Google Display Network is a great platform to expand your B2B marketing reach beyond the traditional search campaigns. However, all the different targeting types, settings and the way both work together, can be a bit confusing at times. This presentation can help you understand the intricacies of the GDN, resulting in more success with your B2B display campaign.

1. Google Display Network
Targeting Types, Bid Settings & Optimization Tools
Dana Berardi - Senior Online Marketing Specialist at BuyerZone

2. Display campaigns can play an important role at each
point of the purchase cycle.
Customer Purchase Funnel
Awareness
GDN Features
Audience Engagement
Contextual Targeting
Interest
Consideration
Interest Category /
Similar Users Targeting
Remarketing
Display + Search
Purchase
Loyalty
Source: Google
Social Display

3. There are two different ways to
target in display: by audience or by
site.
The next couple of slides will explain
the targeting types GDN offers to
help you capture the audience or
sites that are best for your business.
First up…

4. Contextual Targeting
Keywords
Placements
Topic Targeting
• Contextual targeting - shows ads on sites related to your keywords
• Not very transparent as there is no insight in advance as to what kind of page content
the ads are going to show on
• Close monitoring of placements needed to see how relevant the content is
• Contextual targeting - shows ads on websites that you choose
• Contextual targeting - shows ads on pages about specific subjects
• Shortcut to contextual targeting, but less overall granularity as topics are much broader
• Great to test a new area or find new placements; not recommended for high
performance campaigns due to the poorer targeting than contextual

5. And then…

6. Audience Targeting
Remarketing/
Similar Users
Interest
Categories
Demographics
• Audience targeting - shows ads to users after they’ve left your site
• Dynamic Remarketing shows users personalized creative of the product the viewed on
your site
• Similar User is look-a-like targeting based on remarketing list
• Audience targeting - shows ads based on their inferred interest
• The list of interest categories available is the same as for topics, but an audience is
targeted and not the page content
• The furthest removed from the point of interest as the user is seeing the ad because of
their browsing history
• Show ads to users based on their age and gender
• Audience targeting

7. Keep your campaign goals in mind when choosing the
right targeting type for you.
Brand awareness campaigns work well with targeting
types that have larger audiences, while performance
campaigns should be targeted more precisely.

8. Targeting Types vs. Conversion Rate & CPA
* Size of bubble reflects
conversion volume
Source: Google

9. Combine different
targeting types
to improve
the efficiency
of your campaign.

10. The right mix of targeting = success to your GDN campaign.
Keywords
Interest Categories
Contextual
Keywords
• Keywords
• Placements
Interest
Category
Marketing
• Interest Categories
• Placements
• Keywords
Remarketing
Dynamic
Remarketing
Topic Targeting
Placements
Demographics
Remarketing
• Remarketing/Similar User
Audience
• Placements

11. Recommended Targeting Combinations
Placements and Topics/Keywords
• Placements that have the audience demographic that is best for your business and some
topics/keywords that define a good content subject.
• Ads will appear on those sites and only on relevant pages.
Topics and Interest Categories
• When a person views a topic you know they're reading content that is broadly relevant to
your business. If the interest category matches as well, then you know they consistently read
about that topic and are still showing interest.
• A combination of topics and interest categories increased the chances of getting a good
quality visitor.
Anything and Remarketing
• Users who have visited your website before are more likely to convert.
• Remarketing lists work well with all other targeting methods (i.e. contextual keywords).

12. Combining targeting types makes your targeting more
precise, but also limits your reach.
Keywords
Interest Category
Placements

13. Once you have chosen your targeting types, ensure that
bids and bid targets are set up correctly.

14. Bid Settings & Types
Bid Settings
• Bid Only
• Targeting is used for bidding only
• Placements/categories/topics are
added with bids, but ads are shown
when other targeting methods match
• Target and Bid
• Ads will only be shown on targeted
placements/categories/topics with the
option to bid on them
Bid Types
• Custom Bids
• Should always be set at most
important level of targeting
• Custom bids can only be set on one
targeting method within each ad
group
• Default Bids
• Bids inherited from ad group bid that
are being used when no custom bids
are enabled
• Bid Adjustments
• Percentage change in bids based on
default or custom bid
• Bid adjustments can not be set on
keywords

15. To determine the best bid type & bid setting for you,
think about these questions:
How do we want to target/reach people vs. what do we
want to bid on?
• If multiple targeting dimensions are being used the most
important one should have the dominant bid (custom
bid).
•
E.g. a contextual keyword campaign that uses placement
to refine targeting should use custom bids for keywords
and default bids or bid adjustments for the placements.
How are we bidding?
• Managed bids or bid adjustments?
•
Keywords can only have default or custom bids.
•
If there are only have 2 targeting dimensions it can be bid
on both (default & custom).

16. Google offers a variety of optimization tools that can help
you improve performance and scale.
Relax and let the tools do the work for you.

17. Conversion Optimizer vs. DCO
Conversion Optimizer
• Automated bidding to achieve CPA goals
• Bids are optimization based on target CPA
• Conversion Optimizer looks at historical
performance only
• Requirements: conversion tracking and 15
conversions/month
• Limited Volume
Display Campaign Optimizer
• Automated bidding and targeting to find
additional conversions based on CPA
• No traditional targeting parameters
• Goal is to find new inventory based on
historical account performance based on ad
display URL
• DCO creates clusters around content/sites
and shows ads on sites that are similar or to
audience that have shown interest in that
content
• Requirements: conversion tracking and 15
conversions/month
• Long-term growth opportunity

18. Things to keep in mind when using DCO:
Best Practices
• DCO generally works better with shallow conversions that have high volume
• When launching a new DCO campaign use an aggressive target CPA at or above the past 30day GDN average CPA
• It’s recommended to set the campaign budget to ~20 x CPA
Common Mistakes to Avoid
• Optimizing DCO too frequently & early
• Using DCO to lower target CPA below historical avg. CPA on GDN
• Switching out old creative for new ones with different services
• Optimizing/excluding placements based on second-level conversion performance

19. Questions or Comments?
Email: Dana.Berardi@buyerzone.com
Twitter: @BuyerZone