Try different display options

Display ads offer so many options that you may need to experiment with different templates, colors, and content to get the best results. Here are some things to keep trying as you optimize your display ad campaigns:

Change color schemes

Our own experiments have found that changes to the background and font colors of display ads can dramatically increase click-through rates, which can lead to more impressions and more conversions.

Set up your ad, then choose that same template again, change colors, save it in the same ad group, and then let the variations compete against each other. You can then pause the ads that are doing the worst, leaving the best color combinations to lead your campaign.

Try new templates

Performance can vary widely by template. Consider trying out templates with images, with no images, with various types of animations, with no animations. Minor differences in layout and animations can have large impacts on click-through rates, depending on your product or service.

The differences between "Buy it now" and "Learn more" for example, can significantly impact the user's propensity to click. Consider trying out several variations. And the calls to action that you're used to for text ads may need to be altered for display ads.

Measuring the Impact of Rich Media Display Ads

As with any other ad group or ad variation, it's important to measure the impact of your display ads. Below are some suggestions for how to do this, depending on your goals:

Driving Direct Sales: Getting more clicks

• Compare costs to leads or conversions: Identify whether you're getting a high enough conversion volume to offset your campaign costs. Although some of your display ads could potentially cost you more for some clicks than standard text ads, regularly check to be sure that you're still under your cost per conversion goals.
• Target your audience more effectively: Identify whether you're experiencing a higher cost for your ad clicks than is necessary. If you're generating high campaign costs overall, you may be targeting customers beyond your ideal audience or user. Work on narrowing down your targeting so you spend less money on clicks that are unlikely to convert.

Promoting Your Brand: Measure interactivity

• Look at mouseover and interaction rates: All Display Ad Builder templates provide reporting on mouseover rate, the percentage of impressions in which a user moused over the ad for more than one second. This is a good indication of user interest in your product and brand, before they click. Templates in the rich media and video categories also provide interaction rate, which tells you the percentage of impressions for which a user interacted with the ad, such as by playing a video or scrolling between images.
• Track your website traffic trends: Use Google Analytics to monitor your website performance and measure the impact of your display ads on your site traffic. learn more about google analytics
• Use conversion tracking: You can use conversion tracking to learn whether your display ads are driving the kind of web user behavior you want to see -- such as signups or purchases. You can also look at overall trends. For example, if your costs are high with certain display ads, but the overall impact of those ads decreases your overall campaign costs across the board, this would still be an effective, successful ad. Or, you may experience higher conversion cost ratios in some cases but if you're still under your goal, this would still be an effective ad. You can also use conversion tracking to determine whether you're generating clicks and cost from users who aren't likely to take the actions you care about on your site. If this is the case, you can alter your campaign to better target your ideal customers.