The Google Display Network is a powerful platform that is superb at generating brand awareness and retargeting past site visitors. These advantages bring many marketers to this ad service.
While Google does a good job of dispelling any concerns that the Display Network is difficult to use, there are some obstacles that can be troubling to a new advertiser.
To help you overcome these roadblocks, here are 5 of the best practices when building a Display Network campaign. These strategies will help you drive a stronger ROI for your campaigns.
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#1: Take Advantage of Dynamic Remarketing
One of the reasons that advertisers flock to the Display Network is remarketing. What is remarketing? This is the practice of displaying ads to audiences that have already visited your website. You can also pull remarketing targets from mobile app users and your email marketing lists (as of 2020).
Without getting too technical, remarketing works by “tagging” your site visitors. This allows you to target them with display ads wherever they go on the Internet. If you’ve ever visited a website and then seen a site for that website hours or days later, this is remarketing at work.
Dynamic remarketing takes this awesome marketing technique a step further. You can get really specific and target your past visitors with the same products they viewed on your website.
When it comes to increasing ROI, remarketing is extremely powerful. These are people that have already engaged with your site and its content. They are even familiar with your products. This means that they are much more likely to convert. In some reports, retargeted ad messages increase conversion rates by as much as 150%!
#2: Create Responsive Ads
Responsive ads are quickly becoming the standard in the Google Display Network. That’s because display ads have a lot more parts and options than simple search ads. First, display ads can be made from text, image, video and rich media content assets. Then, there are size options for how big or small your display ads appear.
That’s a lot of choices facing a marketer. Rather than create ads for every option and size, responsive display ads do the work for you. You supply the ad parts (descriptions, headlines, images, ogos, etc.) and then Google automatically creates ads based on what the responsive algorithm decides is the best message for each viewer.
The more assets you provide, the more options Google has and the higher the quality of the responsive ad messages the system creates. In turn, this produces stronger ROI.
#3: Utilize Multiple Audience Targeting Options
Compared to the Google Search Network, the Display Network has a lot more targeting options. While this can be a little overwhelming to a new advertiser, it is actually a good thing because every targeting option has unique advantages.
These advantages can really help you target particular audience types. For this reason, it is important that you don’t get stuck in the routine of only using the targeting option that you’re most familiar with. Instead, you should use multiple options, especially if you want to reach customers at different stages in the buying process.
For instance, “Interests” targeting is great for capturing the attention of prospects just entering the funnel. Once these prospects have matured and are ready to convert, the “In Market Audiences” is a perfect end-of-funnel targeting option.
Another choice is to go with “Similar Audiences.” This uses data gathered from your remarketing lists (mentioned earlier) and then finds audiences that fit a similar profile. It is a great way to expand your user base and ensure that you aren’t finding irrelevant audiences.
These are just three of the many options available. You should explore each one and what it brings to the table and make smart decisions about which targeting methods you use with your campaigns to drive ROI.
#4: Don’t Just Target Users, Also Target Websites (And Content)!
On the topic of targeting, it’s important to note that display targeting can be either user-based or website-based. User-based is what you’re already familiar with; you are trying to target specific, human audiences that are relevant to your business and products/services.
Website-based targeting, on the other hand, is not so specific. Managed placements are about choosing websites that have similar audiences to your company. Like placing an ad in a magazine, you know that not everyone that reads the magazine will relate to the message. However, a majority of the readers fit the same profile as your customers.
Do some research and find websites or online publications that your customers frequently visit. Then, see if these locations are in the Display Network. You can also look at YouTube channels that align with your business. For instance, a cosmetic company would find makeup tutorial videos a great match.
As you add placements to your list, be sure to monitor the results. You may find that some placements don’t provide the results you thought they would on paper.
#5: Be Careful Of Over-Advertising
We’ve all experienced an ad on the Internet that seems to follow us like a shadow. You watch a video on YouTube, there is the ad. You check your Google email —the same ad appears. Then, you see it again when you check the news. This continues for weeks and weeks. Pretty soon, you’re seeing the ad in your sleep.
Targeting the same individual with ad messages again and again is only valuable to a point. It is absolutely important to retarget and continue to stimulate brand awareness. However, continuously targeting people will eventually lead to annoyance.
This is a dangerous tipping point because annoyed customers will disengage entirely. It breeds a negative user experience and they may pass this resentment to others.
Over-advertising is a misstep that a lot of marketers make. You make your campaign, develop a targeting strategy and set your budget and then let Google do the rest. You may not even realize that customers are seeing your ads multiple times in one session.
To stop from over-advertising, use the frequency capping setting. This controls how many times your ad appears in a single period. This will also help you reduce costs, thereby improving your ROI!
Conclusions
Driving a stronger ROI from your Google Display Network strategies is about finding the right strategies and features that the platform has to offer. There are a lot of options to work with and you may have to burn some budget before you find the right mix that works for your business. That’s normal!
Don’t be afraid if your ROI is low to begin with. If you implement these 5 Google Display Network best practices, you’ll start to drive more revenue in no time.
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