When you advertise on the Google Display Network (GDN), you can choose to use automatic or managed placements to determine which GDN sites will display your ads. With automatic placements, Google uses contextual targeting to match your ads to appropriate GDN sites. With managed placements, you specify which sites you want to display your ads. This analysis will help you identify high-performing automatic placements that you may want to add to your managed placements list for more granular control.
Investigation
- Navigate to Advertising > Google Ads > Placements.
- In the table, click Automatic Placements to see the individual domains on which your display ads appear.
- Click a column header to sort your placements by engagement metrics such as Bounce Rate, Pages/Sessions, and Avg. Session Duration.
- For an alternate view, select the Comparison view from the top right of the table. Use the drop-down menu in the middle column to sort by Sessions. In the drop-down menu in the right-hand column, choose an engagement metric to see how the performance of each placement compares to the site average.
- Under the Explorer tab, select a Goal Set or Ecommerce. Different metrics appear in the table based on this selection.
- Stay in the Comparison view. Use the drop-down menus in the table to sort by Sessions and by different conversion-based metrics to see how the performance of each placement compares to the site average.
- Click an individual Placement Domain to view that domain’s specific Placement URL (or individual pages in the domains). Investigate their performance.
Action
For better control over your bids and destination URLs, add your highest performing automatic placements to your managed placements. To be more competitive and increase your potential exposure on a particular site, consider increasing your bid for that site.
If you notice any low performing automatic placements, consider adding them to your managed placements, selecting a lower bid, and optimizing your ad text and destination URLs to improve performance. If any automatic placement is irrelevant or a consistent low performer even after optimization, consider excluding it at the ad group or campaign level.
