Google Ads Types and When to Use Them - Display Ads

Google Ads Types, when to use them?
Part 2

Display ads

You can also use the Google Display Network to advertise your products or services to potential customers.

Display advertising allows you to reach people outside of Google's search engine results by displaying text, image, and video banners as users browse the web, use apps, or watch videos.

The Google Display Network reaches 90 percent of all internet users worldwide and includes ad space on over two million websites and 650,000 apps. If you go to any news site, you're likely to see Google display ads at the top, in the sidebar, or even throughout the content.

The following are the different types of Google display ads:

 9. Topics/interest ads

Goal: Increasing product or service awareness by advertising on Google Display Network sites related to a specific topic or interest category.

Relevance to audience: This will be determined by the interests and topic themes you are targeting, as well as their relevance to your product/messaging.

Estimated cost per click: Low to medium (25¢ to $3).

Recommended for: Brands that want to get their product/service in front of a specific user segment to raise awareness, or who have discovered a perfect topic/interest fit for their target demographic and market.

Display advertising allows you to reach people outside of search engine results by displaying text, image, and video banner displays that appear as users browse the web, use apps, or watch videos on more than two million publisher sites.

While you have a few targeting options here, the broadest will be based on topics and interests, which can range from automobiles and vehicles to travel to home and garden.

With topic-based targeting, your ad will be served on any of the Display Network sites that fall into that category. Your ads will be shown to users who have recently begun researching those topics on sites in the Display Network using interest-based targeting.

If you're thinking about running these types of display campaigns on Facebook, it might be a good idea to invest some of your ad testing budgets in Google's equivalent.

Ease of implementation: Setting up a display campaign is simple, but you'll need to exclude specific keywords and placements (via negative keywords and negative placements) to maximize its effectiveness.

 
10. Contextual

Goal: By displaying your ads on web pages in the Display Network that contain a specific theme based on a grouping of keywords, you can increase awareness of your product or service and potentially drive sales.

Relevance to audience: This will be determined by the keyword themes you are targeting as well as the relevance of the site topics/users to your products and messaging.

Estimated cost per click: Low (25¢ to $3).

Recommended for: Most brands could argue that this should be one of the first upper-funnel campaigns to test because it allows you to get your product in front of users while they are researching specific products or topics relevant to your brand. However, this type of campaign is not appropriate for brands that have not had success with other high-intent campaigns, have a very low LTV, or have little interest in increasing awareness or acquiring new customers.

The contextual display allows you to get even more specific by serving your ads on web pages that contain the specific keywords you're looking for. This campaign type could be used to target content that contains specific branded keywords or keywords related to your business.

The vast majority of a user's online time is spent consuming and engaging with content rather than searching on Google. As a result, getting in front of users while they are engaging with content relevant to your product or service is always a potentially viable approach to testing and measuring lift. While not as important as higher intent search campaigns, the ability to show your ads (image, text, video, etc.) to potential users without having to pay unless they click is a fantastic opportunity.

Contextual campaigns are an excellent way to get started on the Display Network because they allow Google to show you niche sites where you can directly target your audience.

Ease of implementation: In general, you could begin running this campaign if you understand how to group a few contextually relevant keywords and create an ad through Google. It is not as difficult as search ads, but there is no app or direct integration to automate the setup.

 11. Managed placement

Goal: Use ad space on a specific website to raise awareness about your product/service/business among the audience of that site.

Relevance to audience: This is determined by the placement chosen, the site's topics/visitors, and how well your product and messaging speak to them.

Estimated cost per click: Medium ($1 to $10).

Recommended for: After identifying the best site for their demographic and market, brands that want to get their product/service on a specific site to drive awareness.

Managed placements for Display Ads provide even more granular targeting and control than contextual placements, allowing you to choose which websites, or even specific pages, to run your ad on in the Google Display Network. You can also directly secure this type of advertising with websites outside of Google but at a higher CPM rate.

Typically, you would launch this type of campaign after determining which website placements were effective in your contextual or topic/interest display campaigns.

Ease of implementation: In general, if you have some experience and are familiar with the Google Ads platform, this is an easier campaign to set up.

Check Part 1, Search Ads

Check Part 3, Video Ads