From $2/day to $65,000/day with Google Display Network, here's what I learned...

From $2/day to $65,000/day with Google Display Network, here's what I learned...

In 2007 I started my first online ad campaign.

It was a pathetic $2/day campaign because all I could spare was $60. Even that was only because I decided to pay half the electric bill and roll the dice on Google Adwords.

Back then it wasn't called the Google Display Network. It was called Site Targeting and they were letting you put your ads on other people's sites without having to negotiate. You could do it all right through Google.

They did this through the Adsense network. Basically, if a site was running Adsense ads on it, you could target that site's adsense units to show your ads.

Long story short I made $150 back from that initial $60.

I kept doubling my money for 11 months in a row. The rest is history. I've since spent just a frog's fart above $4 million on Google Display ads.

Here are the rules I developed along the way...

Rule #1: Separate different mindsets into different campaigns

Mobile users and desktop users have different objectives. Which means your strategy for one may not necessarily work for the other. Same goes for female and male visitors, they think and speak differently. Lastly, young people and old people, they have different fears, different desires, and different mindsets.

Google gives you the ability to have over 100 campaigns with no additional cost, so use them. Don't just shove everyone into one campaign like how I started out.

Remember this... Relevance increases conversions.

Increase how relevant your ad is to the keyword, and conversions will go up. Increase how relevant your landing page is to the ad, again conversions will go up. Every time you increase relevance conversions will increase too.

Rule #2: If your checkout is not mobile optimized, then turn off mobile traffic

If you have a big clunky order form page, mobile users aren't going to want to fill it out. There are great services like Stripe, Gumroad, and Paypal that make mobile checkout easy.

In the meantime, here's how to turn off mobile traffic...

There are three different spots where you have to turn off mobile, but most only know of the one obvious place. First, in the settings under the devices tab; second, by excluding “adsenseformobileapps.com” in the campaign placement inclusions; and finally by disabling the “gmob mobile app interstitial.” In the site category exclusions.

Kind of goes with Rule #1

Rule #3: Always filter out the bots and click fraud

Google works very hard to try and clean up the bad traffic. Moreso than any other ad network, but the fraudsters are constantly coming up with new tricks.

If you're not careful Google Display Network could show your ads to a lot of junk traffic on sites that try to fraud the system. This is easy to fix and once fixed you can get high quality traffic from GDN.

The way to fix this is called "site category exclusions" and it lets you check mark lots of different types of traffic you might want filtered out. You can filter out parked pages, error pages, mature content, violent content, and many others.

Using GDN without these site category exclusions is like burning your money. DO NOT forget to use this tip.

Rule #4: Start with the lowest hanging fruit, and then expand/broaden

Let's say you are selling protein powder. Logically, you might think to target MensHealth.com with your protein powder ads.

That could work, but it's too broad. Google is amazing at narrowing down your targeting to the right person, so take the time to learn how.

For example you can layer on multiple targeting schemes. Such as telling Google you want your ads to appear on MensHealth.com (placement targeting) but only on pages that have the keywords "Protein, Protein Powder, Muscle Building, BCAA, Amino Acids."

When you combine Rule #3 & Rule #4 you can get truly amazing advertising power. You begin to see why Google is the 800lb gorilla of online advertising. They give you the ability to laser in on exactly who you want to see your ads.

Rule #5: Leverage In-market audiences to target "buyers"

Most people complain about how Google knows everything, but as an advertiser I love it. Because Google has the chrome browser, wifi routers, and android operating system they know by people's browsing and search history when they are in the market for something.

If I visit 3 different online shops for pet food, then Google knows I'm very likely to be a pet owner and that I am currently in the market for pet food.

For one previous client I leveraged this exact data to help her sell the high end organic freeze dried dog food she was selling. I was able to combine Rule #3 & Rule #4 to show my ads only to people on pet related websites - but only on the pages of those pet sites that were about pet food. Then also layered on the "in-market affinity" targeting of people who were currently in-market for pet food.

The works great for B2B sales, auto sales, gym memberships, and so many more companies. And I explain how to use "in-market" targeting in much more detail here.

Rule #6: Split text and image ads into separate campaigns

I have to give credit where credit is due, this one I learned from my buddy Tommie Powers. When I was stuck on a campaign for a client, I paid Tommie to be a second pair of eyes to help me see where I could improve.

