Display advertising: what it is, formats, advantages and how to make it profitable

Display advertising is a digital advertising format that uses visual elements (banners, video, rich media) to appear on websites, apps and content platforms, generating demand and brand recall before the user actively searches. 54% of users do not click on a display ad. And even so, the brands that master this channel generate 70% more brand recall than those that only invest in search. Display advertising does not compete for the immediate click: it competes to occupy mental space before your potential client searches on Google.

According to a Google and Kantar study (2024), well-segmented display campaigns increase purchase intent by 23% compared with unexposed users. It is not magic. It is system, segmentation and creativity working together.

At CRONUTS.DIGITAL we manage display campaigns for companies that need measurable visibility, not empty impressions. This article breaks down everything you need to know to turn display advertising into a real growth lever.

# What display advertising is and how it works

Display advertising is the digital advertising format that uses visual elements (banners, images, video, rich media) to appear on websites, apps and content platforms. Unlike search ads, which respond to an active user intent, display advertising generates demand: it appears while the user consumes content, not while they search.

The mechanism is simple. An advertiser uploads its creatives to an ad platform (Google Display Network, Meta Audience Network, programmatic). It defines its audience by demographic, interest, behaviour or context criteria. The platform serves the ad on sites that match those criteria. The advertiser pays per impression (CPM), click (CPC) or conversion (CPA).

According to eMarketer (2025), programmatic already accounts for 91% of digital display investment in the United States, consolidating automated buying as the industry standard. The Google Display Network (GDN) reaches 90% of internet users globally, with more than 2 million websites and apps in its network. It is the largest display ecosystem in the world, but not the only one. Programmatic, Meta, Amazon DSP and vertical networks offer alternatives with their own targeting.

Display advertising operates in three main buying models:

• CPM (Cost per thousand impressions): you pay for every 1,000 times your ad is shown. Ideal for branding and awareness.
• CPC (Cost per click): you pay only when the user clicks. More oriented to traffic and consideration.
• CPA (Cost per acquisition): you pay when the user completes an action (lead, purchase). Requires data volume to optimise.

# The 8 display advertising formats you should know

Not all display formats work the same way. Choosing the right format depends on your objective, your audience and the platform where you will appear. These are the 8 formats dominating the market in 2026.

1. Static banners (image)

The classic format. Fixed images in standard sizes (728×90 leaderboard, 300×250 medium rectangle, 160×600 skyscraper). Low production cost, easy to scale. Their limitation: banner blindness. Users actively ignore static banners after years of exposure. They work when the design breaks the visual pattern of the page.

2. Animated banners (HTML5)

An evolution of the static banner with animations, transitions and interactive elements. HTML5 ads let you tell a story in 3-4 frames, capturing attention with movement. Google Web Designer and tools like Bannerflow make production at scale easier. The average CTR of an HTML5 banner exceeds the equivalent static banner by 15-25%.

3. Native ads

A format that integrates visually with the content of the page where it appears. It does not look like an ad: it looks like a recommended article. Platforms like Outbrain, Taboola and GDN itself offer native formats. Native ads generate 53% more visual attention than traditional display. They are especially effective in content strategies and top of funnel.

4. Video ads

Pre-roll, mid-roll, out-stream and bumper ads. YouTube is the leading platform, but display video ads also appear on websites through programmatic. Formats of 6, 15 and 30 seconds. Display video generates 12x more shares than text and image combined. Its production cost is higher, but its impact on brand recall is incomparable.

5. Rich media

Interactive formats that include video, audio, expansion, games or advanced functionality. Rich media ads let the user interact without leaving the page: swipe a product, explore a catalogue, configure options. Google Ad Manager and DV360 support this format. The engagement rate of rich media is 5-10x higher than the static banner.

6. Responsive display ads (RDA)

The star format of Google Ads for display. You upload titles, descriptions, images and logos. Google automatically combines the elements to create the optimal ad according to the available space and the audience. Less creative control, but greater reach and efficiency. Google recommends RDA as the default format for display campaigns on GDN.

7. Interstitial ads

A full-screen format that appears between page transitions or in mobile apps. High visual impact, but intrusive if overused. Google penalises intrusive interstitials on mobile. They work in gaming apps, content platforms and as a premium format in programmatic. Higher CPMs, but 100% viewability.

8. Dynamic display ads

Creatives generated automatically from a product feed. They show the user exactly the product they viewed, added to cart or similar products. Essential for ecommerce and remarketing. Google, Meta and programmatic platforms support dynamic display ads. They require a well-structured data feed (Google Merchant Center, Meta catalogue).

