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Google Display Network Playbook for Performance MarketersFall 2012
Table of contents
Additional resources
Sources cited
Display for performance goals
2.1 Display for the performance marketer
2.2 Reach performance goals with the Google Display Network
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3
Building a successful campaign 3.1 Targeting
3.2 Creative
3.3 Bidding
3.4 Measurement
4Optimization strategies and best practices
4.1 Use cases and optimization best practices
5 Tie it all together
1 Win moments that matter
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1Win moments that matter
4 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Here we are, decades later, and the concept—
and context—of the advertising experience
has drastically changed. New technological
capabilities, like real-time bidding, dynamic
creatives and auto-optimization, get you to the
right person at the right time. Sophisticated ROI
measurements show you the half that’s working
and how you can make the other half work better.
Today Wanamaker would be a much happier man.
Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company or a
small-business owner, your customers use the
Internet in almost every aspect of their lives—for
work, fun, shopping, getting information and, of
course, keeping in touch. In fact, the average American spends two months of their waking year online1.
Now is the time to take your marketing to the
next level and reach your customers through
the varied online touch points in their day-to-day
lives, not only while they’re searching. Display
advertising gets you there.
For starters, Google Display Network ads reach
people across all types of content—from small
niche blogs to sites with millions of daily views.
Regardless of where your audience is—on the go,
at work or at home—display ads reach them at
the right time with messaging that’s relevant to
the content they’ve chosen to experience. Bottom
line: Display drives performance.
Don’t just get in the display game—win it. This playbook shows you how.
Display: The way advertising was meant to work When the 1900s advertising innovator John Wanamaker famously lamented, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don’t know which half,” he didn’t have what you can get today: real ROI for your ad dollars.
1.0
With the Google Display Network, you can touch the right customer at the right moment, all across the web.
Display for performance goals
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6 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Reach performance goals at scale with the Google Display Network
2.0
The Google Display Network reaches 93% of all US Internet users, allowing you to maximize performance goals at scale.
Display advertising on the Google Display Network gives you the scale to reach the widest possible audience and the flexibility to fine-tune your message by audience. We make this possible by serving billions of ad impressions on over 2 million websites daily, and providing the technology to hone in on your specific goals. You can keep it simple by using text ads, or you can take advantage of a range of more sophisticated formats, like rich media ads—and beyond. No matter your marketing goal, Google Display Network makes it easy to win with integrated campaigns.
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7 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Display for the performance marketer
How display can work for performance goals:
2.1
With smarter technology, more-sophisticated audience-buying capabilities and more ways to connect, display has become central to the success of advertising. It can holistically improve your other online campaigns, increasing conversions across all channels, even offline.
Reach shoppers at the moment of relevance. Only about 5% of users’ time is spent actively searching3. The rest of the time—95%—is spent experiencing content. With Google’s display targeting options, you can reach your specific audience within that 95%—when they are shopping, browsing and potentially in the mood to buy.
Supercharge search with display.Together, display and search can supercharge the effectiveness of advertising. After seeing a display ad, customers are 136% more likely to search for your brand4.
Extend the value of your search campaigns with remarketing. Ninety-six percent of people who visit a website leave without taking the action marketers want them to take5. Remarketing lets you court these already qualified prospects and maximize the ROI of all campaigns by winning customers back to your site.
Customize creative. It’s advertising done smarter. Regardless of channel or device, you can personalize your creative to send the right message to the right person. But with display, there’s so much more you can do to customize your creative, sending the right message to the right customer.
Manage your investment— and make changes— in real time. Our easy-to-use (but highly sophisticated) measurement tools show how your investment is paying off in real time. You can improve campaign performance on the fly with incremental changes that adjust daily execution to match your overall strategy.
8 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
2.1Your consumers are engaged across all digital devices and channels— PC, phones, tablets, social media and video—and you should be too. You can reach users across these multiple touch points using the Google Display Network. Set up is easy—right in your AdWords account. From planning to measurement and analysis, we can save you time and money.
Mobile Desktop Tablet
Wake up
35% of Android/ iPhone owners use an
app before gettingout of bed
AM commute
59% of smartphone owners use mobile web while waiting
At home
70% of tablet owners use their
devices while watching TV
Bedtime
21% of tablet users use their tablets while
lying in bed
Lunch
51% of smartphone owners search for
restaurants
71% of web traffic is on Desktop
At work
Reaching your audience at the right moment
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9 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
2.2
Reach performance goals with the Google Display Network The Google Display Network makes it easy to integrate your entire marketing campaign in one place. Use display to add relevance to your search, mobile, video and social channels. You’ll connect with consumers better because you’ll reach them wherever they are, all across the web.
