How to Drive Results with Google Display Ads

Around 55% of companies use Google Display Ads (clutch.co)—for good reason.

The Google Display Network (GDN) advertises brands across over 2 million websites, videos, and apps, effectively reaching around 90% of internet users worldwide based on context, location, and audiences.

Undoubtedly, this is where you should direct your ad spend.

Google Display ads are visually engaging graphic campaigns that can supercharge your brand reach. You can reach audiences in various stages of the buying cycle and on multiple platforms, such as blogs, videos, mobile apps, and even search engine results. And when your ad pops up in front of an interested customer, their clicks will power conversions for your business.

Read on for a comprehensive guide to creating a successful display ad campaign to take your business to the next level.

What are Google Display Ads?

Google display ads are some of the best visual-based ad types on the Google Display Network. It helps advertisers market their products to interested users on third-party websites, videos, apps— just about anywhere they browse.

Compelling copy, variety in image formats, and a well-crafted benefit-oriented call to action (CTA) will go a long way in capturing a potential customer’s attention, leading to conversions. Your ads should be designed to keep your brand on top of your target audience’s mind without being too intrusive.

These ads are great for differentiating your brand and expanding awareness in a saturated market.

Google Display Ads Size

There are many size options available for Google display ads.

Ad Type	Dimensions
Skyscraper	120 x 600
Wide skyscraper	160 x 600
Small square	200 x 200
Square	250 x 250
Mobile banner	300 x 50 320 x 50
Large mobile banner	320 x 100
Half-page ad	300 x 600
Medium rectangle	300 x 250
Large rectangle	336 x 280
Banner	468 x 60
Leaderboard	728 x 90
Large leaderboard	970 x 90
Panorama	980 x 120

Or, you can get the most bang for your buck with Google responsive display ads (RDA).

Launched in 2016, this fan-favorite addition to the display ad category allows users to enter their assets (images, headlines, etc.) on your portal. Then, the Google search engine will automatically adjust their size, format, and appearance to build ads that fit almost any space on any standard Google Display Network (GDN) format.

Responsive ads maximize your reach, increase click-through rates to boost conversions and improve performance on all digital properties, including mobile devices.

3 Real-World Google Display Ads Examples

Whether you want to spread awareness about your brand or direct users to take a specific action, Google Ads Display can make it happen. But don’t take our word for it; look at these real-world search ad examples to understand why they work.

Guess

This clothing company highlights the brand collaboration with J.Balvin with vibrant hues and a no-pressure CTA, successfully capturing its target audience.

Salesforce 

This cloud-based software company launched several well-branded ads to reinforce its message, pairing it with subtle CTAs (“learn more”) and some genius color psychology (calming blue and optimistic orange) to grab interest.

Square Terminal

With the brand name, CTA, and benefits covered in just ten words, this revolutionary all-in-one credit-card machine provider made quite the impact.

Want to join their ranks? Contact Mediaboom, and watch the magic happen.

How to Run Google Display Ads in 10 Steps

Studies have shown a 59% boost in conversions when consumers conduct a search related to a display ad, which speaks to its potential to drive sales.

Want to cash in on it? Here’s a simple how-to guide.

1. Setup Google Ads Account

Setting up a Google Ads account is easy.

1. Head to https://accounts.google.com/ and create a Google account. Select “to manage my business” from the drop-down menu that appears. *Skip this step if you already have a fully-functional account for your business.*
2. Go to https://ads.google.com./, log in to your brand-new AdWords account, then follow the steps to create your first campaign.

Ensure your website is optimized for conversion before you embark on this journey. It should be easy to navigate, aesthetically pleasing with lots of white space, with eye-catching and high-quality visuals, and mobile-optimized for convenience.

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2. Define Campaign Goals and Objectives

Google display ads are a form of paid marketing campaign. To get a good return on investment (ROI), you need to define your campaign goals.

What do you want your display ads to do for you?

By setting specific marketing objectives (build awareness, influence consideration, or drive action), you limit the scope of your ad campaign to a small group. This will help you target high-intent customers, capture more traffic, and ultimately increase sales and revenue.

You can opt for “no marketing objective” to tap into all available features, but bear in mind this could take time to show results.

3. Choose “Display Network” as the Campaign Type

On your Google Ads account, click “+ campaign” and select “Display Network Only.” This ad type will allow you to tap into its network of partner websites that reach millions of people worldwide.

4. Configure Campaign Settings

Your work doesn’t end with creating a new campaign. You must configure it to reach (and hopefully exceed) your marketing objectives.

Start by giving your campaign a name. If you don’t want to do so, Google will do it for you.

Don’t slack for the following configurations:

• Ad assets: This is information you put in your ads. Go heavy on the contact information here, as it can double up as your CTA.
• Device: Choose which digital properties you want to target, so you can customize your ads according to their specific requirements.
• Network: Carefully choose where you want your ad to appear. For display ads, this should translate to thousands of sites across the web.
• Schedule: This is when you want your ads to appear for maximum conversions. You can also set a campaign start and end date.

Also, consider choosing language over location.

Of course, location-based targeting works like a charm, allowing you to target postal codes, cities, countries, etc. But if you cater to customers worldwide, displaying your ad in your target language will ensure it appears on the feed of everyone who has it in their browser’s settings. This will lead to much better reach.

5. Define Your Target Audience

The key to an effective display ad campaign is knowing what to target.

There are different types of audiences:

• In-market Audiences: Target users already interested in your products and services. They may be convinced to make a purchase when they see your ad.
• Affinity Audiences: They are narrowly pre-defined by Google based on their interests and shopping behavior surrounding a specific product or service.

