Rich Media advertising is a form of advertising that utilises an array of interactive digital media, including streaming, video and audio. It represents a powerful creative opportunity, allowing campaigns to deliver far greater impact. This blog aims to understand the differences between more familiar ad types and to highlight the benefits of Rich Media ads.
Familiar ad formats include text ads and standard display ads, either static or animated using tools like Flash, typically having only one interaction. Rich Media ads are more complex and allow for greater creative freedom.
Rich Media is the use of interactivity or multimedia to give an enhanced experience to a web user. When it’s used in advertising, it’s done so to attract attention and/or to stand out amongst the huge volumes of ads and copy. Because of the advancement of creative technology, Rich Media advertising continues to improve rapidly; the need for these types of ads has become a demand for brand awareness.
Common types of Rich Media advertising will generally be in-page ads, out-of page ads and even in-stream ads.
- In-Page Ads – These types of in-page ads usually show up in various areas of a web page in the form of a rectangle or preset banner.
- Out-Of Page Ads – Examples include Floating Ads, Pop-Up Ads and Expandable Ads.
- In-Stream Ads – These are ads that involve either pre or post roll videos.
Rich Ads tend to be larger in file size and costs to create are generally higher, however the many advantages, which are outlined below, make for a much more cost-effective online ad campaign:
- Higher interaction rate: Interactivity delivers significant uplifts in brand awareness, message association and purchase intent, and can also allow for instant data capture. Advertisers can more effectively capture the attention of potential customers by prompting them to interact with the online ad and provide a more engaging experience.
- Rich Media ads are measurable and scalable: Typical banner ads allow advertisers to measure only impressions and click-throughs. Rich Media ads, on the other hand, can empower advertisers to track and measure a variety of important and often subtle browsing behaviours (for example, the number of users who viewed an embedded video, percentage of video viewed).
- Higher performance levels: Rich Media ads outperform standard and animated counterparts with increased conversion rates, click through rates and view through rates. Research has shown that Rich Media advertising average click-through rates for Rich Media ads were approximately five times higher than click-through rates for non-Rich Media ads. Thus consumers are more likely to take some kind of action after viewing a Rich Media ad compared to standard display ads.
- Brand awareness: Rich Media ads, including Flash and streaming ads, increase brand awareness for online advertisers better than other online ad formats.
- User experience: Rich Media ads do not force the user to leave the site, which means not having to interrupt what might be a pleasant online experience only to be taken elsewhere (a big reason why users are not clicking on ads). For site owners this is a positive since it keeps their site traffic around for a longer period of time.
With the ability to track numerous actions, managing Rich Ads falls in the realm of traditional metric based Search Marketing. Similar behaviour can be seen with Facebook advertising, which has expanded the scope of a Search Marketer’s role.
