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Display Ads
in five steps
Display advertising
Fundamentals
Whilst Google Search Ads are text based and keyword driven, Display ads show images (e.g. banners) on websites which are part of the Google Display Network.
Website owners can sign up to Google Adsense which will allow for Google Display ads to be shown on their site (therefore providing a revenue source for site owners from advertisers). Certain areas on a website will have placeholders (i.e. ad inventory) for Display ads and when a user visits, they will be served relevant ads from specific advertisers.
Display ads aren’t targeted based on keywords people search for on Google, but can be targeted based on the interests and online behaviors of users (determined by browsing and search history). These interests/behaviours are used to classify users into different groups known as affinity and in-market audiences.
Affinity audiences are based on interests, lifestyles and behaviours of users (for example, visiting a golf website may result in seeing golf-related ads afterwards). This type of audience can be effective for general brand awareness campaigns. Contextual targeting is used by Google to match an advertiser’s ads to websites which may be relevant to their brand or products.
In-market audiences contain users who are actively searching for specific products and have demonstrated a clear intent they are looking to purchase. This audience is better suited to conversion-based campaigns and may see more product-focused, rather than branding, ads.
Caution
Whilst Display advertising can be used to reach millions of users (i.e. impressions), the performance (clicks and conversions) is generally far less effective than other channels. Display is usually reserved for retargeting campaigns opposed to reaching out to a completely cold audience.
Improving the effectiveness of Display ads
Dynamic remarketing can be the most effective form of Display advertising and involves showing ads that include products or services people recently viewed on a website.
Dynamically generated Display ads can be created with product data pulled from a pre-uploaded feed. For example, a user may have recently browsed red shoes on a shopping website and they now see Display ads showcasing the shoes and encouraging them to return to the original site to purchase.
Promotions, discounts, and sales can be used to improve the effectiveness of remarketing campaigns as you need to give a user a reason to come back and visit your website. Maybe the cost of shipping was too high, so a ‘Free Shipping’ code offer could be promoted to users who visited a product page but didn’t purchase.
You can also combine multiple customer lists (e.g. email subscribers, purchasers etc) for more effective Display ad targeting.
Tip
You need to have spent at least $50,000 (lifetime) in Google Ads before you can use customer lists for audience targeting.
Display ads offer a targeting feature called Similar Audiences. By uploading a custom list, Google will find users that are similar to the original list (similar to lookalike audiences on Facebook). For every remarketing list which is created, Google will automatically create a similar audience in Google Ads.
Campaign planning
Responsive Display Ads are Google’s main Display ad format and are the default ad type when creating a Display campaign.
Responsive Display Ads give you the ability to upload your own assets and create ads that serve in all ad slot sizes, into both native and non-native inventory. Simply upload your assets (images, videos, headlines, logos and descriptions) and Google will automatically create ads. Google will find which combination performs best and will then continue to show those ads more frequently.
You can use multiple images, headlines and descriptions to create Dynamic Display ads which will mix creatives to find the best optimisation.
Display images need to be provided in a variety of sizes/ratios to display properly on different websites and placements. Adding a variety of images (around four) will allow Google to rotate and split test to find the best performing creative assets.
You can add text copy to Display ads such as a headline, descriptions, call-to-action etc which will show alongside images. Settings can be adjusted to change colours of buttons (e.g. Learn More), titles, content etc.
If you choose to create a standard image ad and upload creative ad assets directly (i.e. not use the responsive ad approach), assets will need to fit within specific dimensions.
Two example standard image ads which could be uploaded directly are below:
Display campaigns typically have very low conversion rates so the goal is to attract as many relevant clicks to your website as possible.
Bids should be kept very low for Display campaigns (ideally using manual or eCPC) so you can achieve as many clicks as possible within your overall daily budget amount.
Bid strategies for Display include: Target CPA, Target ROAS, maximise clicks, maximise conversions and viewable CPM. If aiming for conversions, a target CPA (Cost per Acquisition) of $10 means you want a conversion action to cost no more than $10.
Audience targeting
When deciding on an audience to target, you first need to determine what you are trying to achieve with your ads. Some audiences are better suited than others to achieving certain objectives with Display advertising.
If you’re looking to build general brand awareness for a brand, you can use:
- Affinity audiences (users who are within a certain interest category such as TV, dining out, sports etc)
- Custom affinity audiences (you can build your own audience of user interests if they are not available are predefined options by Google).
- Demographics (such as age, location, household income, parental status etc)
- Life events (such as marriage, purchasing a home, retirement etc)
- Placements (showing only on specific websites, YouTube channels, locations etc – ideally you want to choose between 50 and 100 specific websites so you have enough reach)
If using general demographic targeting, you can use Google Analytics to view goal conversion rates based on different factors (e.g. language, location, device, demographics etc) and target Google Ads on the most successful types of people who make the most conversions.
If you’re looking to generate more conversions or sales, you can use:
- Remarketing (people who have already visited your website will see your ads on other websites they are currently viewing).
- Similar audiences (automatically set up by Analytics, this is an audience which shares similar characteristics to existing web visitors – similar to Facebook lookalike audiences).
- In-Market audiences (people who are actively searching for products or services, such as building a home, will see our ads no matter the website they visit)
- Custom intent audiences (you can create an audience of users who may be searching for products/services based on certain keywords, similar to Search ads targeting).
