by Mike Fleming

If you are only using the Search Network of Google AdWords to reach customers for your website, you are limiting your online advertising reach big time. On the Search Network, your ads only show when people are looking for what you offer, which is typically in the later stages of the shopping funnel. But, that's a very small sample compared to the number of targeted online users that could benefit from your products or services.

With the Display Network option in your AdWords account, you can reach a much larger group of internet users who could receive the benefits of doing business with your company, but may not be aware they have a need and/or may have never heard of you.

In fact, only 5% of internet page views are on search engines. This leaves a very large space containing targeted users for your company that you may not be taking advantage of. With the Display Network, you can go out and reach this huge pool of users that may not yet recognize their need for what you offer or know that you offer it.

Plus, you can take advantage of the added branding benefit of being seen on your industry's websites. If a user is not quite ready to buy, they may be more likely to click on your ad and purchase from a search engine results page when they ARE ready to buy if they recognize your brand from around the internet.

And how can you make sure that your ads only show to targeted users instead of random web surfers? Just like the Search Network gives you the opportunity to target specific keyword markets that are very likely to contain your target audience, the Display Network allows you to target specific website markets and websites that are very likely to contain your target audience.

For example, if you sell guitars, wouldn't it make sense to have an ad with your offer on websites where guitar players hang out? With the Display Network, you could create an ad and place it on a content site like this one where the red outline is...

This targeting flexibility gives you control over how your ads are placed on sites around the internet so that you can optimize your marketing efforts.

The danger that many amateur AdWords users can run into when encountering the Display Network is that using it is not as easy as turning it on in the campaign settings of your current campaigns in your AdWords account. The reason is that the Display Network operates under totally different rules. Therefore, using it incorrectly can result in disappointing performance for your company. But, using it correctly can take your online business to new heights.

In future posts, we'll be taking a look at how to do just that...

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