There are countless different ways to setup your targeting on the display network. Here are some advanced optimization strategies that will help you to improve your display performance.

In this example we will assume that we are advertising a Hotel based in New York.

In order to test a new display campaign, you would setup separate ad groups for each of the following targeting options:

Ad Group 1: Keyword targeting only (keywords such as “hotel new york”, “accommodation new york” etc.)

Ad Group 2: Keywords combined with a display topic (keywords + topic “Travel -> Hotels & Accommodations”)

Ad Group 3: Keywords combined with a display interest (keywords + in-market audience “Travel -> Hotels & Accommodation”)

Each of the ad groups would use the same keywords. The second and third ad group combine keyword targeting with a topic or interest.

In this case, “Keyword targeting only” is the broadest targeting setup. This is because your ads could be delivered on any website on the display network that is contextually relevant based on your “Hotel New York” keywords. Your ad could for example appear on a news website that publishes an article about a hotel in New York.

Ad group 2 is combining keyword targeting with topic targeting. In this case, you are limiting your campaign to both contextually relevant placements based on your keywords as well as a website topic category. Relevant placements would have to both fit into the hotel topic category as well as include keywords that you are targeting. A news website publishing an article about a hotel would not qualify since it wouldn’t fit into the “Hotels & Accommodation” topic category. A website, blog or discussion board about hotels would be a more specific placement that would qualify based on the “keyword + topic” targeting.

Ad group 3 is combining keyword targeting with interest targeting. Here you are limiting your campaign to both contextually relevant placements based on your keywords as well as the interests of users. In this example interest targeting means that users will only see your ads if they have recently visited hotel websites (i.e. expressed interest in the “Hotels & Accommodation” topic).

How To Add A Topic To An Ad Group

Click on the ad group -> Display Network -> +Targeting -> Add Targeting -> Topics -> search for “hotel”

From the list of options I would add the topic “Travel -> Hotels & Accommodation” since it looks most relevant to this example. Then click save at the bottom of the page.

Now the topic should show up in the tab “Topics” for this ad group:

How To Add An Interest To An Ad Group

Click on the ad group -> Display Network -> +Targeting -> Add Targeting -> Interests & Remarketing -> Select In-Market Audiences -> search for “hotel”

In this case I added “Travel -> Hotels & Accommodations” because it’s most relevant to the example.

After you have setup the targeting for each ad group you would start running your display campaign. You can easily compare the performance of the different targeting strategies by monitoring each ad group’s performance.

In most cases you will find that the keyword targeting combined with a topic or interest will generate a better performance than keyword targeting by itself. This of course makes sense because combining two targeted methods leads to a more closely defined audience.

Once you have found which of the ad groups works best for you, you can pause the other variations and put all of your budget into the best performing ad group.