DYNAMIC DISPLAY ADS VS. CMPs

Meet John, a marketer who needs to launch a promotional product campaign. His primary objective is to increase traffic and raise awareness, with less emphasis on conversion generation and branding. Meanwhile, his friend Mark is employed by a company that places a high value on brand identity. Mark is tasked with promoting a new product, and his goal is to maximize conversion rates while maintaining a high return on ad spend (ROAS).

Both of them are on a tight budget and limited resources in terms of time and creative teams. John and Mark have to make a choice. Which one is better - trust Google’s Dynamic Display Ads or choose a reliable Creative Management Platform (CMP)?

What is a Creative Management Platform?

Creative Management Platforms (CMPs) are cloud-based software that supports your marketing team to streamline and organize the creation, management, and distribution of digital content across multiple platforms such as websites, social media, email, and mobile apps. CMPs help you reach a wider audience while keeping the consistency of your brand and optimizing resources. Not to brag, but feel free to explore our portfolio of successful brand partnerships here.

What are Responsive Display Ads?

Responsive Display Ads (RDAs) were released by Google back in 2016. This new visual ad format complemented the text-only ads that were available on the platform at that time. The idea was to help solo marketers create and launch text&image online display ad campaigns without leaving the Google Ads Display Network. By 2018, RDAs became the default ad format on the network and Google has been promoting them as the all-in-one solution for online advertising ever since.

RDAs come in handy because all the marketer has to do is upload all the needed assets - headlines, descriptions, copy, logo, call-to-action buttons images, and even video. Then, Google’s machine-learning mechanism and algorithms take everything into their “hands”. They automatically generate a variety of ad layouts in terms of size, format, shape and appearance. Having flexible parameters, RDAs easily adapt to different screen sizes (desktop, mobile, tablet) and available ad spaces on apps and websites within the Google Display Network. In some cases, machine learning also gives an additional push for audience targeting, bidding and metrics analysis.

At first glance, RDAs seem like the ultimate panacea for every marketer’s struggles when they have to create an online ad campaign with limited resources. Is this the case and how a reliable creative management platform can give you all that and even more?

The Downsides of RDAs

• You do not have control - RDAs are easy to set up because all the marketer needs to do is add all the elements they want. From then on Google’s algorithms take over. You have absolutely no say in what shape, size or visual arrangement your ad banner will appear. Very often, RDAs are too basic and not at all pleasing to the eye.
  • You cannot unleash your creativity - if you have an idea of how the perfect ad should look like, brace yourself for disappointment. With RDAs, you won’t be able to bring it to life. You will need to rely on the algorithm to combine your elements and hope that the resulting design meets your expectations.
  • Your ads lack branding - If you value your brand identity, RDAs may not be the ideal option for you. Google creates all ads using the same generic templates. This removes the sense of uniqueness and distinction. Opting for RDAs could result in your brand appearing too similar to your competitors, diminishing the impact of your campaign.
  • You do not reach the right audience - by design RDAs fit any available ad space on the Google Display Network. Depending on the occasion they may appear as either text-only or text&image ads. However, using RDAs can lead to reduced quality of reach, as they may be shown in less competitive ad spots that don't typically convert well.
• You have limited analytics - Google gives you access to limited information when it comes to your ad’s performance. On one hand, you have to trust the algorithms that they will serve the best-performing ad according to them. On the other hand, you do not get to have any insight into at what time your ads were displayed and their size, element combination, or format.
• Your ads are displayed only on Google’s Display Ad Network - this means that you cannot use RDAs for sending digital campaigns via email or social media.

CMPs win the competition because…

Depending on your goals, you may choose Google’s Responsive Display Ads, but sure they cannot compete with the capabilities of a good content management platform. CMPs offer many features that make them more effective and efficient in the management of your digital content and online ad campaigns:

• You have control over your ads - create tailored ad banners following the specific needs of your business. Experiment to see what will capture best the attention of your target audience. Play with the design, layout, and shapes.
• You can show off your brand - CMPs help you showcase the distinctiveness of your brand by incorporating your brand colors, logo, and slogan into the design and copy of your digital campaign.
• Take advantage of more targeting options - location, age, gender, interests, and more. Create better-targeted campaigns that are more likely to convert.
• Use better analytics and reporting capabilities - CMPs allow you to track the performance of your ads in real-time, make changes on the fly and optimize your campaigns for better performance.
• Interactivity and rich media - CMPs allow you to add interactive elements, video, and sound to your ad banners which makes them more interesting and appealing.
• Unlimited application - the ad banners you have created with a CMP can be used on Google’s Ads Display Network, websites, social media, email, and mobile apps.

Simply said, John and Mark have an important decision to take. So do you.

Overall, while responsive display ads may have their advantages, they fall short when compared to the capabilities of a content management platform.

If you're looking for a more effective and efficient way to manage your advertising campaigns, give us a call and get your demo.