# Display advertising vs search advertising: when to use each

The eternal question. Display or search. The real answer: they are not mutually exclusive. They cover different phases of the customer journey.

Search advertising captures existing demand. The user is already actively searching for your product or service. High CTR (3-8%), clear intent, direct conversion. Ideal for BOFU: the user is ready to buy or contact.

Display advertising generates demand. The user is not searching for you: you find them. Low CTR (0.1-0.5%), but massive impact on awareness and consideration. Ideal for TOFU and MOFU: it builds brand recall, educates and prepares the user for the search moment.

The key figure: users exposed to display ads are 155% more likely to search for your brand afterwards. Display feeds search. Search closes the sale. The complete system multiplies the return.

The operational differences:

• Average cost: display CPM €2-8 vs search CPC €0.50-5 (depending on sector)
• Reach: display reaches massive passive audiences, search only those who search
• Creativity: display allows video, image, animation. Search is text only
• Measurement: search measures direct conversion. Display requires multi-touch attribution
• Speed: both generate immediate results, but display needs volume to optimise

An experienced PPC agency combines both channels in a system where display feeds the upper funnel and search closes in the lower one.

# Contextual targeting vs audience targeting: what works better

The progressive disappearance of third-party cookies has reignited a debate that seemed closed. Audience targeting (based on user data) dominated the last decade. But contextual targeting (based on page content) is experiencing a revival forced by privacy.

Audience targeting uses demographic data, interests, browsing behaviour and first-party lists to decide who to show the ad to. It works regardless of the content the user consumes. It is precise when you have quality data, but loses effectiveness without cookies and with regulations like GDPR and data-protection law.

Contextual targeting analyses the page content in real time (keywords, category, sentiment, topic) and serves the ad when the context matches your message. It needs no cookies. It requires no tracking consent. And it generates immediate relevance: an accounting-software ad in an article about financial management makes sense to the user.

Recent data shows that contextual targeting in display generates a CTR 73% higher than generic audience targeting, and a cost per conversion comparable to remarketing in certain verticals. The leading platforms (GDN, DV360, The Trade Desk) have improved their contextual algorithms with natural-language processing and semantic analysis.

The practical recommendation: don’t choose one or the other. Combine first-party audiences (CRM, web visitors) with contextual targeting for prospecting campaigns. First-party data will be the competitive advantage of display in the coming years, and companies with a solid digital strategy are already building those data assets.

# Programmatic display buying: RTB, private deals and guaranteed

Programmatic has transformed display buying. Instead of manually negotiating with publishers, platforms automate the purchase in milliseconds through real-time auctions. More than 80% of display investment in Spain is already executed programmatically.

Three models dominate programmatic buying:

• RTB (Real-Time Bidding): an open auction where you compete with other advertisers for each impression. Greater reach, less placement control. CPMs between €1 and €5. Ideal for massive prospecting.
• Private Deals (PMP): an auction restricted to a group of invited buyers. Access to premium inventory (media outlets, specialised verticals) with priority over RTB. CPMs between €5 and €15. Superior quality control.
• Programmatic Guaranteed: automated direct buying. You negotiate price, volume and placement with the publisher, but delivery is managed via platform. CPMs between €10 and €30. For premium branding campaigns where placement matters as much as the audience.

The main DSP (Demand-Side Platform) platforms in the Spanish market include DV360 (Google), The Trade Desk, Amazon DSP, MediaMath and Xandr. Each has its strengths in inventory, data and features. Google DV360 dominates thanks to its native integration with GDN and YouTube. The Trade Desk stands out in CTV (Connected TV) inventory and transparency.

The choice between RTB, private deals and guaranteed depends on your objective. A ROI-oriented approach combines RTB for volume and learning, PMP for quality and guaranteed for guaranteed impact at key moments (launches, seasonal campaigns).

# Key metrics for measuring display campaigns

Measuring display advertising with search metrics is the most expensive mistake in paid media. Display has its own KPIs, which must be integrated into a broader system of digital marketing ROI metrics. These are the ones that matter.

Impressions and reach

Impressions indicate how many times your ad was shown. Reach, how many unique users it reached. In awareness campaigns, these metrics are the starting point. But be careful: impressions without viewability are worthless.

