Display campaigns are a great way to show can your brand and product. Unlike search, display campaigns give you an option to showcase your brand or your product to the Google network. There are approximately three million sites that have signed up with Google to showcase ads on their sites.
But what makes display campaigns so powerful? Apart from the ability to display images, and text, it allows the advertiser to push video as well. Display works best in combination with search ads. Although there is an option to run it simultaneously, it’s best to run display campaigns separately. You will be in control of your spending and will be able to optimize better.
There are some techniques to get the best out of your display ads to help you get that ever-elusive CTR or conversions. Let’s go through this step by step.
Display Ad set up
Since display ads are all about imagery, your images must be of high quality with clear messaging. You need to keep the aspect ratio of the images in line with Google Specs. Images cannot be an afterthought in a display campaign. The better, rather compelling your images are, the higher the chances of a click-through. Some trivia-display ads have a better CTR than search ads.
You will need a combination of images in various sizes; we will go over them to ensure you cover most of the ad inventory available to you. Not all dimensions are critical, but there are some sizes that perform better than the rest.
Visually simple designed ads give your higher CTRs. The text in the ad has to be easy to read. Avoid reverse lettering and typefaces that are difficult to decipher.
In addition, you can create responsive ads as well. In cases where you do not have ready images, you can let Google scan your web page, the final URL and pick the relevant image for your ad. This works, but it’s not recommended since they do not usually communicate much from an offer point of view. For example, pictures on the website will not have a discount or a free delivery offer, which can prove decisive when it comes to CTR. Display ads are all about imagery, and you can get creative with the image and the offer as long as they fit within Google Guides. Of course, you will still have to give a headline and copy within character limits.
How to set up your display ad campaign
1. Start will all campaigns tab and click on the plus icon. You’ll have to select the goal for your campaign. There are eight goals to choose from – sales, leads, website traffic, product brand consideration, brand awareness and reach, App promotion, local store promotion, and lastly, create a goal without guidance.
2. We pick the last option. That is, we go manual, which is fine.
3. After selecting this option, you’ll then have to choose the campaign type. Select the ‘Display’ option. Display ads serve across the Google Display Network (GDN), YouTube, and mobile or in-app.
4. Once you select the campaign type, you will be prompted to choose the campaign subtype. There are two types of subtypes available: Smart and Standard subtype. For now, let’s go with Standard. Once the subtype is selected, it can’t be changed later.
5. Fill in your website name and select your location targeting options. You need to be careful with the location option. Ideally, it’s better to be narrow regarding location. Too broad, and the chances are that you’ll be spreading yourself too thin in a tight budget scenario. Google Analytics is an excellent source to tell you where your traffic is coming from. Optimize accordingly. Select ‘Enter another location’ and fill in the desired location to target or exclude specific areas. Google also allows radius-based targeting in the ‘advanced location option.’
6. Select your desired language selection.
7. Now, we come to the most crucial aspect of your campaign, your daily budget. The most that you’ll pay per month is your daily budget times 30.4, i.e., the average number of days in a month. By the way, you can change this later.
8. Once you select the daily budget, we need to choose the bidding strategy. There are several options to choose from. We select the option, ‘Select the bid strategy directly.’ From here, ‘select manual CPC.’ Select the option for enhanced CPC and then enter your CPC bid for this Ad Group. With ‘Manual CPC’ bidding, you set your own maximum cost per click (CPC) for your ad. This way, you are in control.
Read my blog on Search settings for more info on Manual CPC.
More about Audiences for display ads
More about Audiences for display adsDisplay ads give you the option of targeting the audiences you want to reach. You define the people who should see your ads are.
They (audiences) are divided into three types:
a. Audience segments (Affinity and In-Market Audiences)
b. Content Targeting
c. Demographics.
Let’s get into each of these.
First, we talk about Audience Segments.
But what are audiences in the first place? According to Google, audiences are groups of people with specific interests, intents, and demographic information.
Even before we get to Audiences, it’s essential to talk about the sales funnel. You can also divide them by top-of-the-funnel and bottom-of-the-funnel audiences. For instance, top-of-the-funnel are those who are exploratory in their search. They search for more info before going into the next stage, ‘consideration.’ In this stage, they know what they want and zero in two or three brands that fit the bill. Finally, they end up at the bottom of the funnel when they decide to make a purchase.
Now, let’s look at the audiences from the lens of the purchase funnel. We’ll realize that ‘Affinity Audiences’ is one of the Audience options for the Display Network that target users based on what they’re passionate about. So, if your objective is brand building, then the Affinity audience selection is a good choice. For example, the Affinity audience option is excellent for driving traffic to the site through a display campaign. On the other hand, if you are looking for Purchase intent, you’d be better off selecting the In-Market audience.
According to Google, In-market audiences are users based on their recent purchase intent. Ideally, if you want to run a display campaign, it’s better to split these audiences separately into different Ad Groups and run your campaigns. This way, you are better at knowing which audience option is working for you.
b. Content targeting
Here is where you decide where you want your ads to show. You can narrow down your target with Keywords, Topics, or Placements.
According to Google, keywords targeting gives you the option to choose words related to your products or services. The keywords you select help show your ads on relevant websites, apps, and videos. On the other hand, ‘placements’ give you the option to show your ads on GDN websites, videos, or apps.
Once you are done with these settings, you are left with creating your display campaign ad. You will need to provide four headlines ( 30 characters) and log descriptions (90 Characters) along with images. The sizes for these images are given below.
The top 5 display ad sizes of 2021
Size Name Max size
468 x 60 Banner 150 KB
300 x 250 Inline Rectangle 150 KB
336 x 280 Large Rectangle 150 KB
728 x 90 Leaderboard 150 KB
And, there you go, once approved, your first display campaign is on its way.
EndNote
The key is to communicate the value of the offer effectively without too much design or text fuss! It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the options that Google puts forth. But the key is to stick to your plan and understand your business and its funnel dynamics, which will help you unearth insights about your customers. Like everything else, test your display ad. Testing and optimization is a far better strategy than gut feel!
A Bonus Give Away!
If you need these settings in a screenshot format (ppt), write to me at robin@digitalonmyplate.com, and I’ll send them to you in an instant!
Thank you for reading!
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Photo credits:
– Szabo Viktor