Chapter 7 Digital Marketing

1. Set One Goal

Choose awareness, traffic, or conversions and match the payment strategy to the goal.

2. Aim It

Decide who should see the ad and what content or context to target.

3. Check Where It Shows

Review ad placements to protect your brand and avoid wasting money.

4. Build the Ads

Create attention-grabbing ads with a clear message, value, and call to action.

5. Test

Use A/B testing to compare ads, changing one element at a time.

6. Measure and Adjust

Evaluate results based on conversions, costs, and profitability, then improve the campaign.

Six Steps of a Display Campaign

1. Set One Goal, 2. Aim It, 3. Check Where It Shows, 4. Build the Ads, 5. Test, 6. Measure and Adjust.

Display ads

Video, image, and text advertisements appearing on websites and other online spaces.

Display network

Group of publishers following common ad standards, with a network coordinating ads, payments, and reporting.

Advertiser

Business or person creating and uploading ads and paying to reach an audience.

Publisher

Website or app owner providing space for advertisements.

Click

An interaction counted when someone clicks a display ad.

Cost per click (CPC)

Bidding method where an advertiser pays for each ad click.

Cost-per-mille (CPM)

Bidding method where an advertiser pays per 1,000 ad impressions.

Cost per action (CPA)

Bidding method where an advertiser pays for a specified conversion or action.

Combined audience segments

Targeting that uses OR to expand, AND to narrow, and NOT to exclude audience segments.

Custom audience segments

Advertiser-defined audience groups that can be saved for future campaigns.

Fat-finger ad clicks

Accidental ad clicks caused by tightly spaced content on mobile screens.

In-market audiences

People whose recent browsing suggests they are actively considering a category purchase.

Life events targeting

Reaching people experiencing or approaching major events such as moving or getting married.

Remarketing

Showing ads to people who previously visited a website; Google's term for retargeting.

Retargeting

Showing ads to past website visitors; called remarketing in Google Ads.

Display advertising

Paid visual advertising shown while people browse websites, apps, or other online content.

Search advertising vs. display advertising

Search responds to active queries; display reaches people while they do something else.

Google Display Network (GDN)

Google's network of websites, apps, and properties where display ads may appear.

Image or banner ad

Fixed-size visual advertisement, such as 300 x 250 or 728 x 90 pixels.

Leaderboard ad

Wide horizontal banner commonly measuring 728 x 90 pixels.

Responsive display ad

Ad assembled automatically from uploaded headlines, descriptions, images, and logos.

Responsive display ad asset limits

Up to 5 short headlines, 1 long headline, 5 descriptions, and 15 images.

Native advertising

Paid content designed to resemble surrounding content but clearly labeled as advertising.

Rich media ad

Interactive ad that may expand or respond to taps and swipes.

Programmatic advertising

Automated buying of ad space through software rather than manual negotiations.

Real-time bidding (RTB)

Instant auction for ad space as a webpage or app loads.

Ad exchange

Technology marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of advertising inventory.

Ad network revenue flow

Advertiser pays; ad technology takes a share; publisher receives the remainder.

Ad auction sequence

Page loads, ad requested, eligible advertisers bid, winner appears, results are recorded.

Impression

One instance of an ad being served on a website or app.

Viewable impression

Display ad with at least 50% of its area onscreen for at least one second.

Video viewability standard

At least 50% of a video ad onscreen for at least two seconds.

Click-through rate (CTR)

Clicks divided by impressions, multiplied by 100 to express a percentage.

Conversion rate

Conversions divided by clicks or relevant ad interactions, multiplied by 100.

View-through conversion

Conversion occurring after an ad view without a click on that ad.

View-through conversion window

Time after an ad view in which a later conversion can be credited; Google's stated default is one day.

Frequency

Number of times the same person is shown an advertisement.

Ad fatigue or wearout

Reduced effectiveness or annoyance caused by seeing the same ad too often.

Frequency capping

Limiting how often an individual sees an ad.

Reach

Number of distinct people exposed to an advertisement.

Marketing funnel

Awareness at the top, consideration in the middle, and decision or conversion at the bottom.

Awareness campaign

Campaign designed to introduce a brand; judge using reach, viewability, and frequency.

Traffic campaign

Campaign intended to bring visitors to a site; judge using clicks, CTR, and visitor behavior.

Conversion campaign

Campaign intended to generate valuable actions; judge using conversions, CPA, and ROAS.

Campaign goal alignment

Give a campaign one main objective and evaluate it with metrics matching that objective.

CPM cost formula

Total ad cost equals impressions divided by 1,000, multiplied by CPM.

CPC cost formula

Total ad cost equals number of clicks multiplied by cost per click.

CPA cost formula

Total ad cost equals number of conversions multiplied by cost per action.

Effective CPC from CPM

CPC equals CPM divided by 1,000 times CTR expressed as a decimal.

Effective CPA

CPA equals CPC divided by conversion rate expressed as a decimal.

Contribution margin

Revenue remaining after the variable costs of making a sale, before advertising cost.

Break-even CPA

Maximum acquisition cost per sale without losing contribution margin; equals contribution margin per sale.

Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Conversion revenue divided by advertising cost; revenue return, not profit.

Audience targeting

Choosing who sees ads based on attributes, interests, behavior, or customer data.

Content or contextual targeting

Showing ads based on the topic or content of a page rather than the viewer's identity.

Demographic targeting

Targeting based on characteristics such as age or life stage.

Geographic targeting

Targeting people in selected locations or geographic areas.

Affinity segments

Audience groups based on longer-term interests and habits.

Custom segments

Audiences advertisers define using keywords, websites, or apps.

Your data segments

Audiences built from a business's past visitors or customers.

Topic targeting

Showing ads on pages covering selected subjects.

Contextual keyword targeting

Showing ads on pages containing or related to chosen keywords.

Placement targeting

Choosing particular websites, apps, videos, or channels for ads.

Reach-versus-precision tradeoff

More targeting filters can improve relevance but shrink the available audience.

Optimized targeting

Google expands beyond initial audience selections to seek additional likely converters.

Optimized targeting evaluation

Give the system roughly two weeks or 50 conversions before judging results.

First-party data

Information customers provide directly, such as purchases, email sign-ups, or loyalty data.

Third-party cookies

Tracking identifiers used across websites, subject to browser and privacy restrictions.

Platform-modeled audiences

Groups a platform predicts share interests or buying intent using available signals.

Demand Gen migration

Google's 2026 transition of Display campaign creation and management toward Demand Gen.

Placement report

Report identifying the actual websites, apps, and videos where ads appeared.

Placement exclusions

Blocking sites, apps, or content categories unsuitable for a brand.

Made-for-advertising sites

Low-value sites created mainly to display many ads rather than useful content.

Brand safety

Keeping ads away from unsuitable or damaging content and placements.

Display ad creative essentials

Attention-grabbing headline, clear value, specific call to action, and brand identity.

Call to action (CTA)

Instruction telling the viewer what to do next, such as Book a fitting.

Landing page message match

Keeping the ad's promise, offer, and visual message consistent with the destination page.

A/B testing

Comparing two ad versions while changing one main variable at a time.

Statistical significance

Evidence that a measured difference is unlikely to be due to random chance alone.

Holdout test

Comparing exposed people with similar unexposed people to estimate an ad's actual impact.