Display advertising is a huge missed opportunity for many small businesses. Many try to just turn it on and hope for the best, usually wondering why it doesn’t perform as well as their search campaigns.

A few tips to optimize your display spend:

• Use specific placements that match your demographic
• Test as many different ad types as you can
• If using display keywords, only use 5-15 per ad group
• Avoid mixing placements, keywords, and interests in the same ad groups

Contextual ads will perform differently than image ads. Separate each of them out into their own ad groups. It doesn’t take a lot of impressions to tell if an ad will perform, so if they are not performing, turn them off after 1k impressions. Move away from CPC and run your ads on CPM or vCPM (viewable cost per impression).

Create your retargeting campaigns as a different ad group. Provide huge benefits on your retargeting ads as these companies typically have already seen your initial offer and not moved forward with it.