Atlas Institute conducted a study recently that discovered a 22 percent increase in conversions if users were presented combinations of advertiser's search along with display ads, in contrast to a search ad alone.
Among eight of the eleven advertisers that were surveyed, the range of the lift in conversions was 20-65 percent; the other three had no measurable effect.
Among the 1.8 million studied, it was found that there was a 44 percent overlap of users that viewed search and display ads from the same advertiser according to Clickz.
The author of the study, Esco Strong, said that these are significant numbers and marketers need to be paying attention to them.
Those who viewed the search ads by themselves though, converted at three times the number that viewed only the display ads. Among those that viewed search and display ads, there was a four times the conversion rate of display alone.
Strong explains the reasons in this way:
"One possible explanation is display advertising's ability to generate brand awareness and increase purchase intent, helping to win over users who are on the fence about a brand or product they have previously searched on. Another factor is the likelihood of display ads to drive brand searches. In addition, many consumers tend to use search as navigation, so users who first visit a site via a banner ad may later return to the site via search."
I tend to agree with him, as all research shows that display ads do have an effect upon brand awareness rather than click-through strength. Combining the to seems to imply from this study to help increase the conversion rate. We may want to start tracking the media buys centrally as is suggested here, to make sure that the cross-channel results are able to be measured and optimized.
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