"Google Display Ads: Digital Impact Unleashed!"

Google Display Ads

 

In the domain of online promotion, the initial association frequently tends toward search advertising. However, the effectiveness of display advertising, which is not limited by search volume and can reach a larger audience, should not be underestimated.

Navigating the landscape of display advertising can be difficult for beginners due to the numerous targeting choices available. Determining the best appropriate targeting approach for effective delivery is a difficult undertaking. 

This discourse aims to explain the principles of Google Display Ads (GDN), a major participant in the display advertising industry. It wants to clarify the benefits and considerations of distribution, ensuring available even for those in the early stages of their advertising journey.

For those aspiring to tap into the expansive potential of Google Display Ads for broadening their audience and enhancing customer engagement, a thorough exploration of the following insights is recommended.

Table of contents

1. What is Google Display Ads

2. Placement of Google Display Ads

3. Types of Google Display Ads

     3.1  Delivery location targeting

      3.2 Delivery user targeting

4. Ad Formats for Google Display Ads

      4.1  responsive ads

      4.2  movies

      4.3  text

     4.4 image size

5. 3 ways to get results with Google Display Ads

      5.1 AB Test your text and creatives

      5.2 Schedule placement exclusions

      5.3 targeting test

6. summary

What is Google Display Ads

In the world of digital advertising, Google Display promotions, also known as the Google Display Network (GDN), are a strategic advertising strategy that allows for the display of promotions throughout a vast network of over 2 million websites linked with Google. This network includes a variety of platforms, such as news websites, blogs, Gmail, and YouTube.

Statistical estimates show an astounding reach, encompassing over 90% of the world's internet users.

Within the realm of promotional content, display adverts appear in defined ad areas on both websites and applications. For example, while browsing a website, one may notice advertisements in regions separate from the main content—a concept common to traditional display advertising.

The range of available display formats is broad, including not only textual advertisements but also visually appealing banner ads. (For further clarification, see the following section.)

A distinguishing element of search advertising is its deliberate focus on consumers who have previously conducted keyword searches, successfully focusing in on individuals who are already active. This tactical strategy draws attention to potential viewers by displaying adverts even during their online interactions.

Placement of Google Display Ads

Google Display Ads can be delivered to more than 2 million Google-affiliated websites such as Google Finance, Blogger, and YouTube, reaching over 90% of Internet users.

The target is mainly personal blogs, but it is also posted in large media such as the following.

[Examples of GDN affiliated partner sites]

・YouTube

・Pixiv

・Tabelog

・Oshiete goo

・Hatena Bookmark

・BIGLOBE

・livedoor

・OK Wave

As a similar display advertising service, there is "YDA" operated by Yahoo!.

GDN and YDA have the same basic structure, but the difference is that the place where the advertisement is displayed is the site operated by Yahoo! or the affiliated company of Yahoo.

[YDA affiliated partner site distribution example]

・Ameba

・Tell me! goo

・All About

・Mainichi Shimbun

・Cookpad

In the Japanese market, there are overwhelmingly more people using Google compared to Google and Yahoo!. In addition, the video market is growing rapidly these days, and a wide range of people are viewing YouTube videos.

Furthermore, if you run a site, you can set up AdSense ad space not only for major business sites but also for individuals, so the delivery destination of Google Display Ads will be overwhelmingly more than YDA.

If you want to challenge display advertising, we recommend starting with Google display advertising, which allows you to reach more people.

Types of Google Display Ads

GDN can display ads on more than 2 million websites, but it's not profitable to spend money on delivering to unpromising users without a strategy.

With Google Display Ads, you can target the delivery location and what users to deliver to so that you can approach the right users.

When delivering Google Display Ads, first understand the types of targeting.

Delivery location targeting

Manual placement

You can specify the delivery destination to display the advertisement.

You can specify distribution destinations by "URL unit" for web pages, "app or category unit" for apps, and "video or channel unit" for YouTube.

In the case of manual placement, since it is possible to deliver to the target users, there is a high possibility that it will lead to conversion, but on the other hand, adding the delivery destination is manual, and there is a high possibility that there are users who can convert even at the specified delivery destination, so there is a possibility of opportunity loss.

Therefore, unless you want your ads to be delivered only to specific sites, it is better to use automatic placements first and then manually exclude placements that are not expected to be effective.

Automatic placement

In contrast to manual placement, with automatic placement, Google automatically selects and delivers ads based on the keywords and topics you specify.

.Delivery user targeting

Remarketing

With this delivery method, ads can be delivered again to users who have visited the homepage or landing page once.

