Every sports team has its star player. The one who scores the goals. Makes the points. Impresses the crowd. And every team also has its playmaker. The one who rarely scores. Not the fastest. But who brings out the best in every other player on the field and is the catalyst for those impressive actions.
Well, if PPC were a sports team (let’s call them the “Clickers”), search would be the star and display would be the playmaker. And the advertisers who know how to leverage the capabilities of display? Well, they are the ones who win.
Studies have shown that 27% of consumers search for a business after seeing their display ad, and there is a 59% increase in conversions when users search related to a display ad.
But you need to know how to manage them correctly. And in this comprehensive guide to display advertising, I will explain exactly how to do that.
Table of Contents
- What are Google Display Ads?
- The Importance of Display Advertising
- Types, Sizes, Formats
- Costs
- Targeting
- How to Set Up a Google Display Advertising Campaign
- Best Practices
- Examples
- Tools
What are Google Display Ads?
Display ads are visual ads that you see while reading an article on your favorite blog, watching a video on YouTube, or using a mobile app.
What is a Google Display Ad?
Appropriately, Google display ads are served on websites and apps that belong to the Google Display Network (GDN) – but there are other display ad networks.
The Google Display Network includes over two million websites and apps that reach about 90% of internet users. Such immense potential to reach users is a double-edged sword: you have the power to present your brand to a large number of relevant consumers. But you can also present your brand to a large number of irrelevant consumers.
In other words, display ads can cost you money and even your reputation if you are not careful. We will cover the measures you can take to avoid waste later in this article.
The Importance of Display Advertising
At first glance, it may be difficult to understand why a business would want to run display ads. The performance is low compared to search ads.
People see display ads when consuming content, not when actively searching for solutions, as is the case with search advertising. So why bother with display ads?
Differentiate Your Brand
Because you and your competitors are targeting the same prospects, you need to find ways to differentiate your company from the crowd. With the power of visual images, display ads give you the opportunity to establish (and distinguish) your brand in the minds of your prospects.
Build Brand Awareness
With such wide exposure, the biggest advantage of display advertising is brand awareness. As Larry Kim said, “The best predictor of consumer purchase likelihood is whether they’ve heard of you before.” So it’s no surprise that 84% of B2B marketers consider brand awareness as their top priority, followed by sales and lead generation.
Improve the Performance of Your Other Ads
And why would you want to improve your brand awareness? Well, to pick up from the previous point, the more familiar people are with your brand, the more likely they are to click on your other marketing campaigns – including search ads and social ads. As mentioned in the introduction, studies have shown that 27% of consumers search for a business after seeing their display ad, and there is a 59% increase in conversions when users search related to a display ad.
In fact, there is a dedicated measure for conversions assisted by display ads: view-through conversions.
There are other ways to measure the impact of your display ads.
Skyrocket Results with Retargeting
Most prospects do not become customers immediately. Even if they click on your ad, they will likely leave your website without taking any action. With retargeting display ads, you target people based on their interaction with your website.
For example, you could target a user who viewed a product but didn’t purchase it with a display ad for that same product. Scary? a bit. Effective? Very. Take a look at these retargeting statistics:
- In one study, retargeting display ads increased brand-related search queries by 1,046% and website traffic by 726%.
- The average click-through rate for retargeting display ads is 0.7%, which is 10 times higher than that of regular display ads (0.07%).
- A website visitor who has been targeted by a display ad has a 70% higher chance of converting.
Google Display Ad Sizes and Formats
There are two types of Google display ads: uploaded ads and responsive ads.
Uploaded Ads
If you have the design resources to create your own display ads from scratch, go for it. Google display ads support JPG, PNG, and GIF formats. However, even if you are eligible for a particular placement, your ad will not be served if it does not meet the size specifications for that placement. So it’s up to you to optimize your visibility by uploading different versions of each ad in the required sizes.
Responsive Ads
As this is not the most fun activity, Google introduced responsive display ads, which ultimately became the default ad type for display campaigns. You simply provide your visual elements (images, logo, videos) and a basic ad text. From there, Google will test different combinations to determine which versions perform well. And the best part is, responsive display ads automatically adjust in size to meet the requirements of specific web pages.
Google Display Ad Sizes
If you plan to only run responsive display ads, you can skip to the next section. But if you want to have control over your ads and plan to use uploaded ads, here are the 12 common display ad sizes you will need to adapt to:
- Mobile: 300×200, 300×50, 300×100
- Desktop: 300×250, 336×280, 728×90, 300×600, 160×600, 970×90, 468×60
- Both: 250×250, 200×200
Google Display Ad Costs
Like Google’s search network, the Google Display Network operates on a real-time bidding system. When you are eligible for a given ad unit – based on your targeting criteria – you participate in an instant auction with other eligible advertisers. Google determines your ad position and cost per click based on your Ad Rank, which it calculates using your maximum CPC bid and Quality Score.
