Marketers spent $83 billion dollars on display ads last year, and the dirty little secret is that most of the money is wasted. This presentations makes the business, brand and moral case against display ads. From terrible conversion rates, negative brand value and disturbing downstream effects, display ads are one of the worst channels in marketing.

1. Death to Display Ads
@phil_herbert
@phil_herbert
#DSPDX

2. Internet
TV
Newspapers
Global Ad Spend

3. 69.9%
Of all digital advertising will be on mobile
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

4. “Overall, mobile advertising will grow more than three times
faster than total media this year, 23.5% vs. 6.6%.”
- eMarketer, 4/19/18

5. $83 billion
Total Display Ad Spending
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6. Why Do Brands Like Display?

7. Easy implementation
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8. Broad reach to new audiences
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9. Data about behaviors and clicks
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10. Deployed by AI and algorithms
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11. Why Do Agencies Like Display?

12. Historical Infrastructure
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13. Commissions
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

14. For every dollar spent on display ads

15. 15% commission to the agency + creative costs

16. 32% kept by Google

17. $.58 on every dollar actually goes to the end website

18. Bad Business

23. Actual Conversions (enlarged to show texture)

24. #DSPDX @phil_herbert
Return for every dollar spent
Display
$2.63

25. #DSPDX @phil_herbert
Return for every dollar spent
Display Paid Search
$2.63 $3.67

26. #DSPDX @phil_herbert
Return for every dollar spent
Display Paid Search Email
$2.63 $3.67 $44

27. Display is bad for business

28. Brand Damage

29. 1. People hate them

30. #DSPDX @phil_herbert

31. #DSPDX @phil_herbert

32. The most intrusive ad types are the least liked
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33. 60%
Of all mobile ad clicks are mistakes
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34. #DSPDX @phil_herbert
68%
Annoyed
22%
Angry
42%
Frustrated

35. 2. People are worried about data

36. 71%
Worried about how brands use their personal data
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

37. 41%
Would be annoyed at an ad that seemed to be based on their
search history or personal data
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

38. 3. People think it’s creepy

39. 75%
Of all consumers consider many forms of marketing creepy
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

40. AND THEY WILL ALL
SAY THE SAME THING
Ask your non-marketing friends about a
creepy ad experience

41. RETARGETINGRETARGETING

42. 22%
Of customers will choose other brands after a
creepy ad experience
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

43. 55%
Of customers will put off purchasing if shown too many
retargeting ads
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

44. 11x
Ads on unrelated sites cause customers to be 11x less
likely to purchase
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

45. Display is bad for your brand
bad for business

46. Bad for the Internet

47. Because of #GDPR, USA Today decided to run
a separate version of their website for EU users,
which has all the tracking scripts and ads
removed. The site seemed very fast, so I did a
performance audit. How fast the internet could
be without all the junk!
5.2MB → 500KB
Marcel Freinbichler @fr3ino

50. 56%
Of internet users have enabled some type of ad blocking
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

51. 67%
Of all 18-24 year olds use ad blocking software
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

52. “Online advertising is looking more and more like a contest
that publishers can’t win—not on a large scale, at least.” -
Slate, 11/21/17

53. Death spiral of click chasing

54. Highlight controversy
More clicks and more $
More ad units per page
Degraded web experience
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

55. Alienate their core audience
Optimize sites for non-human traffic
END RESULT
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

56. Click Fraud

57. 1 in 5
Ad-serving websites are visited exclusively by fraud bots
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

58. 1 in 3
Dollars spent on digital ads goes to fraud
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

59. Of impressions on Internet Explorer were to non-human traffic
50%
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

60. DAILY (!) revenue generated by a single fraud operation
$3-5 million
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

61. Smartphone click fraud increased January – April 2017
102%
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

62. $7.2 billion
Lost to Click Fraud in 2016
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

63. Where are your ads showing
up?

64. “Advertisements for hundreds of large companies,
universities and charities, including Mercedes-Benz, Waitrose
and Marie Curie, appear on hate sites and YouTube videos
created by supporters of terrorist groups such as Islamic
State and Combat 18, a violent pro-Nazi faction.” - The Times
2/9/17

65. Display is bad for the world
bad for business
bad for your brand

66. RETARGETINGIt’s time for display ads to die.

67. How to leave display

68. 1. Convince stakeholders

69. Convince Stakeholders
What kind of business are you? ROAS? Top line?
Bottom line? Activist?
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

70. Convince Stakeholders
Find your real conversions and real return. Ignore
vanity metrics and use the data given.
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

71. Convince Stakeholders
Avoid listening to experts with vested interests.
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

72. 2. Move the money

73. Move the Money
Display money can many times be shifted to paid
search inside existing contracts.
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

74. Move the Money
Retention > Conversion > Acquisition
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

75. Move the Money
Make something of value
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

76. Move the Money
Mitigate the brand downsides as much as
possible during transition periods.
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

77. 3. Profit

78. Profit
Seriously. You will make more money this way.
#DSPDX @phil_herbert

79. Thank You
@phil_herbert
@phil_herbert
#DSPDX