PPC Display remarketing campaigns

Display ads will hardly ever get the same CTR as search ads. This should be obvious for two reasons: 1) as you point out yourself, you are immediately targeting those with a need when using search thus more likely to click (and also buy) and 2) people disregard display ads for the most part and don't click unless they happen to have a want and need at that moment.

Having said that, you can get decent click rates on display if you do things right. I have a text display campaign with a 2.2% CTR and 9.9% conversion rate, with some ad groups well above those numbers.

Lower CPCs? In general yes. But lower CPC should not be your goal. I don't care if you get 1000 clicks at ten cents (or even one cent) if none converts. It just means you got 1000 visitors costing $100 but you have no revenues to show for it.

Not all products can benefit from a display campaign. You have to ask yourself if it makes sense in your case. Most campaigns I've done did not use a display campaign. And if you do, display is a completely different animal, active vs passive activity as we said. This means ads need to be different. It's unlikely to have ads meant for search that will work equally as well on display.

Hey Mac,

Yes, but I wouldn't use 0.2% as the top of that ctr range. 0.5% and up isn't that rare with an optimized campaign.

It depends on what you're promoting. If it appeals to a wider audience then you could generate more leads with display than search. The conversion rate will be much lower however.

Yes the CPC costs are much lower on display networks.

Good luck!

Peter

Don't focus on a CTR number. Just like search with QS, a more informative metric for display campaigns is Relative CTR. The average is 1.0 so the higher you are, the better (and lower cost) and tells you how well you are doing against competitors. If my Relative CTR is 1.5 with a 0.2% CTR, I'm happy. Of course, I want to improve that but at least I know I'm doing better than average.

Hi guys
Thanks for your replies, will keep cracking on , its all an experiment at the moment but interesting. One question i have which may sound stupid but what is a text display campaign ? Do you mean you are not using images in your display AD's ? If so why is that, have you tested before using image AD's and text performed better.
Thanks again
Mac

People tend to think of these campaign types as banner ads but you can also use text ads. I'm sure you've seen them. Not every site shows banner ads, they may show only text ads or a combination of both. So why not create text ads for the display network? In one major campaign I manage, there is a lot more text display ads being shown than images, about 6x more. The CTR on the banners is also much lower for the same sites. Seems there's more of a blindness towards images than text. And it's not because of poorer image ads, the Relative CTRs are the same. I therefore recommend using text ads for display and remarketing.

Hi mrvm1,

As you have already figured out by now, advertising in the Display Network is different in many ways from advertising on the Search Network. Search ads are focused on a very narrowly defined targeting method: Keyword targeting of search terms. You have many more targeting options and an even greater range of expectations within the Search Network.

The range of CTRs that you might expect from the various campaign types, targeting methods and ad types will vary across a very broad range. I typically see CTRs that range from as high as 90% in certain types of highly focused display ad campaigns and as little as 0.5% or less in other types.

Broader Range Of Strategies & Tactics

In Search you can employ a number of strategies, in Display you can employ an even broader range of strategies that aren't practical in Search. Don't get pigeonholed into thinking there is just one strategy and one type of campaign for the Display Network. There are many strategies and tactics available in the Display Network, so many that it often intimidates some advertisers to the point of avoiding it due to a feeling of being overwhelmed.

I suggest that you start learning about some of the targeting options, campaign types, and strategies available, then pick a strategy, a campaign type, and start learning the tactics and methods of employing, managing, and optimizing those campaigns. Keep in mind that you cannot learn it all at once, so pick one campaign type, and focus on learning it then move on to the next after you have begun to master the first.

Common Types of Display Network Campaigns:

• Branding Campaigns
• Interest & Awareness Campaigns
• Response Campaigns
• Retargeting Campaigns

Targeting Options For Display Campaigns:

• Contextual keywords
• Affinity audiences
• Custom affinity audiences
• Interest topics
• Locations
• Demographics
• Devices
• In-market audience segments
• Managed placements
• Remarketing lists
• Customer email lists

You can combine those targeting options in a number of ways for even more precise targeting.

Ad Types:

• Image Ads
• Dynamic Display Ads
• Text Ads
• Responsive (Native Ads)
• Gmail Ads

When you test ads of various types using the thousands of possible targeting strategies across the various campaign types you will indeed see a very broad range of CTRs, CPCs and conversion rates.