You can optimize bidding, targeting and creative
for each channel within the Google Display
Network. We help you improve overall ROI by
integrating your marketing across platforms
and devices.
Joanne’s company makes specialty yoga mats. She wanted to expand their success in search
by launching display ads that would reach young urban yoga enthusiasts.
On desktop, they increased awareness by advertising on lifestyle sites
that are frequented by their target audience.
On mobile, they prompted interest by creating a campaign promoting
20%-off coupons to people on the go, targeting those who were
actively out shopping for related items.
In social, they spread the word through “tell a friend” ads: Tell your
friends about the customized yoga mat you just bought and get a
discount on your order. People could also share this offer by clicking
the +1 button directly on the ad.
And…they topped it off in video with a YouTube campaign that showed
companion ads next to videos that their best prospects and customers
watch, such as those involving yoga classes and meditations.
Illustrative example
Building a successful campaign
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11 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
What it takes to win with display
3.0
The best performance campaigns combine efficient targeting with effective creative, flexible bidding and actionable measurement. Within this basic script for success, you have lots of options; there’s no one-size-fits-all way to come out a winner. Let’s take a look at some specifics of how to build a great campaign to reach your performance goals.
12 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Targeting
3.1
Targeting is all about reaching the right person at the right moment. This is not one-size-fits-all for every campaign, but rather takes planning and the flexibility to change—just like with search campaigns. We’ll start with the basics of setting up a campaign and move on to ways to target for the best ROI.
To get started with a display campaign, set up a new campaign within your AdWords account. We
recommend that you set up your campaign as ‘display network only’ to get the precision and control of all
the features of display without interfering with search performance. You can copy your settings over from
existing search campaigns, or make them unique to display.
13 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Choose your device targeting: Desktops & laptops, mobile devices and tablets
Choose your locations and languages
3.1
Since your customers are using many devices throughout the day, it’s important for you to be able to reach them with optimized ads for those devices.
Targeting by city, state and country is especially useful for advertisers such as local businesses, retail stores and auto dealers, who have geographically specific offerings. Language targeting is a must-have if your site is in multiple languages—it’s a great way to capture additional customers.
For new advertisers, we recommend selecting all devices to show your ads to get the biggest range. If
you’d like to get more specialized, you can customize audience targeting and ad creative for mobile and
tablets and create separate campaigns.
Step 1
Step 2
14 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Keyword contextual targeting: Show ads on sites related to your keywordsKeyword contextual targeting lets you target
relevant content and show display ads to people
at the exact moment they are reading—and
thinking—about your category. As in search, you
can select relevant keywords and bids. Your ads
are then targeted to relevant pages in the Google
Display Network that relate to these keywords.
With keyword-level transparency, you can see
which keywords are triggering conversions and
which are not. And you can fine-tune accordingly.
Interest categories: Show ads based on their inferred interests Interest categories send ads to people who may be
more likely to become buyers based on what they
browse and see online. Our system looks at the
types of pages a user visits and how often they visit
them, then associates relevant interest categories
(such as travel, entertainment and sports) with
that user’s browser. It’s safe to say, for example,
that if someone is looking at Caribbean vacation
sites, they’re interested in travel. They’ll probably
need a plane ticket, a hotel and maybe a car rental.
You can use interest categories to anticipate your
potential customers’ needs.
Choose your targeting type
3.1
Once you’ve decided on devices, locations and languages, the next step is choosing the unique targeting type that works best for your campaigns. We’ve described our targeting types below and how to use them. You can also combine targeting types to narrow your audience even further.
Note: More targeting types on pages 16 and 17
Step 3
15 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
3.1
Remarketing: Show ads to users after they’ve left your site Remarketing reconnects you to people who’ve
already visited your site, prompting them to
come back. It’s like plugging a leaky bucket:
Remarketing can help you plug the gaps of lost
revenue by re-engaging with users that have left
your site without taking the desired action. You
can send a fresh message, tailored just for them,
after they leave your pages. Your ad will appear
on other sites in the Google Display Network—a
proven way to engage wandering prospects and
bring them back to close the sale. Streamline
site tagging and optimize remarketing strategies
with the new Remarketing Tag—one-time tagging
that gives you maximum flexibility for designing
custom remarketing lists.
