The pandemic changed the ways of the world — from the way we work to our interaction with other people.
Today, more than ever, your business needs to be visible. As people more often turn to the web to get everything they need, your customers are doing it, too.
Your business’s ability to make sales is dependent on how visible you are.
How does a 30% increase in conversion sound like with fewer costs? Sounds pretty good right?
You’ve been using Google Adwords to promote your business and you might have probably encountered Google Display Network (GDN) in there. But what exactly is this tool?
Google Adwords consists of two networks: The Search Network, and Google Display Network. The former, is a customer search using keywords related to your ad. Using these keywords, your brand will appear on search engine results pages.
Google Display Network (GDN) however, is a network of visual banners you see on the websites you visit. It’s not limited to Google search traffic, your ads can be seen by people who’ve never even been on Google!
GOOGLE DISPLAY NETWORK’S REACH
The Google Display Network is an incredible tool that takes your marketing to a greater level and you should take advantage of it!
After all, it reaches 90% of internet users and over 2 million websites!
It’s that powerful.
This huge number can look intimidating. How exactly are you going to place your ad in this vast ocean of reach without getting it lost into oblivion?
That’s where the real power of Google Display Network comes in.
Casting a wide net to reach more audiences sure sounds good. But you need to ask yourself how many of those people are ready to be customers? Also, if your business carries a niche product then perhaps your ads are not meant for the general masses.
Google Display Network helps you choose the right audience at the right time.
How?
TARGETING OPTIONS
A defined audience will sure put a limit to your reach BUT if targeted right, you’re most likely to get a higher increase of conversions and more positive leads.
BUILDING BRAND AWARENESS
Google Display Network is an awesome tool for niche marketing. For new brands, this is a great way to start a campaign in building brand awareness.
People who are not aware of your product, won’t actively search for it.
GDN is a proactive marketing tool that will put your brand at the front.
With a compelling visual ad, you’re commanding attention to your product. Building on that awareness, you make people curious and actively push your brand top-of-mind.
“Familiarity is the pre-condition of trust.” Sociologist Niklas Luhmann once said. Once you build on that familiarity (assuming you’ve targeted the right audience), people will trust your brand as a reliable choice.
REMARKETING USING GOOGLE DISPLAY NETWORK
If you’ve already built a level of trust with an audience or user-base, you can use GDN to target people who already visited your page — creating that consistent top-of-mind awareness for your brand — or consideration for those customers who visited your website and are close to the point of a purchase decision.
Remarketing follows people who previously visited your site (‘following’ them for a specific time), and it allows your ads to appear on various web pages they browse.
For example, if you’re browsing for a Scandi lamp and let’s say you visited this brand’s site. Within a few days, you’ll spot this particular lamp on various websites you visit. It doesn’t seem to leave you alone! So when you’ve made up your mind to buy one, you have this brand as a top-of-mind choice along with any other options.
Since it keeps popping up everywhere, Scandi might be worth considering, a revisit, or even an immediate purchase.
Whether you are building awareness or remarketing for a purchase decision, Google Display Network is your friend, making sure you’re reaching out to the right audience.
Do You Know Your Audience?
Before you proceed into targeting, it’s critical that you already know your customers.
Perhaps you already did your marketing research and have all the data ready which is great! You must already know who your customers are, as well as their online and purchase behavior.
Related: Google Ads Audience Targeting
Targeting Your Audience
Google Display Network has tons of targeting options to define both existing and potential customers. It can get overwhelming to look at these huge choices in choosing the right categories for your campaign.
It will be helpful to keep in mind that targeting is classified into two categories:
- Niche Websites
- Niche Users
TARGETING NICHE WEBSITES
This kind of targeting is content-based which targets websites that users often visit. Choose among these targeting options to choose niche websites.
- Targeting by Topic
This option allows your ads to appear on any websites that have content related to the topic you’ve chosen.
For example, If your product ad is about newborn baby clothes, then the topics you choose can be shopping>apparel or people>family, etc. Your ads will then appear on pages that have related content.
2. Targeting by Placements
Placements allow you to target specific websites where your ads will appear. This is a very direct way to target a page. You curate your choice of websites where you want to show your ads and use the Display Planner Tool to view estimated cost and traffic for that website.
3. Keyword Contextual Targeting
There may be a lot of topics to choose from the topic targeting options but somehow you just can’t define your product in a specific category. Keyword contextual targeting is ideal if your product doesn’t fall into a specific topic defined by Google. Create a list of keywords related to your product and add it to your campaign. Google will match your ads to appear on pages that have related content based on your keywords.
TARGETING NICHE USERS
User-based targeting options are meant to target a specific group of users visiting all websites.
Interest-based targets
This option targets casual web users who just started visiting pages of the same content. Interests have more specific subcategories to target users who often visit sites that show patterns of common interests. This is perfect if you aim to find new customers who are starting to show an interest in a topic related to your product.
Target In-Market Audience
This is a targeting option ideal for reaching out to customers who have not heard of your brand but are already researching your product. For example, people who keep searching for “newborn baby clothes” and also visit sites relating to that search, belong to the “in-market audience” for baby clothing products.
These customers already exist out there, searching and comparing different products related to yours. However, they don’t have a direct engagement yet to your brand.
Affinity Audience
Affinity targeting is pretty similar to interest-based targets. However, the behavior here is that the users’ interests are determined as a ‘passion’. These are not casual browsers. This is a type of audience who has shown consistency in visiting pages of a certain topic and are determined as long-time fans of a hobby or interest. These are your enthusiasts, hardcore fans, aficionados, etc.
Targeting by Demographics
This option is really helpful if your business has a niche audience. For example, if your business is newborn baby clothes, you would usually target families, moms, young parents, etc. Google Display Network provides tons of categories to properly define your demographics.
You can define your audience by choosing gender, age, civil status, and even household income.
We hope this provides helpful insights on how you can optimize your ads to reach your customers. Take advantage of using Google Display Network. It’s a powerful channel that leverages customer behaviors, timing, and connection to your brand. Don’t be afraid to experiment with your ads using GDN’s features, it got all you need and gives you a variety of testable methods for reaching your ad and conversion goals.