TL: DR – Launch responsive display banners over standard/static image ads because they’re cheaper, more effective and are higher in volume
- Responsive banners drive lower cost conversions than standard banners
- Responsive banners drive more conversions than standard banners
- Responsive banners allow for more agile testing due to volume
- Responsive banners are more affordable than standard banners
- Responsive banners have less restriction on ad character limit for more effective messaging
The Problem
When it comes to AdWords, retargeting past website visitors is one of the most effective strategies a digital marketer can leverage on both search and display.
However, the problem many B2B marketers run into is not having enough volume to retarget to. It’s not uncommon for a recognized tech brand to only get 10k unique visits in a month. That’s only 10k people to retarget to if we go with the classic 30-day cookie!
How Do We Get More Volume?
In cases like this, and even in cases where companies get over 100k visits in a month, one of the most effective strategies to scale the success found with display retargeting campaigns (or even contextual GDN campaigns) is to launch responsive display banners.
Why Responsive Banners?
Because responsive banners outperform standard/static banners and image ads. Period.
I’ve tested standard/static/html5 image ads vs responsive banners for a variety of different clients in different verticals, at different times of the year, and I’m constantly finding that responsive ads drive lower cost conversions for more of them.
That’s not all.
Not only do these ads convert at higher rates, but due to the very nature of responsive ads we also see more clicks than with standard banners. This allows us to test creative messaging and images, and collect data much faster.
Pro Tip: We’re then able to take what we learn from the messaging and work it into new banners and search copy, as well as messaging on landing pages and even the standard website. This is huge.
Lastly.
One of the hardest things about AdWords is fitting everything we want to say [all that tech jargon] into tiny little ads. Responsive ads allow us to get creative, allowing up to 180 characters in a single ad with three different sections. Plus, we get an image! Awesome!
Prove It
I wouldn’t expect anybody to believe me without data, so I’ve got it right here for you.
Below are a number of examples from various verticals which demonstrates responsive ads converting at lower costs and in higher volume than standard image ads.
Data Storage Vertical (Jan 2018-April 2018)
| Banner Type | Cost | Conversions | Cost / conv. | Conv. rate |
| Banner Type – Responsive | $2,266.94 | 79 | $28.70 | 3.40% |
| Banner Type – Standard | $1,359.16 | 21 | $64.72 | 1.43% |
Project Management Vertical (Jan 2018-April 2018)
| Banner Type | Cost | Conversions | Cost / conv. | Conv. rate |
| Banner Type – Responsive | $1,581.94 | 14 | $113.00 | 0.59% |
| Banner Type – Standard | $1,557.15 | 8 | $194.64 | 0.56% |
DevOps Automation Vertical (June 2017-Nov 2017)
| Banner Type | Cost | Conversions | Cost / conv. | Conv. rate |
| Banner Type – Responsive | $10,516.68 | 86 | $122.29 | 2.36% |
| Banner Type – Standard | $6,208.51 | 47 | $132.10 | 1.86% |
CRM Vertical (Jan 2018-April 2018)
| Banner Type | Cost | Conversions | Cost / conv. | Conv. rate |
| Banner Type – Responsive | $8,669.53 | 156 | $55.57 | 1.89% |
| Banner Type – Standard | $3,060.76 | 28 | $109.31 | 2.17% |
CRM Vertical (All of 2017)
| Banner Type | Cost | Conversions | Cost / conv. | Conv. rate |
| Banner Type – Responsive | $57,361.74 | 835 | $68.70 | 1.47% |
| Banner Type – Standard | $29,507.53 | 273 | $108.09 | 0.93% |
Next Steps
At this point, it should be clear that anybody running AdWords display campaigns should experiment with responsive banners and test against what’s running currently. It’s likely that these ad types will allow you to not only scale your success but also improve performance due to higher conversion rates.
If you’re curious how I usually set up my responsive ads, stay tuned for my follow-up where I will show my best practices, and how I was able to drive the responsive banner performance we saw above. Until then, you can read more on paid search here, or contact us with questions you have about getting started with responsive banner types.
