Building Brand Awareness With Display Advertising for New Products
Advertising Interviews
Building Brand Awareness With Display Advertising for New Products
Display advertising remains a powerful tool for building brand awareness, especially for new products. This article explores effective strategies to leverage display ads, from story-driven creatives to targeted campaigns. Drawing on insights from industry experts, it reveals how strategic approaches can boost engagement and prime demand for various offerings, including SaaS products and whiteboard animation services.
- Story-Driven Creatives Boost Brand Awareness
- Tiered Display Campaign Primes SaaS Demand
- Strategic Banner Ads Increase Product Engagement
- Targeted Ads Elevate Whiteboard Animation Service
Story-Driven Creatives Boost Brand Awareness
We launched a brand-new product line for a wellness brand—think natural alternative to alcohol—and used display ads to plant the seed before hitting them with direct-response campaigns later. The goal was pure awareness, not conversions (yet), so we focused on story-driven creatives with punchy visuals and bold hooks like "What if your nightcap made you sharper tomorrow?"
We ran the ads across Google Display and niche wellness sites using contextual targeting, then layered in affinity audiences. But here's the key: we didn't just measure impressions and CTR. We tracked brand lift using a post-view survey tool, monitored branded search spikes with Google Trends, and checked lift in direct traffic and engagement time on landing pages.
After 4 weeks, branded searches were up 68%, and 3 out of 5 survey respondents recalled the ad and the brand name. That's how we knew it worked—we weren't chasing vanity metrics, we were tracking mindshare.
Tiered Display Campaign Primes SaaS Demand
When launching a new AI marketing service, we ran a tiered display campaign targeting mid-market SaaS companies on Google Display Network (GDN) and LinkedIn Audience Network. We sequenced the ads: first general awareness, then case study highlights, and finally demo invitations. We measured success with branded search lift (+38%), view-through conversions, and new direct demo requests attributed via multi-touch attribution. Effective display isn't about impressions—it's about priming demand strategically over time.
Strategic Banner Ads Increase Product Engagement
A time I used display advertising to build brand awareness was when we launched a new premium version of our software. We created visually striking banner ads for industry-related websites and social media platforms, showcasing the product's best features with a clear call to action. The goal was to direct traffic to a landing page offering a special deal. To measure how well it worked, we kept track of impressions, click-through rates, and conversions. We also analyzed which platforms brought in the most engagement. After running the campaign for a few weeks, we saw a significant rise in visits to our product page and a strong increase in sign-ups for the premium version. The display ads really helped expand our reach, and by targeting the right platforms, we connected with the right audience. In the end, it was a successful campaign, driving both brand awareness and increased sales.
Targeted Ads Elevate Whiteboard Animation Service
As the owner of an explainer video company, I successfully used display advertising to build brand awareness when we launched our whiteboard animation service targeted at SaaS startups.
We ran a series of visually engaging banner ads across industry-specific websites and Google Display Network, focusing on pain points like user onboarding and product demos.
To measure success, we tracked impressions, click-through rates, and branded search lift through Google Analytics, along with a spike in demo requests and newsletter signups.
Over six weeks, we saw a 40% increase in website traffic and a 25% growth in leads from new audiences—clear indicators that the campaign effectively boosted awareness.
