These slides were presented during the SEMrush webinar "Advanced PPC #8: Making The Google Display Network Work For You". To view the video or read the transcript, visit https://www.semrush.com/webinars/advanced-ppc-8-making-the-google-display-network-work-for-you/

1. 1
Making The Google Display
Network Work For You
Aaron Levy, Tinuiti
Sara Ulrich, Tinuiti
Michelle Morgan, Clix
Joel Bondorosky, PPC Designs

2. Meet The Panelists
Aaron Levy
Director of Paid Search, Tinuiti
@bigalittlea
Joel Bondorowsky
Founder, PPC Designs
@liquidjoel
Sara Ulrich
Paid Search Strategist, Tinuiti
Michelle Morgan
Director of Client Services, Clix
@michellemsem

3. What we’re gonna tell you
Meet Your New Friends
GDN In The Real World (If We Got Time)
Google Display Network + Marketing “Funnels”
Right People vs. Right Place vs. Right Time
Looking Beyond The Click
Exploring Old Ad Units In New Ways
Exploring New Ad Units!
Brand Sensitivity + Fraud Protection

4. Paid Search
Shopping
& Feed
Amazon
Marketplaces
Affiliate
Marketing
Paid Social
Performance
Displays
SEO
Search Engine Optimization
CRO
Conversion Rate Optimization
CRM and
Email Marketing
Creative Services
Integrated
Media Strategy
Analytics and
Marketing Science
Meet Tinuiti

5. AWARENESS
INTEREST
CONSIDERATION
CONVERSION
CUSTOMER

6. the audience knows what they want but
no idea where to get it or what to look for
hopefully, the audience buys a ton of stuff- we
start the cycle up again with retention marketing
the audience knows next to nothing
the audience has a general idea of what
they want, but need to weigh their options!
the audience knows what they want, they
know from where and what price. they buy it!
AWARENESS
INTEREST
CONSIDERATION
CONVERSION
CUSTOMER

7. AWARENESS
INTEREST
CONSIDERATION
CONVERSION
CUSTOMER
most PPC-er’s only
touch the book-ends!
prospectingremarketing

8. Display Can Be A Little Misunderstood!
What You’re Doing
Optimizing based on
click performance
Evaluating
prospecting, gsp,
retargeting and with
the same lens
Trusting partners and
GA
What You Should
Be Doing
Optimize on
discounted view
based performance
Measure each
interaction as part of a
journey
Trust no one – use
your own source of
truth
Why Should
You Do it?
You’re more likely to
survive a plane crash
than to click on a
display ad
Each tactic yields
different
incrementality
Do I need to explain
this part…?

9. 9
the right message
means nothing to the
wrong person

10. 26-35 age bracket – male (duh)
bachelor’s degree from private school
good salary (thanks tinuiti!)
new-ish homeowner – needs some work
owns 2011 car, not entirely sure where it is
hockey + bowling 1x/week, golf 2x
frequent traveler but Philly resident
single person LLC for random consulting
value-driven purchase habits

11. Audience-Based Content BasedContext-Based
remarketing
in-market
affinity
custom intent / affinity
age / gender
parental status
topic targeting
keywords
placements

12. Audience-Based Targeting
Find the right people for the job:
In-market
find users who show behavior that
indicates they’re ready to buy what
you’re selling RIGHT NOW.
e.g. someone has been Ubering a lot
and visiting CarFax over and over is
likely shopping for a car.
Affinity
someone who reads a lot of blogs,
subscribes to Sherman’s Travel and is
trying to learn new languages likely
has an affinity for international travel
Remarketing &
Similar Audiences
users who’ve been to certain parts
of your site. Cart abandoners work
well.
Hey Google, go out and find people
with the same behavior as
converters!
Parental Status
Identify someone who is
perceived to be responsible for
tiny humans.
Age + Gender
...it’s how old you are. and your
gender....

