What is Display Advertising?
Display advertising is the use of visual ads, such as image banners, animated units and rich media, placed in defined ad spaces on websites and apps, and bought directly or through programmatic channels.
Also known as: banner advertising, display ads
How it works
Display advertising is the familiar visual ad you see in a box on a web page or app screen. A publisher defines ad spaces (often called ad units or slots) in its layout. When a page loads, each slot requests an ad, and that request can be filled by a direct campaign, a curated deal, or a programmatic auction where buyers bid in real time.
The creative itself can take several forms:
- Static banners, a single image with a click-through link.
- Animated banners, with simple motion to draw attention.
- Rich media, which adds interaction such as expanding panels, embedded video, carousels or mini games.
- High-impact units, larger or more prominent placements such as page takeovers or sticky units.
Display can be bought on many bases, but the most common is CPM (cost per thousand impressions). Buyers usually target by audience, context, geography, device or specific sites and apps.
Why it matters
Display is one of the oldest and most widely used digital ad formats, which makes it a staple of both brand awareness and performance campaigns. For publishers, it is often the core of the ad stack: flexible, well understood by buyers and easy to sell through programmatic channels.
Its value is not fixed, though. A display unit high on the page, in front of an engaged audience and measured as viewable, is worth far more to buyers than one buried at the bottom of a slow page. Placement, viewability, page speed and traffic quality all shape what display inventory earns. That is why many publishers pair standard display with formats such as native advertising and video.
Example
Illustrative example. A personal finance blog runs a 728x90 leaderboard at the top of each page, a 300x250 unit within articles and a 320x50 sticky banner on mobile. After reviewing performance, it replaces a rarely viewed footer unit with a rich media placement inside long guides, where readers spend the most time. Buyers can access the in-article units through both the open auction and a curated finance package.
IncrementX perspective
Display sits within IncrementX's Web channel alongside native, rich media, video, responsive and high-impact formats. Through the Demand Marketplace, represented display inventory can be connected with brands, agencies, DSPs, trading desks and programmatic buyers, through deal types such as PMP, PG, audience, contextual and curated packages. Header bidding support, including wrapper setup and demand partner integration, is one of the ways IncrementX helps web publishers bring more competition to their display inventory.