An online advertisement has only a brief opportunity to get noticed. A banner competes with the page around it. A video asks for a viewer’s time. A native ad sits alongside content, while a popunder opens a separate browser tab or window. Each format approaches the same challenge differently: how to reach an audience without losing its attention.
That challenge has shaped the evolution of display advertising. What began with relatively simple banner placements has expanded into a mix of formats, targeting methods and measurement tools. For advertisers, the decision is no longer just where to place an ad. It is also how the format affects the message, the audience and the experience of encountering it.
Banners Remain Part of the Advertising Landscape
Banner advertising helped establish the commercial web. Publishers could monetise their pages, while brands gained a direct way to present products and offers to online audiences. The format was straightforward: create a visual, place it on a website and give viewers a route to learn more.
The advertising landscape has since become more complex, but banners remain commercially significant. According to the IAB/PwC Internet Advertising Revenue Report for 2025, US display advertising revenue reached $81.6 billion, compared with $74.3 billion in 2024.
The category extends beyond traditional rectangular banners, encompassing other display formats as well. The figures therefore illustrate the scale of the broader market, rather than the performance of any one advertising format.
For creative teams, the continuing presence of banners also presents a familiar challenge. An ad must compete with the content surrounding it, and simply making a design more prominent does not guarantee that people will notice or remember it.
The Problem Is Not Always the Creative
People become familiar with the layouts of the websites and apps they use. Over time, they may learn to overlook areas that resemble advertisements, even when those placements contain information relevant to them. This behaviour is commonly known as banner blindness.
Research by the Nielsen Norman Group has examined how users ignore advertisements and content that looks promotional. The finding has practical implications for campaign design: a carefully produced creative can still be overlooked if its placement or presentation fails to engage the intended audience.
This does not make traditional banners obsolete. It means advertisers need to consider the relationship between the creative and its environment. A clear message, relevant offer and suitable placement may matter more than adding visual effects simply to attract attention.
It also helps explain why display advertising developed into a wider mix of formats. Different placements create different opportunities, but each comes with its own limitations.
Five Formats, Five Different Approaches
The main display formats are not interchangeable. Each changes how an advertisement appears and how the audience encounters it.
| Format | How it works | What advertisers need to consider |
| Standard banners | Visual ads appear within a webpage or app layout | Visibility, placement and creative clarity |
| Rich media | Interactive elements add movement or functionality | Whether the interaction serves a clear purpose |
| Native advertising | Paid placements adopt the visual style of surrounding content | Relevance and clear advertising disclosure |
| Popunder advertising | A separate browser tab or window opens following a qualifying interaction | Traffic quality and the effect on browsing experience |
| Video advertising | A moving image and sound communicate a message over time | Storytelling, production resources and viewing context |
The distinction is important for creative development. A banner may need to communicate an idea quickly, while a video can give a product more room to tell a story. Rich media can invite interaction, but that interaction should contribute something useful rather than distract from the message.
Native advertising takes another approach by placing promotional content within a familiar browsing environment. Popunders, meanwhile, separate the destination from the page the user was viewing. These differences affect not only the media plan but also the way a campaign should be designed and evaluated.
Popunders and the Question of Traffic Quality
Popunder advertising offers a different way to present an advertiser’s destination. Instead of appearing as a unit within the current page, it typically opens a new tab or window after a qualifying interaction.
Advertisers evaluating popunder advertising can compare the format with other acquisition channels by looking at where visits originate, how people interact with the destination and whether those visits lead to meaningful actions.
The number of visits alone tells only part of the story. A campaign may generate substantial traffic without producing qualified leads, purchases or other intended outcomes. Landing-page relevance, audience targeting and placement quality all influence what that traffic is worth.
There is also a user-experience trade-off. A separate window or tab may bring a destination into view, but an unexpected interruption can frustrate visitors. Advertisers need to weigh the potential reach against the quality of the resulting interactions rather than assuming that greater visibility automatically produces better results.
