The Big, Easy Cheat Sheet for Google Display Ads

Every sports team has its star player. Scores the goals. Nets the points. Wows the crowd. And every team also has a playmaker. Rarely scores. Not the fastest. But brings out the best in every other player on the field, and is the catalyst for those wow plays.

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Well, if PPC was a sports team (let&#;s just call them the Clickers), search would be the star and display would be the playmaker. And advertisers who know how to harness display&#;s abilities? Well, they&#;re the ones who win.

Studies have shown that 27% of consumers conduct a search for a business after seeing their display ad, and there&#;s a 59% lift in conversion when users conducted a search related to a display ad.

But you have to know how to run them right. And in this complete guide to display advertising, I&#;m going to share with you how to do exactly that.

Contents

What are display ads?

Display ads are visual-based ads you see while reading an article on your favorite blog, watching a video on YouTube, or using a mobile app.

What is a Google display ad?

Appropriately, Google display ads are served on websites and apps that belong to the Google Display Network (GDN)&#;but there are other display ad networks out there.

The Google Display Network consists of over two million websites and apps that reach somewhere in the ballpark of 90% of internet users. Such an immense potential for reach is the definition of a double-edged sword: True, you have the power to introduce your brand to tons of relevant consumers. But you&#;re also liable to introduce your brand to tons of irrelevant consumers.

In other words, display ads can cost you money and even your reputation if you&#;re not careful. We&#;ll talk about the steps you can take to avoid waste later in this post.

The importance of display advertising

At first glance, it can be hard to understand why a business would want to run display ads. Its performance pales in comparison to search ads.

People are served display ads while they&#;re consuming content&#;not while they&#;re actively looking for solutions as with search advertising. So why bother with display ads?

Differentiate your brand

Because you and your competitors are going after the same prospects, you have to find ways to separate your business from the pack. Thanks to the power of visual imagery, display ads give you the opportunity to establish (and distinguish) your brand in your prospects&#; minds.

Build brand awareness

Granting you such widespread exposure, greatest benefit of display advertising is brand awareness. As Larry Kim put it, &#;The single biggest predictor of whether people will purchase is whether they&#;ve heard of you before.&#; It&#;s no wonder that 84% of B2B marketers say brand awareness is their most important goal, followed by sales and lead generation.

Improve the performance of your other ads

And why might you want to improve your brand awareness? Well, to the point above, the more familiar people are with your brand, the more likely they are to click on and engage with all of your other marketing campaigns&#;search and social ads included. As mentioned in the intro, studies have shown that 27% of consumers conduct a search for a business after seeing their display ad, and there&#;s a 59% lift in conversion when users conducted a search related to a display ad.

In fact, there&#;s a metric dedicated to conversions assisted by display ads: view-through conversions.

There are other ways to measure the impact of your display ads as well.

Skyrocket results with retargeting

Most prospects don&#;t become customers right away. Even if they click on your ad, they&#;ll most likely leave your website without taking any action. With retargeting display ads, you target people based on how they&#;ve interacted with your website.

For example, you could target a user who viewed a product but didn&#;t purchase it with a display ad on that very product. Creepy? A little. Effective? Very. Take a look at these remarketing stats:

• In one study, retargeting display ads increased a business&#;s brand-related search queries by 1,046%. and site traffic by 726%.
• The average click-through rate for retargeting display ads is 0.7%, which is 10 times higher than that of regular display ads .07%).
• A website visitor who&#;s been retargeted with a display ad is 70% more likely to convert.

Google display ad sizes & formats

There are two types of Google display ads: uploaded and responsive.

Uploaded display ads

If you have the design resources to create your own display ads from scratch, then by all means&#;take the uploaded route. Google Display ads support JPG, PNG, and GIF. But keep in mind that even if you qualify for a particular placement, your ad won&#;t be shown if it doesn&#;t meet the size specifications for that placement. So it&#;s up to you to optimize your exposure by uploading different sized versions of each ad.

Responsive display ads

Because that&#;s not the most fun activity, Google introduced responsive display ads and then eventually made it the default ad type for display campaigns. Simply provide your visual assets (images, logo, videos) and some basic ad copy. From there, Google will test different combinations to determine which versions perform well. Best of all, responsive display ads automatically adjust in size to meet the requirements of specific web pages.

