Display & programmatic
Display and programmatic advertising in Ann Arbor
Plenty of people visit your website, like what they see and leave without getting in touch. Display, video and retargeting campaigns keep your business in view, for them and for new audiences like them, on the websites, apps and videos they already use.
Staying visible without becoming wallpaper
Display advertising covers the image and video ads that appear across websites, apps and YouTube. It rarely catches someone at the exact moment of need the way a search ad does. Its strengths are reach and memory: introducing your business to the right audience, and reminding past visitors that you exist when they are ready to decide.
Those same strengths make it easy to waste money. Ads shown too often irritate people. Ads placed on poor-quality sites can damage your brand. And reports can make a campaign look better than it is. We manage those risks deliberately, with frequency caps, placement and content exclusions, and regular reviews of where ads actually ran.
Campaigns can run through Google’s Display Network and YouTube, or through programmatic platforms that buy ad space across many exchanges when a particular audience or type of inventory calls for it.
Two kinds of conversion. A click-through conversion follows a click on your ad. A view-through conversion is counted when someone saw the ad, did not interact with it, and converted later. Google’s help page on view-through conversions notes that a longer view-through window will usually increase the number recorded. That is why we agree the window with you up front and report the two separately.
Where the budget allows, we also test whether display is adding customers you would not have won anyway, for example by comparing areas or periods with and without ads. It is the most honest answer to the question every display report should face.
What's included
Reach, reminders and proper measurement
Every display campaign is built around a clear audience and a clear purpose. These are the building blocks.
- Audience planning: who you want to reach, defined by location, interests or behavior, and how large that audience really is.
- Creative: static, animated and video ads in the sizes and formats each network accepts, with versions to test.
- Google Display Network and YouTube: campaigns across Google’s partner sites, apps and video inventory.
- Retargeting (remarketing): reminders for people who visited your site, with lists split by what they looked at.
- Programmatic buying: wider inventory and audience data through demand-side platforms when the audience and budget justify it.
- Frequency capping: limits on how often the same person sees your ads, so reminders stay helpful rather than tiresome.
- Brand safety: placement and content exclusions, plus regular reviews of where your ads appeared.
- Measurement: click-through and view-through conversions reported separately, with lift tests where the budget allows.
How it works
From audience to impact
Display rewards a clear plan. This is how we put one together.
Define the job
We agree whether the campaign is about reaching new people, reminding past visitors or both, and what success will look like.
Build audiences and creative
We set up audiences and tracking, then produce ads designed for the placements where they will actually appear.
Launch with guardrails
Frequency caps, placement exclusions and budget limits go in before the first ad is served, not after the first complaint.
Measure honestly
We report reach, click-through and view-through results separately, review placements and test what the ads are really adding.
Is it right for you?
When display is worth the budget
Display usually works best alongside other channels. We will tell you honestly whether it fits your plans.
A strong fit when…
- Your website already gets steady traffic, so there is an audience worth reminding.
- Customers take time to decide, compare options or visit more than once before buying.
- You are launching something new and need people to recognize your name before they search for it.
- You have, or can produce, clear visuals or short video that explain your offer at a glance.
Worth waiting if…
- Your site gets few visitors. Retargeting lists will be too small to use, so build traffic first through search or social.
- You need leads now from people ready to buy. Search ads usually reach that intent more directly.
- You cannot track conversions on your website yet. Without tracking, display results are mostly guesswork.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between display and programmatic advertising?
Display describes the format: image and video ads shown on websites, apps and video platforms. Programmatic describes how the space is bought: automatically, through platforms that bid for individual ad placements across many publishers. Buying through Google’s Display Network is automated too, so in practice the two overlap.
How often should people see our ads?
Often enough to be remembered, not so often that people get annoyed. There is no universal number, so we start with a conservative frequency cap, watch how results change as frequency rises, and adjust from there.
Do we need to update our privacy policy for retargeting?
We recommend it. Retargeting relies on cookies or similar tracking, so your privacy policy should explain it, and depending on where your visitors are, you may need a consent banner as well. Ad platforms also have their own policies for personalized advertising. We point out what needs covering before any tag goes live; your legal adviser has the final word.
Could our ads appear next to inappropriate content?
We take steps to make it unlikely: content exclusions, placement exclusion lists and regular checks of where ads actually ran, adding new exclusions as we find them. No setting can guarantee perfect results across the open web, which is why we keep checking for as long as a campaign runs.
How do you know whether display is actually working?
We look beyond clicks. We report click-through and view-through conversions separately, watch for growth in searches for your business name and in direct visits, and where budgets allow, compare results with and without ads. That comparison is the clearest view of what the ads really added.
Works well with
Related services
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads campaigns built around cost per lead, not clicks.
Social Media Marketing
Paid and organic social on the platforms your customers actually use.
Content Marketing
Articles, guides and landing pages written to answer real customer questions.
Thinking about display or retargeting?
Tell us about your audience and your website traffic. We will tell you honestly whether display makes sense yet, and how we would measure it.