Guide to Display Advertising with Google Display Network

With Google Display Network (GDN), you have the opportunity to show adverts beyond the search results, on millions of websites and apps. But the outcome can become costly and fruitless if you don't give your strategy the right foundations.

In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to know to succeed with display advertising and maximise performance.

What is display advertising?

Display advertising is an often overlooked method for reaching your existing audience, increasing brand awareness and contributing to better results. Display adverts appear on various websites, apps and YouTube. Unlike text-based search adverts in the search results, display adverts use visual elements such as images, videos and animations to capture users' attention.

Reach of GDN

GDN reaches over 90% of internet users worldwide and includes more than 2 million websites and apps. This gives advertisers extreme potential in reach and the ability to reach their target audience wherever they are online.

The difference between GDN and other programmatic buying

GDN differs from other programmatic platforms in two important ways. Firstly, GDN is deeply integrated into the Google ecosystem. This means it works seamlessly with other Google products such as Google Ads, Google Analytics and YouTube. This integration gives advertisers access to better data insights and more precise audience targeting.

Secondly, GDN offers greater transparency. Advertisers have better control and clearer visibility into where their adverts are shown compared to many other programmatic networks. This makes it easier for businesses to understand exactly how their advertising budget is being used and to optimise their campaigns based on actual results.

Benefits of GDN and Google's ecosystem

• Comprehensive audience data: Through integration with Google's search engine data and user information from various Google services, GDN can offer highly precise audience targeting.
• Powerful remarketing capabilities: GDN makes it easy to target users who have previously visited your website or interacted with your products and services.
• Flexible ad formats: From static banners to responsive display ads and dynamic product ads, GDN offers a wide range of formats to meet different marketing needs.
• Cost efficiency: With various bidding models and the ability for detailed optimisation, GDN can often offer better ROI than many other advertising platforms.

Sizes and types of display ads

Static display ads

Traditional banner ads are static or animated images in standardised sizes. The most common sizes for banner ads on GDN include:

468 x 60 – Standard Banner (desktop, mobile)
250 x 250 – Square (desktop, mobile, tablet)
728 x 90 – Leaderboard Banner (desktop, mobile)
970 x 90 – Large Leaderboard (desktop)
200 x 200 – Small Square (desktop, mobile)
320 x 100 – Large Mobile Banner (mobile, tablet)
120 x 600 – Skyscraper (desktop)
160 x 600 – Wide Skyscraper (desktop)
300 x 600 – Half-Page (desktop)
300 x 250 – Inline Rectangle (desktop, mobile, tablet)
336 x 280 – Large Rectangle (desktop, mobile)

Responsive display ads

Responsive display ads are a dynamic ad format where you provide various elements such as headlines, descriptions, images and logos. Google then uses machine learning to automatically create and optimise ads that suit different ad placements and screen sizes.

Dynamic product ads

For e-commerce businesses, GDN offers dynamic product ads that automatically show relevant products from your product feed based on the user's previous behaviour and interests.

Interactive ad elements and HTML5

Modern display ads have taken a significant step forward thanks to HTML5 technology, which enables the creation of complex, animated and interactive ads.

These can include expandable ads that grow when the user interacts with them, carousels that display multiple products in a single ad, embedded videos for more dynamic content, and engaging mini-games or quizzes.

This type of advanced advert has the potential to significantly increase both user engagement and conversion rate. It's worth noting, however, that while these interactive elements offer exciting opportunities, they often require more resources to create and can encounter limitations in certain ad placements.

Despite these challenges, they represent an exciting development in digital advertising, offering users a more engaging and memorable experience.

Audience segmentation and strategies

Audience segmentation is key to successful display advertising. GDN offers several powerful options for reaching the right people with the right message.

Remarketing

This is often the most effective form of display advertising and should be given high priority in your strategy.

Remarketing offers several effective methods for re-engaging potential and existing customers. You can target adverts to users who have visited your website, service and product pages, or app. To reach existing customers, you can also upload email lists and create audiences based on these.

