Performance of online advertising

: search, display and social media Ads

Abstract

Digital advertising is becoming increasingly relevant. In particular, managers are gradually allocating the online budget to mobile and social media advertising. For that reason, it becomes essential to understand the performance of different ad types and the dynamics within each format and platform. The present study aims to compare different ad types – search, display and social media – whilst assessing the impact of different devices – mobile devices and computers – on online campaign performance. Moreover, it seeks to understand the factors that explain the performance within each ad type. This dissertation focuses on a B2B company that advertises an invoicing software using Google and Facebook. To this end, the study is based on descriptive quantitative research, analyzing secondary data from sixteen campaigns. The results show that search ads perform better on average than social media and display ads. However, the device of impression has also a significant impact on campaign performance. In fact, ads displayed on mobile devices yield more clicks and ads displayed on computer desktops generate more conversions. On Facebook, users often clicked on an ad in a mobile device and switched to a computer to convert. Besides, the targeting strategy adopted in display and social media ads has a significant influence on performance. On social media, ads retargeted to visitors of the company’s website originated significantly more conversions. In conclusion, these findings are relevant for managers in allocating the online budget across ad types and in optimizing the ads for different devices and target audience.

Date of Award	18 Jul 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Isabel de Almeida Costa (Supervisor)