Increase Your ROI with These Google Display Network Targeting Tips

Vizion Interactive Reading Time: 5 minutes

Nearly 90% of all internet users worldwide, including 89% of smartphone users in the United States, interact with the Google Display Network. Given its reach, the Display Network offers companies looking to increase profits from advertising dollars an effective platform to connect with the maximum number of prospective customers at minimal cost. Unlike the Search Network that puts a company’s advertisements in front of customers actively seeking its products or services, the Display Network allows a company to market itself with display ads on a range of websites and increase its visibility among consumers unfamiliar to it.

Follow these insider tips to increase the returns on your investment in display ads:

  1. Use the Google Display Network Targeting Options
  • With this option, you can deliver your advertisements to consumers who’ve previously visited your website as they browse. This technique aims to maintain an awareness of your brand and product offerings in the minds of consumers after they’ve navigated away from your site. It allows you to tailor special content for frequent visitors of your site as well as those who’ve purchased your goods or services.
  • Managed Placements. This function allows you, rather than a Google algorithm, to choose the websites that display your advertisements, and ensures the sites are relevant to your business. You can use the Display Planner Tool to estimate traffic and costs expected to be generated by a domain, and to determine the ad formats a site supports.
  • Similar Audiences. Leverage your remarketing data to identify and attract new users to your site who have browsing histories and search behaviors that align with the users on your remarketing lists.
  • In-market Audiences. Google collects data on user browsing history and search behavior, and identifies those users likely to be interested in your business. This group typically includes users actively searching for products and services similar to those you offer.
  • Demographic Targeting. Google Display Network allows you to limit the users who receive your ads to those falling within the demographic parameters you prescribe, such as age, gender, or parental status. If you use this filter, take care not to overly-restrict the reach of your ad and undermine its effectiveness.
  • Display Select Keywords. Google matches the keywords in your display ad campaign to sites with high conversion rates that offer products and services complementary to yours. As a result, your ad appears on sites consumers use to search for items like the products and services you offer, which expands your pool of potential customers and increases your likelihood of conversion.
  1. Select a Variety of Formats for Your Ads

Consider creating both text and image ads so you can market your company on websites that support only one format, and to ensure the format of your ad will resonate with your target audience.

  1. Focus on Simple and Visual Ads

An important advantage of advertising on the Google Display Network is the ability to include visual content in your marketing materials. Available ad formats include:

  • Responsive Ads. This layout automatically adjusts to fit the specifications of a given ad space.
  • Upload Image Ads. You can select these types of ads from among your personal collection.
  • Engagement Ads. This interactive advertising format provides a visually rich and immersive experience for the user.
  • Gmail Ads. These ads appear above the tabs in a Gmail account user’s inbox.

Even though image ads enjoy a higher click-through rate than text ads, roughly 68% of ads on Google Display Network remain text-based.
Companies with limited resources available to create visual ads can use Google’s Display ad builder to develop display ads in a range of formats. You have the flexibility to control cost, aesthetics, and messaging by choosing the size of your ad banners.

  1. Monitor and Test Your Ad’s Performance

To accurately track the profitability of your advertising campaign, you must monitor its performance over time. If your ROI has not improved as planned, test different components of your campaign, such as targeting metrics to assess which has produced the best return. You should also review available Google Analytics reports to assess the impact of your ad on website traffic and conversion.

  1. Monitor the Impact of Mobile Games on Your Budget

Increasingly, companies have discovered that they’re allocating a significant portion of their advertising budgets to AdWords because kids are inadvertently clicking on display ads that appear in online games via the Google Display Network. Be sure to exclude mobile games from your Display Network target parameters to avoid wasting your advertising dollars and keep worthless clicks out of your performance metrics.

  1. Use Time of Day Adjustments for Your Google Display Network Ads

Take the time to set the schedule during which your Google ads run, accounting for the day of the week, time of day, and time zone. Consider the target audience you wish to reach with your ad and ensure you are not wasting money by running it when the audience won’t see it. You can also use tools available via Google to monitor ad performance throughout the day, identify peak performance times, and allocate your advertising budget to bid keywords or schedule your ads to appear during those times.

  1. Use Promotions Sponsored by Gmail

Delivering Gmail ads comes in the form of emails to users’ personal inboxes. The ad appears when the user opens the email, so take care to create subject lines that will interest the user. Gmail-sponsored promotions identify users based on the targeting criteria you specify, such as keywords and remarketing lists. Like other AdWords media, you incur a charge when the user opens your ad.

  1. Structure Your Display Campaign Strategy Around Your Budget

Because of the vast reach of the Google Display Network, advertising costs can quickly accumulate. To ensure you operate within your allocated marketing budget, experts recommend initially testing your display ad strategy on a small-scale. After you have established an ad campaign that delivers your desired returns, you can then consider expanding the amount of money you invest in that project or re-allocating funds to another, better-performing ad group.

  1. Place a Portion of Your Marketing Budget in Reserve for Strategy Testing

Google Display Network continues to roll out new features designed to enhance its functionality and improve user ROI. Rather than risking resources on promising but unproven tools, consider allocating a small portion of your marketing budget for a specific ad campaign (or a budget surplus) to test a new display ad technology. This approach protects you against undue losses and ensures you can take advantage of new opportunities to attract customers to your business.

Utilizing Google Display Network targeting tips can help increase your business’ return on investment. Most of your customers probably already interact with the Google Display Network, so it’s vital you are monitoring your marketing success on this platform. It’s important to constantly adjust and improve your marketing strategy to reach as much of your target audience as possible, and ensure your marketing strategy is producing returns on investment.

Ready to increase your ROI with Paid Search? Check out our PPC Management Services!

Also, check out:
Top 10 Reasons Why Your Ads Are Not Showing in Google
Moments! Google Ads and Analytics Keynote
5 Tips to Make Your PPC Campaigns Better
Key Tests That Will Help Optimize Your PPC Strategies

At Vizion Interactive, we have the expertise, experience, and enthusiasm to get results and keep clients happy! Learn more about how our status as a Google Partner, along with our PPC Management, Google Shopping Ads, Social Media Advertising, Amazon Advertising, and other Paid Media services can increase sales and boost your ROI. But don’t just take our word for it, check out what our clients have to say, along with our case studies.