In-Market audiences

In-Market audiences consist of users who are actively researching and considering purchasing products or services in specific categories. Google identifies these users based on their recent search history and web activity.

Affinity Audiences

Affinity Audiences target users with specific long-term interests and lifestyles, based on their recurring online behaviour. Google places users into different interest groups, from broad categories such as "cooking enthusiasts" to more niche ones such as "vintage car enthusiasts".

Life Events

This method allows you to reach people during significant milestones in their lives, such as when they start a business, change jobs, get married, move house, buy a home, retire or graduate from university.

Demographic refinements

• Parent of children in age categories (0-1 years, 1-3 years, 4-5 years, 6-12 years, 13-17 years)
• Age (various age ranges)
• Gender (male, female)
• Marital status (married, single etc.)
• Education level (e.g. secondary school, university)
• Household income (based on country, e.g. top 10%, 20% etc.)

Placements

This is possibly where there's the greatest potential to optimise your outcomes. Placements allow you to select specific websites, apps or content categories where your ads should appear to ensure relevance and brand safety.

Combined Audience Segments

The ability to combine different audience segments for more precise targeting.

Custom Audience Segments

Create your own audiences based on:

• Custom Intent: Users who have searched for specific keywords related to your products.
• Custom Affinity: Create more niche interest audiences than the predefined Affinity categories.
• Similar Websites and Apps: Reach users who visit websites or use apps similar to your own or your competitors'. This helps you expand your reach to potential customers with similar interests and behaviours.

Audience prioritisation order

For the best results, prioritise your audiences in the following order:

1️⃣ Remarketing (particularly for users close to conversion)
2️⃣ Customer lists
3️⃣ In-Market audiences
4️⃣ Custom audiences
5️⃣ Life events and demographic refinements
6️⃣ Broader demographic and interest-based targeting

Display advertising as strategy and synergy

Display advertising acts as a powerful support pillar for other marketing channels and creates synergy effects in the overall marketing strategy.

By increasing brand awareness before search advertising picks up users in your target audience, display ads can prepare the ground for conversions in both paid and organic search.

They also reinforce messages from email marketing, creating unified communication across multiple platforms.

In conjunction with social media campaigns, display ads contribute to broader reach and reinforced messaging.

In terms of native advertising, display ads cover larger areas on publishers' sites, providing a more comprehensive presence.

Additionally, they keep the brand "top of mind" among audiences being simultaneously worked by the sales team, which supports and streamlines the sales process.

This multifaceted approach makes display advertising a valuable tool in an integrated marketing strategy.

Display advertising for e-commerce retailers

E-commerce retailers can optimise their display campaigns by combining static, responsive and dynamic product ads. Display campaigns can therefore be a great complement to Performance Max and Google Shopping.

• Remarketing: Use dynamic product ads to automatically show products based on the visitor's previous interactions with your website. Complement with static ads showing lifestyle images to build brand awareness.
• Upselling: Create custom product groups in your feed and link them to specific remarketing lists. This enables targeted offers to existing customers based on their purchase history, encouraging further purchases of similar or upgraded products.
• Cross-selling: Leverage Google Ads audience segmentation to show complementary products to existing customers. Link related product categories in your feed to customer segments based on previous purchases to present relevant add-on products.

By implementing this strategy, you can maximise impression share for your target audience, and increase conversion rate as well as customer lifetime value with support from your display campaigns.

Good and clear display ads

The importance of good ads

It doesn't matter how good your strategy and execution are if the ads aren't good.

Creative and relevant ads are crucial for successful display advertising. To maximise impact, you should focus on creating clear and eye-catching headlines that capture attention immediately.

Include strong calls-to-action (CTAs) that prompt action and make it easy for the user to take the next step. Use high-quality images and graphics to visually reinforce your message and make the ads more appealing.

Ensure your offers are relevant and appealing to the target audience, which increases the likelihood of engagement and conversion.

