$100+ million a DAY. – That is how much Google makes from AdWords in a day. And if it wasn’t for mistakes small and medium businesses make, Google wouldn’t be raking in so much money. This post highlights top 6 ways how Dubai Advertisers waste money on Display Advertising ( Display advertising means showing your image, banner ads on different websites )
“Default Setting is your enemy”
#1 Mobile Display Advertising – The evil
Display advertising needs to be used carefully on mobile devices. Give some money to charity, but do not waste your hard-earned money on mobile display advertising unless you know what you are doing. Google owns the Android operating system and many apps use AdSense. Hence, when you opt-in for a display advertising campaign, by default your ads show up in apps and sites you didn’t intend to show up on. These apps can be for games, jobs, and more. You will be surprised that close to 75% of your clicks are from mobile devices and over 50% of them are from apps!. If you running display advertising, pause right now ( ill wait for you to come back ). Go to your AdWords campaign –> click the display advertising campaign –> on the menu bar, click display advertising tab –> click placement sub tab –> you will see all placements, sort by impressions high to low and there you will see where your ads are showing! You keep deleting them and they keep coming back. Imagine how much money you wasted on these wrong clicks and what kind of traffic you have been receiving. Talk to us about a special tip that will help you get rid of these wrong placements.
#2 Wrong Campaign Structure
Somewhere I read the saying, ” If you start well, half the job is done”. This is true for adwords campaign structure too. There are many default settings, like enhanced CPC ( cost per click ) bid ( with this setting you give adwords algorithm a free pass to bid high to get conversions ) Initially this is a bad strategy unless you have enough conversions. There are some other default settings that you need to look at like, device bid adjustment, targeting settings, exclusions, and more. Talk to us if you think you losing money on display advertising and not getting returns.
#3 Not setting up Conversion Tracking
“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half”. – John Wanamaker (1838-1922)
We want to tell John and other businesses that there is something called conversion tracking which solves the measurement problem. Many advertisers haven’t set up their basic conversion tracking. Due to this mistake, people keep sending paid display or search traffic to their website without knowing which clicks are converting. Imagine throwing coins on the wall without knowing which one sticks. Google adwords gives you a conversion tracking code ( from the Tools menu ) – which you can insert on a thank you page of the website form. If you don’t have a thank you page, ask your developers to create one after the form submit. Then on the thank, page inserts the tracking code. With this setup, you can easily know, which keywords, ads, or campaign is giving you results. This is one of the best ways to optimize the campaign.
#4 Site Category Exclusions
With display advertising, you need to exclude certain website placements which will otherwise blow your budget. Many times your ads show up next to insensitive content which can be damaging to your brand. It is important to remove them and get quality clicks
#5 Frequency Capping
Nowadays, we see so many ads and sometimes the same ads many times. It’s annoying, isn’t it? Blame it on ignorance. This problem can easily be solved by Frequency capping. Let me take a step back and explain what it is first. Frequency Capping means, how many times you want a user to see your ad. Studies have shown that around 5 – 7 times if you show your ads to users they buy. If not, they are not interested and you can stop showing ads to the same user multiple times. This is achieved through frequency capping and you don’t have to waste money showing the same ad to the same person multiple times.
#6 Ad Scheduling
So you’re running your ads 24/7. As we know, the new day starts at 12am, and by the time you wake up in the morning, half the display advertising budget is already finished. It is advisable, that if you want to show your ads to people at the right time, you can put ad scheduling to show your ads let’s say, all weekdays between 8 am – 10 pm and not on Fridays or midnights. This way you can use your advertising budgets at the right time when it matters. We have seen many advertisers running ads all the time and wasting advertising budgets at nonfruitful hours.
#7 Not using negative keywords
Negative keywords are those on which you don’t want to show your ads. It does not work as effectively as a search campaign. But still, we have noticed many advertiser ads show up on job sites or irrelevant sites where they didn’t want to show up and end up burning budgets with irrelevant clicks. If you count the number of wrong clicks over the months and years it is sizable. We have seen advertisers who could have owned a villa in Dubai with the amount spent on wrong clicks!
#8 Common Ad creative mistakes
Display advertising benefits are that you can have text and image ad formats. Earlier, many advertisers used only one text or image ad. As a result, the campaigns were not effective and you were not getting enough clicks. Poor quality ads and color combinations are also a result of the high cost per click. These are campaigns without a strategy. Increasing the budget is the easiest thing to do but it costs and hurts. A little bit of optimization of the campaign could make all the difference. Many advertisers run the same ads throughout the year. It is important to test which ads are working and optimize them accordingly. There are many poorly written ads. which doesn’t benefit anyone in society.