Audience targeting can be set up and managed within the Google Ads interface under ‘shared library’ > audiences. To set up a retargeting audience in Google Analytics (which can then be imported into Google Ads), select ‘Admin’ > ‘Audience Definitions’ > ‘Audiences’.
When deciding on an audience, you can copy/paste your website URL into the ‘browse’ section within the Google Display Ads interface to provide a variety of relevant audiences to choose from (so there’s no need to manually go through and select).
When selecting audiences for Search ads, it is recommended to use the Observation option rather than the Targeting option. This means Google will show ads to both general and targeted audiences and you will have the opportunity to see how each performs (opposed to only selecting one or the other).
For Display network campaigns, it’s recommended to use the Targeting option (audiences, placements and topics) rather than observation. If users from a particular website (or targeting audience – in-market/affinity) provide more conversions than usual, you can add a bid adjustment to increase your bid targeting people who are on that website.
Running a campaign
When setting up a standard campaign you can break out ad groups into your different targeting options as this makes tracking results much easier (i.e. remarketing audience, affinity or in-market audience, audience based on demographics etc). A shared budget can be split up across multiple campaigns and will override the usual daily budget.
In the Campaigns section of Google Ads, click the large blue + symbol and select ‘new campaign’ to create a new standard Display campaign (Smart or Gmail campaigns are also offered as options).
Similar to Search ad campaign set up, if you have conversion actions which you would like to track (e.g. users filling in a form), this should be set up first (under ‘tools and settings’ in the top menu).
Next, enter the settings for your campaign such as name, location targeting, languages etc.
Additional settings will allow you to make changes to ad rotation/schedule, devices, conversion events/settings, content exclusions (i.e. don’t show your brand ads on certain websites) etc.
Decide on your average daily budget and a bidding strategy/amount.
Now you can set up targeting options for your ad group.
This ad group will be based on a retargeting audience who have previously visited the website of a financial planning business (ABC Financial). Demographic, affinity, in-market, similar audiences can also be selected within this section.
Next, you can start building your first responsive Display ad which will include a mix of headlines, descriptions, creatives etc.
Similar to Responsive Search Ads, you don’t need to provide all headlines, descriptions, images etc but the more assets you provide, the more combinations Google will be able to test.
Note: these assets have been created very quickly as an example, real campaign assets will require a lot more thought and preparation.
Once assets have been added, a preview is generated to view the final version of your Display campaign ad. You can then click ‘create campaign’ to finish the setup process.
Surfside PPC has an excellent tutorial to learn more about the full features of Google Display campaigns.
Video
Measuring results
Standard Google Ads reporting is available within the interface for Display campaigns.
Within the Google Ads interface, you can view the individual websites where your Display ads have been shown (if you’re targeting general audiences – not specific websites) and the results those websites have provided. You can download these websites as a spreadsheet and then specifically target these sites in future campaigns.
You can also measure the behaviour and relevance of Display traffic using Google Analytics. As you can see, there is a much higher bounce rate, lower number of pages per session, shorter session duration for Display traffic compared to SEO or other PPC-based traffic.
Improving performance
When talking about Display advertising, The Google Display Network is not the only option available.
A popular approach used by larger brands/advertisers is the use of programmatic display advertising. This is a method of using automated systems and technology (i.e. ad exchanges) to buy (and sell) online advertising placements.
An advertiser will use a DSP (Demand Side Platform) to purchase ad inventory placements. A website will use a SPS (Supply Side Platform) to make ad inventory available to purchase.
How does programmatic advertising work?
When a user visits a website, the SSP advises the DSP ad inventory is available and ready to advertise to a relevant consumer. When purchasing inventory, the platforms will use automated bidding and systems to facilitate the exchange and display of online ads. Once a relevant ad is selected, the ad is served and viewed by the user.
Tip
Access to an ad exchange is generally reserved only to media buying agencies who have access to the required specialised software/platforms. GDN is generally open and available to everyone.
Whilst the Google Display Network (GDN) and programmatic advertising achieve the same goal (i.e. display ads in front of targeted users), both use different approaches.
GDN is Google’s own self-contained closed version of an ad exchange. Programmatic advertising, on the other hand, is used on an open ad exchange (which can be made up of more than 20 other exchanges). The GDN is made up of over 2 million websites however programmatic can have significantly greater reach.
GDN is generally used for image-based advertising (and video when using YouTube). Programmatic can use image, native video, audio and other media types. For example, when viewing a program on a streaming service, the video ad which plays beforehand will be a form of programmatic advertising.
Providers of programmatic advertising include: Ad Roll, Outbrain, Google Marketing Platform, SmartyAds and more.
Different platforms for individual needs
The Google Display Network can provide an easy, lower cost entry for Display advertising but can be limited in reach. When larger brands wish to advertise on premium well-known websites, they will use the programmatic approach.
When deciding to access larger scale websites, advertisers will use an invitation only PMP (Private Marketplace). This marketplace uses the standard DSP and SSP interaction but is not publicly available.
When it comes to Display advertising, DV360 is one of the most popular platforms to buy inventory across ad exchanges. In comparison of reach and scale, the GDN achieves 10 billion impressions per week whereas DV360 achieves 90 billion impressions per day.
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