10 tips for click-worthy Google Display Ads

Article topics

1. Make sure your targeting is correct
2. Use high-quality images
3. Grab your customers’ attention
4. Create ads of different sizes
5. Look at what your competitors are doing
6. Think about your ad placements
7. Keep your text to a minimum
8. Try an alternative type of ad
9. Mix up your ads
10. Google Display Ads advertising: Frequently asked questions

The great thing about pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is that there are lots of different types of adverts you can use to appeal to people wherever they are in the sales funnel.

Google Display Ads follow your prospective customers across the websites they visit, building brand awareness and encouraging them to check you out!

If you want to use Display Ads to their full potential, there are a couple of things you need to know about creating the perfect ad. Here are our top ten tips for designing ads that stand out and encourage those all-important clicks.

This article is geared towards Google Display Ads, but you can use the advice to create image-based ads on any PPC platform, including Facebook, Instagram, and Microsoft Advertising!

1. Make sure your targeting is correct

You could have the most impactful, eye-catching ad ever created – but if you’re showing it to the wrong target audience, you’ll be wasting your time and your ad budget.

Google Display Ads offers a wide range of targeting options, meaning you can make sure your ad only appears in front of the right people. The first step to creating a great Display Ad is to understand your target audience, as well as what you want to get out of your campaign. For example, do you want to increase sales, boost brand awareness, or encourage customers to convert in another way, like signing up for your newsletter?

Once you know who you want to appeal to and what you want your ad to achieve, you can set up your Google Display Ad campaign targeting.

You can target your ad in the following ways:

• Audience segments. Google Ads segments users based on their hobbies and interests, as well as which products they’re interested in. You can also segment customers based on life events, for example, if they’re getting married or moving house
• Demographics. You can target people based on their gender, age, and parental status. You can also target by household income in selected countries

You can also determine which types of sites you want your ads to appear on. We’ll cover this in more detail later on in this article.

Top tip: Google Display Ads also offers optimised targeting, which is turned on by default for all campaigns.

This uses artificial intelligence (AI) to look at information on your landing page and the images you upload to your campaign, to identify additional audiences for your ad.

This can help you discover new customers you didn’t think of targeting. However, it’s important to keep an eye on your campaign to make sure you’re not serving ads to the wrong people.

2. Use high-quality images

As Display Ads are image-led, you want to make sure the images you use are high-quality and represent you as a business. Low-quality images may also lead Google Ads to reject your advert.

Original imagery is a must. Don’t use stock or AI-generated images, and if you opt to use a manufacturer’s photos in your ads, make sure they’re consistent with your brand identity.

Here are some additional tips for uploading images that pop off a page:

• Consider different images for different audiences. You don’t have to use the same ad with everyone
• Think about colour theory. Colours make people think and behave in different ways
• Use A/B testing to see which images customers respond best to Find out more about creating stunning product imagery for your store.

Find out more about creating stunning product imagery for your store.

Top tip: You can upload an image as a GIF, JPG, or PNG:

• GIFs are best for simple animations and small, low-colour graphics
• JPGs are best for photographs and complex images with a lot of colours
• PNGs are best for graphics, logos, and images that have a transparent background.

3. Grab your customers’ attention

When creating Google Display Ad campaigns, you want to design ads that not only stand out on a web page but also encourage prospective customers to click.

Here’s an example of an ad we love from Apple. The call-to-action is clear, the logo tells you at a glance who the ad is from, and the background is vivid and dynamic.

Simplicity is key when designing your ad. When people are busy scrolling through a web page, you want something they can easily scan and understand, especially on a mobile device.

An easy way to make your ad appeal to customers is by using video. Google Ads lets you upload short video clips to use in responsive ads (we’ll talk more about responsive ads later), and you can upload animated ads in HTML5 format.

Top tip: Creating a style guide, which details the colours, logos, and typography you prefer to use will ensure everyone across your business can create consistent Display Ads.

4. Create ads of different sizes

When websites sign up to the Google Display Network (check out our FAQs at the end of this article to find out more about this), they get to specify which different sizes and shapes of ads they want to place where.

