Leveraging the Google Display Ad Network to Your Advantage

Posted by Shawn Friesen on Feb 05, 2014

Your customers are spending  more and more time online, 95% of that time is spent reading and engaging with content on websites (Source:Google).  The Google ad network is arguably the largest online…by far…hosting ads on over 2 MILLION sites that reach over 90% of internet users worldwide (Source:Comscore).  As an RV advertiser, you want to target a specific audience…RVers and especially those in the market to buy an RV.  In this article, I will show you how to target RV shoppers through Google’s vast network of ad partners.

Required before we begin:

• Google Adwords account 
• at least one ad creative in a popular/standard size

First, we are going to set up a new campaign in Adwords that is for your display/banner ads.  Keep in mind, this is a basic example set-up, there are many ways to customize your campaign, e.g.. targeting only specific locations, scheduling a campaign etc.:

1. Login to your Adwords account
2. Go to “Campaigns” tab, and select “+ Campaign”
3. From the drop-down menu, choose “Display Network Only”
4. Name the campaign, choose your Bid Strategy (CPC or CPM etc), and enter a Daily Budget.
5. Click “Save and Continue”
6. Name your first Ad Group and choose a max. CPM or CPC.
7. Target by “Interests & Remarketing” (for starters…we will add other targeting later)
8. From the “Interests & Remarketing” drop-down, type in “RVs”
9. Select “Campers & RVs” from the “In-market buyers ROI” list
10. Select “Campers & RVs” from the “Other categories” list .
11. “Save and Continue”
12. Select “Image Ads” from Create Ads screen, and upload your creative(s).

You’re done!  Once the ads are approved by Google (usually takes 24hrs or less), your campaign will go live, and will only be served to RVers.  To further target or expand your audience, you can actually specify RV related sites to show your ads.  Here’s how:

1. Click “Display Network” tab
2. Select “+ Targeting”, choose your desired Ad group
3. Choose “Add targeting” (underneath your existing “interests & remarketing” target) and “Placements” from the drop-down
4. Type in “RV” and click “Search”.  A number of sites will come up, choose all that you’d like your banner to appear on.
5. “Save” when you’re done.

As you’re probably gathered, there are a-million-and-one options to get your ad across through GDN.  I trust this article will assist you in taking the first steps.  By using the GDN, you can save thousands of dollars on advertising by leveraging the ‘real-time’ bidding system that Google uses to set prices.  It’s essentially an auction for unsold (otherwise called ‘remnant’) ad inventory.  You can get some great CPM rates this way, often 1/2 price or less what you would pay when buying the ads direct.

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