Display Advertising lets you place targeted PPC ads on a variety of news sites, blogs and other websites across the Internet to reach more potential customers who may not be aware of your brand or business.
These days, everyone is spending more and more time online – and as much as 95% of that time is spent reading and engaging with content on websites. The Google Display Network is one of the tools that can help you reach all these potential customers by placing the right ad format, in front of the right customer, at the right time.
Why Display?
The Google Display Network can help grow your business by increasing brand awareness, driving additional sales and revenue, and interacting with your current customer base to help generate brand loyalty. A well-structured display campaign will complement any existing Search activity by re-engaging users, and with the price of a click usually significantly cheaper on the display network, there is a lot of opportunity to grow your overall return-on-investment. We’ve detailed three great benefits of using Display Advertising below.
Drive Brand Awareness
Display Advertising helps generate brand awareness by placing your ads in front of users that would be interested in your offering, or have an interest in your industry. With more and more businesses increasing their online prescience, it’s more important than ever to stand out from the crowd.
Drive Sales
Display Advertising drives sales as you can position your ads in front of users looking for products or services that you offer. You can place ads on related websites or target users who have been searching for products or services similar to your offering.
Drive Loyalty
Display Advertising helps drive customer loyalty by re-engaging interested users. By using features such as remarketing, we can target ads to users who have previously visited your website, reminding them of your business and enticing them back to compete their purchase.
Did you know? The typical combined Search and Display campaign gets 22% greater conversions compared to Search-only campaigns. (Source: iProspect & Comscore real branding implications of digital media – August 2011)
Generally Search Advertising limits the advertiser to text ads only. Display Advertising differs from this by offering a variety of ad formats – to help engage, entice and deliver tangible, measurable results from the advertiser’s target market. Conversions although usually sales and revenue driven, can also be phone calls, bookings or leads – the Display Network can help almost any business. The advertiser can target relevant websites with ads formats such as:
Text Ads
Text Ads are what you’d usually see displayed on a Search Engine Results Page, usually marked as a “sponsored link”.
Image Ads
Image Ads are also referred to as “Banner Ads” and can include text and images.
Video Ads
Video Ads are usually displayed on YouTube and are sometimes positioned as skippable pre-roll ads, amongst other formats.
Interactive Ads
Interactive Ads can be great to interact with users that feature scrolling products, lightbox ads or other advanced elements.
A common issue that a lot of advertisers suffer, is the lack of a dedicated graphic designer or team to create professional image ads. Google offer a solution to combat this – you can use the Display Ad Builder to create high-quality image, interactive and video ads. Google offer pre-designed templates for you to edit to your specifications, or the ability to create your own display ads from scratch. The Display Ad Builder tool within Google AdWords lets you easily create any ad for free!
Once you have designed your display ad, the next step is to specify your target audience. Your target audience should be aimed at users who would be interested in the services or products that your business offers, and would statistically be more likely to convert. Google AdWords offers an unparalleled level of targeting, helping you zoom in on your ideal customer, and keep your waste-spend to an absolute minimum. Google AdWords campaigns that target the Display Network can be targeted by:
Geographic
Target your ads to the regions in which your business operates.
Languages
Language targeting allows the advertiser to target users based on their language.
Demographic
Target ads to users who would be statistically more likely to convert.
Frequency Capping
Ensure you are using your advertising budget to optimal performance by managing your reach and frequency.
Ad Scheduling
Deliver ads when your customer are most receptive to your offering.
The next step is to ensure that your ads are targeting your audience in the correct placements, where the ads will gain maximum exposure to your potential customer base. You may decide to place ads against related web content, choose individual websites that you would like to target, or even target users that have previously engaged with your website (remarketing). It is possible to layer these targeting options to really pinpoint your ads to users who have a real genuine interest in your offering.
Keywords (Contextual Targeting)
Keyword targeting helps the system deliver ads against related web-content.
Placements
Placement targeting allows the advertiser to select which website ads should be targeted.
Topics
Topics based targeting includes websites that have similar content to your offering.
Interests
Interest targeting allows us to focus on the user and their interests.
In-Market Audiences
In-Market targeting allows the advertiser to target users based on their search activity.
