A Google Display Network (GDN) remarketing campaign is a wonderful thing we recommend setting up for most clients. The reach and power of GDN remarketing is something that’s hard to rival, with its millions of partner sites where your ads are eligible to show. But, from time to time, accounts can see a downturn in performance of their remarketing campaign. So what happens when the campaign seems to suddenly stop performing? Here are a couple of settings to review and questions to ask to get performance back on track.
Frequency Capping
This is found on the Settings tab within your Remarketing campaign. You have the power to adjust your cap to be by ad, ad group or campaign per day, per week or per month. Here at DPOM, we would usually test different settings and closely monitored the campaign’s performance from week-to-week before setting a specific cap. If you haven’t had a frequency cap before, it’s better to start higher (around 200 impressions per day per campaign) than to start lower and really impact performance.
Demographics and Different Timeframes
One awesome thing about Display campaigns in Google is the Demographics tab. This gives you an insight into the age groups and gender of the people responding to your ads. With that being said, sometimes there are age groups or genders that are just not responding well to your ads and you need to cut them loose. However, make sure to take a look at different time periods and changes in performance before fully excluding any targeting. It’s also important to note that seasonality can play a role in performance as well. Summer can be a slower time for a lot of advertisers, so taking a look back at previous summer performance can be helpful in determining trends and recognising changes more easily. Looking back at year on year performance will give you the best idea of how your campaign is performing.
Delivery Method
This is a setting that’s also present in Search campaigns. However, making an adjustment to how your ads are delivered can also change the how the campaign performs. Standard delivery method means that Google tries to stretch your budget all day. Accelerated delivery method means that your ads are delivered more quickly. Got a smaller budget? Use standard delivery. If you’re unsure about switching, testing can always help you find the best option for your account and campaigns.
Placement Exclusions
Regularly reviewing the automatic placement reports for your remarketing campaigns is just like regularly reviewing search term reports to identify new keywords: it’s needed for the optimisation of your account. However, there can come a point with campaigns that you may have excluded TOO much traffic and therefore not enough people are seeing your ads. Take a look back at the time period when performance was at a peak and see what exclusions may have been added in since then. Take a look at clicks, conversions, CTR and all other elements you would normally take into consideration. Keep in mind that all of the sites your remarketing ads are showing on are places that your audience is actually going. Even if these placements are sometimes not optimal for general display campaigns, they could be a good fit for remarketing.
To conclude, when the performance takes a bit of a nosedive, re-evaluating some of your settings and reviewing different timeframes can make a big difference. Making note of when you made which changes and giving the campaign time to generate better results will also help you keep your ducks in a row. If you’re still not happy with the results: try and try again!
