Display Advertising Overview Research Paper

Introduction

Display advertising refers to a model of promoting products through platforms that are commonly used by potential customers. It includes the use of mass media like television, social media sites, and web pages to display content to market products (Harvard Business Review, 2017). Native advertising is a subset of display marketing that uses the customized content format to display products in a way that is different from the common use of banners (D’Angelo, 2009). This type of advertising has commonly been used by social media companies like Facebook whereby marketing content is displayed just as the rest of the content shared on the social site (Econsultancy, 2013). Google also uses advanced search engine optimization to direct web users to products that they are searching for.

Ethical Concerns of Native Advertising

Native adverts can be designed to mimic particular brands to promote a completely different product. This practice can be deceiving and confusing to the targeted audience and some of those viewing these ads can be tempted to follow the ads trusting the brand being imitated (Joel, 2013). Lack of transparency in marketing is an evil that seeks to trick unscrupulous social media subscribers into buying products they would otherwise have disregarded. Native marketing coupled with target displaying of ads can yield a positive impact for the investing brands (Marketo, 2017). This type of marketing was developed as a reaction to many clients who complained about the effectiveness of the ads they paid for (Advertising Age, 2016). An effective regulatory framework is required to ensure that there is transparency in the display of adverts. The information provided on these sites should be verifiable and displayed in a way that enhances viewers to distinguish adverts from the rest of the content.

References

Advertising Age. (2016). “Digital share of new ad dollars to reach 77% next year, groupM forecasts”. Web.

D’Angelo, F. (2009). ‘Happy birthday, digital advertising!’Web.

Econsultancy. (2013).“What is paid search (PPC) and why do you need it?” Web.

Harvard Business Review, (2017). ‘Do search ads really work?’Web.

Joel, M. (2013). ‘We need a better definition of native advertising.’ Harvard Business Review. Web.

Marketo, (2017). ‘Types of digital ads: PPC search, display, and social’. Web.