Remarketing
Remarketing allows the advertiser to target users based on their browsing activity.
Finally, use Conversion Tracking and Google AdWords Reporting to measure the return-on-investment of your display ads, optimise your campaign performance, and make decisions on how best to utilise your overall advertising budget.
There really is no reason not to give display advertising a go today, and start increasing your brand awareness and generating additional sales and revenue for your business!
Here at Circus, we think that Display Advertising should be a part of every advertiser’s digital marketing strategy, and we hope that this article has given you some inspiration for interacting further with your customers via the various features and platforms listed above. If you would like a helping hand with Display ads, or any other element of PPC advertising, then please contact us for a free, no obligation PPC review and consultation with one of our PPC Experts.
Written by Simon Wells PPC Account Manager at Circus PPC Agency
Circus Receives Premier Google Partner Confirmation
We are pleased to announce that today we received our framed Premier Google Partner certificate and a beautiful, etched glass plaque from the Premier Google Partner team:
We are immensely proud of our achievement; becoming one of the few Premier Google Partner Agencies in the UK, showing proficiency in all 5 specialisms:
- Search Advertising
- Display Advertising
- Video Advertising
- Mobile Advertising
- Shopping Advertising
We are keen to show off not only the plaque and certificate but use our updated Premier Google Partner logo badge:
This certificate and plaque are in addition to the individual team members’ Search Specialist Challenge certificates that we received last week. http://circusppc.com/circus-team-completes-search-specialist-challenge/
As a Premier Partner we have privileged access to Google’s latest technology, have a senior consultation team at our disposal and additional resources to help us learn and keep you ahead of the competition.
What was technically required to gain Premier Partner status, was for two team members to pass at least two of the AdWords exams, we went much further than that and took the Search Specialist Challenge with all of our team members passing all of the AdWords exams!
Suffice to say as fully qualified individuals we are proud, as a fully qualified team we are even prouder.
Since its foundation in 2009 Circus has gone from a one man consultancy to a thriving 9-strong expert team, managing paid search campaigns for 90+ clients across a range of industries and a range of budgets. Circus has built a diverse skill set over the years through hard work and, more importantly the right people.
Written by Rick Tobin Managing Director at Circus PPC Agency
Circus Awarded Smiggle UK and Smiggle Australia PPC Contracts
Circus PPC has been selected by Australian retail giant Smiggle (Part of the Just Group), to develop and manage their UK and Australian retail PPC accounts.
Having managed their own PPC accounts internally over the last few months smiggle reached out to Circus PPC to compile a strategy that could deliver growth & efficiency in their account with a keen focus on the upcoming Christmas season.
Smiggle felt they had reached a point where they needed an expert agency to come on board and really drive growth in the account!
Smiggle is an Australian-based retail store chain that sells stationery and related accessories, the ultimate creators of colourful, fun, fashion-forward stationery and office supplies, bags, lunchboxes and drink bottles. The Australian retail giant is now pushing into the UK market with an ambitious strategy that will bring a brand new store to a location near you over the coming months.
“We are looking forward to working closely with Smiggle over the next few months, to really help them in their online retail sales ambitions. With Christmas coming and an ambitious plan to drive sales and ROI, it’s going to be a great challenge for the team” – Rick Tobin, MD of Circus PPC
Circus Team Completes Search Specialist Challenge
Today we received our first set of certificates for completing the Google Premier Partners Search Specialist Challenge.
The challenge was created by the Google Partners program to challenge certified AdWords partners to pass ALL of the relative AdWords exams before the deadline, once completed they would then give those that passed the glorified title of “Search Specialist” and issued certificates to all successful partners.
Get ready to put your competitive spirit — and your AdWords expertise — into overdrive. Take part in the Specialist Challenge and show clients that you’re an office of real AdWords experts
The exams that we had to pass were:
- Adwords Fundamentals
- Search Advertising
- Display Advertising
- Video Advertising
- Sopping Advertising
- Mobile Advertising
Needless to say everyone at Circus completed the challenge (even myself), are we are now confirmed as Search Specialists.
Here are the first group of certificates that came through the post today:
We are always up for a challenge, especially one that allows us to show our expertise and dedication to our field. We are immensely proud of the whole team, they have shown they really know their stuff and can tackle any challenge with true determination, we look forward to the next challenge.
