What Display is good for
The Google Display Network reaches people while they read news, check email or use apps, across millions of sites and apps. It is a reach and reminder channel, not a demand-capture channel; nobody reads a banner instead of searching. The campaigns that pay are the ones with a specific audience and a specific job: bring back site visitors, show your service to people who recently searched for it, or put a launch in front of a defined segment for a fixed period. Everything else on Display tends to buy cheap clicks from mobile games.
When I recommend Display, and when I do not
- Yes: remarketing. The largest and most reliable use. Segmented lists, converter exclusions and frequency caps, described under Google remarketing services.
- Yes: custom segments from search terms. Reaching people who searched for “study in Australia consultancy” or “mortgage broker Brisbane” in the last days, on the sites they read next.
- Yes: launches and seasonal pushes with a defined audience, a creative that says one thing, and an end date.
- No: “brand awareness” with no audience, no exclusions and a target of impressions. It reports well and produces nothing.
- No: as the first campaign in a new account. Search Ads come first; Display is added when there is traffic to remarket and search data to build audiences from.
How I set up a Display campaign
Audiences
Custom segments built from your converting search terms and competitor names; in-market and affinity segments where they match your buyer; remarketing lists and Customer Match; and combined segments that intersect intent with location. Optimized targeting and audience expansion are switched off at launch and tested separately later, because they are where Display budgets disappear.
Placements and exclusions
Mobile app categories are excluded, along with parked domains, low-quality sites and sensitive content. Placement reports are read weekly and new exclusions added. For lead-generation goals, campaigns are limited to the web and to countries where you sell, with “presence” location targeting.
Creative
Responsive display ads with several headlines, descriptions, logos and images so Google can assemble the right size for each placement, plus uploaded static ads in the main sizes when brand control matters. Copy says who the ad is for and what to do; the image shows the product or the person. I write the copy and brief the images.
Bidding and budget
Manual CPC or Maximize Clicks with a low cap to gather placement data, then Target CPA for remarketing and intent campaigns once conversions accumulate; viewable CPM for awareness pushes with a frequency cap.
Measurement
Click conversions and view-through conversions, tracked through conversion tracking setup, with the view-through window kept short so Display does not claim credit for Search’s work. Assisted conversions and branded-search lift are reported for awareness campaigns.
Process
- Decide the job: remarketing, intent reach or launch. If there is no job, there is no campaign.
- Build audiences from your search data, site lists and customer data.
- Write the responsive ad copy and brief the images.
- Build the campaign with exclusions, caps and location settings.
- Launch on data-gathering bids; move to Target CPA as conversions arrive.
- Weekly placement and audience review; monthly report with the rest of the account.
Display mistakes I fix most often
- Display Expansion left on inside a Search campaign, spending Search budget on banners nobody asked for.
- No app exclusions, so most clicks are accidental taps in games.
- Optimized targeting on from day one, turning a remarketing campaign into a broad-reach campaign.
- One creative for every audience, unchanged for six months.
- View-through conversions counted with a 30-day window and reported as if they were clicks.
Pricing and next step
Display is run within my monthly PPC management fee; ranges are on the packages and pricing page. If your account already spends on Display, the free Google Ads audit will show where the placements and clicks are going. Video reach with tighter intent is covered under YouTube Ads, and the full list of Google Ads services is on the hub.