Mobile optimisation

With increasing mobile usage, it's important to ensure your ads look good and function well on all devices. To achieve this, you should use responsive ad formats that adapt to different screen sizes.

Keep your messages short and concise to quickly capture the user's attention on the mobile interface. Include clear and clickable CTA buttons that are easy to interact with on touchscreens.

Bidding strategies and optimisation

Bidding strategies for display advertising

The most common bidding method for display advertising is CPM (Cost Per Mille), where you pay per thousand impressions. This is particularly suitable for brand campaigns and when you want to maximise reach.

Once you have sufficient data and insights, it may be worth looking at other bidding strategies.

• CPC (Cost Per Click): You only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Good for performance-based campaigns aimed at driving clicks.
• Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): Create goal-based bidding for those who click on your ad and convert. This works best when you have at least 15 click-based conversions per 30 days. You can also choose to include view-based conversions in your conversion count, which provides more counted conversions for the bidding strategy.

Optimising ad placements

Regularly review where your ads are being shown to ensure they reach the right audience. Identify and prioritise high-quality websites relevant to your business. If you allow Google to select placements for you, it's important to exclude underperforming or unsuitable placements that don't generate the desired result or that could harm your brand.

Consider creating separate campaigns for specific placements for better control and tailored messaging. Use contextual targeting to ensure relevance by showing your ads on websites whose content relates to your products or services.

Expectations for CTR (Click-Through Rate)

CTR for display ads is generally much lower than for search ads. A typical CTR for search ads is 5-20%, while a typical CTR for display ads is often around 0.05-0.2%.

This lower CTR is due to several factors:

• Ad context: Search advertising captures users actively looking for something specific, while display ads are often shown to users who aren't actively searching for the product or service.
• Ad fatigue: Internet users have become accustomed to seeing display ads and have developed a form of "banner blindness".
• Passive engagement: Many users may see and be influenced by your ad without clicking, leading to view-through conversions.

Despite the lower CTR, display advertising can still be highly effective for building brand awareness and supporting other marketing channels.

It's important not to focus solely on CTR as a measure of success. Instead, you should look at a broader set of KPIs to get a more comprehensive picture of your campaign's effectiveness.

These should include view-through conversions, which show impact even without direct clicks, as well as increased brand awareness measured through brand searches or direct traffic.

Also examine how display advertising affects conversion rates for other channels, and evaluate total ROAS or MER across all channels.

Measurement and analysis

KPIs

Setting clear KPIs is crucial for measuring the success of your display advertising.

Before launching a campaign, define measurable goals that reflect your business objectives, such as increased brand awareness, leads generated or direct sales. These KPIs provide a framework for evaluating campaign effectiveness and guide the optimisation process.

Regularly tracking these key metrics helps you quickly identify what's working and what needs adjusting.

View-Through Conversions

View-Through Conversions are a powerful way to understand the full impact of display advertising. By using the Google Ads tag for conversion tracking, you can track conversions that occur after a user has seen your ad, even if they haven't clicked on it.

This provides insights into how display advertising contributes to the user's purchase journey, even when it doesn't lead to immediate clicks. View-Through Conversions help highlight the value of ad impressions and can justify investment in brand-building campaigns.

Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER)

MER is an important measurement tool for evaluating the effectiveness of display advertising campaigns. MER is calculated by dividing total revenue by total marketing costs, providing a clear picture of return on investment.

For display advertising, MER is particularly valuable because it accounts for both direct and indirect effects of advertising, including brand exposure and assisted conversions.

MER thus provides a more holistic view of campaign performance than traditional metrics such as CTR or CPC.

Display advertising with DigitalMassa

Display advertising with GDN offers powerful opportunities, but truly succeeding requires expertise and a data-driven approach. As an experienced Performance Marketing agency, DigitalMassa has helped many businesses to:

✅ Significantly increase ROI through optimised display ads
✅ Create compelling ads that stand out
✅ Implement smart bidding strategies
✅ Continuously test and improve results

Contact us today and we'll help you advertise on GDN.

Daniel Masajada

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