Tommie told me that text ads will cannibalize image ads because the text ads can re-size themselves to any sized ad unit. It will appear as if text ads are winning and you'll want to delete all your image ads. However, as Tommie instructed I separated them into separate campaigns and they both did well concurrently.

It literally doubled sales for my campaign overnight with this simple little tweak. Just because text ads work "better" doesn't mean image ads won't work right along side for double the power.

Rule #7: Size Matters.

The size your display ads come in can and will affect the impression it leaves on your target customers. The sizes that typically perform best are 728×90, 300×250, and 160×600.

However, we’ve noted that 300×250 pulls the most weight while 300×600 is an up-and-comer. You have to think about and check up on, where your ads are appearing. For every ad placement there is an ideal ad unit size.

I like to start off my campaigns with 300x250's (mid-recs) because they are almost always the best performing size. Then once I find a good angle or messaging that works, I'll get the full suite of sizes created.

Rule #8: Don’t make your ad look like an ad.

There has been numerous studies done on this, you can Google them yourself, but the human brain has learned to ignore advertisements. It's at a subconscious level, happens in a fraction of a second to save our brains time and energy.

If your ad looks like an ad, then you'll encounter the very real "banner blindness" phenomenon. Instead your ad should look like a featured post or featured product on the website. It should blend in but stand out (in the right way).

Here is an example of one of my highest performing ads...

See how simple it looks, that's on purpose. You can make these yourself in Microsoft Paint or even PowerPoint. I use a free tool call Pixlr.

Rule #9: Know where your ads are performing the best and stick to those places.

The name of the game is pruning.

I've created over 5,000 ad campaigns and STILL I don't know which ones are going to win or lose. I expect my campaigns to start off unprofitable. If I have spent millions and I expect my campaigns to start off unprofitable, what do you think yours will do?

The first round of spending is to accumulate data. Once you start seeing which keywords, placements, and interests are getting you the best results, then you just prune the losers. I look at it like betting on all the race horses first, and then slowly moving my money from the losers to the winners.

In a couple weeks of this pruning you can go from losing money to making money.

Also a pro tip is to make your campaign increasingly more profitable by using placement and keyword exclusion lists. Check the list of keywords and placements that are not profitable and exclude these so your ads won’t show there anymore. I have a massive blacklist of fraud sites that comes with my GDN ads course.

Rule #10: Start off with CPC bidding, but scale up with CPA bidding

Start off by optimizing for more and cheaper clicks.

When you’ve reached 50 to 100 conversions then you can switch to optimizing for conversions. Once you’ve had 500 conversions, you can then switch over to aggressive targeting or display campaign optimizer (DCO). You can also switch from bidding x amount per click to bidding x amount per sale.

Remember that at each level, Google gets smarter and smarter about finding you more and more customers. Your campaign will slowly broaden itself to reach more and more customers, even so far as to ignore your keywords and use the full data of Google to find your ideal market in places you didn't even knew existed.

The Golden Rule: Track Everything

I don't care what tracking tool you use so much as that you just make sure to use one. My two recommendations are Google Analytics or Improve.ly.

If you are a non-tech type of person, Improve.ly is probably best for you. Google Analytics is far more powerful, but can be daunting for the non-techy person.

If you have any questions, PM me here on LinkedIn or tweet me @justinbrooke.

Mike Ma

Investor, Entrepreneur, Executive, & Snowsports Coach | MD @ Nex Cubed & Operating Partner @ Sway Ventures | PSIA-AASI 2021-2024 National Team Member

1y

Thank you. Sharing!

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Jim Mulira

Sr. Hydrogeologist at J&M Environmental Services

6y

Jim Mulira - What can I say , "Feel the fear and do it anyway!".

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Malela Benard

Human Resources Officer, Virtual Assistant & Senior Communications Controller

6y

Try this out guys! Awesome, isn't?! http://dutymoney.com/?ref=156924

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Been following around the web because I just cant seem to stop loving and learning from every alphabet you put out. Thanks for this great content

Colin Klinkert

Founder at SovereignNet Limited

6y

Justin, thanks for this man. Saw your presentation at MFA last year, you're a rockstar

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