Stepping into the world of online advertising can be a most daunting effort. In a way it is a literal manifestation of the phrase “small fish in a big pond” for the digital world. Chances are whatever it is you’re offering is already out there in some form, meaning there will be competition with a head start on you. Now don’t be dismayed at that fact, a large part of these efforts is persevering through adversity until you come out on top. There are plenty of ways to get your name out there to your desired audience and customers, and that was is through a Google Display Ads Campaign.
Google Display Ad Campaigns
So what exactly are these anyways? Put simply, these are visual banner ads that appear around the web on Gmail, YouTube, and Google Partner sites, that are aimed at promoting your business to people as they brows the web. Now that sounds like the normal search ads, and it’s true, but instead of being simple text ads, they incorporate imagery to draw the eye and raise interest.
While search ads merely show up on the google SERP, display ads are far more wide reaching. It is estimated that the display network reaches 90% of internet users world wide. That’s a huge audience you can promote to. Google partners are various sites around the internet that have agreed to show ads on their site as part of the display network. This has the advantage of showing your ad on sites that are already related to your specific topic, ensuring that the chances of the proper audience seeing them is much higher.
An important thing to remember if you are venturing into the realm of display ads is that their end goal is ultimately different from that of search ads. While most of the time your ultimate goal of a search campaign is to generate leads and conversions, although awareness building can also be a goal, display ads should be intended the with goal of building awareness and not conversion/lead generation. This has to due with the audience the ads are served to.
This audience tends to be at the top of what is known as the “marketing funnel”, which essentially means that their odds of converting is extremely low as they are only now becoming aware of you, and in all honesty, probably aren’t interested. However, that’s ok, the point of the display campaign is to build awareness and get your name into the back of their minds. With that firmly in place in our minds, we now know to focus on other aspects.
What To Focus On With Display Ads
As mentioned, display ads have different metrics you should be focusing on from search ads if you want to make then most of them. Ideally what we’re looking at here is the indicators that the user is interacting with the content. The specific data we focus on here is the following: Bounce rates, average session durations, and pages per session. So long as users have come from the ad and spent a bit of time reading the content and having a look around at the other pages, we will know that their attention has been captured for a moment.
At the end of the day it’s all about getting the user to engage with your site, when it comes to using display ads to build your brand awareness. Remember that users are unlikely to convert on the first visit with this kind of effort, so you need to be willing to provide a budget that you don’t mind burning. It is ultimately all working towards the long term longevity of your business.
Pairing a display campaign with a good remarketing ad effort can help increase the chances of conversion/lead generation, but we’ll talk about remarketing another time.
Getting Set Up
If you’re considering venturing into that big pond of online advertising and using a display campaign to build up awareness about your self and/or business, you don’t have to do it alone. The Google Ad experts here at NetGain a certified and experienced with all aspects of digital marketing. Reach out to us here and tell us what you need. We’ll work with you to ensure you gain the visibility you need, and soar above your competition.