Why should marketers care about rich media ads?

What are rich media ads anyway?

The world of digital advertising can be complicated and full of jargon. This article tackles the subject of rich media, to give you a clearer understanding of what it is and how you can take advantage of it. According to Google, rich media ads can be defined as:

"an ad that includes advanced features like video, audio, or other elements that encourage viewers to interact and engage with the content."

Sounds great, but why should marketers care about them? Read on to find out some of the key reasons why rich media ads are important and why marketers should care about them.

Rich media ads perform better

Arguably, the most important reason marketers should care about rich media ads is that using them leads to better-performing display advertising campaigns. The overall impact of a rich media campaigns compared to other types of display ads (including Flash and static banners) is that they perform better overall, particularly when it comes to the click-through rate. Therefore, marketers using display advertising can improve their ROI and campaign performance by choosing rich media formats.

The chance to engage with your audience beyond the click

Banner ads have always been measured primarily by their click-through rate. This model has never been ideal for digital advertising because it does not take into account the overall impact of the advertisement.

Although marketers and designers today have more opportunities to improve and optimise their banner ads with better formats, programmatic advertising and more flexible creatives, rich media banner formats offer more ways for brands to engage their users. The overall impact of this on marketers is that they can start to look at different ways to measure their campaigns, such as interactions with the banner ad, and determine what success means to them. 

Build better mobile ads

Banner ads have had a complicated relationship with mobile. HTML5 banner ads have helped improve mobile advertising. However, rich media provides fresh and interactive ways for marketers to reach mobile users. Many rich media formats such as rotating cubes or carousels are built with the mobile audience in mind and provide a better experience for the user.  The overall impact for marketers is that they can start to reach out to their mobile audiences with rich media banner ads.

Viewability is higher for rich media ads

Viewability has been and continues to be a hot topic in the world of online advertising. The good news for marketers is that reports show rich media ads have a better viewability rate than static formats and even some animated formats. The impact of this on marketers is that the types of ad they choose could positively or negatively, affect their campaign impact - why would you choose something that viewers are less likely to see?

Beat banner blindness

Banner blindness is no new phenomenon, and marketers still struggle to make sure that their campaigns get noticed. One of the primary reasons why the very first banner ad that appeared on the internet performed so well is that it was something that was new to viewers, so they became intrigued and clicked the banner ad. Rich media banner ads can have the same impact on viewers because the formats are new to viewers and, therefore, more noticeable. 49% of marketers agree that rich media content is crucial in gaining their audiences' attention. 

Takeaway: use rich media, but make it easy

There are a lot of reasons why marketers should care about rich media ads, with the overall impact of using them being that marketers and advertising can potentially see campaigns an improvement in their campaigns' performance. Understandably, marketers may be concerned that implementing technically advanced formats will drain resources or require them to hire more designers. Build rich media banner ads don't have to be complicated. BannerFlow offers a range of rich media format banners that can be produced quickly and easily by anyone, without any code.