Google display ad sizes

If you&#;re planning on running only responsive display ads, you can go ahead and skip to the next section. But if you&#;d like to maintain control over your ads and you plan on taking the uploaded route, these are the 12 common display ad sizes you&#;ll need to accommodate:

• Mobile: 300×200, 300×50, 300×100
• Desktop: 300×250, 336×280, 728×90, 300×600, 160×600, 970×90, 468×60
• Both: 250×250, 200×200

Google display ad costs

Like the Google search network, the Google display network runs on a live auction system. When you&#;re eligible for a given ad unit&#;according to your targeting parameters&#;you&#;re entered into an instantaneous auction with the other eligible advertisers. Google determines your ad position and cost per click based on your Ad Rank, which it calculates using your maximum CPC bid and Quality Score.

Often, your actual cost per click is lower than your maximum CPC bid. When all is said and done, you pay the minimum amount of money required to outrank the advertiser in the position directly below yours.

According to WordStream data, the average CPC on the Google display network is $0.63. For comparison, the average CPC on the search network is $2.69&#;more than four times greater. That&#;s because search network clicks are generally more valuable, as we discussed earlier.

Google display ad targeting

The key to efficiently spending your display ad budget is layering your targeting parameters to yield the most relevant impressions and clicks possible. There are five main groups of targeting, and they fall into two categories: people targeting and contextual (topic/content) targeting.

Contextual targeting

With contextual display ad targeting, you have three options:

• Topic: Serve your ads on sites that fall under particular topics. For example, if you&#;re advertising an upcoming music festival, you can target topics like &#;music&#; and &#;live entertainment.&#;
• Keyword: Serve your ads on sites related to particular keywords.
• Placement: Target specific webpages, videos, or apps. You can learn more about display ad placements here.

People targeting

With people targeting, you have two options, but audience targeting opens up a whole other can of worms, which we&#;ll get into next.

• Demographic: Serve your ads according to age, gender, and parental status.
• Audience: Serve your ads based on interests and behaviors.

Google display ad audience targeting

Here are the many options available to you for audience targeting with Google display ads.

• Affinity audiences: people who share a common interest, such as sports, travel, or food.
• In-market audiences: people who are actively looking to buy a particular product or service.
• Remarketing audiences: people who have interacted with your business in some way, such as by visiting your website&#;a great way to reengage prospects.
• Custom audiences: mix and match to create your own custom audiences.

• Excluded audiences: Google Ads allows you to exclude specific topics as well so you can your brand away from irrelevant or inappropriate content. If you were advertising super deluxe ice cream or dessert products, for example, you might exclude websites involving weight loss or healthy eating (at best, you&#;d be seen as irrelevant; at worst, just cruel).

How to set up a Google display ad campaign

To create a Google display campaign, navigate to your Google Ads account and click &#;New campaign.&#; When asked for your campaign objective, choose &#;Create a campaign without a goal&#;s guidance&#; and then choose &#;Display.&#;

You&#;ll then need to

1. Provide your website
2. Name your campaign
3. Choose your location targeting and language
4. Set your budget and bidding strategy
5. Create your targeting parameters
6. Upload your creative and provide your copy
7. Review and publish

5 Google display ad best practices

Alrighty then! Now that we&#;ve covered all the technical details of display advertising, let&#;s talk about some of the best practices you can implement to maximize your returns.

1. Tap into your top-performing search keywords

If you want to try keyword targeting, start with your top-performing search keywords. The definition of &#;top-performing&#; is up to you, of course, but if there&#;s a handful of keywords that tend to drive low-cost clicks or conversions on the search network, why not give them a shot on the display network?

True&#;consumer intent on these two Google Ads networks is completely different. But insofar as clicks and conversions indicate that your search ads are resonating, you can feel confident that the keywords behind them are winners.

2. Use bid adjustments

After running your display campaigns for a while, you&#;ll have enough data to make informed performance judgments&#;which keywords are doing well, which affinity audiences are doing poorly, and so on. Bid adjustments&#;which you can set at either the ad group or campaign level&#;allow you to turn those performance judgments into strategy.

