Display advertising is a form of advertising that uses creative images, videos and other kinds of graphic designs to deliver a certain message. In 2019, roughly $333.25 billion was spent on digital advertising as a whole - and a whopping 31% of it was spent on display advertising (also known as banner ads).
But all the ad spending in the world couldn’t eliminate the fact that it seems to get harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. That’s why more and more brands are turning to one type of display ads in specific: animated HTML5 ads. With their sophisticated look, interactive elements and relevant content, they have the ability to tell a visual story and to compel your audience into making the conversion you want them to.
While HTML5 sounds like coding, and you might not have these skills in house, animated HTML5 ads are easy to create, nowadays. But we will get to that later. First, let us explain what these type of ads are and why there are 4 key benefits of using animated HTML5 ads in your display campaigns.
HTML5 is the fifth and current version of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). It’s the coding language that developers use to create multimedia content, such as online ads and webpages. Like its predecessors, HTML5 is an open web standard, meaning it’s supported by every type of web browser on every operating system. In contrast to other software solutions such as Adobe Flash, you don’t need any external plugins to see HTML5 in motion. Animated HTML5 ads are, therefore, ads based on HTML code. They are basically like mini web pages and contain multiple file types. This enables you to use animations and interactive elements, such as expanding CTA’s and video backgrounds.
Why should you use animated HTML5 ads?
Now you know the basics of animated HTML5 ads, we will take a quick tour through the 4 key benefits of using them in your display campaigns.
Let’s take a look.
1. Animated HTML5 ads enable you to tell a story
We all know that branding is vital is this age of digital marketing. Animated display ads give you the ability to engage with your audience through animation, video, and audio.
While animated ads aren’t necessarily better than statics ads, it’s highly likely that your story gets across successfully when you use more than just one image.
Animated ads can be used throughout the marketing funnel, but they definitely outshine their static competitors when it comes to increasing brand awareness.
An animated HTML5 ad lets you tell a story
2. Animated HTML5 ads are suitable for all devices and browsers
One of the biggest benefits of using animated HTML5 ads, is that they are compatible for pretty much every operating system or browser. No matter the device: the ad will be presented and animate the same.
Animated HTML5 display ads can be distributed across the entire Google Display Network (including mobile), while, for instance, animated GIF ads have a much more limited display capability within the network. This isn’t that surprising, when you consider the fact that GIF is actually quite outdated. The technique appeared in 1983, and hasn’t developed much over the years.
Animated HTML5 ads are suitable for all devices and browsers
Animated HTML5 ads let you optimize performance
Data is king in modern marketing and optimization is the key to success. While static ads have always been measured primarily by their click-through rate, HTML5 ads enable data capture, meaning you can measure much more than just clicks. After all, solely looking at CTR has never been ideal, because it does not take the overall impact of an ad into account.
Since animated HTML5 ads have many engaging elements, marketers have a lot more elements to test, tweak and optimize. Metrics to consider vary from interaction rates, engagement rates and video plays to completions, mouse-overs and many more.
Marketers that use HTML5 ads, are able look at different metrics to analyze the performance of their campaigns, such as interaction and video completion rate. If you want to see all possible metrics, check out Google’s extensive list with all possible metrics and the information they hold.
Animated HTML5 ads let you optimize performance
You can use data feeds to create dynamic ads
Dynamic creatives are ads that can automatically change, in order to adapt to their audience. While animated GIF ads or statics ads show the same content day-in-day-out, animated HTML5 ads offer you the possibility to make use of data to match the unique needs and preferences of your audience.
Think behavioral data, product affinities, browsing history and geo-location to dynamically display personalized ads and customized promotions. These elements increase the relevancy of your display ads and enable you to make the most of your display advertising.
You can use a data feed to create dynamic HTML5 ads.
Other advantages
Aside from these four key benefits of animated HTML5 ads, there are also a few other advantages worth mentioning here. For instance, HTML5 results in better image quality and they are highly suitable for mobile (retina) screens. Especially GIF ads, that are still 8-bit files, can look very dull. Aside from that, animated HTML5 ads consist of several individual files, stored in one page-like container. This happens in such a way that loading performances are optimized, and display time is significantly reduced.
Do you need coding skills for HTML5 ads?
We promised you we’d get back to this. Do you need coding skills or a developer on your team, to create HTML5 ads? It’s a reasonable question since HTML5 is, indeed, a coding language. But nowadays, innovative advertising technology enables you to take matters into your own hands.
A Creative Management Platform (CMP) is one way to do so. When you use this cloud-based solution, coding happens in the backend. The frontend consists of a drag-and-drop ad builder, that empowers you or your designer to build professional-looking ads in just a few clicks. You can easily add eye-catching animations, stunning video elements or exciting audio effects. This makes the need for coding skills or a developer redundant.
Now you have all indisputable facts on why HTML5 is the best method for creating animated display ads. Are you ready to learn how using a CMP can help you in building HTML5 ads, code-free? Download our eGuide here.
