate higher recall, attract user attention, and create favorability for the advertised brand. Yet, static formats can still be effective when it comes to price ads and re-targeting. Most interestingly, we found that re-targeted ads are effective only if they offer price incentives. Another interesting finding is that the tactic of serving blanks – for instance, for page views from foreign countries – can distort simple measures of campaign effectiveness, such as click-through rates.