Google Display ads do one thing exceptionally well: brand awareness.
With your ads appearing across the Google Display Network of over 2 million websites and apps, display ads keep your brand and products top of mind, and in a positive light.
But brand awareness isn’t the only thing these ads are good for. Google Display ads can help you attract top-of-funnel traffic, massage them down the funnel, and convince them to convert.
Before you get started with display ads, it’s good to understand which ad formats you can use in your display campaigns, and their pros and cons.
Let’s dig in.
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Google Display Ads Formats
The two main ad formats you can use in a Google Display ad campaign include responsive display ads and uploaded ads.
Uploaded ads are what first comes to mind when you think of display advertising. As the marketer, you have total control over these ads. You can design your own ad creative, complete with imagery and headlines, and upload it into Google Ads.
These ads give you the most control over how your brand appears in your display campaigns, and the messaging that goes with each ad. However, since you have to create the ad start to finish, uploaded ads are a lot more work. Plus, the best you can do is guess at what you think will be most effective. There’s also more of a chance for human error, since your ads may not display properly unless you double-check your work.
- Pros: Maximum creative control
- Cons: More time-consuming, more room for error, potentially less effective
Responsive Display ads, on the other hand, are significantly much less work and offer additional benefits of increased efficiency and scale. With responsive display ads, all you have to do is upload your creative assets — including your logos, ad imagery or videos, headlines, and descriptions — and Google will spin up the most effective combination on your behalf, in real-time.
Responsive display ads are certainly more convenient. You also get to rely on Google’s powerful machine learning to develop your ads — instead of relying on your own best guess. If you’re okay letting go of some creative control, responsive display ads are the way to go.
- Pros: More efficient, increased scale, more effective
- Cons: Less creative control
Google Dynamic Display Ads Formats
Dynamic display ads allow you to retarget previous visitors to your website with the very same products or services they browsed or added to their cart. Dynamic display ads are excellent for recapturing abandoned carts and encouraging people to return and make a purchase.
Because they are already dynamic in nature, you might guess that dynamic display ads rely on the responsive display ad format. You’d be correct.
Dynamic display ads use the responsive ad format. The main difference here is that in addition to uploading your brand assets like you would with regular responsive display ads, you also add your product data feed.
Get started with display advertising
There’s a reason U.S. advertisers are expected to spend over $90 billion on display advertising this year. These ads work.
For one of our ecommerce clients, our multi-channel strategy leveraged display advertising to increase top-of-funnel traffic and lift revenue by 43%. Read the case study here.Contact Your Marketing People now. Let’s make sure you’re getting the most out of your display ads.