Often, your actual cost per click is lower than your maximum CPC bid. Once everything is said and done, you pay the minimum amount necessary to beat the advertiser directly below you.
According to WordStream data, the average CPC on the Google Display Network is $0.63. In comparison, the average CPC on the search network is $2.69 – over four times higher. That’s because clicks on the search network are generally more valuable, as mentioned earlier.
Google Display Ad Targeting
The key to effectively spend your display advertising budget is to layer your targeting criteria to get the highest number of relevant impressions and clicks possible. There are five main targeting groups, and they fall into two categories: people targeting and contextual targeting (topic/content).
Contextual Targeting
With contextual targeting for display ads, you have three options:
- Topic: Show your ads on sites relevant to specific topics. For example, if you are advertising an upcoming music festival, you can target topics such as “music” and “live entertainment.”
- Keyword: Show your ads on sites related to specific keywords.
- Placement: Target specific web pages, videos, or apps. You can learn more about display ad placements here.
People Targeting
With people targeting, you have two options, but audience targeting opens up a whole new perspective, which we will address next.
- Demographics: Show your ads based on age, gender, and parental status.
- Audience: Show your ads based on interests and behaviors.
Audience Targeting for Google Display Ads
Here are the many options available to you for audience targeting with Google display ads:
- Affinity audiences: People who share a common interest, such as sports, travel, or food.
- In-market audiences: People actively looking to purchase a specific product or service.
- Remarketing audiences: People who have interacted with your business in any way, such as visiting your website – a great way to re-engage prospects.
- Custom audiences: Mix and match to create your own custom audiences.
- Excluded audiences: Google Ads also allows you to exclude specific topics to keep your brand away from irrelevant or inappropriate content. If you are advertising super deluxe ice cream or dessert products, for example, you could exclude websites dealing with weight loss or healthy eating (at best, you will be considered irrelevant; at worst, simply cruel).
How to Set Up a Google Display Advertising Campaign
To create a Google Display advertising campaign, go to your Google Ads account and click on “New Campaign”. When asked for your campaign objective, choose “Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance” then choose “Display”.
Then, you will need to:
- Provide your website
- Name your campaign
- Choose your geographic and language targeting
- Set your budget and bidding strategy
- Create your targeting settings
- Upload your creatives and provide your ad text
- Review and publish
5 Best Practices for Google Display Ads
Now that we have covered all the technical details of display advertising, let’s talk about some of the best practices you can implement to maximize your returns.
1. Leverage Your Top Performing Search Keywords
If you want to try keyword targeting, start with your top-performing search keywords. The definition of “top” is up to you, of course, but if there are a few keywords that tend to generate low-cost clicks or conversions on the search network, why not try them on the display network?
That’s right – consumer intent on these two Google Ads networks is completely different. But as long as clicks and conversions indicate that your search ads are making an impact, you can be sure that the keywords behind them are winners.
2. Use Bid Adjustments
After running your display campaigns for a while, you will have enough data to make informed performance decisions – which keywords perform well, which affinity audiences perform poorly, etc. Bid adjustments, which you can set at the ad group or campaign level, allow you to turn these performance judgments into a strategy.
When you set a positive bid adjustment on a given ad group, you tell Google Ads to increase your maximum CPC bid each time one of the ads in that ad group is eligible to be served. When you set a negative bid adjustment, you tell Google Ads to decrease your maximum CPC bids for that ad group.
In summary, using bid adjustments is a great way to increase your gains with the best performers and reduce your losses with the underperformers.
3. Look at Your Referral Traffic
Google Analytics is full of helpful information. For display advertisers, the referral traffic report (found under Acquisitions > All Traffic) is extremely valuable. Essentially, the referral traffic report tells you which websites are linking to yours. In other words, it tells you which websites are reaching people who could benefit from your product or service.
These websites are perfect for displaying your display ads. Because you know you’re advertising to relevant audiences, you can be confident that you’re getting a return on investment from those impressions and clicks.
4. Highlight Your Value Proposition
Consumers are accustomed to display ads at this point, so they can easily ignore your ads without even noticing them. To not waste opportunities – and money if you’re bidding on a cost per mille (CPM) basis – it is crucial that your display ads catch your prospects’ attention.
