Display ad builder best practices

Last week, we posted about recent improvements we've made to the display ad builder. Now we'd like to share some best practices for using the tool. Hopefully these tips will help you get off to a running start with your new display campaigns:

Customize your ads to make them stand out. Here are some ways you can do that:

• Choose the color scheme of your ad, like the background and font color, to align it with your unique product and brand.

• Ensure text and images are a proper fit. Review all available ad sizes for each template to ensure that the text displays properly and images fit the ad slot. Upload images and logos that fit the recommended specifications we display as you create your ad.

• Try out different templates. You can see which one yields the best performance and optimize accordingly. 

• Consider transparent PNG graphics. They can make your ads look more professional by matching the background of both the image and the ad.
  

Consider separating your display ads into their own ad group. This will allow you to:

• Set unique bids for your display ads. For example, you may want to bid more competitively for you display ad, since it has to rank high enough to place above the other ads competing for the same spot.

• Use unique keywords for your display ads, without impacting the performance of your text-only ad groups, especially those running on search as well as the Google content network. 

Double-check your ads to ensure they meet the following criteria:

• Your display URL should be visible. If it's the same color as the ad's background color, it won't be visible to the user.

• Uploaded images should be less than 50KB. Otherwise your ad won't be eligible to run.

Now that you're armed with these tips on creating effective display ads, please try out the display ad builder and let us know how it's working for you. If you want to learn more about the tool, please visit the display ad builder site.

Posted by Emel Mutlu, Inside AdWords crew