Display advertising on Web sites is making a comeback after playing second fiddle to paid-search advertising for the past several years. In fact, the incredible growth of paid-search seems to be
fading slowly while display ads appear to be on track to grow even faster than search ads. The reason for the trend is that brand advertisers have returned to using display advertising on the Internet
after abandoning its most popular form--banner ads--during the early days of the dot-com boom. Leading brand advertisers like PepsiCo Inc. and Ford Motor Co. are charging back onto the Web. Such
advertisers prefer display ads to paid-search ads "because they allow them to tell a story and paint a picture," said Jeff Lanctot, general manager at aQuantive Inc.'s Avenue A/Razorfish, a large
buyer of online ads for marketers. Research firm eMarketer Inc. estimates that spending on display ads will rise 27 percent to $5.4 billion this year, while spending on search ads will grow 26 percent
to $6.5 billion. That's a big change from last year, when paid search grew far faster than display advertising. This time around, though, the advertisers are asking for evidence that their ads are
working, and they need more than reports of simple click-throughs--because their ultimate goal is to drive sales offline.
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