A fresh look at rich media display campaigns

In the early days of the internet, rich media banners developed something of a bad reputation. Poorly designed Flash banners took ages to load, hampered performance, and hid content users were trying to view. But in 2023 those days are long behind us. Flash animation isn’t even around anymore - it was discontinued in 2020 - and rich media banners are no longer slow or intrusive.

When utilised well, rich media ads provide an original and interactive experience for users, communicate brand messaging far more effectively than standard display banners, and help advertisers avoid the effects of banner blindness. The old preconceptions about rich media ads are outdated, and hesitating to take advantage of them could be holding back the effectiveness of many advertisers’ digital display campaigns.

What are rich media ads?

‘Rich media’ just means the ad’s creative includes modern features like video, audio, or interactive elements that catch users’ attention and encourage them to engage.

The biggest benefit of the format is interactivity. The ads can expand when hovered over, allow users to adjust the ad’s volume, or include several landing pages for different CTAs. The ads could even behave like a mini game to encourage users to engage - the creative possibilities are only really limited by the advertiser's imagination.

Because of these unique attributes, interested users tend to pay attention to rich media ads. Our most recent Kaizen rich media campaign at equimedia is achieving a blended video completion rate of 0.32% with CPMs similar to standard display. So it’s clear modern rich media provides a great opportunity not only to reach more people, but to communicate brand messaging with far more depth and complexity than is possible with standard display banners. 

Why run rich media ads?

Creativity is at the heart of rich media advertising. Rich media ads provide a real opportunity to stand out in a crowded marketplace with unique, interactive experiences. Where audiences might ignore normal banner ads, rich media ads grab attention with creative that really pops, resulting in superior brand recall and significantly better click-through rates.

For example, a reasonable benchmark CTR for a rich media video banner is around 0.25% - or put another way, 1 click for every 400 impressions. This far exceeds the typical CTR benchmark for standard programmatic display banners, which at the time of writing stands at around 0.1% or approximately 1 click per 1000 impressions.

At equimedia, we have seen even better results with well-optimised rich media creative and targeting, with the CTR of one of our current Kaizen rich media campaigns averaging an impressive 0.61%.

Rich media ads also work brilliantly on mobile devices, as they are perfect for in-stream and interstitial placements. With many users spending multiple hours per day on their mobile devices, this ensures that rich media ads are seen and the brand message is delivered to users in the right place at the right time. 

When should advertisers use rich media ads?

All the time! 

Rich media banners are super effective at conveying brand messaging to audiences, and because of that they deliver better results than standard display ads. Internet users are constantly bombarded with standard display ads, and many have learned to simply tune them out. This means it’s more important than ever to stand out from the crowd by adopting the latest technologies. Rich media banners allow advertisers to deliver original and engaging brand messages to users in the right place at the right time.

Ready to plan your rich media campaign? 

Why risk your media budget on outdated creative formats like GIF or HTML5  when your display campaigns would be more efficient and effective running rich media ads?

At equimedia, we can help with the entire process from creating the rich media ads to delivery through our programmatic solution, Kaizen.  If you’re interested in running a display campaign using rich media, get in touch now to find out how equimedia can help!