Be Relevant When You Need To Be

Let’s face it, everyone is competing for your customer’s attention. Go here, go there, buy this, buy that. Rise above all the noise and stop loosing leads and start driving traffic to your website. More traffic = more business = more money.

We create ads; text, image, mobile and interactive video ads that we display when a browser searches a keyword or phrase, or perhaps has visited a particular website. Utilizing Ad Words and Display Ads is an inexpensive and effective way to target your customers. We set a budget that you’re comfortable with – no money tree required (I promise).

A Closer Look at Google Display Ads

Display ads can be small text ads, such as those displayed on a Google search results page, or image ads. Unlike the Search Network, where companies place text ads in search results, on the Google Display Network, companies place display ads on a large network of sites on the Internet. People receive display ads while consuming content, rather than actively seeking solutions, as is the case with ads linked to search results.    

In other words, people who stumble upon your search ads are already looking for your products, whereas people typically see display ads because they were selected after watching a video, reading an email, or browsing the web. Getting used to seeing ads at this point, your potential customers can scroll through your ads very easily without even noticing them. Google Display Ads can show people when they shop, search, or even watch videos of dogs performing tricks. The Google Display Network can help you reach people with targeted display ads as they browse their favorite websites, show friends YouTube videos, check their Gmail accounts, or use mobile devices and apps.    

While the Search Network can reach people when they are already looking for certain products or services, the Google Display Network can help you grab someone’s attention early in the buying cycle. Use the AdWords Display Network Planner to find websites that will run ads on the Google Display Network that are similar to the sites you would ideally like to appear on. Simply put, Google may show your ads to users who are “likely to be interested” in certain website URLs and keywords. Google may show your ads on certain websites if they have placement URLs.    

Instead, Google shows your ad to users on various other websites that are contextually linked to the website’s URL or keyword provided by Google. Google will then show these people certain ads each time they visit sites on the Google Display Network. Accordingly, Google display ads are shown on the Google Display Network, a network of more than two million websites and apps that reach the playing field of 90% of Internet users somewhere. The Google Display Network (GDN) is the world’s largest advertising network for placing banners, video ads, and text ads on over 2 million websites worldwide, as well as advertising on Google properties, including YouTube and Gmail.    

In fact, the Google Display Network allows you to advertise in a variety of formats and sizes through text ads, static and animated image ads, rich media ads and video ads. The web is constantly expanding, so it’s critical that advertisers understand how to leverage the display advertising power of Google Ads to market their business to the right audience online. Google Ads display advertising uses the Google Display Network, millions of websites, where advertisers can choose to show their ads in a variety of formats to a wide range of audiences, locally or globally, using a variety of advertisers’ own targeting methods.   

Smart Display Network campaigns combine the best of automatic targeting, bidding, and creatives to maximize Google Ads conversions. In the previous article, we showed you how to create a successful Google Ads display campaign. We know you now know how to rock your images in Google Responsive Display Ads and you’re ready to launch some killer campaigns.    

Whether you’re just starting your digital advertising business or already have years of experience but are still looking for the right direction when it comes to search and display advertising, this article will help you. If you’re wondering how long it will take to see results in Adwords, unsure if your internal or external Google Ads campaigns are right for you, or looking for other ways to experiment with Google Ads, check out our related guides for more ideas. Setting up a Google Ads Display Campaign is fairly simple, but there are a few important steps you need to follow if you want to be truly successful.    

If you’re short on time, budget, or creative resources, it can be difficult to figure out which display ads are best for your campaign, and you might want to play it safe and test a few. However, there are some simple design guidelines that you can apply to improve your ad performance. Getting creative with your ads is a great way to stand out in the chaos of the internet, but it’s also important to keep Google’s best practices in mind when creating great display ads. Whether you’re using Google templates or Photoshop templates, keep the principles of effective advertising in mind when creating your ad.   

Also keep in mind that you can target at any time, and you should take advantage of this to ensure your ad is shown to the right people. Demographic targeting allows you to show your ads to specific groups of people based on characteristics such as age, gender, and parental status. Unlike topic targeting, audience targeting groups users and shows them ads on any site on the Google Display Network, not just those related to your product or service. This is similar to the approach to display ads – while people who see display ads are usually doing other things online, you can target specific audiences and get them to pay attention to your ads, making your investment worthwhile.    

With display campaigns, you can exclude audiences that are not related to your business, which can help you cut costs and increase the chance that your ad will get the attention of the right people. If you think the default settings for Google Ads are too general, you can create your own custom affinity audiences. Strictly relying on the default settings for Google Ads Buyer Segments and Affinity Audiences can significantly reduce your marketing budget. You can show your ad to people before they start looking for what you have to offer, which can be critical to your overall advertising strategy. 

Dustin VerBeek Digital Marketing