Written by Rick Tobin Managing Director at Circus PPC Agency
SEARCH PERFORMANCE AWARD – GOOGLE PREMIER PARTNER AWARDS 2016
Circus PPC Agency are delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for Best Search Performance at the Google Premier Partner Awards 2016.
https://events.withgoogle.com/premier-partner-awards/
Recently after getting a nomination for the Best Small PPC Agency in the UK Search Awards, Circus are really proud to announce that we have been shortlisted for the Best Search Performance in the Google Premier Partner Awards 2016.
With 8 award categories to be entered, the Google Premier Partner Awards will gather some of the most innovative and client focused agencies across EMEA. One winner for each of the categories below will be announced at the awards ceremony in December
- Search Performance Award 2016
- Video Performance Award 2016
- Display Performance Award 2016
- Mobile Performance Award 2016
- Shopping Performance Award 2016
- Outstanding Premier Partner Performance Award 2016
- Best Client Story of 2016 Award
- Highest Customer Satisfaction Award 2016
This nomination comes at a time when we’ve been incredibly busy growing and developing our team and establishing valuable partnerships with other digital marketing companies across the country.
Delivering excellent results to our existing clients and always keeping up with the latest developments in the industry, we are really excited to compete against some of the leading digital marketing agencies across EMEA.
The Awards Ceremony will be held on the 5th of December in Dublin where more than 200 Premier Google Partner agencies will gather for a day of networking where they’ll discuss the latest trends in the digital marketing industry.
Written by Rick Tobin Managing Director at Circus PPC Agency
Social PPC As Part Of Your Digital Strategy
Social Media can play a major role in driving additional relevant traffic to your website. There are 2.3 billion social media users worldwide and 91% of retail brands use 2 or more social media channels – Don’t’ get left behind!
Social media interaction will assist in online exposure for your business. This free, or paid traffic, will help users interact with your website and learn more about your services, products or offering. Once these users are interacting with your website, this relevant and interested traffic can also then be added to any current other PPC remarketing lists you have created to enable cross-device and cross-platform targeting to create brand loyalty and awareness at various different touch points across the web.
You should ensure that, as in every form of PPC, the ads are targeted to a specific user who would be interested in the product or service that you have to offer and below we focus on three great platforms for driving quality, relevant traffic to your website.
Advertisers can choose from a selection of objectives when initially creating their advertising campaign. Objectives help Facebook optimise delivery of the ad content to drive the advertiser’s required action – whether that be engagement with your app, increasing your brand awareness or encouraging more downloads or sales from your website. We’ve helped by summarised these objectives and a little information about each below: 
Facebook Ads are can be placed on a Facebook’s News Feed, Right Hand Column or their sister-site Instagram. These ads can be viewed on desktop, tablet or mobile devices while Facebook users are interacting with friends and family, posting updates or checking in at their favourite places.
Location Facebook Ads are different to traditional forms of advertising as you can place your advert to just the right people – unlike radio, TV or print advertising. Facebook’s level of targeting is immense, due to the user information they collect during sign-up and as the user interacts the brands, people and places. These unparalleled targeting options allow us to zoom in your perfect audience by targeting your ads by:
- Demographics
- Interests
- Behaviour
- Device
In general, people spend more time on Facebook than almost any website – including Google. If you and your business are not currently running Facebook Ads then you’re missing out on interacting with your target audience on platform where they feel comfortable. Engage via various different content with your target audience, and their likes, shares and posts will drive further brand recognition amongst their friends and family.
Twitter’s millions of active users are another powerful marketing tool that you can utilise. To easily connect users with your website, products or services, you can create several types of advertising campaigns that can be promoted to a targeted group of users or against popular trends or Twitter hashtags.
Just like Facebook Advertising, users can choose from a selection of objectives when creating their Twitter PPC to best identify the purpose of the activity. Are you looking to drive users to your website? Increase your follower numbers? Maybe you have a video to promote? Twitter can help you do all of these things.
