I recently read a blog from AdReady's Aaron Finn on how Online Display Advertising could overtake Search in the coming years, it seems impossible but Aaron pointed out 4 key areas that Display has going for it....
"1. Cost/Scale: Search can get expensive. Especially if you want a hot keyword. And often, search lacks scale. Search marketing is getting saturated, driving up costs, and driving down overall effectiveness for the mass market. Most search marketers have unspent search budget. They simply can't spend everything they would like to. Display offers a great opportunity to spend that budget. And believe it or not, the best display advertisers are spending more on display than on search, to the tune of 2x to 10x.2. Market Size: There are nearly 1.5 million search advertisers as compared to approximately 50,000 display advertisers, according to Google. Simply stated: what would the display market look like if it had 500,000 more advertisers?
3. Offline vs. Online: Offline advertising costs still dramatically eclipse both search and display, even as consumers spend more time online and less time with offline media. We're already seeing the transfer of marketing budgets from offline to online (some $144 billion offline according to Interpublic Group media agency Magna), and that will only increase. Search just doesnt have the scale to accept those budgets.
4. Search/Display Combination: The Atlas Institute reports a 22 percent increase in click-through rate (CTR) when companies run search and display campaigns together. When search and display are combined, they provide a significant lift in onsite engagement, and an increase in online and offline purchasing by consumers exposed to integrated campaigns."
I take from this that Display advertising, which most properties are either planning to or have already put to work for them, has a great future as a profit center.