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There are many ways to promote your business online, but the method we will discuss here involves Google Display ads.
As the largest search engine in the world, with over 92.62% market share in June 2019 and a whopping 63,000 searches a second, it’s no wonder companies are turning to Google to promote their services.
Google Display is a platform that allows companies to pay to create an ad that targets specific prospects. With Google Display ads, you can use different targeting options to strategically show your message to millions of viewers.
These ads are then displayed on a vast range of websites, including blogs, news pages and other Google sites including Gmail and YouTube.
There are many reasons why you might decide to use Google Display ads to promote your business. By following the best practice for Google Display ads in this guide, you could reap the following benefits:
1) Build brand awareness
Google Display ads target visitors on different websites who are unlikely to know you exist. This is because you are targeting visitors on sites that are relevant to their search history.
Putting your ads on different sites will boost your visibility. It also increases the likelihood that a single person will see or hear about you multiple times. As a result, people are more likely to buy from you since they are familiar with you and your brand.
2) Create powerful visual ads
Rather than leveraging standard written content, Google Display ads tend to be visual graphics or animations, which studies have shown to be far more engaging.
If you couple the visual element with the correct placement on a relevant site, you will likely see an increase in click-through rates and conversions from these ads.
3) Re-market to potential customers
Google Display ads allow you to re-market to customers that have previously shown an interest in your product or service. This refers to anyone that has visited your site or taken an incomplete action, such as abandoning a shopping cart.
With a re-marketing strategy in place, you can use Google Display ads to reach these people and nurture them into purchasing from you. By encouraging customers to return to your website, and by keeping them informed about your promotions, you are also helping to create loyalty and solidify their connection to your brand.
Now you know what Google Display ads are and why they’re valuable, here are some best practice tips to help you attract visitors.
1) Triple-check your work
You are representing your company, and even the slightest error you make will reflect badly on your brand. This means you should check for typos, grammar mistakes and image misalignments.
Always have a small team dedicated to checking, preferably with multiple stages, as this will help to eliminate human error.
2) Draw attention to your brand
The purpose of a Google Display ad is to attract attention while clearly displaying a branded message. As a visual marketing method, pulling visitors in using strong imagery should be your main goal.
You also want to reduce the barriers for the visitor understanding your key message and this means using striking high-quality images and easy to read fonts.
If you have used dull colours or an illegible font, the audience will not be drawn to your ad, and you risk losing their attention in the first few seconds.
3) Don’t cut corners
High quality should always be your top priority when creating ads, regardless of their size and scope. This means you should always use high-resolution images and brand elements that are clear enough to be read even at a smaller size (i.e. on a phone screen).
One thing to note, however, is that Google Display has a 150 KB file limit, so you should keep this in mind when choosing an image for your ad.
4) Keep it relevant
Everything on your ad needs to be representative of your brand and its voice. This means that the language you use, the colours, the style and font should relate to your brand image.
This diligence helps to ensure consistency in your ads and builds brand recognition and loyalty. Your customers need to be able to recognise your brand without prompt.
5) Include a clear call-to-action
There should be a clear call-to-action directing the person viewing your ad to the next step on their journey. This might be to contact you, subscribe to your feed or complete a purchase.
Without a clear path for people to follow, it is easy for them to ignore your ad. It also means that you miss the chance to redirect visitors towards the action you want them to take. Put simply, having a call-to-action increases conversions.
6) Use data to construct your ad
Research and collect data on your audience from your other channels and on related prospects. You need to watch out for the kind of language they use, the elements they respond to better and the components they liked or disliked about previous ads.
By including these elements into your design, you are able to help your audience relate to you better and encourage them to engage with you. People are more likely to interact with companies they feel understand them.
Using Google Display ads can be extremely effective in increasing customers and revenue. Failing to do it correctly can lead to a large amount of money lost for a mediocre return.
As a digital consultancy with 15 years of experience and a focus on paid search, conversion rate optimisation and more, we have helped many companies elevate their business to the next level.
If you need help and guidance with setting up your ads in a way that maximises returns, or if you need more in-depth Google Display ads best practice info, contact us today.