When you set a positive bid adjustment on a given ad group, you tell Google Ads to increase your maximum CPC bid whenever one of the ads in that ad group is eligible to show. When you set a negative bid adjustment, you tell Google Ads to decrease your maximum CPC bids for that ad group.

Plain and simple, using bid adjustments is a terrific way to boost your gains from top performers and cut your losses from poor performers.

3. Look at your referral traffic

Google Analytics is full of useful information. For display advertisers, the referral traffic report (which lives under Acquisition > All Traffic) is incredibly valuable. Basically, the referral traffic report tells you which websites are linking to yours the most. Put differently, it tells you which websites cater to people that could benefit from your product or service.

These websites make for the perfect places to serve your display ads. Because you know you&#;re advertising to relevant audiences, you can feel confident that you&#;re driving returns on those impressions and clicks.

4. Emphasize your value proposition

Consumers are beyond accustomed to display ads at this point, so your prospects can easily scroll past your ads without even noticing them. To avoid wasting opportunities&#;as well as money if you&#;re bidding on a cost per thousand impressions (CPM) basis&#;it&#;s crucial that your display ads grab your prospects&#; attention.

Royal Canin offers a good example of a strong value proposition with &#;Support their health at every stage.&#;

Obviously, the visual aesthetics of your display ads&#;color scheme, typography, etc.&#;play a huge part in this. What&#;s less obvious is the part your value proposition plays. Your value proposition is the benefit someone will enjoy upon becoming your customer. If you&#;re advertising a pair of men&#;s boots, for example, your value proposition might be the enhanced confidence one feels when he looks good.

No matter what your value proposition is, make it jump off the page.

5. Focus on headlines when writing responsive display ads

When creating a responsive display ad, you&#;ll be prompted to write four pieces of copy:

• A short headline (25 characters)
• A long headline (90 characters)
• A description (90 characters)
• Your business name (25 characters)

Regarding headlines, there are two key things you need to know: (1) Google Ads will never run both at the same time; (2) Google Ads will sometimes exclude your description. Regardless of which headline is selected for a particular iteration of your RDA, there&#;s no guarantee it&#;ll be accompanied by your description.

The takeaway: Make sure your headlines are enough on their own. Both should communicate the unique value of your business or the offer you&#;re making.

Use video

According to Bannerflow, display ads with video achieve an 89% higher click-through rate. And creating a video display ad is easier than you think. It doesn&#;t have to even be a recorded video. Some basic text animation and movement, or even just a GIF will suffice.

5 awesome Google display ad examples

No cheat sheet is complete without a little inspiration! Let&#;s wrap up this guide with five examples of awesome Google display ads. We&#;ll make sure to break down what makes them tick so you can walk away with immediately actionable tips.

1. CheapCaribbean.com uses stellar imagery

Our first example is courtesy of CheapCaribbean.com. Not only did it nail its targeting (came across this ad on a travel blog), but the images are beyond gorgeous. And no need for persuasive ad copy here. The affordable prices speak for themselves. When they say cheap, they mean it.

2. ClickCease taps into the power of fear

ClickCease&#;a software company that helps advertisers mitigate click fraud&#;served me this display ad while I was reading a Search Engine Journal article. What makes it so effective is the use of emotional ad copy to both grab my attention and communicate the value of the product they&#;re selling. Fear is an arresting, persuasive emotion. Because no PPC marketer wants to fall victim to click fraud, this is an ad that&#;s certain to leave an impression.

One small critique: This ad needs a brand name. Although it&#;s effective, it&#;s not as trustworthy as it needs to be to meet its full potential.

3. Wikibuy makes an undeniable value proposition

Let&#;s get competitive! The key to this Wikibuy ad? Simplicity. That right there is a dead-simple ad with a dead-simple value proposition: Stuff is cheaper when you buy it from us. The copy is minimal, yet it jumps off the screen. The brand name is there, but it takes a back seat to the value prop. Those of you in highly competitive markets should take notes!

4. Alteryx nails the headline (and offer)

This display ad comes from Alteryx&#;a software solution for data science and analytics. First of all, that&#;s a hell of a headline. Injecting a little aspirational sentiment into your ad copy never hurt anybody. Secondly, the subhead puts forth a great value proposition: We make analyzing data easy. And finally, rather than trying to take my money right away, they&#;re making excellent use of the content marketing funnel by offering an ebook.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website advertising display solutions.

