16 Best Display Ads of 2023 + What Makes Them Stand Out

What Are Display Ads?

Display ads are visual advertisements that appear on websites, social media platforms, and mobile apps. They typically include images, videos, and text.

Such ads appear alongside online content you’ve already engaged with. Here’s what a display ad in a blog post looks like:

Display ads are often part of pay-per-click (PPC) digital advertising campaigns. Where advertisers pay a fee every time someone clicks their ads.

A PPC campaign can include display ads on websites, social media platforms, or mobile apps as well as search ads.

The best display ads help generate clicks, conversions, and brand awareness when they encourage the target audience to act. Desired actions may include clicking an ad and visiting a landing page, completing a form, or making a purchase.

Types of Display Ads

You can break down types of display ads according to their format or their mode of targeting.

Ad targeting modes include:

• Regional or geographic: These target a particular location
• Demographic: Ads based on someone’s interests or preferences
• Contextual: Often specific to a particular website, so they need to be hyper-relevant to the target audience
• Retargeting: These focus on enticing previous website visitors back

When it comes to choosing your ad format, you’ll also need to consider different ad sizes and shapes that best fit each format.

For example, static ads can be small and narrow. But video ads must be rectangular or square and large enough for comfortable...