Google Display Network (GDN) ads are visual ads (image, responsive, rich media, and some video-style placements) that run through Google Ads and show on millions of websites and apps, plus Google-owned surfaces like YouTube and Gmail.
Think of GDN as “show your brand while people browse,” not “catch someone typing a high-intent search.” You can use it to introduce your business, stay top-of-mind, or follow up with past visitors. For Orlando and Central Florida businesses, it’s especially useful when you want repeated visibility with locals and newcomers who are reading local news, checking the weather, watching YouTube, or using mobile apps. If you want help mapping this to lead goals and not just views, our PPC management work usually starts by deciding whether you need awareness, remarketing, or a direct response offer.
Where GDN ads appear
Your ads can show as banners, in-content placements, native-style units, and other formats depending on the site or app layout. You do not pick “every site.” You pick targeting, and Google finds matching inventory, unless you use managed placements to choose specific sites or channels.
How targeting works on the Display Network
Display targeting is built around who you want to reach or what content your ad should appear next to. Here are the common options we use for local businesses:
| Targeting type | What it means | When it fits best |
|---|---|---|
| Remarketing | Shows ads to people who visited your site or took specific actions. | Service businesses (dentists, law, pest control) that want more booked calls from past visitors. |
| Audience segments | Reaches people by interests, habits, or intent signals. | Top-of-funnel awareness, new patient or new client campaigns, seasonal promos. |
| Contextual (keywords/topics) | Places ads on pages about subjects you choose. | When you want relevance without needing someone to have visited your site yet. |
| Placements | Chooses specific websites, apps, or YouTube placements to show on. | When you want tighter control, especially for brand safety. |
| Geo targeting | Limits where ads show by city, ZIP codes, radius, or regions. | Orlando-area campaigns where service radius matters (Winter Park, Lake Nona, Dr. Phillips, etc.). |
If you’re not familiar with how “intent” changes by channel, our FAQ on search intent and its main types helps explain why Display clicks often need more nurturing than Search clicks.
What you pay for
GDN can bill in a few common ways, depending on settings: cost per click (CPC) when someone clicks, or viewable cost per thousand impressions (viewable CPM) when your ad is actually viewable and shown. For most local lead-gen campaigns, we focus on conversion tracking and bids that aim at form fills, calls, or booked appointments, because cheap clicks are meaningless if the leads are wrong.
What GDN is good for (and where it can go wrong)
GDN shines for remarketing, brand lift, and staying visible while people compare options, especially in competitive markets like Orlando. It can go sideways when targeting is too broad, placements are not filtered, or the landing page feels mismatched to the ad. Display traffic is usually less “ready to buy” than Search, so your page has to do more work to build trust fast. Our FAQ on the difference between a website, a webpage, and a landing page is helpful if you’re sending Display clicks to an offer page.
Practical setup tips we use for local businesses
Start with one clear goal per campaign (remarketing bookings, new patient leads, branded awareness in a service radius). Keep creative simple: one offer, one proof point (reviews, years in business, financing, same-day availability), one call to action. Add guardrails early: exclude irrelevant geographies, remove low-quality placements, and separate remarketing from cold audiences so budgets do not mix. If your landing page is slow or confusing on mobile, fix that before scaling spend; our web design team often gets involved here because Display campaigns magnify weak pages.
If you tell us your industry and service area (for example, a dentist in Winter Garden or a pest control company serving Seminole and Orange County), we can point you toward a clean starting structure for GDN that matches how people actually browse and decide.