Your Website Website in network Shopping cart
Your Website Website in network Shopping cart
Your Website Website in network Shopping cart
A user visits your website
If the user clicks on your ad, they return to your site (and can be
directed to take a desired action)
The user visits another site on the Google Display Network
and is served your ad
How remarketing worksTargeting types (continued)
Dynamic remarketing for retail advertisers: Show users personalized creatives of the products they viewed on your site Use remarketing to deliver dynamic creatives by
linking your Google Merchant Center feed. Online
retailers using Google Merchant Center can use
Dynamic Remarketing to tailor creative to show
specific products a visitor has viewed. These
advertisers are bringing together all of Google
Display Network’s targeting, optimization, bidding
and creative tools to push their ROI as high as
it will go.
16 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
3.1
Topics targeting: Show ads on pages about specific subjectsThis broader form of contextual targeting allows
you to place your ads on pages with similar topics
(like Autos and Vehicles). Since this is contextually
based, you can use this tactic to get a high volume
of impressions for your topic. Consider layering
topic targeting along with keyword or placement
level targeting to further refine your audience and
reach your performance goals.
Placements: Show ads on websites that you choose Choose specific sites where you want your ads
to run. But look out: Placement targeting can cut
down on the number of times your ad is displayed.
Use it sparingly, for example when you know for
certain that your best prospects spend a lot of
time on the specific sites you’ve chosen.
Demographics: Show ads to users based on their age and genderYou can get your brand in front of large targeted
audiences based on demographics but also use it
as a refining tool. For example, you can combine
demographics with remarketing to show ads only
to consumers of a certain age or gender who
have already visited your site.
Targeting types (continued)
17 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
3.1
These ads work because they’re “in the moment.” They are relevant to what consumers are doing. The Google Display Network makes these tailored, targeted and timely connections possible.
You are a hotel marketer, and
it’s wedding season. You’ve got a
honeymoon suite available, and you want
it booked. On Monday a prospect visited
your site but didn’t make a reservation.
But because you’re advertising on
the Google Display Network, you
have another chance to connect to
her, through remarketing. So now
it’s Tuesday, and while that same
prospect is looking at a floral site in the
Google Display Network, she sees a
display ad for your hotel that offers a
complimentary night’s stay. You’ve just
sold the suite: she books immediately.
Now let’s say you’re a sporting-event
marketer. It’s playoff time and you need
to fill the arena. You know that your
target audience uses mobile phones
to check on their teams’ standings and
watch highlights. So you run a mobile
display ad promoting the best seats
for tonight’s game, and it shows up on
the sports sites where your fans look
up stats. With a simple tap, tickets are
bought and seats are filled.
Re-engage qualified prospects with remarketing
Reach the right audience in the right context with mobile
Example 1: Example 2:
Examples of display ads reaching the right audience at the right moment
18 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
A creative, simply put, is an ad. On display, this can be text, image, rich media, video or mobile devices. Designing the right creatives is an integral part of being successful with display, as they can have a powerful impact on your campaigns.
Know what types of messaging strike a chord with
your customers. Use Google Display Network’s
audience data to understand them, and our
creative tools to tailor ads that resonate. You
can even customize your creative according to
users’ past interactions, such as pages visited and
products browsed.
Make your call to action prescriptive: Tell people
what to do—click now, call today, use this coupon,
complete your purchase. Then, when you think
you have a great ad, test it to be sure your
messaging delivers as you’ve intended. We give
you everything you need to personalize creative
that sells.
Creative3.2
Use all ad formats and sizes, including text
• Jump on every opportunity to reach your audience by using a variety of ad formats and sizes on the Google Display Network. This will help ensure that you’re tapping into the maximum amount of publisher inventory.
Include a relevant landing page, not just the home page
• Just as you can with search, link your display ad to a relevant landing page on your website. There, post more information about the product or service. And make sure you make it easy to navigate to conversion/transaction pages to seal the deal.
Personalize ads to promote products and services most relevant to that customer. If you’re using remarketing, match your ads to the content that users viewed on your site.
