Advertisers can now aim more specific pages for advertising their products/services, thanks to ‘Topic Targeting’, the recent addition in Google Display Network. Google is steadily expanding its display network, this is clearly visible with the additions it keeps implementing. Here is a low down of how the Google Display Network works and the up-gradations that the search giant has made in it.
What is Google Display Network
The Google Display Network (GDN) is primarily a network of websites which are opted into Google’s Adsense program. These websites provide web space, in the form of banners, for Google to show ads thus generating good amount of revenue for them as well as Google. With GDN, Google has been able to tap a number of websites in various categories.
How does it work
Any advertiser who has a Google Adwords account can opt for the GDN. The Adwords program allows advertisers to bid on keywords and show their ads on Google Search Network and GDN. The ad options on Google’s display network range from text, image, video & display ads.
Advertisers can create their own display ads with the help of the Google Display Ad builder tool. It is easy to use and comes with a good number of customizable multimedia templates to choose from. The tool helps advertisers create their own ads and add and edit text as per their requirements. It also helps monitor the performance of their display ads.
Whats new
In order to enable advertisers to have as specific contextual targeting as possible, Google has been constantly providing them with features that help to have more control over where their ads are being shown. From the Display Campaign Optimizer to Topic Targeting, all of it has been done to make the GDN more effective and relevant.
Display Campaign Optimizer
This tool helps optimize the bids of display campaigns that have been run for a decent amount of time. The tool helps in adjusting the bids and placements where ads appear with good Click Through Rate (CTR). This helps in generating maximum traffic from display ads at a lower Cost Per Click (CPC).
Topic Targeting in GDN
Its the latest add-on for GDN. Until now Google used display ads alongside the content on the sites under Display Network with keywords specified by the advertisers. Now Google has gone a step further to enhance this feature. It has categorized websites which are a part of its GDN. Through topic targeting, Google allows advertisers to target certain categories of websites where they want their ads to appear. Alternatively, topics can also be chosen to be excluded from displaying their ads (similar to the functionality of negative keywords).
For instance if an advertiser sells Italian recipe ingredients, he would target an Italian cookery website for his ads to show up. On the other side he would also choose to block certain sites which may not be of any relevance to him, like cutlery, restaurants etc. The advertiser can choose from over 1700 topics/sub-topics.
The recent ad-on not only supports the existing PPC ad formats & bidding options but also allows URL level supporting enabling the advertiser to identify the web sites that benefit him/her the most. With so much to create and customize with respect to display ads, advertisers can surely see a huge growth in their reach.
