Direct Response Advertising

There are two primary types of online advertising: brand advertising and direct response advertising. Brand advertising is intended to make your prospects aware of your company so it stays top-of-mind when it comes time to make a purchase. Conversely, direct response advertising is about getting results now.

What is direct response advertising?

Direct response advertising is meant to compel people to take an immediate action from an ad while offering a measurable response from that action. These campaigns use direct response ads, like the Google Ads examples below, to capture prospects’ attention and lead them to the next page where they can complete the desired action:

Display ads can also request immediate action (in this case, getting a demo):

For best results, dedicated post-click landing pages follow the ad click, like Dynamic Yield demonstrates with their post-click landing page:

The reason for that is simple.

Direct response advertising is primarily interested in generating conversions

Keep in mind, the primary purpose is to elicit a specific, immediate action (aka a “direct response”). This action could be to download a resource, sign up for an account or free trial, schedule a demo, or even make a purchase.

Regardless of the action, this ultimately means a conversion — and conversions happen on post-click landing pages.