Again we’ve summarised these objectives below:
Twitter Ads offer similar targeting options to Facebook such as Location, Demographics and Interests or Behaviour Targeting. Twitter also gives the advertiser the ability to target specific Twitter audiences, target Twitter Hashtags or even pinpoint specific users by tagging certain events
- Location
- Demographics
- Interests
- Behaviour
- Selected Audiences
- Event Targeting
If you have a Twitter account, you may have already seen different kinds of ads on Twitter, such as: Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts, and Promoted Trends. They are clearly marked with a “promoted” icon. This allows the user to interact with promoted content in much the same way as normal organic content. If a user follows, likes, or Retweets content on Twitter, including promoted content, their followers may see their name associated with that content increasing your brand awareness.
LinkedIn can help businesses of all sizes achieve their goals by positioning their brand in front of an audience that matters. On LinkedIn, you have a unique opportunity to target over 450 million professionals and you can be sure you’re engaging this audience by employing the following ad formats. 
LinkedIN Ads can help your brand reach affluent consumers with disposable income. By advertising on LinkedIN, you can attract your ideal customers on the world’s largest professional network.
Job Title LinkedIN allows a slightly different approach to targeting to the previous social media PPC platforms and allows the advertiser the ability to filter their target audience by criteria such as:
- Job Function
- Industry
- Location
- Demographics
- Skills, or membership within specific LinkedIn Groups.
Whether it’s CEOs, broad audiences or specific industries, the people you want to reach are on LinkedIn. The precision B2B targeting options make it easier than ever before to find the professionals that matter to your business. Reach members across a wide range of educational programmes and institutions – and focus on a member’s professional traits as well as the company where they work.
Here at Circus, we think that Social PPC advertising should be a part of every advertiser’s digital marketing strategy, and we hope that this article has given you some inspiration for interacting further with your customers via the various social platforms listed above. If you would like a helping hand with Social Media PPC ads, or any other element of PPC advertising, then please contact us for a free, no obligation PPC review and consultation with one of our PPC Experts.
Written by Simon Wells PPC Account Manager at Circus PPC Agency
How to Choose a PPC Agency
PPC is an important part of your digital marketing strategy and considering whether or not to outsource this to a specialist agency is a big one. While many agencies are familiar with PPC, how do you identify one that will do a great job and deliver you the best return for your investment? Our field moves fast, so how do you choose the right ppc agency that will get you the right results?
“Pay-per-click agencies can be like used car salesmen, they’re all over the place. Some are comprised of talented individuals who know what they’re doing, while others seem to be as dedicated to the pay-per-click marketing field as they are to a diet on January 1st.“
The importance of choosing the right agency that understands your industry, has expertise and knowledge of your goals, and can deliver results can be a daunting task for any business:
What to look out for:
• Will you own your own account?
• What is the agency employed to do?
• What reporting do they provide?
• What contract lengths do they ask you to commit to?
• How much time will they spend on your account?
• Who will be working on the account?
• What historical performance does the agency have in your industry and do they have the case studies and testimonials to back this up?
When you first pick up the phone to speak to the agency are they knowledgeable, do they want to get to know you as a client? Are they open and transparent or are you forced to speak to a sales person or client director?
A good PPC manager should be confident enough to explain how and why they work with you as a client and express an understanding and high level of expertise.
What to ask for:
Give the agency read only access to your account and ask for a free audit. This will show you how they think and what impact they are likely to have, got a good feel for their metal!
Ask for testimonials, case studies and references, a good agency will have lots of these to validate their expertise and experience and have clients eager to let you know how good they are!
What to avoid:
Agencies that hide behind contracts, non-competes or other “problems” to get around answering or delivering information are usually hiding something; poor performance, poor relationships or inexperienced PPC manager.
Long term contracts, an agency will only tie you in if they feel their performance could be in question
Lack of experience, especially in your industry
A small team of PPC managers; remember the account will only be as good as the PPC people working on it, a large agency with a small PPC team simply cannot perform as well as a small agency with a large PPC team.
Do not be afraid to ask tough questions, a good PPC manager will be able to explain their services and solutions clearly and professionally.
You’ve entering into a partnership and, as such, the relationship should be mutually beneficial. Take the time to work out the kinks and develop a solution that really works. In the long run, it will benefit both sides.
