How to Set Up a Display Campaign in Google Ads

You can set up a display campaign in Google Ads to reach potential customers browsing web pages that are relevant to the product or service you offer. Display ads are a type of advertisement appearing on a website, like a banner heading or ads along the sidebar. Display ads help keep customers thinking about your brand and help generate interest in what you have to offer. 

You can set up a display campaign in Google Ads to reach potential customers browsing web pages that are relevant to the product or service you offer. Display ads are a type of advertisement appearing on a website, like a banner heading or ads along the sidebar. Display ads help keep customers thinking about your brand and help generate interest in what you have to offer. 

In this tutorial, you will learn how to set up a display campaign in Google Ads, including how to set a targeting strategy and create responsive display ads. 

How to set up a display campaign in Google Ads

To set up a display campaign in Google Ads, you will need to create a new campaign, edit campaign settings, set budget, bidding, and targeting strategies, create responsive ads, and review your campaign. Let’s take a closer look at each step of this process. 

1. Create a new campaign and edit campaign settings

To begin, click the Campaign icon in Google Ads. You will then click the Campaigns drop-down menu and click Campaigns a third time. Next, select the Plus icon and click New campaign. 

Select the goal of your campaign and choose Display as the type. Choose Standard display campaign as the subtype. Enter your business’s URL and the name of your campaign. 

Last, you will configure the settings of your display campaign. You will need to select the language and location of the campaign before choosing additional settings such as ad rotation, ad schedule, content exclusions, custom URL tracking, and more. 

2. Set budget, bidding, and targeting strategy 

In the next step, you will define your budget, bidding, and targeting strategies. You will enter a daily budget, which represents the average daily amount you spend on ads. 

Next, the system will prompt you to define your bidding strategy. Your bidding strategy explains how you want your money distributed and spent for the campaign. In general, you’ll be given a suggested bidding strategy based on your campaign goals, but you can also select your strategy manually. For example, if you want to pay for viewable ads or ads that are on the screen for longer than one second, you could choose Viewable CPM, which measures cost by thousands of impressions. 

You can choose between three types of strategies: Smart Bidding strategies, automated bid strategies, or manual bid strategies. 

The last part of this step is to define whether you will use a targeting strategy. You can add your own targeting signals to demonstrate what audience segment you are trying to reach. Or you can use optimized targeting and let Google automatically prioritize your highest-performing marketing segment. 

3. Create responsive display ads

Next, you will enter the components of a responsive display ad. A responsive ad automatically generates design combinations using assets you’ve shared with Google— such as images, logos, headlines, descriptions, or videos. Google AI generates combinations of your uploads designed for websites, YouTube, Gmail, and apps. To improve how effective your display ads are, you’re recommended to upload at least five images, at least two logos, five headlines, five descriptions, and a video.

Once you finish entering the component you’d like included in your responsive display ad, click Add to ad group. 

4. Review your campaign 

The last step is to review your campaign settings and make sure everything is as you intend. On the “Review” page, you can go over your settings and address alerts by clicking Fix it in the notification. When you are ready, click Publish campaign. It may take a couple of days before your ads are shown. 

Learn more about display advertising 

If you’re ready to learn more about display advertising, consider earning your Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce Professional Certificate on Coursera. This beginner-level, seven-course series will help you learn skills in display advertising, search engine optimization, e-commerce, email marketing, and more. It takes as little as six months to become ready for a career as a marketing coordinator or e-commerce associate.