Search campaigns answer an existing demand.
Display campaigns often create that demand in the first place.
The Google Display Network (GDN) consists of more than 2 million websites, apps and videos and reaches over 90% of internet users worldwide.
This makes it a powerful environment for brand building, remarketing and upper-funnel performance – if it is used strategically.
This article outlines how AIRVOLKSMARKETING approaches successful strategies and optimisation in the Display Network, based on current platform documentation and industry research.
1. Why Display is different from Search
Search Network:
Users express active intent (“buy running shoes”, “hotel in Hamburg”). Ads respond to this demand.
Display Network:
Users are reading news, watching videos or using apps. They are not actively searching – but they can be:
- inspired by visual storytelling,
- reminded of brands they have already seen (remarketing),
- moved from “never heard of it” to “I recognise this brand”.
Because of this, Display is particularly suited for:
- Awareness & brand building,
- Mid-funnel nurturing,
- Supporting Search performance (via brand recall and remarketing).
2. Brand-Building Power: Using Reach to Create Recall
With its reach and visual formats, the Display Network is ideal for brand visibility at scale.
AIRVOLKSMARKETING uses Display to:
- consistently show logo, colour world and key visuals,
- build familiarity long before a user types a brand or product into Google Search,
- prime users so that search and performance campaigns convert better later.
Industry analyses show that repeated exposure to display ads improves brand recall and influences users at the moment of conversion, especially for considered purchases.
Visuals also tend to be processed faster and more intuitively than pure text, even if popular numbers like “60,000× faster” are often exaggerated or methodologically weak.
For AIRVOLKSMARKETING this is less about the exact factor and more about a simple principle: strong creative matters.
3. Remarketing: Turning Past Visitors into Future Conversions
Remarketing is one of the most effective Display use cases: users who have already interacted with a website or app are re-engaged via tailored ads.
Common remarketing strategies include:
- showing ads to cart or form abandoners,
- re-engaging visitors of specific product or content pages,
- using dynamic display ads to show products a user has previously viewed.
Research and platform case studies consistently indicate that remarketing improves conversion rates by:
- reminding users of offers they already considered,
- leveraging existing brand awareness instead of starting from zero.
AIRVOLKSMARKETING typically positions Display remarketing as mid- to lower-funnel support, tightly aligned with Search and Social campaigns.
4. Targeting “Superpowers” in the Display Network
The strength of Display is not only visual – it is also in how precisely audiences and contexts can be targeted.
4.1 Audience Targeting
The GDN allows targeting based on demographic and behavioural signals, such as:
- Affinity and interest audiences (e.g. “fitness enthusiasts”, “travel buffs”),
- In-market audiences actively researching specific products or services,
- Demographics (age, gender, household income where available),
- Custom segments based on URLs, keywords or first-party data.
4.2 Contextual & Placement Targeting
In addition to audiences, campaigns can target:
- topics, such as health, finance, real estate, or travel,
- contextual keywords in page content,
- specific placements (news portals, niche blogs, YouTube channels, apps).
AIRVOLKSMARKETING often combines audience and context:
- in-market audience + finance websites (for investment products),
- travel intent audience + travel blogs (for retreats or hotels),
- B2B audiences + industry publications (for SaaS or services).
This combination allows broad reach with relevant focus: broad enough to scale, but narrow enough to stay meaningful.
5. Creative Strategy: Responsive, Visual and Device-Ready
Google Display campaigns increasingly rely on responsive display ads: advertisers upload assets (images, logos, headlines, descriptions, optionally videos), and Google’s systems assemble and resize them to fit different placements and devices.
AIRVOLKSMARKETING focuses on:
- clear branding (logo always recognisable),
- simple, high-contrast imagery,
- concise benefit-driven headlines,
- a visible call-to-action (e.g. “Discover more”, “Book now”, “Get the guide”).
Because responsive formats can generate many combinations, AIRVOLKSMARKETING treats creatives as an ongoing experiment, not a one-off task:
- testing product vs. lifestyle visuals,
- comparing value propositions (price, quality, transformation, security),
- experimenting with soft vs. direct CTAs.
6. Optimisation: How AIRVOLKSMARKETING Evaluates and Improves Display
6.1 KPIs: Why a Display Click is Not a Search Click
A click from a search ad is tied to explicit intent. A click from a display ad often stems from interest or curiosity, sometimes from pure creative appeal.
For that reason, AIRVOLKSMARKETING evaluates Display with a different KPI logic:
- direct performance metrics: CTR, CPC, conversion rate, CPA, ROAS,
- assist value via attribution reports (e.g. how often Display appears on paths before conversions),
- view-through impact, where supported, to estimate the contribution of impressions to later conversions.
Display does not always “win” in last-click metrics, but it often increases overall funnel efficiency when measured with multi-touch or data-driven attribution.
6.2 Testing & Iteration
AIRVOLKSMARKETING uses Display as a testbed for:
- creative A/B tests (imagery, copy, CTA),
- audience experiments (different in-market or custom segments),
- placement refinement (excluding low-quality sites, building whitelists of strong performers),
- bidding strategies (e.g. “Maximise conversions” vs. target CPA).
Industry best practices recommend ongoing refinement of targeting and creatives rather than “set and forget”, especially given the scale and diversity of GDN inventory.
7. Role of Display in AIRVOLKSMARKETING’s Performance Framework
Within a holistic performance setup, AIRVOLKSMARKETING typically positions the Display Network as:
- Awareness engine for new brands, products or markets,
- Brand reinforcement layer alongside Search and Social,
- Remarketing and nurture channel for users who have already signalled interest,
- Insight source for creatives and audience segments that can later be reused across channels.
The overarching principle: Display is not an isolated “banner channel”, but a visual, data-driven extension of the full funnel that strengthens both upper-funnel awareness and lower-funnel conversion performance.
References
- Google Ads Help. Display Network: Definition – more than 2 million websites, videos and apps reaching over 90% of internet users.
- Brafton. 5 Google Display Network Best Practices That Drive Campaign ROI – overview of GDN reach, use cases and targeting.
- Google Ads Help. About Display ads and the Google Display Network – formats, responsive display ads, placements.
- Google Ads Help. Create a responsive display ad – asset-based responsive ad generation.
- Google. Google Display Network targeting – interest, demographic and contextual targeting options.
- Channable. Google Display Network: Quick guide for eCommerce – benefits of diverse formats, reach and targeting for online sales.
- Varun Digital Media. Display Ads: Improve Brand Awareness & Conversion Rates – role of display ads in awareness and retargeting.
- Taboola. 5 Benefits of Display Advertising – brand visibility and visual impact across the open web.
- DemandScience. The Benefits of Display Advertising for a Multi-Channel Strategy – brand recall and synergy with other channels.
- Learnlets & EmailAudience. Images processed 60K faster? No! And more… / Research: Is a Picture Worth 1000 Words or 60000? – discussion and critique of exaggerated visual-processing statistics.