The importance of choosing the right agency that understands your needs is hugely important. We believe you should take time in deciding how to choose a PPC agency and making sure you are choosing the right agency for you, don’t simply choose the agency who is closest to you, choose the one that understands your industry, has the expertise and can deliver the results.
If you would like to discuss your PPC and get an independent audit please do get in touch
Written by Rick Tobin Managing Director at Circus PPC Agency
Circus Invited To UK Launch Of YouTube Director
Circus PPC were one of the first agencies within the UK to be officially invited to the UK launch of YouTube Director. YouTube Director is an APP which will help you create, edit and produce video advertisements for your business. Our day consisted of sharing ideas with Google, testing out and giving feedback on the brand new YouTube Director App and visiting the rather swanky YouTube Space London.
Why Video?
Everybody knows that online video is growing, but have you seriously considered adding video to your marketing mix?
Did you know?
By the year 2020 over 90% of all internet traffic will be video streaming. That’s right – 90%!
Why YouTube?
YouTube allows you to watch what you want to watch, when you want to watch it. It’s the first truly on-demand video site.
Why do users watch video content?
Unlike traditional forms of video advertising, such as TV, users visit and interact with video for three main reasons. They come to YouTube for:
- Entertainment
YouTube offers an unparalleled level of content that users view to be entertained. Whether it’s the latest sporting highlights, music videos or funny clips of kittens, people from all over the world come to YouTube to be entertained.
- Learning
Need to learn how to cook a great recipe? Want to brush up your gaming skills? YouTube contains a wealth of video aimed at teaching viewers how to refine skills in a desired area.
- Inspiration
Users come to YouTube to be inspired. Art, Music and Film from all over the globe reaches users that would never have seen this only a few years ago.
It’s because of these reasons that YouTube users are truly engaged with what they are viewing, and this makes it a perfect opportunity for these users to be engaged with your brand.
YouTube Director App
The YouTube Director App scheduled for UK iOS release in early October enables businesses to create, edit and produce video advertisements for FREE!
The App enables businesses – who historically have felt that video production was either too expensive or outside of their skill set – create great video content in three simple steps:
- Choose a template
Download the app on your iPhone or Android device and select from ready-to-go templates that’ll help you introduce your business, and show potential customers what you have to offer.
- Shoot and edit
Just point your phone and shoot — the app will guide you what to do step-by-step. Easily add text, animations and music to create a polished video ad that looks great!
- Start advertising
Upload your finished video to YouTube and start promoting your business to your customers. Circus PPC experts will be happy to help you with this final step.
We believe that there is great opportunity for your business to harnessing the power of video advertising and start getting ahead of your competition.
Want to work with a professional director?
With YouTube Director Onsite, a professional filmmaker will come to your business and shoot a video ad – for FREE – when you commit to spending as little as only £350 running video ads on YouTube.
This initiative has been a roaring success for YouTube within the US market and with the UK launch later this year, we expect high demand. Get in touch with Circus today and we’ll start the ball rolling and apply for your registration on this scheme.
Already have over 10,000 channel subscribers?
Circus also visited YouTube Space London, the second largest YouTube space in the world behind Los Angeles.
Here, owners of YouTube channels with over 10,000 subscribers can use the professional studios and production equipment free of charge to create, edit and upload more great content to their YouTube channels.
We’re very excited about the opportunity that the YouTube Director App, YouTube Director Onsite and YouTube Space London have to offer potential advertisers during the coming months – there really has never been a better time to start investing in video and exploring this new, exciting market for your business!
Here at Circus, we think that video advertising should be a part of every advertiser’s digital marketing strategy, and we hope that this article has given you some inspiration for interacting further with your customers via video advertising.
If you would like a helping hand with video ads or any other element of PPC advertising then please contact us for a free, no obligation PPC review and consultation with one of our Video PPC Experts.
Written by Simon Wells PPC Account Manager at Circus PPC Agency
Circus Win A Deluxe Bing Ads Bonanza Box
We are proud to announce that CircusPPC has won a “Deluxe Bing Bonanza Box” in their most recent advertiser competition called “Bing Ads Bonanza”.