Make the most of your creative
Advanced tip
19 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
3.2
Try Display Ad BuilderYou can use the Display Ad Builder to create attention-grabbing ads in just minutes. It’s easy. If you are new to display, our Display Ad Builder offers a gallery of ad templates you can customize completely or use as is from a selection of pre-designed ads created for specific industries.
Choose from a variety of templates, headlines, typefaces and colors. Add to that images, Flash animations and video. It’s your ad; own it by adding your logo, custom images and color schemes that complement your branding.
Build creatives on your own Publishers for sites across the Google Display Network choose which ad formats and sizes they’ll allow on their pages. Some publishers only allow certain sizes of formats to appear on their pages, so we recommend that you create your ad in all available formats and sizes for maximum placement options. For a full inventory and specs, check out this list.
Help center: To search for step-by-step directions to implement any of the features in this section, visit google.com/support
Creative formatsChoose the option that works best for you to build your creatives.
Creative has
the impact on campaign performance
than media12
4x
20 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
3.2
We were wondering: What’s there to learn from a few of the most iconic ads in the history of advertising? Can what made them legendary be brought to life in the digital age? Can digital advertising be as evocative and memorable as these famous ads of yesteryear?
To find the answers, we teamed up with the agencies Johannes Leonardo and Grow Interactive, and the legends who created those campaigns in the ‘60s and ’70s. We remixed the ads, bringing them to life in the digital age with new technologies.
The initiative, Project Re:Brief, is helping marketers and agencies learn that campaigns in new media can, in fact, be as inspiring and compelling as those created in Mad Men’s golden age of advertising. Good creative tells a story that comes through despite fragmented, multitasking audiences using multiple screens. A good story sells.
www.projectrebrief.com
Imagine what you can do with creative
21 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Bidding is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. There are several options for bidding—manual versus automatic, based on clicks, conversions, or even impressions, depending on your goals. Use this section to get some more context on the various types of bidding available.
Cost per click (CPC) If you are focused on getting people to your website, CPC bidding is a good place to start.
Cost per acquisition (CPA) With this approach you bid per acquisition, or conversion. This is a common strategy
used by e-commerce sites, which are focused on high returns for their advertising
investment.
Cost per thousand (CPM) Referring to the number of ad views, or impressions, this is most commonly used for
brand-oriented campaigns that want more eyeballs on their ads.
Bidding3.3
Manual bidding options:
22 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Save time and maximize ROI with automated bidding tools
Conversion optimizer
What
When to use
Requirements
Campaigns in which you want to automate bidding, but still
have control of targeting.
Optimize
Automates bidding to help achieve your CPA goals.
Conversion tracking 15 conversions/month
Display campaign optimizer
This is a really great option for marketers who want to free up some
of their resources by allowing our technology to do the heavy lifting with both bidding and targeting.
Conversion tracking 15 conversions/month
Expand
Maximizes conversions at a set budget by managing bidding and targeting
automatically. After you provide creatives, campaign budget and a target
CPA, this tool does the rest.
Enhanced CPC (eCPC)
Modifies bidding to improve chance of
conversions.
Campaigns in which you want to meet CPC goals and improve the chance of conversions. This can work well for
customers factoring in view-through conversion data.
Conversion tracking
Improve
3.3
23 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Measurement
Harness the potential of display advertising by using data to make decisions.
3.4
The goal of tracking your results is to learn what’s working—and what’s not—and make changes based on data.
If you’re just looking for impression or click data
by keyword or placement, we offer transparent
reporting right in your AdWords account. Most
performance advertisers are looking for more
information to help them make decisions,
especially data about how their display campaigns
directly meet goals like online conversions and
lead generation.
In display advertising, the last clicks don’t tell the
whole story. Shoppers may have seen your ad
many times before they visit your site. And even
then, they might not have clicked directly through
a display ad to get there; they might have come
through another channel. Knowing about these
exposures can help guide your ad strategies and
increase ROI. Different types of tracking—from
simple to complex—tell you how consumers
interact with your ad.
To help you measure the full impact of every
element of your campaign, we provide several
types of metrics to help you make decisions.
Help center: To search for step-by-step directions to implement any of the features in this section, visit google.com/support
24 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Track your display investment
3.4
Conversions (1-per-click) This metric is good for measuring conversions for unique
customer acquisitions, like sign-ups, because it counts
only one conversion per customer. Conversions (1-per-
click) count every AdWords ad click that results in a
conversion (within a 30-day window). However, if more
than one conversion comes from one person’s ad click,
the additional conversions won’t count.