13. In-market
find users who show behavior that
indicates they’re ready to buy what
you’re selling RIGHT NOW.
e.g. someone has been Ubering a lot
and visiting CarFax over and over is
likely shopping for a car.
Affinity
someone who reads a lot of blogs,
subscribes to Sherman’s Travel and is
trying to learn new languages likely
has an affinity for international travel
Remarketing &
Similar Audiences
users who’ve been to certain parts
of your site. Cart abandoners work
well.
Hey Google, go out and find people
with the same behavior as
converters!
Parental Status
Identify someone who is
perceived to be responsible for
tiny humans.
Age + Gender
...it’s how old you are. and your
gender....
Interests Attributes Actions

14. Audience Specificity Aligns Well With Marketing Funnel
Reach
Demographics
Affinity
In Market/Custom Intent
Similar Audiences
Remarketing
CRM
Control BOFU
TOFU

15. “Work Aaron” was served the following ads:
I get it… but also I don’t get it

16. Let’s Talk Tracking + Bidding
Or how I learned it’s risky to be clique-y

17. Get it? Cliques. Like clicks.
They’re both bad if it’s all you do.

18. I’m very funny.

19. Ok wait a second, why shouldn’t we measure on clicks alone?
8% 85%
8% of internet
users account for
85% of clicks
35% <
35% click < 5 ads a month
50% =
source: bannerblindness.org

20. These ads are VERY clicky because clicky makey happy

21. Google Display Bidding is (For Now) Entirely Click Based
CPM
SMART CPA
How display is normally bought, but
Google insists on being different.
An option for abnormally high CTR’s,
but probably not otherwise
How Google decided we should buy
display.
Good for GDN, not good for other
networks
Leveraging tCPA/tROAS to let Google
automate bidding (and potentially
targeting).
Great when volume exists and
expectations make sense
New-ish bidding strategy from Google
enables you to pay only for the
conversions you receive.
Amazing on paper but… a volume
killer if Google loses
CPC

22. What Weight Should Views Get?
Are view throughs a nice to know metric, or THE metric? It depends.
42%
click
58%
view
28%
click
72%
view

23. 2

24. Aaron’s ludicrously oversimplified view through weighting
bigger ask or complicated conversion? Weigh early touches more!
prospecting
(image)
prospecting
(text or product)
retargeting
(static)
retargeting
(dynamic)
40-50%
30-40%
15%
10%

25. Ad Units Of Old

26. Responsive Ads Are Powerful
Ads re-size to fit every shape, format, color and device

27. Responsive Ads Are Powerful… and Dangerous
Make sure every mix of headlines/images/descriptions make sense, or
else..

28. Gmail Ads Have Evolved Over The Years – Can Be Wildly
Successful IF You Do them Right

29. Ad Units Anew!

30. Google Gallery Ads (And Showcase) – Display In Search?!?
New rich media,
image driven ads in
search – largely
designed for top of
funnel keywords.
The lines are blurring
between search and
display!

31. Discovery Ads – Google’s Answer To Native
Not search, Not Display
NOT RESPONSIVE
A standalone ad experience.
Volume was tiny in testing, but
fits the narrative of growing a
Google ecosystem.

32. Brand Sensitivity +
Basic Junk Prevention

33. Proactively Eliminate Sensitive Categories
get rid of junk
before it appears

34. Proactively Eliminate Sensitive Placements
because sometimes, our
audiences values may not quite
align with brand values
bit.ly/stopbadnews
will help you avoid wild “news”
stories. hat tip @ginnymarvin

35. What Should I Look For In A Placement Audit
use =importxml(CELL, “//title/text()”) in google sheets to pull titles in bulk!
• abnormally high ctr or cvr
• bad + off brand titles
• high CPC
• foreign language sites
• parked domains
• anything suspicious

36. What About Apps? Should I Still Be There?
bit.ly/killapps
will give you tips on
how to eliminate
apps en masse,
but be careful…
hat tip to @ppckirk

38. Real World Discussion

39. 3
Gmail Ads For Education
Had trouble achieving scale in search, so
turned to gmail!
Adjusted messaging to land on flexibility +
affordability rather than urgency
targeted with potential students using the
best search keywords and competitors.
Scaled enrollments by 7,000 at an overall
25% lower cost per enrollment!