More than two-thirds of marketers (67.5%) say they plan to invest more dollars in display advertising over the next 18 months, and 59.0% plan to invest more in mobile over the same period, according to a new survey from Bizo.

Asked to rank their top 3 priorities over the next 18 months, marketers also cite paid search and SEO (55.4%), social media (48.2%), and email (31.3%).

Below, other findings from Bizo's Online Marketing Survey of 130 marketers, conducted in March 2011.

Benefits of Display: Site Traffic, Conversion

Among marketers who say they stepped up display advertising in 2010, the top-cited benefits have been increased site traffic (52.9%), more conversions or desired actions (e.g., whitepaper downloads, free-trial sign-ups, etc.)(45.7%), and increases in qualified leads generated (38.6%).

Roughly one-third of marketers cite increased ad clicks (31.4%), increased site traffic of specific business segments (31.4%), and improved search results (30.4%) as a benefit of their display ad efforts.

Looking for great digital marketing data? MarketingProfs reviewed hundreds of research sources to create our most recent Digital Marketing Factbook (May 2010), a 296-page compilation of data and 254 charts, covering email marketing, social media, search engine marketing, e-commerce, and mobile marketing. Also check out The State of Social Media Marketing, a 240-page original research report from MarketingProfs.

Measurement a Key Display Challenge

Most marketers (62.2%) say measuring effectiveness is the biggest challenge to implementing a successful display campaign, while fully one-half (50.0%) cite directing such ads to the right target.

More than one-third of marketers (34.1%) cite developing compelling, actionable ads as a big challenge.

Website Performance

Tracking website traffic and performance data is crucial to marketers:

• 63.9% say tracking the precise segments that visit their website is very important.
• 89% say understanding the precise audience segments visiting their site and those segments' activity on the site is important to developing overall marketing strategy.
• 62% say they use Google Analytics to monitor site performance.

About the data: Findings are from a survey of 130 marketers, consisting of 29% in-house marketers and 64% ad agencies during the week of March 25, 2011. Some 45% of respondents reported annual revenues of $10 to 100 million, 30% revenues of under $10 million, and 25% revenues of over $100 million.