Today we’re discussing what to use, the Google Search or Display network. There are pros and cons to each… Let’s cover what they are.

Hi, Mike Mancini with PPC Video Training.com. Thanks for joining us today.

The topic we’re going to be talking about today is Search vs. Display. Now, what is that? What is the difference? And what is better for your business?

So what I’m going to do is, I’m going to show you some examples of each and help you try to determine the best way to go about marketing your business.

So what is the difference between Google Search and Display advertising?

Here we go to Google.com and type in the search term “Plumber”.

Now the results that come up immediately at the top of the page are ads. This is search advertising, where we’re advertising inside the search engine of Google.

Now, if you go to other websites, you may see ads like this one below. In this instance, we see an ad for Sleep Number beds. This is what’s called a display advertisement.

This is somethings where maybe you’re reading through a website  (maybe a news site) and you see advertisements at the top, along the sides, at the bottom, and commonly throughout the story.

In this particular case, I didn’t look for anything about Sleep Number beds. They could be advertising based on the type of story I’m reading. They could be advertising based on my search history. Whatever it might be, we’re seeing these ads.

But what is the most targeted way to advertise and what is the best for your business?

The most targeted way between Search and Display is to advertise using Search Marketing.

If I was a plumber, I would be advertising when someone entered the search terms “plumber”, “plumbers near me”, “plumbers in (your location)”, “plumbers around (your location)”, “Minneapolis plumber”.

I may advertise under any one of those search terms, where people are searching for a plumber and they have a problem that they need solved.

Display advertising is more geared towards branding or if you have something extra in your budget.

Now when we talk about branding, we’re saying that people are trying to put their name out there. It’s usually bigger companies. Bigger companies like Sleep Number, Nike, and Apple are a few. They can let people know about a sale, a promotion, new products or whatever it might be.

The reason why I would say that you typically would want a bigger budget is that you’re advertising to a much broader market when you’re doing display advertising.

I did not type in Sleep Number beds. That company has no idea if I’m looking for a bed or not. In this instance they are probably advertising to people who are reading about tech stories on CNN.

Tech people seem to be a bit more up on the trends, they might use Sleep Number beds and that may be their demographic.

But in this instance, I’m not necessairly targeted here. They’re doing branding and chances are they have some extra ad budget.

If you’re a small business, I would say to stick primarily to Search Marketing.

Now, some of my clients tell me that they want to try display advertising. My usual response to that is; “If you’re advertising with less than $1000/month I would say that display advertising probably isn’t in your best interest, unless your doing retargeting.

Retargeting is when someone visits your website and after they have left (and they did not make a purchase on your site), they may see display advertisements on different websites around the Internet reminding them of your brand, your products, a sale or whatever it might be.

But if you’re a smaller business, with a smaller ad budget I would suggest to stick primarily to search marketing.

If you have a larger budget you might spend a bit on display advertising. But I typically tell my clients, especially until they figure out how well it’s working, to spend no more than 10% of their advertising budget on display advertisements.

If they see a good return on investment, obviously they could increase that down the road.

That’s the difference between Search and Display advertising.