Points to Refer for Adwords Display Ad Exam – PART 1

• To reach consumers who are actively searching on words related to your business, use Google Search advertising to place ads next to search results pages. However, to extend your campaign to also reach high potential customers who are not yet actively searching on your brand or products, but who are engaging with online content specifically related to your area of business, use the Google Display Network.
• Google has 2 properties where display ads are eligible; (Advertisers can appear before, during or after a video stream
  (in-stream video ads), overlay a video or text ad on top of a video (in-video overlays), or run an image, video, or text ad at the conclusion of a video
  (end-cap ads).
  • Google display network
    • Google Adsense Program[r1]
    • DoubleClicke Ad Exchange[r2]
  • Youtube
    • An auction-based model using Google AdWords
    • Through a reservation-based model where placements are purchased directly through YouTube ad sales (Target HomePage)
• Through the Google Display Network, advertisers can access display ad inventory from publisher partners in our Google AdSense program and the DoubleClick Ad Exchange.
• In terms of campaign management, tools such as the Placement Performance Report, Conversion Optimizer, and Conversion Tracking provide complete transparency into what’s working, and what isn’t. This gives you the actionable insights you need to help you effectively optimize your campaigns.
• Use site and category exclusions, and negative keywords to avoid showing on certain sites and content within the network
• Google AdWords with Placement Performance Reports helps advertisers see what is and isn’t working to optimize their
  display campaigns accordingly Rich media ads include video ads, Flash animated ads, and ads that mix text and animated content and designs. You can easily create these types of ads using the AdWords Display Ad Builder
• Using historical information about your campaign, the Conversion Optimizer automatically finds the optimal cost-per-click (CPC) bid for your ad each time it’s eligible to appear. You still pay per click, but you no longer need to adjust your bids manually to reach your CPA goals and can benefit from improved ROI The video content within the Google Display Network in three ways
• • In a video –
    • Appear in the bottom 20% of the video viewing area with Google’s InVideo ads.
    • Any advertiser’s text overlay ads may be displayed within videos as part of a contextually targeted campaign.
  • With a video –
    • In-stream Video Ads: Pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll video ads can target video content across the Google Display Network. You can reach audiences watching videos in many genres, and even place in-stream video ads in online games.
    • Click-to-play Video Ads: With click-to-play video ads, you can reach your target market on various sites in the Google Display Network with user-initiated video ads that can be measured and optimized based on performance.
  • Around a video –
    • Placement target video-oriented sites with a variety of ad formats, including standard text ads and image ads. This allows you to supplement your in-stream or InVideo advertising by targeting other placements on sites where users typically engage with video.
    • Set up a placement targeted campaign, choose keywords like “video” as your topic, and then start placement
      targeting video-oriented sites.
• Find your target audience for your display campaign by:
  • Targeting based on a webpage’s content: Contextual Targeting uses keywords to automatically match your ad to the content of a webpage.
  • Hand picking sites: Use Placement Targeting to choose ad placements, from entire websites to ad positions on
    specific webpages.
  • Defining relevant concepts on handpicked sites: Find niche audiences with a combination of Placement and Contextual
    Targeting.
  • Finding users in specific interest categories: Interest-Based Advertising reaches users based on the types of sites they visit.
  • Optimizing by demographic, location, and time: Demo bidding, geo and day-parting controls let you focus your spend
    in the right areas.
  • Excluding irrelevant content and sites: Advanced targeting controls provide your full control over where your ads
    appear.
  • Managing Frequency of ad impressions: Frequency capping lets you focus your impressions on more interested consumers.
• Change “Ranking Method” to determine if you want to see the sites with largest number of users (Audience Reach),
  sites that have the highest percentage of your target audience (Composition Index), or sites that have both a high concentration of your audience and widespread reach (Best Match).
• Best Practices for Direct Response Campaigns
  • Ad Scheduling and demographic targeting can also help to ensure that you’re only reaching your target audience.
