To connect with audiences on Google’s feeds, your ad creative should include high-quality visual experiences combined with the perfect blend of authentic, captivating messaging and an appropriately-sized ad. With the right balance, you can attain peak performance on Google, drive more sales to increase your company’s bottom line, and hit your benchmarks to get the best results. After all, Google’s Display Network reaches 90% of the world’s internet users.
In this article, we’ll walk you through:
- Why Google Display Advertising matters
- Different ad sizes and formats
- How to set up a Google Display Ad campaign
- Five best practices to make sure you succeed
The importance of Display Advertising
Differentiate your brand
With your competition targeting the same prospects, it's crucial to differentiate your business. The advantage of visual imagery is that display ads can be used to distinguish your brand in the minds of potential customers — and they’re a great way to interrupt consumers who are considering giving your competitors their business instead.
Generate brand awareness
According to the marketing “Rule of 7,” on average, a customer encounters a brand at least 7 times before doing business with them. Display advertising offers the advantage of widespread exposure, making brand awareness its greatest benefit. Because it has such an expansive reach, it’s not surprising that statistics indicate an annual growth of 7.91% with a market volume of $226.80 billion is likely by 2027. To make your brand known, get in front of consumers before they need your products or services. This way, you have a better chance of being considered when they make a purchasing decision, since they’ve encountered your brand time and again.
Increase performance of your other ads
A more recognizable brand leads to higher engagement with all of your marketing efforts, including search and social ads. Display ads, in particular, can complement and reinforce the messaging of other ads, strengthening your overall marketing campaign, and leading to better results. In fact, studies have shown that after seeing a display ad, 27% of consumers will conduct a search for that business.
Improve results with retargeting
Most potential customers don't make a purchase on their first visit to your website. Even if they click on your ad, they often leave without taking any action. However, retargeting display ads help address this issue by targeting individuals based on their past behavior online, including those who have previously visited your website but didn’t convert. Display advertising is a highly effective approach that can help you go the extra mile to seal the deal and engage the consumers who already know about your business.
Google Display Ad formats
Google offers two main formats for display ads: uploaded and responsive.
Uploaded display ads
If you have access to the design resources to create display ads from scratch, go ahead and use image formats such as JPG, PNG, or GIF for Google Display Ads. However, keep in mind that even if you’re eligible for a specific placement, your ad may not be displayed if it does not meet the required size specifications for that placement. To maximize visibility, it’s advisable to upload different sizes of each ad.
Responsive display ads
To make the creation of display ads more manageable, Google introduced responsive display ads, which later became the default ad type for display campaigns. With this feature, you only need to supply visual elements (such as images, logos, and videos) and basic ad copy. Google will then test different combinations to find the most effective versions. Additionally, responsive display ads are designed to automatically adapt to the size requirements of each web page, making it easier to display your ads on a variety of sites.
Google Display Ad sizes
If you plan to use uploaded display ads, here is a list of some of the most commonly used display ad sizes you’ll need to know:
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
The most popular Google Display Ad sizes
Of all the different Google Display Ad sizes, the following are the most popular and widely used.
Wide Skyscraper
160 × 600 px
Large Skyscraper
300 × 600 px
The “1.91:1”
600 × 314 px
Leaderboard
728 × 90 px
Large Leaderboard
920 × 90 px
Mobile Leaderboard
320 × 50 px
Video ads
300 × 60 px
Large Rectangle
336 × 280 px
Medium Rectangle
300 × 250 px
Large Mobile Banner
320 × 100 px
Setting up a Google Display Ad campaign
If you’re ready to get started, just follow this step-by-step checklist:
- First, log in to your Google account.
- Next, click New Campaign.
- From there, select Display.
- Then, Google will ask you to provide your website.
- Be sure to give your campaign a name that’s descriptive and memorable.
- Select your language and your location targeting.
- Determine your budget and bidding strategy.
- Develop your targeting parameters for this campaign.
- Provide your copy and upload creatives.
- Then, review all of your desired settings.
- Lastly, go ahead and publish your new campaign.
5 best practices for Google Display Ads
To maximize your return on Google display ads, consider implementing these top five best practices:
Bid adjustments
Once you’ve collected enough data from your display campaigns, you can make informed decisions about the performance of your keywords, affinity audiences, and so on. Bid adjustments, which can be set at either the ad group or campaign level, allow you to turn these performance insights into action.
A positive bid adjustment for an ad group instructs Google Ads to raise your maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid when one of the ads in that ad group is eligible to be displayed. On the other hand, a negative bid adjustment tells Google Ads to decrease your maximum CPC bid for that ad group.
Simply put, bid adjustments are an effective way to increase the gains from your top performers and reduce your losses from poor performers.
Focus on top-performing search keywords
If you’re interested in keyword targeting, start by using your most successful search keywords. If you have groups of keywords that have driven few conversions or clicks, you may want to test them on the display network as well.
Keep in mind that consumer intent between the two Google Ads networks can be different, but if your search ads are performing well in terms of clicks and conversions, then the keywords behind them have likely proven to be effective.
Analyze referral traffic
Google Analytics provides a wealth of information, and for display advertisers, the referral traffic report is extremely valuable. It shows which websites are linking to your website the most, essentially indicating which websites attract audiences who would benefit from your product or service.
These websites are ideal for displaying your ads since you know that the audience is relevant and therefore, you can be confident that you’ll see returns from the impressions and clicks made on those ads.
Make your value proposition clear
Consumers have become highly familiar with display ads, so it's easy for prospects to overlook them while scrolling. To avoid missing out on opportunities and wasting resources, it’s crucial to make sure your display ads stand out and grab the attention of your prospects.
The visual design of your ads, including the color scheme and typography, contribute to this, but the real key is having a clear and impactful value proposition that is prominently displayed on your ads.
Create strong headlines
Most responsive display ads will prompt you to write four required pieces of copy:
- A short headline (25 characters)
- A long headline (90 characters)
- A description (90 characters)
- Your business name (25 characters)
When it comes to headlines, keep in mind that Google Ads will not display both headlines simultaneously, and that Google Ads may exclude your description. This means that when your Responsive Display Ad (RDA) is displayed, there is no guarantee that your description will accompany either headline. With this in mind, it’s essential to ensure that both headlines effectively convey the unique value of your business or offer on their own.
Get your Google Display Ads noticed
Using Google Display Ads as part of your campaign can be a powerful tool for increasing traffic to your site and helping customers make their way through the conversion pipeline.
When integrated into a comprehensive marketing strategy, Google Display ads can amplify your campaign’s success. It plays a crucial role in elevating brand awareness at the beginning of the buyer’s journey, as well as re-engaging repeat customers with personalized promotions and offers. Clearly, display advertising is a valuable tactic and can be leveraged at various stages of the buyer’s journey to maximize marketing outcomes.
To make sure your Google Display ads are as effective as possible, reach out to the experts at MarinOne today. We can help align your marketing efforts to take your campaign to the next level.