Creating ads of different dimensions means your adverts are more likely to appear on relevant websites. Here are all the different ad sizes you can use:

There are also some other sizes that are unique to specific regions. For example, the ‘double billboard’ is 750 x 200 and only available in Poland.

Top tip: If you want to get started with Google Display Ads quickly, or don’t have design skills, you can use responsive display ads.

This is when you upload a collection of assets including images, logos, videos, and text, and Google Ads creates ads on your behalf. These ads are designed to fit any placement and are optimised to appeal to prospective customers.

While responsive ads can be useful, you do have less control over how they look.

5. Look at what your competitors are doing

There was once a limit to how many display ads a web page could contain, but Google removed this limit in 2016. This means you can potentially be up against a large number of ads, including those of your competitors.

It’s essential to do your research before you create your ads – you want your Display Ads to stand out and encourage customers to click.

A good place to start is the Google Ads Transparency Centre. This is a catalogue of all the ads that are currently active across Google Ads. Just search for your competitors to see what they’re publishing.

Top tip: There are also competitor analysis tools you can use to track your competitors’ ad efforts, including Semrush, Ahrefs, and Spyfu. These will show you how much your competitors are spending on their ads and the keywords they’re targeting.

6. Think about your ad placements

As well as determining which customers you want to target, you can also specify which type of websites you want to (and don’t want to) appear on.

This can help you target the right customers and make sure your ads don’t appear in front of people who aren’t going to buy from your online store.

Here’s an example of how you can use targeting to your advantage.

We once worked with a client who had a very high average cost-per-click (CPC). When we looked at their Display Ad campaign in more detail, we found that they were getting a lot of clicks through children’s mobile apps. Children were not our client’s target customers, so they were wasting a lot of money through inadvertent clicks!

We excluded these apps, and our client’s CPC decreased significantly.

You can include and exclude:

• Specific websites and apps
• Websites, YouTube channels, videos, and apps relating to specific categories
• Websites, YouTube channels, videos, and apps relating to specific keywords
• Specific audiences

You can also exclude websites and apps that discuss sensitive topics, websites on parked domains, and live-streamed content.

Top tip: Remember that you need to balance control and reach. You don’t want to restrict where your app appears only for nobody to be able to see it.

When you build your ad, Google Ads will estimate how many impressions your ad will get, as well as how it will perform.

7. Keep your text to a minimum

Earlier we mentioned keeping your Display Ads as simple as possible.

While adding copy to your ad can provide extra context to customers and give them an incentive to click, it’s best to keep your text short and sweet. Here are some of our top tips for writing crisp and clear Display Ad copy:

• Understand your customer’s pain points and how you can solve them
• Stick to active voice rather than passive voice to keep your text fresh and dynamic
• Think about the keywords your customers might use and use them in your copy

Top tip: If you’re using responsive ads, avoid adding text to your images. Google Ads overlays text over images for you, which can lead to a messy, illegible ad.

8. Consider dynamic display ads

Dynamic display ads are a special type of Google Display Ad which show customers personalised content.

These types of ads work well as a retargeting method. You can show people who have already visited your eCommerce store the products they viewed, encouraging them to come back and buy.

You can also use them to appeal to customers with certain interests. For example, let’s say you run a home decor store. If a prospective customer is a member of an affinity group associated with gardening, you can show them your garden products.

To use dynamic display ads, you need to create a Google Merchant Center account and upload your products to it. If you use a dedicated eCommerce platform like WooCommerce or Shopify, there are apps that will sync your website’s product feed automatically with Google Merchant Center.

Top tip: High-quality product photos are vital to make your dynamic ads as appealing as possible. Use good lighting, make sure your product is in focus, and use a white or transparent background.

9. Try an alternative type of ad

Google Display Ads aren’t right for every business. If you want to target customers who are ready to buy straight away, or want to tightly control where your brand appears, you may be better off using another ad type.

Alternatively, you may want to use Display Ads alongside other types of ads to target customers wherever they are in the sales funnel. If you’re using Google Ads, here are some of the other types of ads that are available to you:

• Search Ads. These ads appear at the top of the search results
• Shopping Ads. These ads showcase your store’s products at the top of the search results
• Video Ads. These ads appear before, during, and after videos on YouTube There are also some campaign types (like Performance Max and Demand Gen) which show ads across a variety of different channels.

