“Huge thanks to RR webdesign for such great work on my website. Took the time to try out ideas and worked alongside me to produce my new site. Fab service from a lovely team x”
Build Brand Awareness
at Scale
Display advertising puts your brand in front of the right people across millions of websites, apps, and video platforms. We plan, design, and manage display campaigns that drive awareness, consideration, and conversions for Leicester businesses.
What Is Display Advertising?
Display advertising is a form of paid media that uses visual ad formats — banners, images, video, and interactive units — to reach people as they browse websites, use apps, and watch videos. Unlike search advertising, which targets people actively looking for something, display advertising reaches your audience during the rest of their online activity.
The Google Display Network alone reaches over 90 percent of internet users worldwide, spanning more than two million websites and apps. That scale makes display advertising one of the most effective channels for building brand awareness and staying visible throughout the buyer journey.
When managed well, display advertising does more than just show your logo. It warms cold audiences, retargets people who have visited your site, and supports your search and social campaigns by keeping your brand front of mind. As a display advertising agency in Leicester, we build campaigns that balance broad reach with precise targeting.
Why Leicester Businesses Use Display Advertising
Massive Reach at Low Cost
Display CPMs are typically a fraction of what you would pay for search clicks. This means you can put your brand in front of thousands of potential customers in Leicester and beyond without exhausting your budget on a handful of expensive keyword clicks.
Visual Brand Building
Search ads are text-only. Display lets you use your brand colours, imagery, and video to create memorable impressions. Consistent visual exposure builds recognition and trust long before someone is ready to buy.
Retargeting Power
Most visitors leave your website without converting. Display retargeting brings them back by showing relevant ads as they continue browsing other sites. This keeps your brand visible and nudges people toward a decision.
Full-Funnel Support
Display advertising supports every stage of the buyer journey. Use it to introduce your brand at the top of the funnel, nurture consideration in the middle, and retarget at the bottom. It complements search, social, and email marketing.
Display Ad Formats We Work With
The right ad format depends on your goals, audience, and creative assets. We produce and manage campaigns across all major display formats.
Responsive Display Ads
Google automatically adjusts the size, appearance, and format of your ads to fit available placements. You provide headlines, descriptions, images, and logos. The system does the rest, maximising reach across millions of sites.
Image Ads
Static or animated banners in standard IAB sizes. We design visuals that stop the scroll and communicate your message instantly. Every ad is built to meet Google Ads specifications and best-practice creative guidelines.
Video Ads
Short-form video ads placed across YouTube and the Google Display Network. Video drives higher engagement and recall than static formats, making it ideal for building brand awareness with new audiences.
Native Ads
Ads that match the look and feel of the content around them. Native display ads appear as recommended articles or in-feed content, reducing ad fatigue and earning higher click-through rates than traditional banners.
Rich Media Ads
Interactive ad units that expand, float, or respond to user actions. Rich media is best used for product showcases, car configurators, or interactive lookbooks where engagement matters more than sheer volume.
Targeting Options for Display Campaigns
Display advertising gives you granular control over who sees your ads. We layer multiple targeting methods to reach the right people without wasting your budget.
Contextual Targeting
Your ads appear alongside content that is relevant to your products or services. If you sell running shoes, your ads show on running blogs and fitness sites. This keeps your message in the right context without relying on personal data.
Audience Targeting
Reach people based on their interests, purchase intent, and online behaviour. Google segments audiences into in-market, affinity, and custom intent categories so you can target people who are actively researching what you sell.
Placement Targeting
Hand-pick the exact websites, apps, or YouTube channels where your ads appear. This gives you full control over brand safety and ensures your ads show in environments that match your brand standards.
Topic Targeting
Target entire categories of web content, such as technology, travel, or home and garden. Topic targeting is broader than contextual targeting and works well for awareness campaigns where you want wide reach within a defined subject area.
Demographic Targeting
Filter your audience by age, gender, household income, and parental status. Layering demographics on top of other targeting methods helps you avoid wasting budget on audiences unlikely to convert.
