How to Use the Google AdWords Display Network for Smarter Banner Ad Buys

Ever have an interest in advertising on a popular site only to be told it will cost an arm and a couple of legs?  Your choices come down to:

A. Putting down tens of thousands of dollars without any inkling – forget guarantee – of whether or not it will be profitable.  – or –

B. Foregoing what could be a profitable source of revenue.  

The Google AdWords Display Network actually offers you a third, better choice:

C. Advertise on that site and dozens of similar ones with extremely small budgets, paying only when someone clicks on the ads.  Plus, you’ll get a ton of ad exposure for free.

About the Display Network

The Google AdWords’ Display Network (formerly the “Content Network”), which currently allows a way to place a variety of ad formats, including image, video, audio, and text on sites across the Web in its network.  

The Display Network offers three main ways to place advertising:

1. Choosing specific Web sites where you want your ad to appear;
2. Having your ad appear on sites and pages based on their content; or
3. A combination of #1 and #2.  

While the hybrid approach of #3 is typically best for ongoing Display Network campaigns run for their own sake, simply choosing specific sites should suffice for direct advertising evaluation.  

AdWords has been offering this alternative to their Search Network for years.  It used to be dreadful – just a huge money-suck.  Since 2008, however, Google has added enough customization and transparency improvements that the Display Network can now be an important part of your AdWords advertising when done correctly.

How to Evaluate Sites for Banner Purchases

Step One: Make sure the site offers remnant ads through Google.  To find out, view the source code of a page and do a search for “googlead.”  If this appears anywhere, they’re serving remnant ads through Google.  

Step Two: Within your Google AdWords account, create a new campaign targeted just to the Display Network on “Relevant pages only on the placements and audiences I manage.”  Set a budget, create an ad group, upload your ads, set a Managed Placements Max CPC Bid, and add that site’s domain name as a Managed Placement under the Networks tab.  

Step Three:  Don’t just settle for testing that site.  Wouldn’t you really like to know how other similar sites are performing?  Find more sites through Google’s doubleclick ad planner.  This site gives you a plethora of options.  Two of the most valuable will be:

• Enter the site in question under the “Online Activity” drop down, which looks for other sites.
• Choose the related category of interest under the “Interests” dropdown.  

Step Four:  Monitor and refine results like you would with your search campagins.  Don’t set everything up and go on autopilot.  Keep checking in and see what’s working and what’s not working.  Use conversion tracking and run daily placement reports to exclude sites, subdomains, and individual pages that aren’t performing.

After a reasonable time period, you should have a pretty good idea of whether or not the site will be worthwhile for a direct banner buy or not.

Benefits & Drawbacks of the Display Network

Buying remnant ads through the Display Network may not offer a direct apples to apples comparison.  For example, some ad sizes, positions, and pages or sections might not be available for the AdSense ads (the publisher’s counterpart to the Display Network).  Would a different type of ad in a better position offer better results?  Are there certain times you may not be able to get any ads at all, such as on newspaper sites during the political season?  Maybe.

AdWords may offer some benefits over direct banner advertising besides just cost and no commitment, depending on the publisher.  For example, you can always elect when you want your ads to run down to the time and day.  Plus, you get branding benefits essentially for free by not having to pay for non-clicked ads.  This is especially handy when a site does auto-refreshes or double serves ads on the same page, counting against impressions on CPM buys.  

A Note about Other Ad Networks

Most sites with significant traffic – and maybe even more so for non-corporate sites with low levels of traffic – offer some form of remnant advertising.  They do not always sell those through Google, which is the third largest ad network in the United States behind AOL and Yahoo!.  Google does carry an 87% reach according to comScore’s December 2009 rankings – just 4% behind AOL.  

Google’s Display Network offers more transparency and site targeting options than the other large ad networks to self-service users.  That’s not to say you can’t have success with the other networks – you definitely can, but for evaluating direct advertising buys, AdWords is pretty tough to beat.  Plus, it’s incredibly simple to set up and manage especially if you already have an AdWords account for search.

Tips for Success

In order to get your testing off on the right foot, follow these four quick tips:

1. Don’t run your Display and Search network in the same campaign.  Ever.  It’s incredibly annoying that Google opts you into this and recommends it for new advertisers when you create a new campaign.
2. Bid so that your average position stays top 4 for text ads and averages in the 1-2 range for other formats.  You will need to overcome the value to Google of four text ads for them to show your banner ad. 
3. Don’t freak out about click through rates.  They’re going to be immensely lower than on the search network.  While what’s good will vary depending on advertiser, site, messaging, and ad type, a good rule of thumb is that if you’re averaging 0.1% on the Display Network, you’re doing okay. 
4. Analyze results and test.  Sure we mentioned it as a required step, but it’s too important to only mention once. 
5. (Bonus) Once you have the above down, consider giving remarketing (retargeting) a try.  If the person had enough interest to click on your ad, but didn’t convert, why not go after more bites from the same apple.  Just don’t be too cyber-stalky.  

Follow these tips and you will be off to a great start in finding lucrative advertising sites and dangerous money pits.  Happy evaluating!