5. LinkedIn makes it personal

As a B2B marketer myself, this ad grabbed my attention while I was on EZgif.com (an essential tool for my day to day). There&#;s a super fancy psychology copywriting tactic going on here. It&#;s called FOMO. No marketer wants to be a late adopter, this is a super clickable ad.

Easy & free tools for creating Google display ads

As much as we love display advertising, we&#;ve noticed a glaring problem with it: it&#;s not as accessible as it is powerful. A lot of small and medium-sized businesses simply don&#;t have the resources&#;time, money, designers&#;to create sleek, effective display ads.

Fortunately, there are a number of free tools on the market that enable you to easily create your own Google display ads. Here are two of our personal favorites:

• Creatopy: Drag-and-drop all kinds of free fonts, stock photos, and animations to create high-quality visuals that work across platforms.
• Canva: Browse thousands of free, flexible banner ad templates and customize them to match your brand aesthetic.

Start your first Google display ad campaign

Well, now you have everything you need to run a successful Google display campaign. If you need more tips, head here:

Digital signage has become the driving force behind the advertising and communication strategies of businesses across various industries. Companies are now able to tell their story to a broader audience in a way that captures their attention and gets them to seek additional information. The data sufficiently prove the efficacy of digital signage. 

In this article, we are looking at digital signage statistics at a wider scale and then niche down to individual industries. 

Digital Signage Global Market Statistics

The global digital signage market is witnessing significant growth, driven by advancements in display technology, increasing demand for personalized and interactive content, and the rising adoption of digital signage in various industries. 

The global digital signage market was valued at $18.7 billion in and is projected to reach $26.1 billion by , growing at a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period.

This growth is attributed to the demand for high-resolution displays in commercial settings, the rapid growth of technological advancements, and the demand for digital signage in infrastructural applications. 

Retail is the largest application segment for digital signage and takes up a significant market share. However, other sectors, such as transportation, healthcare, hospitality, and education, are also adopting digital signage solutions.

North America dominates the global digital signage market, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The Asia Pacific region is expected to witness significant growth due to increasing investments in infrastructure development and the retail sector.

Growth Trends Across Industries

Retail

94% of retailers use or have used digital signage to reimagine and improve their customers' in-store experience. 80% of them consider it important to make those experiences a reality. 

Apart from positive customer experiences, 20% of retailers believe digital signage will help them stand out from their competitors.

40% of retailers say that digital signage is an essential part of their customer's in-store experiences, while another 40% say it&#;s important for specific purposes or a set of purposes.

68% of customers say digital signage would make them more likely to buy advertised products.

Displaying sales and promotions on your digital displays can skyrocket your sales by 30%. 

Storefront digital displays entice customers to enter a store, driving foot traffic by 17%. 

Healthcare

Placing digital screens that include queue-management information such as estimated waiting times in waiting areas can help lower anxiety, alleviate frustration, and reduce the perceived wait time by as much as 35%.

In the medical industry, digital signage can be effective in conveying information to patients. A study found that 75% of hospital patients could recall at least one message from a digital sign. 

One survey by ReferralMD found that 83% of patients spend a significant amount of time on a hospital's digital content. 

78% of patients say they actively seek digital health solutions whenever possible.

52% of patients get some health information from digital signage.

Corporate

60% of employees feel more informed about company initiatives and events through digital signage. This improves employee engagement and helps create a cohesive corporate culture.

Deploying digital signage in corporate settings has been shown to have a positive impact on sales and revenue. Research indicates that digital signage can increase sales by up to 30%.

Good internal communication, facilitated by digital signage, can drive 25% higher employee productivity. This is supported by The State of Business communication report that revealed that 72% of business leaders have seen a significant increase in their team productivity due to effective communication. 

Companies that communicate effectively are 4x more likely to report high levels of employee engagement.

Hospitality

Hotels and Restaurants

55% of travelers indicated they would be more likely to visit a hotel that offered self-check-in kiosks.

70% of hotel guests find digital signage engaging.

Digital menu boards in restaurants and bars have the potential to increase sales by over 30%. 

A case study of one European restaurant conducted by NEC Display Solutions Europe showed an 11.5% sales increase after deploying digital signage in their business model. 