Display Advertising vs Search Advertising
Both channels serve different purposes. Understanding when to use each one — and when to use both together — is essential for getting the most from your ad spend.
| Factor | Display Advertising | Search Advertising |
|---|---|---|
| Intent | Reaches people before they search. Builds awareness with audiences who may not know you exist yet. | Captures people actively searching for your products or services. High purchase intent. |
| Format | Visual formats: images, banners, video, rich media. More creative flexibility to tell your brand story. | Text-based ads in search results. Limited to headlines and descriptions. |
| Cost | Lower cost per click and cost per thousand impressions. Budget goes further for reach. | Higher cost per click due to competition on commercial keywords. Better cost per conversion for high-intent terms. |
| Best For | Brand awareness, product launches, retargeting, and reaching new audiences at the top of the funnel. | Capturing demand, driving direct conversions, and reaching people ready to buy. |
| Measurement | View-through conversions, reach, frequency, and assisted conversions across the buyer journey. | Direct click-through conversions. Easier to attribute sales directly to ad spend. |
| Audience | Proactively reaches people who match your target profile, even if they have never heard of you. | Reactive. Only reaches people who type relevant queries into a search engine. |
The most effective paid media strategies use both channels together. Display builds awareness and retargets visitors, while search captures demand when they are ready to act.
Our Display Advertising Process
We follow a structured process to ensure every campaign is set up for success and continuously improved based on real performance data.
Discovery & Strategy
We learn your business goals, audience, and competitive landscape. We audit any existing display campaigns and identify the targeting, creative, and bidding approach that will deliver the best results.
Creative Production
Our design team produces ad creatives in all required formats and sizes. Every asset is built to meet platform specifications, with clear messaging, strong calls to action, and on-brand visuals.
Campaign Build & Launch
We structure campaigns with precise targeting, frequency caps, and bid strategies. Conversion tracking is tested and verified before any budget is spent to ensure accurate measurement from day one.
Optimise & Report
We monitor performance daily, adjusting placements, audiences, creatives, and bids based on real data. Monthly reports show exactly where your budget went, what it delivered, and what we are doing next.
Why Work With a Display Advertising Agency?
Running display campaigns in-house often leads to wasted spend on irrelevant placements, poor creative performance, and limited insight into what is actually working. An experienced agency brings three things most in-house teams lack.
Strategic Expertise
We know which targeting combinations, bid strategies, and creative approaches deliver results for different industries and budgets.
Creative Production
Our designers produce high-quality ad creatives in all required formats and sizes, with regular refreshes to prevent ad fatigue.
Data-Driven Optimisation
We monitor campaigns daily and make adjustments based on real performance data, not guesswork. Every pound of ad spend is accounted for.
Display Advertising FAQs
What is display advertising and how does it work?
Display advertising places visual ads (banners, images, video, or interactive units) across websites, apps, and video platforms. Ads are served through networks like the Google Display Network, which reaches over 90 percent of internet users globally. You pay per impression or per click, depending on your campaign objectives and bidding strategy.
How do you overcome banner blindness?
Banner blindness happens when users subconsciously ignore ad placements. We combat this through compelling creative that breaks visual patterns, native ad formats that blend with surrounding content, frequency capping to avoid overexposure, and ongoing creative refreshes so your audience does not see the same ad repeatedly.
When should I use display advertising instead of search ads?
Search ads capture existing demand from people actively searching for what you offer. Display advertising builds demand by reaching people before they start searching. Use display when you want to build brand awareness, reach new audiences, promote a product launch, or retarget visitors who have already been to your site. Most effective strategies use both channels together.
How much should I budget for display advertising?
Display advertising budgets vary depending on your goals and audience size. For Leicester-based businesses, we typically recommend starting from 500 to 1,000 pounds per month in ad spend, plus management fees. Display CPCs and CPMs are generally lower than search, so your budget goes further in terms of reach. We scale spend based on performance data.
Related Services
Display advertising works best alongside other paid and organic channels. Explore our related services to build a complete digital strategy.
Related Services
Want sustainable organic traffic alongside your paid campaigns?
Expert search engine optimisation services helping Leicester businesses rank higher and attract more organic traffic.
Technologies We Work With
Our Leicester web design team uses cutting-edge tools and platforms to deliver exceptional results
Professional web design Leicester services using industry-leading technologies
Get In Touch
Have a project in mind or just want to discuss how we can help your business? Feel free to reach out to us using the contact form or via phone or email.