How Are Rich Media Ads Different From Other Ad Formats?
In the 21st century, many people, including me, have been diagnosed with banner blindness. Consumers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and most are doing their online research. E-commerce foundation’s report indicates that 88% of buyers pre-research before making the purchase.
Since attracting a target audience is crucial for any marketing strategy, marketing professionals must look out for innovative ways that lure buyers into trying their products and services.
Recent trends indicate that companies are now shifting towards using rich media ads in their advertisements. The reason being rich media ads are robust and outperform other ad formats. Studies show that rich media ads perform 267% higher than standard banner ads.
Rich media ads are different from standard ad formats because they are interactive and include multimedia features such as video, audio, and animation. But other ad formats are static and only have text and images.
Below, I’ll discuss rich media ads. Please read on to know more.
What Are Rich Media Ads?
A rich media ad is a form of advertising that uses multimedia features such as audio, video, animations, and other traditional elements like images and text to encourage interaction and involvement of the audience in the ad.
The dynamic style of rich media ads catches the eye and gives the audience the interaction they crave. For example, adapt to the visitor’s device, like widen if one clicks on it, or change the position on the page.
In other words, rich media ads turn one-way communication into a walkie-talkie and allow the audience to participate.
Distinctive Features of Rich Media Ads
- Focus on audio and other dynamic visual features, unlike standard ad formats, that focus on static images and texts.
- They are interactive and often require user actions for the video or audio to play, hence better user experience.
- Include gaming elements, thus, a great format to use instead of in-app video ads.
- Have a big file size, usually more than 200 KB.
- Compatible with Javascript, Java, and HTML5, and can be used on any app and website
- Don’t necessarily send the lead through to another site’s landing page, but the click can cause an ad expansion or sound.
- It can be measured with various ranges of metrics and collect more valuable data.
Types Of Rich Media Ad Formats
Rich media ads have creativity, in addition to bringing in cash. The following are common rich media ad formats, take a look, and maybe one or two roll your eyeballs.
1. Banner Ads
Banner ads are the most widely used, usually placed at the top front on a web page or mobile, and are most likely to be seen by users. With this, advertisers have an option to convert a static picture banner to an eye-catching motion poster.
2. Interstitial Ads
This is a multifaceted ad format. And owing to their full-screen attribute, they are hard to miss hence a possible treatment for banner blindness diagnosis. They support HTML5 and video.
3. Expandable Ads
Expandable ads expand automatically in size when users hover, click, or tap and retract once the ad has played out.
4. Pushdown Ads
These are similar to expandable rich media ads. They don’t expand in size but rather push down the content on the page the user is viewing. It is the good part about this format since they don’t hide the content like other overlay ad formats.
5. Slider Ads
Slider ads are displayed at the bottom of the user screen and stick to the page as the user scrolls.SWFs, IMG or 3rd party codes usually host them.
Why Are Rich Media Ads Important?
- Enhance Interaction Rate
Interactive ads perform the best when it comes to increasing brand awareness. And by providing a more engaging experience, marketers can now capture users’ attention.
- Large Space
Banner ads have limited space to display messages. Static ads are allowed one frame, small and even smaller, when viewed using a mobile device. Rich media, on the other hand, let marketers advertise on a large scale.
- Raise Brand Awareness
Advertisers always work hard to overcome banner blindness by creating rich and fun-filled banner ads to engage with the audience.
Since rich media ads are relatively new, users notice it when it appears on the screen. This can significantly influence them to make a purchase.
- Greater Customer Engagement
Rich media ads have all the features incorporated to elicit customer engagement.
- Better User Analytics
Rich media ads offer advertisers a wide range of analytics to track and analyze to gain insights about the customers.
- Great In Performance
In terms of conversion rates, rich media performs at a higher level compared to standard ads. They are so excited that the users are more likely to take positive action after viewing it.
- Improved Tracking
With rich media ads, advertisers can now view advanced user statistics. For example, you can know how many users watched your ad until what duration.
- Improved User Experience
Rich media ads don’t force the users to leave the site but willingly interact with the content by providing a good experience.
This is a good thing since the time the user spends on the site will be longer, which can help the site rank higher on the search engine.
How To Create Rich Media Ads?
You might be wondering how to create a rich media ad; well, below, I discuss how one can get started with rich media ads.
- Decide On The Strategy
It’s important to strategize. You know what you want to advertise; now decide how you want to reach the buyers and the best way to engage the audience.
You determine the type of assets you want. For instance, if it is a video, what will the video include?
Additionally, think about how you can make the ad interactive. It’s essential to plan out these elements before you create the ad.
- Plan The Creative Assets
Once you finish with strategizing, it’s now time to list all the creative assets you’ll need to implement the plan.
Then, you either film or look through the stock footage if you decide not to use your imagery. This will involve hiring actors, taking photos, filming videos, and writing texts.
- Use Online Tools
There is no need to worry if you don’t have a graphic designer on your team; you can use available online tools to help you create a rich media ad.
For example, you can create sophisticated media ads for free using Google’s Rich Media Gallery. You can use ready templates or customize them using your creative assets.
However, you have a graphic designer, make sure you involve him from the beginning of the project to become aware of what you want and advise you on what is possible and what is not doable.
- Track And Measure Success
Now your ad is created, it’s time to get it running. You can use these ads on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can also include them on search engines like Google.
Examples Of Rich Media Ads
- Lincoln Aviator
When Lincoln created an ad for the new Aviator car, they wanted to make it interactive. When you click on this ad, it brings you to a separate slide. The image is an interactive guide to the features of the car. One can click on different areas of the car to know more.
- Netflix’s Narcos
The ad is presented almost like a movie trailer; it includes a unique video from the actors. When you hover over the image, you’ll see moving pictures that rotate. And when you click on the ad, you can watch the actual trailer for the Netflix show.
- Jessica London
This ad takes advantage of moving images. It is a great way to make a static ad more interactive and engaging.
Standard Ad Formats
Unlike rich media ads, standard ad format uses only text, image, and flash animation. It offers less interaction with customers compared to rich media ads.
Difference Between Rich Media Ads And Other Ad Formats
Here is a tabular form of the differences between rich media ads and other ad formats.
| Feature | Rich media ads | Other ad formats |
| Format | Multiple file formats i.e.html, .gif, .mp4, .mov | Single file format (normally .html, .gif, or .jpeg) |
| File size | More than 200KB | 200KB or less |
| Interactivity | May have user interactions such as sounds and expansions | Static ads and are not interactive |
| Use of video | May use video | No video |
| Compatibility | Compatible with javascript and java | Not compatible with javascript and java |
| Tracking | May track multiple click-through links | Only have one click-through links |
| Special features | Polls, mini-games | None |
Conclusion
Rich media ads are the future of advertising. Don’t be surprised if static ads become obsolete in the coming years. Publishers who are aiming to achieve profound brand awareness are shifting towards rich media ads.
Users love rich media ads since they are interactive and provide a pleasant user experience. Moreover, advertisers get better Return on investment (ROI).