Google Search Ads vs Display Ads: What’s the Difference?
We explain google search ads vs display ads. Statistics show that 90 per cent of consumers say that Google ads influence their purchasing decisions. Furthermore, online users who click on these ads are 50 per cent more likely to purchase. With these data alone, it’s not too difficult to see that Google ads play a vital role in digital advertising.
Many ad campaigns are available in Google, but the most popular ones are display and search ads. Utilising both campaigns can give your brand maximum reach. However, that isn’t your goal, as you’d want to promote your product or service to the right audience, not the biggest.
With that said, both display and search ads have distinctive benefits that can be useful under different circumstances. So, to help you decide on which Google ads campaign is perfect for your company, here is a short overview of both ad formats.
Google Search Ads
Paid Google search ads are currently the most popular form of pay per click advertising. The process is pretty easy to understand, but the set up to maintain a cost-effective campaign can take some time. Companies generally pay to display their ads either above or below organic search engine results when online users input a particular keyword.
How it Works
Every time a user searches a keyword you bid on; their search will automatically prompt your ad to appear along with organic search results. Google search ads have three main parts: headline, link, and description that mimic search results’ appearance. This format leads online users to assume your ad can either provide an answer or a solution, increasing the likelihood of getting clicks.
The Benefits of Google Search Ads
There are many benefits to using Google search ads. This includes being able to strategically target your ads to reach those who have a search particular search intent. A searchers intent may include learning about a product or service and finding more information about your brand. Targeting your audience with carefully through keywords, and understanding of your demographic, and locations of interest all form part of controlling your search ads to present to specific people.
Examples of Controlling Your Search ads
Below are some of the granular aspects you can control within your search ad.
- Select the keywords you want to be found for.
- The location you want your search ads to appear. You can narrow the location right from post code, to city, region and to country.
- The demographic to target. This includes age, location, and language. Another great feature! For example, if you are selling makeup, you’d likely target females and exclude men from your target demographic.
- Control the day, hours, and frequency in which you would like your ad to appear. This is particularly useful if you know people are likely to search during particular hours and days.
- Devices such as mobiles, tablets, and desktops. In this instance, if your users are likely to be more active on desktop you could increase your bids to show more on desktops than mobiles.
- Control the costs of your Ads and how much you would like to spend per day, month, and per ad.
The greatest benefit to search ads is being able to control your budget and making it more cost-effective by strategically learning about your customer behaviours. When starting a new campaign from scratch you can change your demographics, keywords, device placement, locations and more. This includes being able to control and adjust your search bids for the above also.
When to Use It
Google search ads are perfect for brands with a tight marketing budget since you can either pay per click or pay per a thousand impressions. Bidding on keywords also allows you to control your ad’s reach, resulting in quality leads and high conversion rates.
Furthermore, it is the perfect ad campaign for generating organic traffic, promoting an urgent or emergency product, and targeting a local market.
Google Display Ads
A display ad is a tool that offers a more active approach to online advertising. Unlike its search counterpart, display ads appear before the user whether they searched for it. Additionally, this type of ad campaign isn’t limited to one place as it can appear on any website with the help of the Google display network.
How Display Ads Work
Google display ads are a little bit more complicated than search ads. To start, you will need to choose from different targeting options that will help you promote your brand to the right audience. You can also opt for managed placements that will allow you to control who will see your visual ad. This includes your audience, interests, and re-targeting options.
But to explain it in a more straightforward sense, the conditions under your targeting parameters will trigger your ad to appear via Google’s display network.
For example, let’s say you decided to remarket to previous customers via display ads. Your ad will then appear to online users who have engaged with your site at least once or twice. The same concept applies to finding new customers.
You may also set ad parameters to prompt it to materialise in front of users searching for a product similar to yours.
The Benefits of Google Display Ads
One of the biggest benefits to Google Display ads is the ability to reach more people online through Google owner properties such as YouTube, Gmail and other apps.
You can retarget your prospective customers with audience and data segments. For example, you can target customers who are specifically interested in your product and services. In addition, you can re-target and engage people who have previously visited your website. By optimising your display ads and campaigns within, you’ll be able to better engage with prospective customers who are interested in your product or service. Therefore, providing better value for money in meeting specific conversion goals.
When to Use It
Google display ads are excellent tools for raising brand awareness since they can show up just about anywhere through the Google display network. They are also perfect for companies that offer generic products and services. Additionally, they are the best choice for brands that want to focus more on visual content.
Examples of when to use display ads include:
- Visually Promoting products as these types of ads are more visual
- Re-targeting an audience and when you want to prompt more product awareness. This includes retargeting those that have expressed interest in your product type or a similar product either via your website or a competitor.
- Contextually target a specific niche audience towards people’s specific interests.
- Display Ads across a variety of platforms operated by Google, such as YouTube, Gmail, and other apps.
The Verdict to Google search ads vs display ads?
What’s the verdict when it comes to Google search ads vs display ads? Both Google search and display ads have conferring benefits that are useful in different situations.
The key to differentiating Google search ads vs display ads is to understand that search ads only appear to users already searching for your product. While display ads appear based on set targeting parameters. Depending on what you’re aiming to achieve through Google advertising, you will need to consider these factors when deciding on the perfect campaign type for your brand.
Are you looking for more information about Google ads? Contact Boast Digital to learn more about how we can help you increase your conversion rates through Google ads.