TDn2K reported that restaurants with digital menu boards experienced an average sales increase of 8%, with certain establishments observing boosts as substantial as 37%.

79% of patrons have stated that technology makes the experience of dining in a restaurant better.

Fast Casual and QSR

Kiosks and digital signage boards can increase average customer spending by 20-30%. 

Digital signage has been found to make customers two times more likely to order dessert. 

Digital menus are one of the deciding factors when ordering for almost 30% of diners. This is because they help minimize wait time and help customers customize their orders to their liking. 

A report by food-service research firm Technomic revealed a 30% increase in drive-thru traffic between and , highlighting the importance of digital signage in capturing the attention of customers. 

Transportation industry

Digital signage in transportation facilities can be used to display emergency alerts, safety instructions, and evacuation procedures.

According to a survey, 72% of travelers find digital signage in airports to help navigate their journey. 

According to a study, 46% of travelers recall seeing advertising messages displayed on digital signage in transportation hubs. Transportation providers can generate additional revenue by selling advertising space on digital signage displays.

Advertising

DOOH

As of , almost four out of 10 consumers surveyed in 11 countries reported visiting a website thanks to a digital display. 

More than one-third of respondents said they used a hashtag seen on a DOOH ad, while almost one-quarter scanned a QR code.

98% of consumers have visited a DOOH venue type in the last 30 days, with 74% specifically mentioning going to the grocery store. 

49% of consumers noticed digital street-level OOH advertising in the past month. 

69% of viewers took some sort of action after seeing a digital street-level ad, such as searching for an advertiser online, visiting their business in person, or posting to social media.

Out of five advertising channels, consumers said that billboards and in-store digital displays were the two they found the least annoying. 

71% of people feel that advertising on digital billboards stands out more than online ads, and 46% believe it is more prominent than television ads 

LED advertising signs can generate impressions for a mere $0.15, making it a cost-effective form of advertising.

In-House

Digital displays attract four times as many views compared to static displays.

The recall rate for digital advertising signage is 83%, which is twice as high as that of traditional advertising.

Regarding brand awareness, digital posters exhibit an impressive effectiveness rate of 47.7%.

Signage has influenced the purchasing decisions of 68% of Americans, leading them to pay for a product or service.

64% of digital signage users cite increased customer engagement as its main benefit. 

Digital signage can lead to a 46% increase in customer satisfaction.

Education

73% of educational institutions believe that digital signage will be essential to communication in the future.

Digital signage in libraries has a 46% probability of capturing attention, leading to enhanced foot traffic and improved library usage. 

The adoption rate of digital signage in educational institutions has reached 87%, with institutions recognizing its potential to enhance communication and teaching. 

70% of colleges in the US have installed digital displays on campus.

87% of educational institutions, including K-12 schools, have already deployed digital signage systems to streamline communication as well as their lesson plans.

Events

Event technology can help increase event attendance by 20%, increase productivity by 27%, and decrease costs by 20-30%. 

Digital media in public venues reaches 70% of Americans, significantly more than the reach of the internet (43%) or Facebook (41%). 

Digital signage has a recall rate of 83%, meaning that consumers pay attention to digital ads and remember them. 

Consumers find digital signage to stand out more than online ads, with 71% of clients stating that digital signage catches their attention more.

Banking

82% of financial institutions utilize digital signage within their branches.

Over 70% of these institutions employ digital signage in more than half of their branches.

A remarkable 55% have digital signage implemented in over three-quarters of their branches.

Out of over 400 respondents, 65% utilize digital signage beyond branch interiors, such as exterior displays and drive-thrus.

The survey indicates that more than half (52%) of financial institutions produce content internally for their digital signage.

Conclusion

One key insight from digital signage statistics is the importance of data-driven decision-making. Analyzing this data will help you understand customer behavior, preferences, and engagement patterns. These insights can then be used to tailor content and messaging to specific audiences which will result in more personalized and impactful marketing campaigns.

To achieve that, you need a digital signage partner that understands your needs and is adapted to cater to them and grow with your business. 

Look Digital Signage software is your signage deployment partner for content creation and management with advanced scheduling capabilities to ensure content display without any hassle. Want to see what we mean? Sign up for a 14-day trial version today and explore all the features without any limitations. 

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