Viewability

According to the IAB/MRC standard, a display ad is viewable when 50% of its pixels are visible on screen for at least 1 second. For video, the threshold rises to 2 seconds. The viewability benchmark on GDN is around 50-60%. If your campaign is below 40%, you have a placement problem. Tools like MOAT, IAS and DV verify viewability in real time.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

The average display CTR is 0.35%. According to WordStream (2025), the average CTR on Google Display is 0.46% globally, while on Search Ads the average reaches 6.66% in its latest benchmark of more than 16,000 campaigns. It sounds low compared with search (3-5%), but the objective of display is not the click: it is the qualified impression. A CTR above 0.5% on GDN indicates good targeting and creativity. Above 1%, exceptional creatives or very warm audiences (remarketing).

CPM and eCPM

CPM is what you pay for 1,000 impressions. eCPM (effective CPM) normalises any buying model to cost per thousand for comparison. Average CPMs in Spain: €2-5 for open GDN, €8-15 for premium programmatic, €15-30 for display video. A low CPM with low viewability is wasted money.

View-through conversions

The metric that changes the display story. A view-through conversion occurs when a user sees your ad, does not click, but converts afterwards (searches for your brand, enters directly or clicks on another channel). Google Ads measures it with windows of 1 to 30 days. It is the bridge between the display impression and the real conversion. Without view-through, the value of display remains invisible.

Frequency

The average number of times a unique user sees your ad. The optimal frequency varies by sector: 3-5 for awareness, 7-12 for consideration, more than 15 indicates saturation. Controlling frequency avoids ad fatigue and optimises the budget. Google Ads allows you to set frequency caps per campaign.

# Display remarketing: the format with the highest ROI

If you could only choose one type of display campaign, choose remarketing. The data leaves no room for doubt: display remarketing generates a CTR 10x higher than display prospecting and a cost per conversion 50% lower.

Display remarketing shows ads to users who already visited your website, interacted with your content or abandoned a process. You are not paying for cold impressions: you are investing in people who already know you.

Types of display remarketing

• Standard remarketing: shows generic banners to previous visitors of your website. Simple, effective for brand recall.
• Dynamic remarketing: shows exactly the products or services the user viewed. Requires a data feed. Essential in ecommerce.
• List remarketing (RLSA in display): segments by customer lists (email, phone). Ideal for upselling and reactivation.
• Video remarketing: reaches users who watched your YouTube videos. Connects awareness with consideration.
• Engagement remarketing: segments by interaction with your app, partially completed forms or abandoned carts.

The configuration that maximises ROI

The key to profitable display remarketing lies in segmentation by recency (days since the last visit) and depth of interaction. A user who visited your pricing page 2 days ago deserves a different ad from the one who read a blog article 30 days ago. Create staggered audiences: 1-3 days (urgency), 4-14 days (consideration), 15-30 days (re-engagement). Adjust bids and creatives by segment. Qualified lead capture improves when the message adapts to the user’s intent level.

“Display advertising does not fail because of the channel. It fails when you treat cold impressions the same as warm remarketing. They are two systems with different rules.”

Albert Puig Navàs · Co-Founder & Head of Growth at CRONUTS.DIGITAL

# How to create a profitable display campaign in 5 steps

The difference between a display campaign that burns budget and one that generates a return is the system. These 5 steps turn display advertising into a measurable investment.

Step 1: Define the objective and the main KPI

Before touching the platform, decide what you want to achieve: awareness (KPI: reach, viewability), consideration (KPI: qualified traffic, CTR), conversion (KPI: leads, sales, CPA). A single objective per campaign. Mixing awareness with conversion in the same campaign dilutes both results.

Step 2: Segment the audience precisely

Segmentation is 60% of success in display. The options in Google Ads and programmatic include: affinity audiences (long-term interests), in-market audiences (active purchase intent), custom audiences (by keywords, URLs or apps), similar/lookalike audiences, demographic segments (age, gender, household income), contextual targeting (by page content) and remarketing. Combine 2-3 criteria to create audiences specific enough to be relevant and broad enough to have volume.

Step 3: Design creatives that break through the noise

The average banner competes with the content the user wants to see. Your ad has 1-2 seconds to grab attention. The rules of display design that works: a clear value proposition in the first 0.5 seconds, visual contrast with usual page backgrounds, a visible CTA with an action verb, consistency with the landing page (don’t promise what you don’t deliver), multiple versions for A/B testing (minimum 3-5 variations). In responsive ads (RDA), upload at least 5 titles, 5 descriptions, 5 images and 1 logo. Google needs combinations to optimise.