Conversions (many-per-click)This measurement is great for purchases, as it shows
multiple conversions for a single AdWords ad click within
30 days. Let’s say that someone clicked on your display
ad and bought a pair of shoes, then returned to the
page through another channel (such as a bookmarked
page) and bought another pair. That would count as two
conversions for that original click.
View-through conversions (VTCs)
VTCs measure “assist” conversions. An assist
conversion is when a customer sees a display ad, then
later converts on your site. Why would someone use
this as a metric? Display can affect the holistic value of
other campaigns. Looking at view-through conversions
gives you insight into this, and lets you see the lifting
effect that display campaigns can have.
Multi-channel funnels in Google Analytics
Many channels can influence the sale. Most marketers look at the top of the funnel (views, clicks, opens) and the
bottom (sales, registrations, leads). This means, however, that they are overlooking most of the funnel, where
influence and research occur. Multi-channel funnels in Google Analytics let you look at interactions across different
digital media to show how these channels work together to help influence sales and conversions.
Multichannel funnels help you evaluate ROI, leading to better optimization and results. And that’s exactly the kind
of insight that John Wanamaker was looking for.
Conversion tracking shows how clicks and impressions lead to a desired action on your site. From within your AdWords account, you can copy and paste a snippet of code to add to the conversion page (e.g. purchase page, thank you page) on your site.
Conversions can show up in three ways in your account:
Many advertisers evaluate CPA and optimize
according to both click-through and view-through
conversions by creating a VTC multiplier when
looking at overall results and making changes.
Optimization strategies and best practices
4
26 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Here’s where it all comes together: Let’s look at five examples of how you can optimize your campaign, according to different goals.
We’ll outline some goals to help you get started,
optimize and grow your campaigns. A great
strategy is to build a strong foundation with a
solid ROI, then expand out for more volume. For
example, start out with campaigns types that yield
the highest conversion rates (like remarketing)
and expand out to campaigns that will help you to
scale (like topic targeting).
Optimizing as you go is key, but also keep in mind
that display is an effective tool for attracting new
customers to your site—so be careful about
limiting your campaign’s traffic by stringent
campaign settings. Your goals may also change
as you introduce new products or services—
necessitating strategies for acquiring new
customers and seeking volume.
Use cases and optimization best practices 4.1
Optimization—manually or through automated tools—is the key to success on the Google Display Network. To get the most out of your digital investment, actively manage your display campaigns just as you would your search campaigns.
Use Cases
“I want to get started with display.”
“I want to increase the conversions of users who have already been to my site.”
“I want to optimize my campaigns for better ROI.”
“I want to increase the volume of my display campaigns.”
“I want to save time and still achieve solid ROI with my campaigns.”
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27 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
“How do I reach the right audience?”• Just getting started? Try a keyword contextually
targeted campaign, which shows ads on sites related to your keywords. Keyword contextually targeted campaigns on display are set up the same way as search—create ad groups related to specific themes and input corresponding ads.
• Create separate campaigns for display to ensure that you’re getting the best performance. By separating search and display campaigns in your AdWords account, you gain more control and flexibility—and you’re able to make changes that only influence the campaign that you are intending to change.
”How do I choose the right ads?”• If you’re copying over a search campaign, you
should already have great text ads that you can use. As a second step, ensure that you’re reaching as wide a variety of placements as possible by adding in all available image ad sizes.
• Don’t know how to create a display ad? Try Display Ad Builder, which helps you quickly create customized ads in an array of sizes.
“Which bidding strategy should I consider?”Conversion Optimizer can help you minimize manual work involved and may be the best option for you if you have more than 15 conversions in the past 30 days, since it manages the bidding for you to get you the optimal amount of conversions. If you’re not eligible yet, use CPC bidding and remember that you can manage bids at the keyword level.
“How can I measure my campaign effectively?”Add conversion tracking to your site to learn which keywords drive the most conversions, and to make decisions based on that information. In your AdWords account, you’ll find an easy how-to under the Tools and Analysis section > Conversions.
4.1
“I want to get started with display.” 1
To get ‘display-only’ campaigns, you can copy your best performing search campaigns with AdWords Editor. AdWords Editor allows you to make bulk changes for your account easily—like copying campaign—and upload them right into the AdWords interface.