Since the user has visited the site once, there is a high possibility that the user is interested in the product, although there are individual differences.

Therefore, remarketing distribution can be expected to lower CPA and obtain conversions compared to other display advertising distributions.

*This function is called "retargeting" in Yahoo Ads.

Similar users

Based on the remarketing list, Google can automatically create a list of new users who have common interests, characteristics, or similar behavior to the users on the list, and can deliver advertisements to that list.

Since Google automatically finds users with similar characteristics to existing customers, there is a high possibility that it will lead to conversions. However, if the existing list is small, there may be no delivery volume or the accuracy of machine learning may be low.

Custom intent

Advertisements can be delivered by directly specifying keywords and URLs to users who are searching for a specific product or service or who are thought to be positively considering purchasing.

In addition, display ads operated by Yahoo! have a distribution method called "search targeting" that targets based on search keywords.

Users with strong purchasing intentions

While custom intent directly specifies keywords and URLs, you can specify from the genres already prepared by Google to deliver ads.

Custom affinity

In contrast to custom intent, which distributes advertisements at the time when purchase intent is high, it distributes advertisements to categories of relatively long-term interest, such as lifestyle and hobbies.

User attributes

Advertisements can be delivered to user groups that are likely to fall under attributes such as specific age groups, gender, marital status, child status, household income, devices, etc.

Ad Formats for Google Display Ads

Responsive ads 

Responsive ads are ads that automatically adjust their size, appearance, and format to fit your inventory.

The diversification

of devices is progressing, and users are viewing websites on various sizes such as smartphones, tablets, and personal computers.

Therefore, it is desirable to prepare banners of all sizes for display advertising, but it takes a considerable amount of time to create banners of each size and set them accordingly.

So take advantage of responsive ads to maximize deliveries in the shortest possible time.

In the case of Google Display Ads, Google will automatically generate ads based on the images and text obtained from the specified link destination. (Manual submission is also possible).

Movie

It will be delivered to YouTube etc.

By using videos, it is possible to convey to users information such as textures and usage that are difficult to express with text or still images.

text

Display ads have an image of banners, but it is also possible to place text ads.

Unlike search advertising, it is an approach to latent users, so they are not actively searching for products and services. Therefore, there is no need to include the USP of your product or service, and you should create ad text that appeals to users.

image size

<Example of when advertisements are displayed on a computer>

Advertisements can be delivered in various sizes with Google Display Ads, but Digital Athlete often uses 300 x 250 and 336 x 280, which can be delivered to both PCs and SPs.

In the past, I have tested various sizes, but there was not much difference. If you think about effectiveness and efficiency, it would be better to create and deliver from these two types first.

3 ways to get results with Google Display Ads

AB test your text and creatives

The click-through rate is an important evaluation point on the Google side.

• Poor click-through rate = ads not wanted by users
• Good click-through rate = ads wanted by users

Therefore, it is important to get users interested in Google Display Ads, which approaches the latent layer, unlike search ads for the visible layer.

Set multiple ad texts and creatives at the same time.

In addition, getting clicks on ads is the beginning, but the purpose of getting clicks on ads is to reach the set goals such as purchases and inquiries.

Even users who have gone to great lengths to click on an ad will leave if no content interests them when they view the landing page.

As an advanced version, it is desirable to divide the landing page so that the landing page and the content match the appeal that the user was interested in and clicked on the ad.

Schedule placement exclusions

In the case of Google display ads, we tend to focus on the ad text and creativity, but equally important to achieve results is the “placement exclusion settings”.

It is important to find creatives and distribution destinations that produce results, but excluding distribution destinations that did not produce results among the myriad of sites is a simple task, you can reduce wasted advertising expenses and expose your ads to high-quality distribution.

There are three main criteria for excluding placements.

・Extremely bad CPA (2 times the CPA as a guideline)

・Does not match your brand image

・Low relevance to your business

Create opportunities to check your placements regularly and eliminate unnecessary placements to improve performance.

Targeting test

In the case of Google Display Ads, ads are displayed when viewing Google sites or partner sites, so the point is what kind of needs you are viewing the site.

Therefore, create creatives for each target and test many patterns to improve accuracy.

Summary

By making good use of Google Display Ads, it is possible to reach a wide range of latent demographics that could not be approached with search ads, increasing the chances of acquiring more customers.

There are many types of targeting settings and it is easy to feel complicated, but let's start with remarketing first.

The reason is that remarketing ads are a method of delivering display ads to users who have visited your site once but did not convert for some reason, so ads can be delivered to interested users.

Maximize your customer acquisition by mastering Google Display Ads.