Google display ads have become an integral part of digital marketing strategies in recent years. As more consumers shift their attention online, display ads provide a powerful way for brands to promote their products and services to targeted audiences across the Google Display Network (GDN). But how exactly do these ads help grow results for advertisers?

There are a few key ways Google display ads can expand marketing success:

• Reaching New Audiences
• Retargeting Previous Visitors
• Expanding Brand Awareness
• Generating More Website Traffic
• Increasing Conversions and Sales

Let’s explore each of these outcomes in more depth and see why display campaigns should be in every marketer’s playbook. Utilizing the unique targeting capabilities, extensive network reach, and integrated analytics provided by Google, display ads empower businesses to connect with customers, drive real results, and yield an impressive return on ad spend.

Reaching New Audiences

One of the best aspects of Google display ads is the ability to put your message in front of new, high-value audiences as they browse content relevant to your business across the web. Using placement, topic, keyword contextual, and demographic targeting options, you can reach specialized subsets of users with great precision.

For example, let’s say you sell sports apparel. You could create display ads that appear alongside content on:

• Sport-focused publications
• Fitness sites and blogs
• Pages and videos discussing specific sports like football, basketball, baseball, etc.

Your ads would then be visible to people demonstrating existing interest in sports gear and athletic clothing, making them more likely to click, convert, and drive revenue for your ecommerce store.

And thanks to Google’s extensive network of over 2 million sites and apps, you can reach these niche, interested audiences at scale, expanding your marketing and sales growth.

Retargeting Previous Visitors

In addition to engaging new audiences, Google display ads are extremely effective for retargeting people who have previously interacted with your brand online.

Tools like remarketing lists let you tailor ads with special messaging and offers for users who have:

• Visited specific pages on your website
• Searched for related keywords
• Viewed particular YouTube videos
• Interacted with your app
• Opened emails from your business

For example, if someone placed items in an online shopping cart but didn’t complete the purchase, you could display an ad like this across other websites they browse:

“Hey! You left items in your cart at ACME Sports. Check out this 10% off coupon code if you complete your purchase today.”

Remarketing helps you cost-effectively follow up with and re-engage both warm leads and existing customers to drive more conversions for your business.

Expanding Brand Awareness

In addition to direct response, another important marketing objective where display ads offer major impact is raising overall brand visibility and awareness.

Display allows you to increase exposure by putting your brand, products, and messaging in front of massive numbers of new users in your target demographics. So when these consumers are in the market to make a related purchase decision, they will already be familiar with and receptive to your brand.

Some best practices for maximizing brand lift include:

• Using attractive, eye-catching display ads that reinforce visual identity
• Linking to landing pages focused on brand messaging vs direct sales
• Measuring uplift in metrics like brand recall and consideration

The expanded awareness and visibility from display ads lays the foundation for stronger consumer engagement and sales growth over time.

Generating More Website Traffic

A major goal of most digital marketing campaigns is driving increased relevant traffic back to your owned properties like:

• Your company website
• Product listings
• App download pages
• YouTube channel

Display ads are highly effective at delivering new visitors to these destinations. Thanks to expanded audience reach and retargeting of previous site visitors, display complements search campaigns nicely to increase overall website traffic.

Some best practices for optimizing display ads to increase website visitors include:

• Testing ad variations with strong, attention-grabbing messaging
• Linking ads directly to key landing pages
• Using UTM tracking parameters to measure display channel performance

Driving additional low-funnel traffic is pivotal for increasing on-site conversions and downstream sales.

Increasing Conversions and Sales

At the end of the day, the true test of successful marketing is tangible business impact through more closed sales and conversions. Google display helps advertisers achieve this primary goal.

In combination with the positive outcomes discussed above like expanded reach, brand lift, and increased website traffic, display ads facilitate higher conversion rates in several ways:

• Refined audience targeting means each display ad impression has a better chance of yielding a conversion
• More awareness of and exposure to your brand drives purchase intent
• Retargeting warmer leads makes users more likely to complete transactions
• More qualified site visitors means more sales opps

And withConversion Tracking, Purchase History Targeting, Store Visits, and other tools, Google enables in-depth measurement of how display drives actual offline and online sales results.

Return on Ad Spend

Beyond pure conversion numbers though, display ads can rapidly deliver positive return on ad spend (ROAS) through:

• Low minimum bids – making entry efficient for businesses of all sizes
• Paying only for impressions with no upfront costs
• Competition-based pricing model – reduced costs as space increases
• Average CPC model – additional savings based on wallet share

Intelligently managed display campaigns gunning for real business KPIs can yield up to 4X return on investment (ROI) for savvy marketers.

So in summary, by providing access to large qualified audiences in a flexible, measurable advertising platform, Google display network campaigns offer multifaceted solutions to significantly expand marketing success for brands of all types and sizes.

Reviewing the outcomes above shows the immense strategic value display ads can contribute:

Making display ads part of your overall digital marketing mix checks many key boxes for growth. And exploring innovative new formats like responsive display, native ads, and premium video inventory offers even more ways to achieve results in the future.

By providing access to large qualified audiences in a flexible, measurable advertising platform, Google display network campaigns offer multifaceted solutions to significantly expand marketing success for brands of all types and sizes.

Increased Exposure

So for any business seeking increased exposure, revenue growth, and greater customer impact, Google display deserves heavy investment across both brand awareness and direct response initiatives.

However, simply creating display campaigns is not enough – marketers must also properly set up and optimize their ads for best results.

Some key best practices include:

• Doing extensive keyword research to enable better targeting
• Testing different ad variations to identify highest performing copy
• Using emotive images and video that capture user attention
• Linking ads to relevant, enticing landing pages catered to each audience
• Leveraging Google Analytics to uncover valuable customer insights

Adjusting campaign elements like bids, placements, creatives, and more based on performance data offers superior efficiency. Marketers should take full advantage of available automation tools like:

• Smart Bidding – algorithms select optimal bids to meet KPI goals
• Responsive Search Ads – machine learning generates combinations of ad copy
• Audience Insights – discovers valuable new customer segments

Tying campaigns directly to overarching business objectives also maximizes impact:

• Branding Awareness – target more generic users to increase visibility
• Lead Generation – focus on early-funnel messaging to capture contacts
• Sales Conversions – remarket to increase completed purchases

Proper setup, optimization, automation and KPI alignment lets marketers extract maximum value from display network campaigns.

Conclusion

In closing, Google display advertising provides a uniquely powerful avenue to reach qualified customers, increase brand visibility, drive website traffic, boost conversions, expand sales, and deliver significant ROI across both direct response and branding initiatives for companies and organizations of all sizes and industries.

With over 90% reach of internet users worldwide, precise targeting capabilities for niche audiences, seamless retargeting options to keep high-intent visitors engaged, and sophisticated analytics for continual optimization, Google display helps brands cost-effectively scale and futureproof their marketing.

So for any modern business seeking to connect with more customers, accelerate growth in a competitive landscape, and ultimately increase profits and market share over the long-term, investing heavily in display advertising is a smart strategic choice that will yield impressive results now and even bigger dividends down the road.