Advanced tip
If you’re just getting started, this is a great introduction to setting up your first display campaign, utilizing the targeting type most similar to search: keyword contextual targeting.
28 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
2
4.1
“How do I reach the right audience?” Remarketing is a no-brainer for performance
advertisers, since you’re re-engaging with
prospects that have already shown interest
by visiting your site. As a first step, set up a
remarketing campaign with several lists. For
example, you could target users who have visited
just the homepage in one list, and users that
have abandoned a shopping cart in another list,
so you can tailor the message and promotions
accordingly. For other ideas, see our remarketing
strategy list guide.
“How do I choose the right ads?” Match your creative to the type of remarketing
list. As in the example above, if you target users
who have just been to your homepage, you could
use a more general message. For users who
abandoned a shopping cart, you might extend a
special promotion or discount.
“Which bidding strategy should I consider?”Conversion Optimizer can allow you to get the
maximum number of conversions at a set budget
with remarketing. However, if you’re using manual
CPC bidding, bid more aggressively on the user
lists that are the most valuable to you, like those
that were the closest to a sale and abandoned
their shopping cart.
“How do I measure my campaigns effectively?”At the bare minimum, install conversion tracking
to understand which clicks and campaigns are
converting.
Google Analytics allows a greater depth of data to
analyze and make changes to your campaigns.
•Google’s new Remarketing Tag can allow you to use one easy tag across your entire site for flexible and customized list creation.
• If you’re already using Google Analytics, try out Remarketing with Google Analytics for easy, integrated remarketing list creation.
Try out new and easier ways to create remarketing lists
“I want to increase the conversions of users who have already been to my site. ”
Advanced tip
If you’re a performance-oriented marketer, the next logical step from paid search advertising is remarketing. Use these tips as a guide to setting up your campaigns.
29 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
4.1
Use the new Remarketing Tag: One tag across your entire site passes values based on specific page views or user actions. It will save you time and allow more-sophisticated list strategies.
Tailor creative to specific remarketing lists. Personalize promotions, calls-to-action and landing pages for each list.
Create user lists based on different combinations of pages visited (for example, users who have visited a product page but did not purchase the product).
Automate bidding with conversion optimizer. Conversion optimizer is optimized for users, not just for sites. When paired with a remarketing, conversion optomizer on average yields an 8% decrease in CPA and a 14%.13
Exclude or bid down on poorly performing placements.
Select a relevant landing page for each user list (Product/Sign-up/Contact us).
Shorten membership duration or target a different user segment.
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Seven tips for improving ROI for remarketing
30 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
4.1
“How do I reach the right audience?”These tips work well for campaigns using
Keyword Contextual Targeting, Topic Targeting or
Interest Categories.
“How do I choose the right ads?”Choosing the ad rotation setting ‘optimize for
conversions’ gives preference to ads that are
expected to perform best.
“Which bidding strategy should I consider?”Lower bids or pause poorly performing keywords
or placements.
• Optimize display keywords just as you would
for search. Increase bids on high performing
keywords, and decrease bids or pause
keywords that are not performing.
• Try the same tactics for placements.
Within AdWords, you can see any site
you’ve received a click on (it appears as an
‘automatic placement’ in the placements
section of the display tab).
“How do I measure my campaigns effectively?”At a minimum, implement conversion tracking
to understand performance. Try multi-channel
funnels in Analytics for more robust reporting.
“I want to optimize my campaigns for better ROI.” 3
The following points outline some great tactics for optimizing toward the best campaign performance.
Advanced tip
Another way to improve ROI is to send consumers to your most relevant landing pages. Add URLs at the ad creative or at the keyword level to send them to the page that will get that user the best information. This works especially well for retail, local and travel verticals.
31 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
4.1
Start your campaigns.
Check that your campaign is running within the first 24 hours. Then look at the automatic reports section and correct any mis-targeting by excluding placements that appear irrelevant.
Optimize for conversion volume and CPA.
• Expand on what’s working by adding more keywords, categories or placements and pause what’s not working.
• Tweak bids: Increase or decrease bids at the site level to get closer to your target CPA
• Turn on Conversion Optimizer once you’ve reached 15 conversions.
Optimize for impression
and click volume.