Step 4: Configure the campaign intelligently

Technical details that make the difference: exclude low-performing placements (children’s gaming apps, MFA sites), set frequency caps (5-7 daily impressions maximum for awareness), use content exclusions (violence, sensitive content, parking domains), configure view-through conversion tracking (7-14 day window), separate prospecting and remarketing campaigns. Never launch a display campaign without an exclusion list.

Step 5: Optimise with real data

The first 14 days are a learning phase. Don’t touch bids or audiences. From week 3 onwards, analyse: which placements generate high viewability and conversions, which creatives have the best CTR and CPA, which audience segments convert, which devices perform best. Pause what doesn’t work. Scale what does. Review weekly. A display campaign without continuous optimisation decays 20-30% monthly in performance.

# 7 mistakes that ruin your display campaigns

Managing display advertising without experience is the fastest way to burn budget without a return. These are the mistakes we see most often in account audits.

1. Measuring display with search metrics. Demanding a display CPA equal to search is comparing a marathon with a sprint. Display works in the upper funnel. Use view-through conversions and brand lift.
2. Not excluding junk placements. Without exclusions, your ad appears in children’s gaming apps, click-bait sites and parking domains. Review the placement report weekly.
3. A single creative for the whole campaign. Ad fatigue kills performance in 2-3 weeks. Rotate at least 3-5 creatives and refresh every month.
4. Ignoring frequency. Without a frequency cap, the same user sees your ad 50 times a day. That is not branding: it is harassment. A maximum of 5-7 daily impressions per user.
5. Mixing prospecting and remarketing in the same campaign. They are audiences with different temperatures. Metrics, bids and creatives must be different. Always separate them.
6. A landing page disconnected from the ad. If the banner promises a discount and the landing shows your home, the bounce rate exceeds 80%. Visual and message consistency between ad and destination. A website with good Core Web Vitals performance also improves post-click conversion.
7. Not configuring view-through conversions. Without this metric, 70% of the value of display remains invisible. Configure it in Google Ads with a 7-14 day window.

# Display advertising for B2B vs ecommerce: key differences

Display works in both models, but the tactics change radically. What converts in ecommerce may be irrelevant in B2B and vice versa.

Display for ecommerce

Ecommerce is the natural terrain of dynamic display. Product catalogues, data feeds, abandoned-cart remarketing. The tactics that work: dynamic remarketing with a Google Merchant Center feed (recovers up to 26% of carts), responsive ads with real product images, in-market audience targeting, high frequency in short decision windows (3-7 days), integration with Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. The main KPI in ecommerce display is ROAS (Return On Ad Spend). A ROAS of 4:1 is the profitability threshold for most online stores. If you run an online store, a specialised ecommerce consultancy can audit your display campaign structure and find improvement margins you can’t see from the inside.

Display for B2B

In B2B, the sales cycle is long (3-12 months) and the audience is small. B2B display does not seek the direct sale: it seeks to stay visible during the decision process. The tactics that work: custom-audience targeting (competitor websites, sector publications), remarketing of visitors to key pages (pricing, case studies, contact), native ads with valuable content (whitepapers, webinars), controlled frequency in long windows (30-90 days), ABM (Account-Based Marketing) with lists of target companies via LinkedIn or programmatic. The main KPI in B2B display is the cost per qualified lead and the influenced pipeline. A B2B digital marketing agency can design display strategies that integrate with LinkedIn Ads and ABM for long sales cycles.

# Display across the full funnel: how to integrate awareness, consideration and conversion

The biggest strategic mistake in display advertising is treating it as an isolated channel. Profitable display operates as an integrated system within the acquisition funnel, with specific campaigns for each phase.

TOFU (Top of Funnel) – Awareness: reach campaigns with contextual targeting and affinity audiences. Video and rich media formats for maximum visual impact. KPIs: unique reach, viewability, brand lift. Recommended budget: 40-50% of total display investment. The objective is not the click but the first brand exposure.

MOFU (Middle of Funnel) – Consideration: soft remarketing campaigns (blog visitors, downloaded content) and in-market audiences. Native ads and RDA with a differentiated value proposition. KPIs: qualified traffic, CTR, post-click time on page. Budget: 20-30%. Here you feed the user with social proof, case studies and content that resolves objections.

BOFU (Bottom of Funnel) – Conversion: dynamic remarketing for visitors to product, pricing or cart pages. High frequency, short window (1-14 days), creatives with urgency and a direct CTA. KPIs: CPA, ROAS, view-through conversions. Budget: 20-30%. It is where display closes what it started in awareness.