#9 Targeting settings
There are many display advertising targeting options like – Keyword targeting, Topics targeting, interest targeting, Affinity and in-market audience, similar audience, and much more. The theme and structure of some accounts we have seen can leverage these targeting options to get low-cost conversions.
Bonus Adwords tip:
Ok, so you are doing the display campaign well. More and more people are seeing and reacting to your ads. Well, my friend, now is the time to capitalize on the wave. Are you bidding on your own brand terms on search ads? The last thing you want is someone else or your competitor bidding on your company name and showing their ads on search results first position, while you are busy focusing on other keywords or lost in the sea of display advertising.
Leads Dubai is a Google Adwords Certified Company in Dubai, UAE, we deal with the above scenarios every day and might have a solution for you. Contact us to learn more.
With Google Display Ads providing immense reach and visibility, it’s crucial to understand how to get the most out of them. To assist you in maximizing your campaigns’ potential, here are four strategies for achieving great results with Google Display Ads.
For expert assistance, consider partnering with a display advertising agency in Dubai to help you avoid these costly mistakes and boost your campaign performance.
BONUS :
5 Ways to get good results from Google Display Ads Campaigns
The number one reason to advertise on Google Display Network ( GDN )through Google Display Ads is to maximize leads for the company and raise awareness. Ads on Google Display reach over 90% of internet users globally, delivering over a trillion impressions to 2 billion users monthly.
Here are 5 ways to get steller results from Google Display Ads Campaign.
1. Ensure your Google Ads Campaign is free from Click Fraud
Bot Clicks are invalid clicks on your Ad Campaign that result in a high number of fraudulent clicks. They make you think that the Ad group is generating the desired result. In reality, the Ad Campaign is not getting any valuable clicks. To prevent this from happening, you can use websites like ClickCease, which will prevent bot traffic from spoiling your ad campaign.
2. Clever use of Google Display Advertising Targeting
When you opt to showcase your Google display ads, it is best to use your remarketing data or your website tracking data. If you have your customer list, that can work, too. You are trying to give your audience a signal to the Google Algorithm about what your best-quality traffic user looks like. AI and machine learning are strong enough to get results even on broad audiences.
See how to set up Google Banner Ads for your business?
3. Your Ad creatives are the new targeting.
To ensure the Ad Campaign performs well, Display Ad sets must have good visuals and excellent copywriting text. Ad placements also help in the ad’s popularity. Users will click more on ads at the top of the page than those at the bottom. Moreover, it would help if you also kept changing various creatives and copywriting captions to identify which one receives more results.
4. User Google Performance Max Campaigns
Google Performance Max campaign shows your ads all across Google properties like Google Search, Google Display, YouTube Ads, Gmail Ads, Mobile Apps, and much more. And it is a conversion-based campaign. Which means you get results when you turn this on.
Now that you have optimized your ads, it’s time to target. The Google Display Network (GDN) is perfect for reaching new audiences at scale. With our expertise as a top display advertising agency in Dubai, we leverage GDN’s robust display advertising capabilities to assist brands in growing. From keyword and placement targeting to in-market audiences, these top 5 forms of targeting can drive quality traffic and lift conversions.
5. Google Display Network –
Looking to scale beyond Google Search and remarketing? The Google Display Network (GDN) is a powerful way to unlock new audiences, increase brand visibility, and drive incremental traffic.
Unlike Search ads, GDN ads appear across websites, apps, and videos based on content relevance and audience behavior—not active searches. While users may not be looking for you, GDN delivers massive reach and awareness when used strategically.
Here are the Top 5 GDN Targeting Options to grow your customer base 👇
1️⃣ Keyword Targeting
GDN keywords help Google understand the type of content your ads should appear next to.
These keywords guide ad placement on relevant websites—even though users aren’t actively searching.
Best for: Contextual relevance & content alignment
2️⃣ Placement Targeting
Choose specific websites, apps, or YouTube channels where your ads should appear.
High-traffic sites offer great exposure but often require higher bids.
Best for: Brand control & premium visibility
3️⃣ Topic Targeting
Target ads based on broad content themes like Food, Finance, Fitness, Technology, etc.
Simple, scalable, and effective when relevance is key.
Best for: Awareness & reach at scale
4️⃣ Interests & Remarketing
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Affinity Audiences: Users based on long-term interests (e.g., food lovers, travelers)
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In-Market Audiences: Users actively researching or planning to buy
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Remarketing: Reconnect with past website visitors
Best for: High-intent and warm audiences
5️⃣ Demographic Targeting
Target (or exclude) users by age, gender, and parental status to improve relevance and reduce waste.
Best for: Precise audience filtering
Final Tip
GDN works best when combined with smart targeting, compelling creatives, and ongoing optimization.
Not sure which GDN targeting option fits your business best?
👉 Talk to a Google Ads Management Company In Dubai about your requirement and get some targeting consultation.