Top tip: No matter which type of ads you use in your campaigns, make sure there’s a consistent thread running through all of them to establish authority, credibility, and trust.

10. Mix up your ads

People can get bored seeing the same thing online all the time – this applies to your Google Display Ads too.

While seeing the same ad a few times can reinforce your brand identity, seeing it too much can have the opposite effect. According to research by Simulmedia, conversion rate decreases by 4.2% when someone sees an ad 11 or more times.

Refreshing your ads regularly with new images, copy, colour schemes, and offers can help. You can also reduce the risk of this happening in Google Display Ads by setting a frequency cap. This is when you set the maximum number of times a user sees your ad over a given time period.

Top tip: Don’t forget to think about seasonality when creating Google Display Ads. Creating special ads for your Black Friday and Christmas sales can make your brand stand out, refresh your campaign, and give customers a reason to visit your site.

Google Display Ads advertising: Frequently asked questions

Not sure where to begin with Google Display Ads? We asked our advertising experts to share the questions they’re most commonly asked!

What is a Google Display Ad?

A Google Display Ad is a visual ad that customers see as they visit their favourite websites and apps.

You can use them to raise brand awareness amongst new customers, as well as to encourage customers who have already visited your site to come back and make a purchase.

What’s the difference between a Google Search Ad and a Google Display Ad?

A Google Search Ad is a text-based ad that only appears in the Google search results.

A Google Display Ad is image-based and can appear across millions of sites in the Google Display Network.

Google Search Ads typically have a higher CPC, but as they appeal to people who are nearly ready to buy, generally have a higher conversion rate.

How do Google Display Ads work?

Google runs the Google Display Network – a collection of over three million websites, videos, and apps that have signed up to the network. Sites that are interested in running ads sign up to AdSense, and add code to their site showing where they’re happy to place ads. They can also advise if there are any types of ads they don’t want to display.

Google Ads acts as the intermediary between businesses that want to advertise and websites that have signed up to AdSense, choosing ads that are the best fit and that meet bidding requirements.

When someone clicks on an ad, the website that hosts the ad receives a share of the revenue. A site that gets 50,000 monthly page views can earn up to £1846 ($2,500) a year, depending on the content category.

How do I create a Display Ads campaign?

To create a Display Ads campaign, log into your Google Ads account and click the Plus Sign button. Then click Campaign.

Choose your objective, select, Display, and click Continue.

Follow the prompts, select your campaign settings, and upload your ad images.

You can also create Display Ads as part of a Performance Max campaign.

How much do Google Display Ads cost?

It depends on the type of ad you’re running and where you’re running it.

However, Google Display Ads are a lot cheaper than other types of ads, like Search Ads. This is because Display Ads are less competitive, and as they target people at the start of the sales funnel, have a lower conversion rate.

According to Wordstream, expect to pay an average of 74p ($1) per click.

Are Google Display Ads right for my business?

Google Display Ads may be right for your business if:

• You want to use PPC advertising but don’t have a large budget. Google Display Ads have one of the lowest costs-per-click on offer
• You want to target new customers. You can use Google Display Ads to raise brand awareness and introduce your business to customers who may be interested in your products
• You want to appeal to existing customers and site visitors. You can use retargeting to encourage people to come back to your website and make a purchase

Xigen: Your Google Display Ads specialists

Google Display Ads are a fantastic way to make new customers aware of your eCommerce store and encourage existing customers to come back and make a purchase.

Choose the right placements, create amazing imagery, and keep an eye on your stats to see what works, and you’ll be well on your way to making sales.

Let us leave you with one final piece of advice – don’t forget to make sure the landing pages your ads take customers to are easy to navigate and consistent with your Display Ads.

If your click-through rate is high but your conversion rate is low, it may be a sign that your landing pages need a bit of love.

We’re an eCommerce agency that specialises in ad campaigns – helping stores boost their online presence, sell stock, and increase their revenue. Whether you’re new to Google Display Ads or need an experienced team to audit your existing campaigns, we’re here to help.

Get in touch today and let’s work together to grow your business with Google Display Ads.