Brands that allocate budget only to BOFU remarketing get fast but diminishing results. Without investment in TOFU, the remarketing pool runs out in weeks. The system works when each phase feeds the next, and a good SEO strategy complements the whole process by generating organic traffic that enters the display funnel as a remarketable audience.

# Display advertising trends for 2026

Display evolves faster than any other paid-media channel. These are the trends redefining display advertising in 2026.

Connected TV (CTV) and Digital Out-of-Home (DOOH): programmatic has jumped from the computer screen to the television and to urban screens. CTV lets you buy video ads on streaming platforms (not just YouTube) with granular targeting. DOOH brings display advertising to digital screens in shopping centres, transport and public spaces, buying inventory in real time just like a web banner. Both channels grow at double digits year on year.

AI-generated creatives: Google and Meta already offer automatic display-creative generation via artificial intelligence. You upload your product, the AI generates banner, copy and format variations optimised for each placement. According to Deloitte (2024), an improvement of just 0.1 seconds in landing-page load speed increases conversions by 8.4% in retail and by 9.2% in average order value, which reinforces the importance of optimising the post-click experience in display campaigns. It reduces creative production cost by 60-80%, but requires human supervision to maintain brand consistency.

Privacy-first targeting: with the end of third-party cookies, cookieless targeting solutions are gaining ground. Topics API (Google), advanced contextual, activated first-party data and clean rooms allow continued targeting without relying on invasive tracking. Companies that have not invested in building their own audience data (CRM, CDPs) will lose competitive advantage against those that did.

Attention metrics as standard: the industry is moving from measuring viewability (the shop window) to measuring real attention. Metrics like attention time, gaze duration and scroll depth are replacing CTR as a quality indicator. Platforms like Adelaide, Lumen and Playground XYZ offer attention scoring that lets you optimise campaigns by real impact, not by served impressions.

# How CRONUTS.DIGITAL works display advertising

At CRONUTS.DIGITAL we don’t launch display campaigns by default. We first analyse whether your business needs display, search, social or a combination. Display advertising comes in when we detect an opportunity in awareness, remarketing or the full funnel.

Our method for display:

• Account and opportunity audit: we analyse your current investment, creatives, targeting and placements. We identify budget leaks.
• Strategy by objective: we define whether display will work awareness, remarketing or both. Clear KPIs from day 1.
• Creative production: we design creatives in all the necessary formats (static, HTML5, responsive, video). Minimum 5 variations for testing.
• Advanced targeting: we combine first-party audiences, Google audiences and contextual targeting. Exclusions from the first week.
• Continuous optimisation: weekly reports with display metrics (not just clicks). Bid, creative and audience adjustments based on real data.
• Multi-touch attribution: we connect display with the rest of the channels (social media, SEM, SEO) to measure the real impact on the sales pipeline.

Display is not an isolated channel. It is a piece of the system that generates growth. And like any piece, it only works when it is well integrated with the rest.

# Artificial intelligence and the future of display advertising

Artificial intelligence is not a future trend in display advertising: it is the present. Every RTB auction, every targeting decision, every bid optimisation is already executed with machine-learning models. The relevant question for 2026 is not whether AI affects display, but how much control you are willing to cede and how much you need to supervise.

Google Performance Max and Meta Advantage+ are the most visible manifestation. Campaigns that combine display, search, video and shopping in a single AI-controlled system. You define objectives and budget. The AI decides audience, format, bid, placement and creative. The result for many advertisers is a ROAS higher than they achieved with manual campaigns. But the black box has a cost: you lose visibility over where you appear, whom you impact and why the AI makes each decision.

Generative creatives are transforming display production. AI tools generate banner variations, adapt copy by audience and create versions optimised for each format in seconds. A team that previously needed to design 50 creatives manually now produces 200 variations in a fraction of the time. But the risk is homogenisation: if everyone uses the same tools with the same data, ads look more and more alike.

AI is also changing measurement. Attribution models based on data-driven attribution, Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM) and conversion lift studies allow you to understand the real incrementality of display without relying on cookies. The key question is no longer how many conversions display generated, but how many conversions would not have happened without it.

In parallel, Generative Engine Optimization platforms and AI search engines (Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, Google AI Overviews) are creating a new ecosystem where organic visibility is redefined. Display is evolving towards a model where brands that combine presence in organic results with programmatic visual impact will have a cumulative advantage over those operating in silos. The future of display is not only bidding for impressions: it is building presence at every point where the AI decides what the user sees.