You’re absolutely right, embracing a full-funnel marketing approach is key! You understand that people need to know you exist before they start searching for you on Google or Bing. That’s fantastic! It’s clear you see the potential of display advertising and are eager to delve deeper into the Display Network. You’ve come to the perfect place!

When creating a new display campaign or maximizing your existing ones, there are many intricacies within the Display Network that can significantly impact an ad group’s performance. Let’s explore the top four insights I share with anyone looking to leverage Display ads.

Fact #1: Don’t Limit Placements to Websites

Many advertisers view the Display Network solely as a collection of websites for ad placements. While partially accurate, this understanding is incomplete. Besides websites, your ads can appear on YouTube channels, within YouTube videos, and across relevant apps and app categories.

Similar to how exact match isn’t truly exact in search campaigns, your managed placements might not be as precise as you’d expect. For example, if your chosen website has a related app, your ads could appear on that app even without selecting it as a placement. Always diligently monitor your placement reports to ensure your ads appear exactly where you intend. For those seeking fresh approaches to discovering and testing placements, I recently shared some of my favorite methods in a separate post – be sure to check it out!

Fact #2: Keyword Targeting Offers Flexibility

Before diving into keyword selection for your Display campaign, it’s crucial to grasp the keyword settings. Currently, we have two settings for Display campaigns using keyword targeting: Audiences and Content. Take a look at the current settings for one of my long-running ad groups:

The Audience setting displays your ads to users actively interested in your chosen keywords. However, it’s important to note that Google has started transitioning the Audience setting, prompting users to create custom intent audiences instead. Google’s recommendation on the Google Ads help page for Display keywords is clear: “To maintain ad delivery to individuals interested in specific keywords, it’s recommended to transfer your audience keywords to new custom intent audiences.” Keep this in mind if you’re currently utilizing keywords in your Display ad groups or plan to in the future. On the other hand, the Content setting utilizes contextual targeting. This means Google analyzes your keyword list and endeavors to find relevant websites or apps for placement. To pinpoint these placements, Google examines the website’s text, language, link structure, and overall page structure. Which one should you choose, you ask? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Each account performs uniquely. My advice? Create separate ad groups for each keyword setting and experiment to see which yields better results for your specific campaigns.

Fact #3: Google Can Help You Break Free from Audience Fatigue

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve hit the dreaded audience rut. Perhaps you have too. You’ve exhausted all imaginable remarketing audience options, created countless custom intent and custom affinity audiences (now consolidated into custom audiences), and feel stuck. When facing this predicament, Google offers a surprisingly effective solution.

When modifying your ad group audiences, navigate to the Ideas tab. Here, you’ll find a list of auto-generated custom intent audiences. These are created by Google based on various factors, including your remarketing lists, Search campaigns, user behavior, and even email lists (thanks to the expansion of Customer Match to the Google Display Network). Before incorporating any auto-created audience into your ad groups, you can preview the keywords Google used to create them. This helps you gauge their relevance to your campaign. Now, this is the kind of machine learning I can wholeheartedly support!

Fact #4: Excluding Mobile Apps – Google’s Stance vs. Ours

In the summer of 2018, Google removed the ability to exclude mobile app non-interstitials from the content exclusion options within campaign settings. Many of us logged into our campaigns one day to find this…

In my experience, the majority of apps where my ads were displayed were either completely irrelevant or reached an audience that had no interest in my offerings. This removal posed a significant challenge for my accounts. Fortunately, the PPC community is known for its generosity and willingness to share knowledge. Kirk Williams of Zato Marketing came to the rescue last year by sharing a workaround to exclude mobile apps by using AdWords Editor. This method allows you to exclude all mobile apps from your targeting with a few simple steps – perfect for protecting your budgets and ensuring you reach the most relevant audience. Thanks, Kirk!

Never Stop Testing

It’s impossible for me to definitively say which targeting option will be the absolute best for your business. Too many factors are at play to make such a generalization. However, I urge you to experiment with as many options as seem relevant to your campaign goals. And as you test, delve into the details of how each targeting option functions – you might be surprised to discover they might not be as targeted as you initially assumed.