Royal Canin provides a good example of a strong value proposition with “Support their health at every stage”.
Obviously, the visual aesthetics of your display ads – the color palette, typography, etc. – play a huge role in this. What’s less obvious is the role your value proposition plays. Your value proposition is the benefit that a person will gain by becoming your customer. If you’re advertising a pair of men’s boots, for example, your value proposition could be the increased confidence one feels when looking good.
Whatever your value proposition is, make it stand out.
5. Emphasize Headlines in Responsive Display Ad Copy
When creating a responsive display ad, you will be prompted to write four parts of text:
- Short headline (25 characters)
- Long headline (90 characters)
- Description (90 characters)
- Your business name (25 characters)
As far as headlines go, there are two key things you need to know: (1) Google Ads will never run both at the same time; (2) Google Ads will sometimes exclude your description. Whichever headline is selected for a particular iteration of your display ad, there is no guarantee that it will be accompanied by your description.
Lesson learned: Make sure your headlines work on their own. Both should communicate your company’s unique value or the offer you are making.
Use Video
According to Bannerflow, display ads with video have a 89% higher click-through rate. And creating a video display ad is easier than you think. It doesn’t even necessarily require a recorded video. Basic text animation and movements, or simply a GIF, will suffice.
5 Awesome Google Display Ad Examples
No cheat sheet is complete without a bit of inspiration! Let’s finish this guide with five examples of awesome Google display ads. We will make sure to dissect what makes them perform so you can take away immediately applicable tips.
1. CheapCaribbean.com Uses Stunning Images
Our first example is from CheapCaribbean.com. Not only have they effectively targeted (I saw this ad on a travel blog), but the images are absolutely stunning. No need for persuasive ad text here. The affordable prices speak for themselves. When they say cheap, they mean it.
2. ClickCease Plays on Fear
ClickCease – a software company that helps advertisers mitigate click fraud – served me this display ad while I was reading an article on Search Engine Journal. What makes it so effective is the use of emotional ad text to grab my attention and communicate the value of the product they are selling. Fear is a captivating and persuasive emotion. Because no PPC specialist wants to fall victim to click fraud, this is an ad that is sure to leave an impression.
One small critique: This ad needs a brand name. While it is effective, it is not as trustworthy as it should be to reach its full potential.
3. Wikibuy Offers an Undeniable Value Proposition
Let’s get into the competition! The key to this Wikibuy ad? Simplicity. It’s a straightforward ad with a straightforward value proposition: things are cheaper when you buy them from us. The ad copy is minimal, but attention-grabbing. The brand name is present but takes a backseat to the value proposition. Those of you operating in highly competitive markets should take notes!
4. Alteryx Succeeds with the Headline (and Offer)
This display ad is from Alteryx, a software solution for data science and analytics. First of all, it’s a great headline. Injecting a little aspirational sentiment into your ad copy has never hurt anyone. Second, the subheadline highlights a great value proposition: we make data analytics easy. And finally, instead of trying to take my money right away, they’re making great use of the content marketing funnel by offering an ebook.
5. LinkedIn Makes It Personal
As a B2B marketer myself, this ad caught my attention while I was on EZgif.com (an essential tool for my daily work). There’s a super sophisticated copywriting technique here that plays on the fear of missing out (FOMO). No marketer wants to be a late adopter, so this is an ad that is sure to prompt a click.
Easy and Free Tools to Create Google Display Ads
As great as display advertising is, we noticed one glaring issue: it’s not as accessible as it is powerful. Many small and medium-sized businesses simply do not have the resources – time, money, designers – to create attractive and effective display ads.
Luckily, there are several free tools on the market that allow you to easily create your own Google display ads. Here are two of our favorites:
- Creatopy: Drag and drop all kinds of fonts, copyright-free photos, and animations to create high-quality visuals that work on all platforms.
- Canva: Browse thousands of flexible and customizable banner ad templates to match your brand aesthetics.
Launch Your First Google Display Advertising Campaign
Well, now you have everything you need to launch a successful Google Display advertising campaign. If you need additional guidance, check out these resources:
- 6 Mistakes to Avoid on the Google Display Network.
- 5 Best Practices for Google Display Ads That Still Work.
- I’ve Designed Over 100 Display Ads. Here’s What I Learned.
Remember, display ads can be a game-changer for your business. So don’t hesitate to explore this powerful advertising medium and start reaching your target audience in a whole new way.
Now go out there and create stunning display ads that capture attention and drive results. And for more marketing tips and strategies, visit Crawlan.com!
