Which One To Choose Search Ads or Display Ads?| 10 Differences Between Them

In the digital advertising world, there are many ways that you can promote your products online.

The most common networks are the Search network and Display network.

Today we are going to cover the pros and cons of each method of advertising. In which situation, one method can be better than the other one. Then you can decide for yourself which one to choose search ads or display ads.

Here we have listed the main paragraphs of our article. So, let’s dive in.

Cost Per Click

Advertising cost varies between industries. But we are assuming the average CPC of search ads costs around 2 dollars.

Display ads, on the other hand, are much cheaper.

Around 0.5 dollars per click.

However, it does not mean you should stop here and focus only it .

Next, we are going to compare other metrics that are also important to boost your ROI.

Click-Through Rate

According to Practical Ecommerce, paid results in the top position gets 10 times as many clicks as side position ads.

It is also not difficult to assume this logically.

For a given keyword with display ads, you can receive clicks not more than your website traffic. Around 0.5 percent of all the traffic a website gets goes to this ad.

Here, from the above picture, you can see that it receives a fraction of website traffic.

But if you rank for that exact keyword on the google search result page (SERP), you can even get more clicks than any other website gets.

Because you are getting traffic directly from Google, not a website.

Here we are assuming that search ads can bring several times more traffic than websites ranking lower.

Conversion rate

In the advertising world, intention leads to conversion.

You can have a higher conversion rate with Search network than Display network.

As it all comes down to searcher intent, users can become more willing to spend money with search ads.

For example, a user browsing the internet suddenly came across your display ad. What is the first thought they might have in mind?

Even if your ad is related to what they have been looking for recently, either they are not in a rush or they are on your competitor’s web page.

So, they won’t bother themselves by focusing on it 100 percent.

On the other hand, when they find you through Google search and you come upon the front page, now you might have a lot more of their attention.

Because they are intentionally looking for a service like yours. Exactly like yours!

Customer Journey

Customer Journey has four stages: Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.

Which means some products take time to be purchased. For that purpose, display ads can be a great choice for your brand awareness.

Therefore, you have a chance to nurture your audience with this type of advertisement in their awareness stage from the beginning.

On the other hand, search ads work for meeting immediate demand.

So, if you want to expect a quick ROI, you have to appear on the search result of Google.

With display ads before building brand awareness, you need to create a lead magnet. That means a product that deserves attention.

Most businesses lack this resource, that is why they think display ads are not that good.

Visual benefit

With display ads, you can share more ideas and show the things that you cannot show with Search ads.

You can describe your product with video advertising, animations, or at least with a detailed picture.

Some products cannot be sold online by just describing with text.       

They should be seen from several angles to convince a buyer.

This can remove some uncertainty and in turn, increase your CTR (Conversion Rate).

Retargeting

Retargeting is the main form of Google display advertising. With this type of advertising, businesses can follow their clients whenever they browse the internet.

Retargeting campaigns can display ads based on shoppers’ previous behavior.

As most people think, your products need to be seen 6 to 7 times before being purchased.

Retargeting campaigns have a much higher ROI than any other traditional outbound form of advertising.

Because your website visitor has already shown an interest in your product.

For some reason, they just left without completing the transaction. 

However, retargeting does not bring in new customers. It just tries to convert people who visited your site before.

Impact on Organic Traffic

Search ads can help a website with poor organic traffic and SEO performance.

Aside from helping a website to generate traffic by paid ads, it can result in more social shares and backlinks.

Why?

Because, as it stands above the organic search results, it can get links and shares before them if your content is relevant to the search query.  

And those eventually can result in higher domain ratings.  

A higher domain rating means a higher rank and more organic traffic.

However, with display ads, you are unlikely to get enough social shares and backlinks that can affect your domain score.

Therefore, it cannot affect much on your organic traffic.   

Push and Pull Approach of Ads

With search ads, you are limited to be seen only by people who search for your keywords. This is known as a pull approach.

With display ads, other than retargeting people who have visited your site before, you can display your products to people who do not know you.

Even if you are not targeting them, they can still see your products and services on their screen.

Hence, display advertisements work with a push approach.

Product Types

Do you buy your dream car through the search results page directly?  

Of course not.

You have to see it several times before you buy it.

Search advertisements will not meet immediate demand if the product type is a niche product or luxury and require lengthy sales cycles.

Buyers need to spend hours or even several days before they decide to purchase.

The first website page that helped to introduce the car could be a paid or organic search result.

But, that does not matter.

Because the buyer probably would not buy after the first attempt and forget those sites.

Here comes the help of display advertising.

It can nurture the client and keep reminding him about the car even if he is browsing the news site or playing his favorite game on his phone.  

And one day he decides to check that ad.

Imagine, there can be so many similar clients from which one could be a real buyer.

By getting their attention at the right time and showing your products over and over, can help to sell your higher-priced products.

Therefore, advertising strategies can vary depending on your product or service cost.

Conclusion

Here in this topic, we have covered the most important metrics and differences between Search advertising vs Display Advertising.

Now, which one to use?

You can run both of them at the same time to know which works best in your situation.

Because some strategies shown here requires running both ads at the same time while others can be done individually.

As always, it all depends on your goals and objectives from running your campaigns.

The best way is to do your own A/B testing, doing your research.

Trying to fit other peoples’ strategies to your business may not give that positive result.

As there are a lot of factors involved.

Now it is your turn.

What other pros and cons of these advertisements can be added to the list?

Which of the benefits do you like the most?

Let me know in the comment section below…

If you have any help regarding your PPC campaign management you feel free to reach out to me.