• Before changing a bid, make sure that there’s enough volume to warrant making a change. Change bids at the placement or keyword level after at least one week of data. Focus on the placements or keywords where you’re spending the most money.
• Leave wiggle room for your CPA goals. CPA may be higher in the first week, as the system is learning, but will stabilize after about 50 conversions.
Maintain performance.
For best results, check on your campaigns at least once a month to make sure they are performing as best they can, while making small changes as needed.
1x 1x
1x 1x
Day 1 Week 1 Week 2 Once a month
Optimization calendar for performance campaigns
32 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
4.1
“How do I reach the right audience?”There are lots of options for reaching new
customers and increasing volume on the Google
Display Network, while still maintaining ROI. Here
are two good strategies:
• Topic targeting: Use broad topics to cast
a wide net. Create a new campaign with
relevant topics, or consider pairing it with
Keyword Contextual Targeting for more
precision. Also consider layering topic
targeting with demographics for more
targeted precision.
• To increase volume on an existing Keyword
Contextually Targeted campaign, try adding
new keywords to your campaign. These can
be synonyms of keywords already in your
account, or more generic keywords than you
already have.
“How do I choose the right ads?” Leverage all ad formats and sizes (including text).
You’ll increase the likelihood of reaching more
prospects by capturing all available inventory.
“Which bidding strategy should I consider?”When going for volume, a tactic you can use is
to bid higher to get maximum exposure. Bid up
on particularly well performing placements or
keywords.
“How do I measure my campaigns effectively?”View-through conversions (VTCs) are a great
option for measurement here in order to
understand the holistic value of these higher
volume campaigns.
If you’d like to increase volume and acquire new customers, these are some great suggestions.
Expand only to new prospects
For a specific promotion, guarantee that you’re advertising only to new prospects by using a remarking list that captures customers that have already visited your site. Excluding this list of users ensures that you’re reaching just new customers with these campaigns.
“I want to increase the volume of my display campaigns.”4
Advanced tip
33 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
4.1
“How do I reach the right audience?”Display Campaign Optimizer can be a great set-
it-and-forget-it tool for optimizing bids as well
as targeting. All you need to get started is ad
creatives and a budget.
“How do I choose the right ads?”Include all ad formats (including text) to let
the Display Campaign Optimizer give you
maximum reach.
“Which bidding strategy should I consider?”When launching a Display Campaign Optimizer
campaign, set an aggressive target CPA, at or
above the past 30-day Google Display Network
average CPA. You can lower this over time as the
campaign starts to ramp up. We also recommend
ensuring that your campaign budget is set at 20x
max CPA goal.
Measurement/requirementsConversation tracking and a minimum volume of
conversions are required.Wait about two weeks before tweaking these campaigns to ensure that the Display Campaign Optimizer is able to learn the most about your campaigns. After two weeks, try optimizing with small changes to expand to more volume or refine your audience targeting.
5
Let our automated tools do the heavy lifting—freeing up resources while still getting great ROI.
“I want to save time and still achieve solid ROI with my campaigns.”
Advanced tip
Tie it all together
5
35 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Take what you’ve learned and put it into action
5.0
Display advertising builds awareness, sparks interest and drives sales. It makes conversations happen with customers, and it can help other channels, like search, work better.
Google Display Network gives you the brainpower
of thousands of engineers through an end-
to-end advertising solution that improves
performance and efficiency. Everything you
need to make online advertising work—planning,
targeting, bidding, optimization, creative and
measurement—is at your fingertips. We connect
you to consumers who define your success.
Reach them through Google: That’s where they
are every day, at home, at work and on the go.
With display, you can reach your audience wherever they are—across desktop, mobile and video.
Layering display with the search advertising you’re already running often produces better results than either search or display alone because they complement and reinforce one another.
Without remarketing, you’re leaving money on the table and letting the 96% of users who visited your site without taking action walk away.14
Our redesigned contextual targeting engine brings the science of search to the art of display.
Measurement tactics, like view-through conversions and multichannel funnels, give you the best understanding of your campaigns for the smartest action.
Five things every advertiser should know about display advertising on the Google Display Network
1 2 3 4 5
36 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
Additional resourcesHelp center: To search for step-by-step directions to implement any of the features, visit google.com/support
Large customer site: google.com/ads/display
Small customer site: google.com/ads/displaynetwork
Project Re:Brief: ProjectRebrief.com
37 Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers
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