With over 2 million sites, apps, and videos in the network and a wealth of targeting options, Google display ads are an incredibly powerful tool for SaaS and B2B advertisers looking to get their ads in front of relevant users around the internet.
These ads are easy to integrate into a wider B2B marketing strategy and can give your business an effective way to increase brand awareness, visibility, engagement, and revenue.
To make the most of Google display ads, businesses need to know what they are, how they work, and how to effectively run and monitor campaigns. This blog post will cover all of the above and more, including:
Google display ads are adverts displayed on the expansive Google Display Network (GDN), which reaches over 90% of global internet users. The ads are image-based and can contain text copy.
An example of a Google Display Ad on a popular newspaper website
Google display ads are served with a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) model, meaning that you bid in real time for your ad to appear, and are only charged when an ad is clicked. You can also pay for conversions only, by using the CPA bidding option (note that your account must meet certain eligibility standards to use this).
The GDN includes more than 2 million locations for your ads to appear, across websites, videos, and apps. Google display ads come with highly sophisticated targeting options, allowing you to display your ads to people with a direct interest in your offering, or in related areas and pastimes.
It’s all very well knowing what Google display ads are but to truly understand their appeal, you need to understand the benefits. Here are some ways that these ads can help your business:
The key difference between these two ad types is that Google search ads appear in native Google search results, whereas display ads can appear anywhere on the Google Display Network.
The two are also tailored to slightly different purposes and outcomes. Here’s what to consider:
The type of ad used, or the balance between the two if both are used, will depend on your business objectives.
The purpose of targeting ads and segmenting audiences is to ensure that your ads are only displayed on sites relevant to your offering, and by people who have a genuine interest in your business. Effective targeting will be instrumental in achieving your business objectives and will contribute to reducing or eliminating wasted ad spend.
There are several ways of targeting Google display ads, of which audience targeting and demographic targeting are the most common.
Let’s take a look at each.
Tailoring ads by audience will be the most intuitive choice for most advertisers. Here are the available options.
This is a collection of groups based around an interest or hobby. Currently there are 80 groups, and you can select the one(s) which you feel are a close fit for your business.
You can see the available Affinity Audiences here: note that the majority are perhaps better suited to B2C contexts than B2B.
Custom Affinity Audiences grant a higher level of customisation than Affinity Audiences. Rather than selecting one or more of the default audiences, you can use keywords and URLs to refine your targeting.
For B2B businesses this opens up the possibility of targeting potential users with very specific interests, or of targeting users who browse industry websites and applications that you feel represent a particularly good fit for your business.
This audience includes users who are already browsing products or services similar to the ones you offer. By targeting users who are close to making a purchase, you can get your message in front of people who are highly motivated to buy, and who may consider your product or service in favour of the one they’re already looking at if the deal is better.
Note: you may see references to ‘similar audiences’, but this option was removed by Google in May 2023. See their announcement to this effect here.
Here are the criteria that can be used for demographic targeting. You might be surprised at how limited these options seem, but bear in mind that they can be used to further fine-tune Custom Affinity Audiences and In-Market Audiences:
For SaaS and B2B businesses some of these criteria may not seem immediately useful, but there are some ways to use them strategically. If you’re targeting C-Suite customers for example, leaving the first few age brackets out might be justified.
With all ads, it’s important to capture user attention and clearly communicate the benefits and desired course of action as quickly as possible. Users have a short attention span and are often less likely to engage with adverts than other content, so making an effective first impression is especially important.
Google offers an extensive guide to creative best practices for display ads here, and we’ve rounded up some key concepts below:
Designing effective ads is tricky, and is made easier by experience. We recommend using trial and error to see what works and what doesn’t, and to commit to ongoing monitoring and adjustments to ad content and design. We also recommend tapping directly into the expertise of a specialist B2B PPC agency.
To be as effective as possible, Google display ads campaigns need to be measured and analysed. This lets businesses make adjustments over time to improve the results they yield and their value.
Here are some key metrics to keep track of:
Understanding which metrics to track and what they mean for your business is crucial in gauging campaign effectiveness, and in making ongoing strategic decisions about how your campaigns should run.
Google display ads are a powerful way for your business to advertise to a precision-targeted slice of Google Display Network users. And with a user base that encompasses over 90% of internet traffic, this is an opportunity that no business should miss out on.
To advertise effectively with display ads, businesses need to understand how these ads work, their relative benefits compared to other ad types, and ways to target, design, and monitor their ads. In this blog post we’ve covered all of these areas, giving you the information you need to set up and run effective display ad campaigns.
Interested in every element of B2B Google Ads? We’ve got you covered. Find out more through one of the article below:
Or, why not check out our Google Ad Best Practice + Audit Template.