How Google Display Ads Can Help Your Business

By Matt Ennor | Monday, August 10, 2020

What are Google Display Ads, and why should I use them?

Even if you’ve never heard of Google Display Ads, chances are you’ve seen them many times before. In a nutshell, Google Display Ads are small image ads that are displayed across a variety of websites and apps. (Note: when we say ‘variety’, we actually mean over 2 million). Known as the Google Display Network, this substantial selection of sites reaches over 90% of all internet users worldwide. Not bad right? Display Ads may not be Google’s advertising bread and butter (that title goes to the much more popular Search Ads), but it is still a powerful online marketing tool in its own right. Read on to find out why Google Display Ads should be a part of your online advertising strategy.

Cost Effectiveness

There’s no simpler way to say it: Google Display Ads are the most cost-effective form of online advertising there is. As with Search Ads, Display Ads use a cost-per-click advertising model. That means you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. Therefore, if your ads show up 5,000 times on a website and don’t get clicked, it costs you absolutely nothing at all! There is also no minimum spend with Display Ads. You could start with just $1 a day if you want to, and you’ll be surprised at how much that $1 will achieve.

So, what’s the bottom line? When your ads get clicked, you get an interested potential customer looking around your website. When your ads don’t get clicked, they still provide significant (and free) advertising value. It’s a win-win.

Brand Awareness

The primary strength of Google Display Ads is brand awareness. By definition, the goal of brand awareness is to make people aware of your brand. For the most part, small image ads can achieve this, as long as they are placed where people are already looking. That’s where the Google Display Network of websites and apps comes in. People will see your ads as they are browsing the web, reading an article, watching a video, or playing a game. Even if they don’t necessarily click, simply displaying an ad on their device for an extended period of time (or even multiple times) can do the trick.

Google also allows you to target your ads to a specific audience. This means your budget will be used even more intelligently. Targeting options include categories like age, gender, location, interests, detailed demographics, purchase intent, online behaviour and even household income. That’s enough to make any advertiser’s mouth water! Once you build your perfect target audience and begin serving ads directly to their devices, you’ll have all the ingredients for a formidable brand awareness machine.

Remarketing

The second main strength of Google Display Ads is remarketing. Remarketing is the process of showing ads to people who have recently visited your website. It therefore only targets people who are interested in your product or service, keeping your brand top of mind. Here’s something that may surprise you though: Remarketing Google Display Ads typically don’t get many clicks, and believe it or not, that is not actually a bad thing. Think about it, if someone sees an ad for a website they’ve already been to, they already know how to get back there again. That means they don’t actually need to click on it in the moment, especially if they’re already in the middle of some other task. Instead, your ad serves to remind and encourage them to visit your website later on. The result? More conversions for an incredibly minimal cost.

Display Advertising – Online vs Traditional

Let’s demonstrate these benefits even further by drawing a comparison to a more traditional method. Imagine you’ve paid for a large billboard on a busy highway. First of all, it is likely to be very expensive. To utilise this kind of advertising space, you often have to be prepared to pay the big bucks. Secondly, most of the people who see your billboard will not actually be in your target audience. This means that only a fraction of those you reach with your message will even find it relevant. Thirdly, people driving past do not have time to look at your billboard for a prolonged period of time, or find out more if they’re interested. You can see that the ratio of pros to cons is not ideal, as is the case with many traditional marketing methods.

Now, imagine that you took that same message and put it into Google Display Ads instead. As we’ve already mentioned, it will not cost an arm and/or a leg. There is literally no minimum spend! Your budget is entirely up to you. Thanks to the many targeting options available, you can ensure that most of the people who see your ad will find it relevant. As your message resonates with more of its recipients, the value of your investment will obviously increase as well. People are also more likely to see your ads in a context where they are not pressed for time. That means they can take a little longer to look at your ad, consider your brand, and even click to find out more if they choose. It just goes to show that advertising does not necessarily have to be expensive, as long as it is smart.

Interested?

If you’re interested in running Google Display Ads, all you need to do is get in touch with the Dubzz team and we can talk you through everything involved. We have plenty of experience designing eye-catching ads, building target audiences, and running effective remarketing campaigns, all while keeping within Google’s specifications. Just remember we are here to help, whether you’d like us to manage things for you, or simply point you in the right direction.

Author: Matt Ennor

Matt has been working at Dubzz Digital Marketing since 2017, and is currently our Senior Online Marketing Consultant. He holds a Bachelor of Media and Creative Technologies from Waikato University, and Google Ads Certifications in Search, Display, Shopping, and Video.

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