As mentioned previously, the recent changes to Google AdWords, along with the changes proposed at the Google Marketing Next 2017 Conference, have already helped businesses increase their AdWords sales and decrease time spent on ad-campaign management. And with the recent innovations just made to the Google Display Network (GDN)—such as the five-fold increase in AMP page-loading time for search and GDN ads—Google anticipates a huge rise in businesses’ revenue and ROI. But understanding these changes is radically different than understanding HOW those changes can help you as an individual business. And being that GDN controls over 2 million websites that reach over 90% of the Internet audience, it’s radically important to understand how the feature can be used, especially since Google is pushing more and more ads to GDN .
So, what are all the changes?
In addition to GDN ads loading up to five times faster than normal, PLA’s (Product Listing Ads) will now appear on the Google Display Network, but this will only apply to display ads in home décor and fashion.
Google is clearly pushing more and more ads to the GDN, so we want you to understand how you can succeed with its newfound significance. How can you accomplish this?
Trial and Error
We have consistently spoken about the importance of trial and error when discerning what features—or combination of features—will help you generate more conversions or identify relevant keywords, among many other strategy dilemmas. And being GDN is so powerful, yet complex, it’s important that you understand how trial and error can optimize your GDN ads. So, measure how your current GDN ads are performing, then determine HOW those ads could be improved based on this data. And considering users are generally further down the conversion funnel when they reach GDN ads, optimizing your text and visuals for intent-driven web browsers who are close to actually converting is also an intelligent decision.
Remarketing
We’ve talked about remarketing and how top-notch marketers are nearly 35 times more likely to use ‘cross service’ re-marketing. This tactic enables businesses to advertise their products in multiple channels and take advantage of potential prospects that lay dormant in each of those channels.
The same applies to GDN. For example, not too long ago, Google created the Similar Audiences feature for AdWords Search and Shopping campaigns to give marketers the power to target audiences that made the same search-queries as previous web visitors.
As it relates more specifically to GDN, the In-market Audience Feature, not too dissimilar from the Similar Audiences Feature, targets those audiences who are actively browsing the types of products and services that you sell. Google takes into consideration the number of clicks on related ads and those subsequent conversions, as well as the content of the websites they’ve visited. You can also use the Life-Event Feature to specifically cater to audiences who may be going through a transformative event that would attract them to your goods and services.
So clearly, re-marketing is crucial to succeeding with the Google Display Network, especially with the significance this network will continue to have. And also using A/B testing to discern the types of ads which are already generating ample results is another aspect of learning HOW to use GDN. Just be mindful of what your needs are as a company. If you do envision that GDN will help you reach your business goals in the future, invest the time and effort needed to develop a strategy specifically for you. With Google now pushing more ads on the network, it’s certainly an intelligent way to start the process.