How to Set Up a Display Campaign in Google Ads

Key takeaways

You can set up a display campaign in Google Ads to reach potential customers browsing web pages relevant to your product or service. 

• Display ads are a type of advertisement that appear on a website, such as banner ads or ads in the sidebar, that help generate interest in your brand.

• To set up your Google Ads display campaign, start by creating a new campaign, configuring your campaign settings, and then selecting your budget, bidding, and targeting strategies.

• You can set up responsive ads for your display advertising campaign by uploading assets such as logos, headlines, descriptions, and videos, which Google AI will combine to optimize your ad design across platforms.

Explore how to set up a display campaign in Google Ads, including how to set a targeting strategy and create responsive display ads. If you’re ready to start building expertise in digital marketing, enroll in the Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate. You’ll have the opportunity to gain fundamental digital marketing skills like social media advertising, marketing analytics, and campaign performance measurement in as little as six months. Upon completion, you’ll have earned a career certificate for your resume.

What are display campaigns in Google Ads used for?

You can set up a display campaign in Google Ads to reach potential customers browsing web pages relevant to your product or service. Display ads are a type of advertisement appearing on a website, like a banner heading or ads along the sidebar. Display ads help keep customers thinking about your brand and help generate interest in what you have to offer. 

How to set up a display campaign in Google Ads

To set up a display campaign in Google Ads, you will need to create a new campaign; edit campaign settings; set a budget, bidding, and targeting strategies; create responsive ads, and review your campaign. Let’s take a closer look at each step of this process. 

1. Create a new campaign and edit campaign settings.

To begin, click the Campaign icon in Google Ads. You will then click the Campaigns drop-down menu and click Campaigns a third time. Next, select the Plus icon and click New campaign. 

Select the goal of your campaign and choose Display as the type. Choose Standard display campaign as the subtype. Enter your business’s URL and the name of your campaign. 

Last, you will configure the settings of your display campaign. You will need to select the campaign's language and location before choosing additional settings such as ad rotation, ad schedule, content exclusions, custom URL tracking, and more. 

2. Set budget, bidding, and targeting strategy. 

Next, you will define your budget, bidding, and targeting strategies. You will enter a daily budget, representing the average daily amount you spend on ads. 

Next, the system will prompt you to define your bidding strategy. Your bidding strategy explains how you want your money distributed and spent for the campaign. In general, you’ll be given a suggested bidding strategy based on your campaign goals, but you can also select your strategy manually. For example, if you want to pay for viewable ads or ads that are on the screen for longer than one second, you could choose Viewable CPM, which measures cost by thousands of impressions. 

You can choose between three types of strategies: Smart Bidding strategies, automated bid strategies, or manual bid strategies. 

The last part of this step is to define whether you will use a targeting strategy. You can add your own targeting signals to demonstrate which audience segment you are trying to reach. Or you can use optimized targeting and let Google automatically prioritize your highest-performing marketing segment. 

3. Create responsive display ads.

Next, you will enter the components of a responsive display ad. A responsive ad automatically generates design combinations using assets you’ve shared with Google—such as images, logos, headlines, descriptions, or videos. Google AI generates combinations of your uploads designed for websites, YouTube, Gmail, and apps. To improve your display ads' effectiveness, you’re recommended to upload at least five images, at least two logos, five headlines, five descriptions, and a video.

Once you finish entering the component you’d like included in your responsive display ad, click Add to ad group. 

What is the difference between search and display campaigns?

The main difference between search ads and display ads is that search ads will only be visible to customers actively searching for your product, while display ads are specifically targeted ad placements on various marketing channels. 

Read more: How to Become a Google Ads Specialist

4. Review your campaign. 

The last step is to review your campaign settings and ensure everything is as you intend. On the “Review” page, you can go over your settings and address alerts by clicking Fix it in the notification. When you are ready, click Publish campaign. It may take a couple of days before your ads are shown. 

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