• Video ads
  • Click-to-play video: If you have a product demo or existing TV commercial, you can broadcast it throughout the
    Google Display Network using this video formats. These ads begin playing when clicked on by an interested user.
  • In-video: If you would like to promote your product or service directly within the video player that a user is
    watching, you can use either of the following:
    • Overlay: An ad that covers the bottom section of the video.
    • In-stream: A video ad that plays at the beginning, during, or end of video content.
• Due to the different placement options and inventory available across publisher sites, Google will automatically create
  your ad in most of the standard IAB ad sizes
• Display Ad Builder best practices when selecting and previewing ad sizes:
  • Image editing: Use photo-editing software to edit your image size and format. Transparent 24-bit PNG files look more professional because they match the background of both the image and the ad itself.
• Promoting violence, copyrighted content, and drugs are a just few examples of content that is not permitted in display ad
  content.
• In addition to content policies, there are an additional set of policies for display ads that don’t apply to text ads. Some
  examples include avoiding unconventional ad layouts, such as an image that appears sideways or is repeated, or mimicking computer functions. Animations that last for too long, or ads that use strobing backgrounds, would also result in ad
  disapproval.
• Google Display Network, display ads need to be approved as Family Safe status before accruing impressions on publisher sites.
• However, if your primary interest is direct response advertising, we recommend focusing mainly on contextual targeting.
• Minimum CPM must be set to at least USD$0.25.
• Placement-targeted ads and keyword-targeted ads compete for placement on pages on the Display Network based on their Ad
  Rank.
• AdWords calculates an equivalent impression-based Ad Rank for ads with CPC whenever they’re in competition with ads with CPM
• With CPM bidding, your ranking is determined by your bid and your landing page quality. With CPC bidding, your clickthrough rate (CTR) also helps determine your ranking.
• Use the Wonder Wheel tool to generate ideas for more ad group themes.
• There are three main ways to add managed placements to an ad group: manually adding, copying from your “automatic
  placements” table, and using the placement tool.
• Enhanced Online Campaigns allow you to manage keywords and placements within the same campaign, as well as use keywords and placements together within the same ad group, to more precisely target your ads to the Google Display Network.
• Google Analytics, AdWords Conversion Tracking, and View-through Conversions can provide you with valuable insights into your campaign’s performance.
• View-through conversions provide a deeper level of insight into the effectiveness of your display ads on the Google Display Network by showing you the number of online conversions that happened within 30 days after a user saw, but did not click, on your display ad.
• To implement view-through conversions, you need to have Conversion Tracking enabled, and have checked the box next to “view-through conversions” in the customize columns menu in AdWords
• Remember, your bid for a display ad must be higher than the combination of all of the text ads that would have shown in
  that ad unit in order for the display ad to show. Consider raising your bids if you want to give your display ads a better chance of winning more auctions.
• Quality Score affects your eligibility to enter the ad auction, the rank of your ad, and the price that you pay in the auction.
  Ads with better Quality Scores will have better rank and position on the page. Ads with low Quality Score may have to have a higher bid to compete in the auction.
• To improve your Quality Score:
  • Edit your ad to include a clear call-to-action for users.
  • Verify that your landing page is easy to navigate and relevant to your ad.
  • Ensure that your keyword list has keywords that relate to a single, clear, specific theme so that your ad is as targeted as
    possible.
• User engagement with your ads is also an important metric for branding campaigns, and can be measured through
  clickthrough rate (CTR) or interaction rates for advertisers using rich media. Mouseover rate, which is the percentage of time users mouseover an ad for one or more consecutive seconds, is also a useful indicator of user engagement – although this metric is only available for display ads built with the display ad builder.
• Your CPA for both search and display campaigns should be fairly similar as a result of “Smart Pricing” – an algorithm that discounts pricing on clicks that are not likely to lead to conversions.
• Reach: The number of users exposed to an ad. Increased reach means that an ad is exposed to more potential customers, which may lead to increased awareness.
• Frequency: The average number of times a user was exposed to an ad over a period of time.

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