Native Advertising Needs a Clear Editorial Boundary
Native advertising is designed to fit the context in which it appears. A placement might resemble a recommended article, a promoted listing or a sponsored story, allowing the creative to sit more naturally within a content feed.
That familiarity can make a placement relevant to its surroundings, but it also creates a responsibility. Readers should be able to distinguish paid advertising from independent editorial content. Matching a publication’s visual style should not mean disguising the commercial nature of the message.
For brands and publishers, the strongest approach combines contextual relevance with transparent labelling. The subject should make sense for the audience, the creative should communicate its purpose clearly, and the placement should respect the reader’s ability to recognise advertising.
This is particularly important for campaigns built around storytelling. A compelling headline or image may encourage someone to explore a message, but trust depends on being clear about who is presenting it and why.
Clicks Are Only the Beginning of Measurement
An advertisement can attract attention without producing a useful outcome. That is why campaign evaluation needs to go beyond impressions and clicks.
The appropriate metrics depend on what a campaign is intended to achieve. Brand awareness campaigns may focus on reach and exposure, while direct-response activity may prioritise conversions and acquisition costs.
Common measures include:
- Click-through rate (CTR): The proportion of impressions that result in clicks.
- Conversion rate: The proportion of relevant visits or interactions that lead to a desired action.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA): The cost of obtaining a specified conversion.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS): The revenue attributed to advertising relative to the advertising spend.
- Lead quality: How closely generated leads match the intended audience and business requirements.
- Customer lifetime value: The expected value of a customer over the relationship with the business.
These measures help explain why a format with fewer clicks can still contribute to a successful campaign. If its visitors are more likely to convert, it may deliver greater value than a placement that generates more activity but fewer meaningful results.
The key is to compare like with like. Campaign objectives, attribution methods and conversion definitions need to be consistent enough to support useful decisions.
Automation Has Changed the Media-Buying Process
Programmatic advertising has made it possible to buy and sell digital ad inventory through automated systems, including auctions that assess individual impressions against campaign criteria.
Depending on the platform and available data, advertisers can adjust bids, budgets and targeting across placements, devices, locations and other audience signals. This makes campaign management more flexible than relying on a fixed placement and leaving it unchanged throughout a campaign.
Automation, however, does not replace strategic judgement. Advertising systems optimise towards the objectives and signals they receive. If a campaign is measured against the wrong outcome, an automated system may increase activity without improving the result that matters to the business.
Creative quality, traffic sources and conversion performance still require attention. The technology can help manage delivery, but advertisers must decide what success means and whether the resulting activity supports that objective.
Attention Should Not Come at the Expense of Experience
Every advertising format involves a balance between visibility and the audience’s experience. Repeated exposure can become irritating, irrelevant messages can be ignored, and unexpected interruptions can affect how people perceive both a brand and the publisher carrying its advertising.
These considerations should be part of campaign planning from the outset. Advertisers need to assess whether a placement suits the message, whether the frequency is reasonable and whether the landing page delivers what the creative promises.
Publishers also have a role in deciding which formats fit their audiences. A placement that generates short-term activity may not be worthwhile if it undermines the quality of the browsing experience.
For creative teams, this is a reminder that an advertisement does not exist in isolation. Its impact depends partly on the environment in which people encounter it and what happens after they engage.
Choosing the Format That Fits the Idea
Display advertising has not progressed through a simple sequence in which every new format replaces the previous one. Banners, rich media, native placements, video and popunders continue to serve different purposes, with varying implications for creative development, delivery and measurement.
The useful question is not which format is universally best, but which one suits the campaign’s message, audience and objective. A simple banner may be sufficient for a clear reminder. A video may help explain a more complex idea. A native placement may provide a relevant route into sponsored content, while a popunder campaign requires particular attention to traffic quality and the browsing experience.
Choosing well means looking beyond visibility alone. The format should support the creative idea, the resulting interactions should be measured against a meaningful objective, and the campaign should respect the audience it is trying to reach.
As digital advertising continues to evolve, that combination of creative judgement, appropriate placement and meaningful measurement remains central to building campaigns that do more than generate impressions.
