If you are wondering how a display select campaign can work for your business, then you are in luck.
This article is full of information that shows how display select campaigns can and have worked for both myself and my clients. By following the information laid out here in this article, just about anyone can put together a successful campaign.
So How Do Display Select Campaigns Work Anyway?
If you have attempted to use Google’s help file to determine how display select campaigns ads actually work, you are likely also disappointed by what little information is there. Google appears to want to keep a tight lid on this one; perhaps they do not want people to know they are using their logged-in users’ browsing data to run their ad serving algorithm for these ads …
Because no one can really prove how display select campaigns work with cold hard facts, I have made an attempt to explain them here by commenting on the vast similarities I have found in the many display select campaigns that I manage.
If you look below, you will find two display select ad placement reports from two completely separate display select network campaigns, promoting two totally different products.
Notice the similarities in the Placements Google has given me:
Two Total Unique Display Select Campaign Placements
A Common Ad Placement in Display Select (Info Sites)
It is clear Google tries to put a product in front of a person who is in the informational stages of a purchase in order to short-circuit the purchase cycle.
In addition to this and for eCommerce products, placements also often run on sites that allow browsers to browse similar categories of products, similar to how search partner campaigns work.
For eCommerce, This Is a Common Ad Placement
One thing most ad management professionals I have spoken with agree on is that Google pretty much knows what a user’s intent is before ever opening a webpage it hosts ads on, if that user came from Google’s search engine and especially if that user was logged in to their Google profile when they went there.
Entry Point for Display Select
Ending Point for Display Select Sequence
When you consider Google often already has the user’s age and sex, what pages they have visited in the past, and in many cases, where they have physically been, you can see how Google makes these display select campaigns convert as well as its search ads.
Display Select Can Perform Just as Well as Search
Google also uses its own historical conversion data to know whether or not it was right about any one ad placement, and via machine learning, to determine where your ads should be placed before you even begin to advertise.
Google Tracks the Value of Every Display Select Keyword
As Well as Every Placement They Give You
How Display Select Is Set Up
If you were not already aware, display select advertising is a single settings change inside the settings menu of the campaign you would like to employ it for.
Display Select Campaign Feature Setup
Bonus Tip: You should always eliminate the possibility of having your ads show up in mobile apps that host AdSense ads by setting up a campaign exclusion in the display settings menu for both AdSense for mobile apps and GMOB before you even get started.
How to Ensure You Do Not Show on Mobile Apps #1
How to Ensure You Do Not Show on Mobile Apps #2
Ad Copy
To make working ad copy for display select, you will have to often upgrade your normal search campaigns ads to actually sell the product or service in question to the flightier user if you have not already. A search ad that works well for regular search will not automatically work well with display select.
How Can I Create an Ad for Exclusive Use in Display Select?
You can segment out which ads should be shown exclusively on display select by running image ads in your campaign, as these banners by default cannot be shown in the regular search results.
If you were just to load up display ads in your search campaign with display select running (and no text ads), then you could technically just run ads on the display select network, which is a great little hack.
To Specify Your Display, Select Ad Copy and Run Display Ads
Ad Strategies & Examples
In my opinion, the main goal with your ad copy on display select campaigns is to get qualified prospects to check out your offer so you can remarket to them later.
For a physical product, I always recommend listing the price and image of the product itself in the ad, which prequalifies the user to the highest level possible.
Display Select Ad for Physical Product Example
Example Placement of That Display Select Ad
For a service, I generally recommend trying to differentiate the service from other similar services in its class and use a dedicated landing page for this.
Display Select Ad for Service Example
Example Placement of That Display Select Ad
Works Hand-in-Hand With Remarketing
While your display select campaigns may not work immediately to generate as low of a conversion as you would like, they most certainly will with the right remarketing follow-up.
Always remarket your visitors with both display- and search-based retargeting for maximum results.
Search Based Retargeting Ads (RLSA)
Display Based Retargeting Ads
Results
Take a look at the cost per conversion achieved on a recent campaign I have been running for a high dollar product.
How to Show Display Select Performance In AdWords
Display Select Results From Brand New Campaign
Letting this campaign run for a few more months and with better search retargeting, I could easily bring the cost per conversion down on this campaign by 100 percent or more as the branding effect of this display campaign really kicks in and people finish the purchase a few months later.
Here is an example of a campaign that had produced even better results via display select vs. its own search campaign clicks, so there is always the possibility of saving money with display select as well.
Display Select Results From Another Campaign
No matter what you are selling, there is always generally a way to make display select work. If it’s not working for you, then just ask me to set it up for you, and I will!