View Through Conversion Reporting & Your Display Efforts

To display or not to display, that is the question…many have contemplated. In fact, if you’ve ever toyed with display advertising, you’ve likely had one or more of the following questions:

• There are millions of companies on the internet trying to “brand” themselves…will I get lost in the shuffle?
• What about those people that click just to click, I have to pay for their “curiosity”?
• Why waste money on something that I cannot effectively track? I do not know how to make display ads even comparable to the firms that have a design team!I am not trying to brand my product – I want immediate response!
• My main concern is ROI – will display ads give me the results I want?

If you’re currently asking yourself these questions, you should also know that display advertising can also do wonders once you understand that a true investment can yield amazing results.

What We Know About Display Advertising…

Typically, overtime display advertisers pay MUCH less for display than other content ads. Display advertisements are naturally going to get better CTR than typical text ads on the content network.  We’ve seen CTR of nearly triple the average CTR of text ads with display.  As we are all aware how important CTR is for Google to “grade” your ad, such a high CTR on the content network results in lower CPC. If you are not seeing the immediate response from the ads, you at least are receiving the exposure for cheaper.  Often, these can be the lowest CPCs in the whole account.

Google Adwords provides an effective display ad builder tool for professional looking ads.

The ad display builder has TONS of great templates to use to create display ads that only you know were done in house.  They have templates for all different types of industries that allow advertisers to just have a message or ad personal images without elaborate design programs. http://www.google.com/adwords/displayadbuilder/

Display advertising is an excellent branding methods that result in a lift in sales, both offline and online.

Display allows you to put a “face with the name.” You make a lasting impression with the user and they are much more likely to visit your site once the need there.

Your Solution – Adwords View Through Conversion Reporting Data

A lot of these concerns can be answered with Adwords new “View Through Conversion” addition to the reporting interface.  Now you can monitor the effectiveness of your display ad even by users that just view the ad. If that searcher goes to your website within the next 28 days (the life of Google’s tracking cookies) and purchases you can see what display ad they saw prior to the purchase.

For example, see the image of the golf clubs. The user sees the advertisement but does not click on the ad. Let’s say the golfer goes golfing and discovers that his golf clubs are in rough shape – he’ll remember that image ad, go to the site and purchase.  Now this purchase will be tracked in the interface for you review as well in the reports.

Your image ads may not be resulting in an immediate sale, but overall the effectives of the branding can now be tracked and optimization of your display campaigns can be more concrete and effective.

By Nicole Nerad
Paid Search Manager