Search Ads or Display Ads? How to Know Which to Choose
As with every marketing decision, choosing between Search Ads and Display Ads should be done after determining which one aligns with your marketing objectives the most. There are a few pros and cons to each, but here’s a quick guide to help you make the best decision possible.
TOC
Search Ads
Benefits
How to use Search Ads
When they work best
Display Ads
Benefits
How to use Display Ads
When they work best
Knowing when to choose Display Ads or Search Ads will help you keep your costs down and increase campaign effectiveness.
Search Ads
Search Ads are promoted results on Google that appear in the top three search results and usually in the bottom few as well. They can also appear on Google Maps as a sponsored result.
Benefits
There are plenty of benefits to using Search Ads. They practically guarantee that you will be ranked ahead of your competitors, appear to only those who are searching for your targeted keywords, and are optimized for high intent clicks and conversions.
They also have a higher click-through-rate and lower conversion costs than Display Ads and video ads. This causes them to be very efficient in generating cost effective leads.
How to use Search Ads
Search Ads should take into consideration three key elements. Keywords, headlines, and landing page relevance. Understanding these three factors will help you get the most out of your Search Ads and keep costs down.
Keywords - Target phrases instead of broad matches, use high volume keywords with low bid costs, and research your competitor’s best performing keywords - both organic and paid.
Headlines - Develop compelling headlines that target your most popular keywords and convey an irresistible offer or benefit. Developing a good headline comes when you understand the Google algorithm almost as well as you understand human curiosity.
Landing Pages - The content on your landing page should target relevant keywords from your ads and should be optimized for conversions. Use the entire page to feature a call-to-action and what the benefits of your product or service mean for your visitors.
When they work best
Search Ads work best under the following pretenses:
You are targeting a local market
You want to supplement your organic website traffic to scale your SEO strategy quickly
You are looking to generate high quality and high intent leads
You have a short sales cycle - Consumers don’t have to be nurtured for very long before they decide to buy
You sell emergency products or services (Example: auto repair, healthcare, food, etc.)
You have a smaller budget
Your industry average cost per conversion and cost per action should be affordable for your budget
Overall, Search Ads are great for targeting high intent users that are actively looking for products, whether they are ready to buy now or will be in the near future. They also produce conversions at a much more efficient rate, if you can afford the costs.
Display Ads
Display Ads are visuals that are displayed on over 2 million websites across the internet including social media platforms, media websites, email inboxes, and more. They are great for increasing brand awareness and producing cheap clicks, but are used best when building a remarketing audience.
Benefits
The average cost per click (CPC) for Display Ads is nearly 20% of the average CPC for Search Ads. This makes Display Ads great for reaching users that are only passively interested in your product or service and have some time before they experience a need for it.
They also work well for building remarketing audiences, as you can produce website visits for much cheaper than a Search Ad. The only downfall here is the intent of the user may not be as high or desirable.
How to use Display Ads
Display Ads need to take into consideration two primary elements. Visuals and contextual relevance.
Visuals - Your ad will be competing with content that your target audience is willingly looking at. Meaning, they came across your ad because they were visiting a website that they wanted to visit, and it’s not hard to identify your ad as an unwanted distraction. You need to make your ad pop - Use bright colors, unique imagery, and compelling copy.
Contextual Relevance - The content of your ad and the content of your landing page need to be relevant to one another, that’s a given. But your ad also needs to appear on relevant websites and social media platforms. If you are promoting a gas station, you wouldn’t want your ads appearing on the Tesla website.
You have to keep in mind that your ads are shown to users that are completely oblivious to your ad. The only reason they will see it is because their cat videos are taking a while to load or because your ad interrupted the middle of their article.
They are there to read and enjoy the content from that website, not to be interrupted by your ad. Acknowledge this and understand it when you are putting your ad together.
When they work best
Display Ads work best under the following pretenses:
You have a visual product or service
You are spreading brand awareness among users with a passive interest in your product or service
You have a longer sales cycle
You often have to nurture your audience before converting them
You are building a remarketing audience
You target niche markets
You can specify where your ads appear, so if you target niche markets, narrow your reach to websites relevant to only them
You want to appear on contextually relevant sites
Example: You sell golf equipment, so you want to appear in the sports section of your local newspaper’s website
You value clicks over conversions
Overall, Display Ads work best when targeting a larger region and you can afford to spend more money for low intent clicks and less conversions. While the cost per click is only a fraction of Search Ads, the conversion rate (CVR) is even less - 0.57% compared to 4.40% to be exact.
For a rule of thumb, I would use this: If you are restricted by budget but can afford to pay industry average costs and need to generate leads, choose a Search Ad. If you can afford to build brand awareness throughout an expanded region or are looking to build a multi-channel retargeting audience, Display Ads may be your best bet.
