The dictionary defines a double edged sword as “something that has or can have both favorable and unfavorable consequences.”
Depending on how it’s utilized, the same could be said of the Display Network based on the settings that are in place. Today’s tip involves some do’s and don’ts to help give you the benefits of Display Network advertising while avoiding the unfavorable end of the double edged sword.
DO
Make Remarketing Part of Your Strategy
The reality is that amongst visitors going to your website for the first time, the vast majority will leave the first time without doing business. Remarketing is an excellent way to re-engage these visitors and has been proven to be an excellent and cost-effective source of traffic. The cost of this traffic is typically much lower (25%-50%) than regular search traffic and is highly effective in engaging past website visitors and helping to build brand name recognition.
DON’T
Over Advertise
While Remarketing is an excellent way to engage visitors, you don’t want to alienate these people by forcing your ads down their throat. The good news is that there is a way to easily control this.
– Go to Your Remarketing Campaign
– Select Settings
– Scroll down and find Advanced settings
– Select Ad delivery: Ad rotation, frequency capping
– Click Edit next to the section that says Frequency capping
Typically, the balance we find that works best between helping businesses build brand name recognition versus people getting tired of seeing your ads is to have the frequency capping in the 3-5 range. This in turn helps us control how often each individual user is seeing your ads
DO
Check which websites your ads are showing on
It is good to know what sites your Display Network ads are showing for quality control purposes. For example, if you are running a Remarketing Campaign, this will show you the other websites that are visited by people who have been to your website. One example of how this could be utilized is that you could set up a Managed Placement Campaign based on the websites being visited from these people. One example of this is if you run a carwash, there is additional value in local news & weather websites.
Another critical area to look at is the traffic volume coming from visitors who arrived from Mobile Apps. This is an area that is very capable of undermining Display Network Performance which leads us to our next point.
DON’T
Let Mobile Apps Destroy Your Budget
One pitfall you will want to avoid is letting the Display network burn through most of your money on mobile apps. Display Network traffic from apps has a track record of poor performance. Thankfully, this traffic is easily excluded by doing the following:
– Choose the campaign you want to work on
– Go to the Display Network tab
– Click on Placements
– Go to bottom of the screen where it says Campaign Placement Exclusions
– Click the +Exclusions button
– In the box labeled “Enter one placement per line”, enter adsenseformobileapps.com
– Click Add placements
This will help ensure that your Display ads are showing on other websites and helps avoid the issue of being wasted on mobile apps.