If your target audience isn’t in these buckets, consider creating a buyer persona based on demographics, lifestyle, needs and wants, buying behavior, etc. Then you tell Google precisely who to target with keywords or specific landing pages with their “custom intent” category in audience targeting.

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6. Create Ad Groups and Select Targeting Options

Ad groups refer to ads that share common targets. They contain all your keywords, text, and landing pages, so you can easily organize your ads with the same theme. This will help you drive traffic and draw leads at a lower cost.

Ad groups can be a money-generating machine if you ensure integration among all assets and meet messaging consistency with a good quality score.

Once this is done, you can “choose how to target your ads.” You can show your ads on websites related to your keyword—the ones your target audience is actively searching for, target interests or remarketing, and so on.

You can also “narrow your targeting further” to increase the odds of appearing on specific websites.

7. Design and Upload Display Ads

Designing ads can feel daunting. Follow these tips for the best results:

• Instead of sticking to one ad size, create multiple formats of the top performing dimensions. This will help you get more impressions. Or just use Google responsive display ads.
• Add a clearly visible logo to boost brand awareness.
• Define your value proposition and be aggressive with how you market it. While it should take up ample space in the ad, make sure your copy is concise, with the entire piece taking up not more than four lines.
• Use a subtle, well-thought-of CTA to compel people to take a specific action, using the right color contrast (as suggested: red) to perform better.
• Follow the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle. Only 9% of display ads manage to keep the attention of the viewer for more than one second. You need to keep your content short and simple to reduce clutter and keep all eyes on the prize: your messaging and preferred action.
• Tweak the size of your ad to fit the dimension options available.
• Use meaningful imagery to grab interest with visual marketing.

When you have your creatives, you can move to the final destination: upload.

Head to “Create Ads,” choose “Image ad,” then upload the file. Create an ad name and provide a display URL.

You can add the page your ad will link to, and Google will give you a list of ad ideas to start with.

8. Set a Budget and Bidding Strategy

There are different bid types to help you meet your campaign goals:

• Cost per click (CPC) — set a maximum price for someone clicking on your ad.
• Cost-per-view (CPV) — you pay each time a user watches your video for at least 30 seconds.
• Manual cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) — for video campaigns to grab attention fast. As the name suggests, you’ll pay a set amount for every thousand impressions.
• Viewable Cost-Per-Thousand Impressions (vCPM) — based on ad viewability.

You can also go for “maximize clicks (or conversions!),” “target cost-per-action (CPA),” “Target Return On Ad Spend (ROAS),” or “Enhanced Cost Per Click (ECPC).” If you’re unsatisfied with your ads’ performance, a bid adjustment will cut your losses, and you can adopt a better campaign strategy.

As for setting a budget, you can enter the average amount you want to spend per day.

As traffic fluctuates, GDN may show your ads to more people. It is called “overdelivery,” but your spending won’t increase by more than 2x your daily limit. Google will also ensure you’re not charged more than 30.4x times your daily limit in any month, even if your ads reach more people than your budget permits.

9. Launch Your Google Display Ads Campaign

Once you’ve performed all the due diligence, select “Publish campaign,” and you’re all set to rock and roll.

Remember that while ads are usually approved in a day, it can take some time for them to be shown to your audience and yield results.

10. Monitor Performance and Make Optimizations As Needed

Analyze the impact of your display ad campaign using key performance indicators (KPIs); more on this below. Tracking your ads will help you make informed decisions about what’s working and what isn’t, so you can tweak the headline, color, ad copy, CTA, and even the location you’re targeting to improve results.

Admittedly, this can be a lot of work.

If you want to reap the benefits but don’t know how to go on about it, trust Mediaboom with your campaign. We will boost your brand and authority the way we did for Aspen Luxury Concierge and VB Events.

KPIs to Monitor When Running Google Display Ads

KPIs are measurable metrics that track how your Google ads display performs for a specific goal or objective.

Here are targets to keep an eye on:

• Impressions: The number of times your ad is displayed.
• Click-Through-Rate (CTR): The number of clicks your ad received divided by the total impressions. This is the percentage of impressions that yielded interest (clicks) from users.
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of people who took the desired action.
• Cost Per Click (CPC): How much you pay each time a user clicks on your ad.
• Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA): How much it costs to attain a single conversion.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): How much you earn (revenue) per dollar spent on display ad campaigns.
• Viewability: Ads that are actually seen by users on a website or mobile app.
• Engagement Metrics: Abandonment rates, bounce rates, conversion rates, new vs. returning visitors, page/scroll depth, pages per session, page views, time on page, top exit pages, unique visitors, etc.
• Ad Placement Performance: The area on the web page where your ad is shown to the audience.
• Frequency: The number of times a user sees your ad in a given time frame.

Not familiar with these terms? Contact Mediaboom for help.

We can optimize your ads according to KPI analysis. And with some help from our Google Ads cost calculator, help you generate maximum possible traffic for your budget.

FAQs about Google Display Ads

How does Google display ads grow marketing results for advertisers?

Google uses targeting options that harness the power of signals to place ads in relevant contexts. It helps advertisers reach a larger audience, boost brand awareness and recognition, and generate high-quality leads, setting them up for success.

Where do Google Display Ads appear?

Google Display ads can appear on websites, videos, apps, articles, and even at the top and bottom of the Google search results page.

What is the benefit of Google display ads?

Google display ads capture user intent, but their biggest benefit is building brand awareness and increasing visibility.

Let Mediaboom Manage Your Google Display Ads

Display advertising is one of the best digital marketing solutions to increase clicks and conversions, but it can be a tricky field to maneuver. That’s why you need a trusted digital marketing agency like Mediaboom in your corner.

We have the experience, the insight into Google’s ever-fluctuating guidelines, and a team of experts that will make things happen.

Contact us today to scale your business!