I recently took, and passed, the Google Adwords Display Advertising certification exam. I though I would publish all my quick study notes as reference point.
Benefits of Display Ads
- Over 2 million websites are in the Google Display Network
- This gives access to around 90% of people online
Display Ads can help with the following advertising goals:
- Build Awareness
- Influence Consideration
- Drive Action (through remarketing)
- Customer Loyalty
Search Vs Display
- Search
- Primed to engage
- Limited branding opportunities
- Display
- Direct response
- Branding
- Remarketing for engement
- Reach throughout buying cycle
Formats Available
- Responsive / Text Ads
These are search ads, which are displayed on display network or - Image Ads
Ads setup as an image format - TrueView Video Ads
Video ads - Lightbox Ads
- Ads on Gmail
Image based ads which are shown on the Gmail interface - Ads on Mobile Apps
Targeting
- Keyword Targeting
- Can add negative keywords just like in search
- This is a contextual target which is automated by Adwords, so you are shown on sites or pages where the content is similar to your keywords, say holiday blogs.
- Placement Targeting
- Allow you to target specific sites like theage.com.au for example
- A managed placement type, you have the option to select
- URL
- Section of site
- Youtube Channel
- Topic
- This is like keyword targeting but broader
- Topics can include like Health
- Another example of a contextual targeting which is automated by Adwords
- Remarketing
- Interests
- Demographics
- Target ads by age, gender and other demographics
- A downside is there is a percentage of users with unknown demographical data
Ad Extensions
Only two are available for display ads:
- Call Extension
- Location Extension
Bidding & Bid Types
Can be measured in Viewable Cost Per Thousand Impressions (vCPM), CPC or CPA
At the time of auction, cost per click bids are converted to effective Cost Per Thousand (eCPM)
An impression is only counted if 50% of the ad is shown on screen and seen for 1 second if a image ad, or 2 seconds if a video ad.
Dynamic Display Ads
- Setup via a custom feed (like XML I guess) from your website
- Good for product based websites, if you dont make a purchase on your initial visit, then the products
HTML5
- This is the preference in format
- Easy to update and no plugins are required
Common Terms
View Through Conversion
- View Ad
- Don’t click
- Return to the site at a later time
- Convert
Reach
Total users who see the ad
Frequency
Average number of times an individual has been shown the ad
Frequency Capping
Controls the amount of times an individual will view the same ad. Can be set per day, week or month. This feature is only available on display ads.
DoubleClick
DoubleClick Campaign Manager (DCM) is the third-party ad server that allows you to plan, execute and measure your display campaigns through DoubleClick by Google.
AdSense
Google AdSense is a program run by Google that allows publishers in the Google Network of content sites to serve automatic text, image, video, or interactive media advertisements, that are targeted to site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google
Photo by Michał Kubalczyk on Unsplash