The competition, organised by Bing Ads was an opportunity to showcase our skills and talent with the Bing team, by creating new accounts, implementing technology and showing growth we achieved one of the highest scores and won the “Deluxe Bing Bonanza Box”.
We are immensely proud of our achievement and send out a big thanks to the Bing Ads team for giving us the opportunity to enter.
Here is the team unboxing our very summery prize, it’s a shame the sun has now gone:
Whats this? some kind of futuristic speaker?
A BBQ! very useful, lets hope we don’t burn down the house!
The only problem with summer time prizes is that we may have to go outside to use them!
Thanks Bing Ads team, now “Bing” on the next competition ;¬) !
TrueView Video Advertising
What is TrueView Video Advertising?
TrueView ads are a group of video ad formats that are available within Google AdWords.
TrueView ads are available across all devices and allow the user to watch ads they find interesting, and skip ads they find less relevant to them. This also gives the advertiser more control; you can show your ad online, but you only pay for the ads watched – so as your video view-count increases on YouTube – you know you’re reaching an audience that are truly engaged with your message.
Why use AdWords for Video with TrueView?
- You can reach users on YouTube and the Google Display Network.
- YouTube is the largest video site on the internet and has over a billion users!
- Video ads are more engaging than text or static images.
- It’s pay-per-view advertising so you can control a budget that you’re comfortable with.
- You can use analytics to track performance.
How Does It Work?
Once the advertiser’s video content is uploaded to their YouTube account, they can then bid for video views in a similar manner to bidding on keywords within a Google AdWords search campaign.
Available Ad Formats:
TrueView in-stream video ads
TrueView in-stream videos can appear on YouTube watch pages and on video partner sites and apps in the Google Display Network. You pay when a viewer watches 30 seconds of your video (or the duration if it’s shorter than 30 seconds) or engages with your video, whichever comes first.
TrueView in-display video ads
Use this format to promote a video next to YouTube videos, as part of a YouTube search result, or within other website content across the Google Display Network. You’ll be charged only when viewers choose to watch your ad by clicking a thumbnail.
TrueView video ads are available across all devices – mobile, tablets or desktop and laptop machines. You can layer in targeting options such as demographic, geographic, keywords or interest-based targeting. You can also select YouTube videos, channels or websites – these are called placements – that you would like to target your video ad against. Finally, the opt-in nature of TrueView video ads provides an element of natural targeting by eliminating viewers who have already seen your ad or who are not receptive to the message that you are broadcasting.
Reviewing Performance
As with any PPC advertising, a real benefit is the level of transparency and reporting available to the advertiser. You can really see where every penny of your advertising budget is being spent and how your target audience is interacting with the content that you are supplying.
We have detailed some of the available reporting metrics below:
- Number of views – how users have viewed your video ad.
- Interaction rate – how users are interacting with the ad.
- Quartile viewing – the % of your video people have watched before skipping.
- Average cost-per-view – how much is each view costing you?
- Website clicks – how many users are visiting your website via the video ad?
Even more analytical data is available by linking your AdWords and YouTube accounts, there is more information on how to do this here
Benefits Summary
- TrueView Ads reach a highly engaged audience with online video.
- If your TrueView ads are skipped – this won’t cost you a penny.
- Total control of your budget and real reporting transparency
- Grow your YouTube video views & YouTube channel subscribers.
- Use Google AdWords remarketing to target and re-engage with this interested audience.
Conclusion
TrueView video ads are a great extension to your current online advertising and give you the opportunity to reach one of the largest audiences on the web – YouTube viewers – with over 1 billion users. You can reach potential customers when they are most engaged and control your advertising costs with pay-per-view bidding and daily budget limits. Remember, you only pay when a user chooses to watch your video content and any resulting clicks to your website are free of charge – why not give it a go today!
Here at Circus, we think that Video Advertising should be a part of every advertiser’s digital marketing strategy, and we hope that this article has given you some inspiration for interacting further with your potential customers via TrueView video ads.
If you would like a helping hand with YouTube, TrueView Video Ads or any other element of PPC advertising then please contact us for a free, no obligation PPC review and consultation with one of our PPC Experts.
Written by Simon Wells PPC Account Manager at Circus PPC Agency