Google Display Ads for Ecommerce: Campaigns, Remarketing and Examples

Your Shopping campaigns are profitable. Search is pulling its weight. Performance Max is (mostly) behaving.

And now someone in a meeting asks the question: “Should we be doing Display?”

Cue the collective groan. Because everyone has a Display horror story. The campaign that racked up a gazillion impressions on mobile game apps. The banner that followed someone around the internet for six weeks after they already bought the thing.

So, does Display deserve your budget?

Yes. But probably not the way you think. I’d use Display for dynamic remarketing and controlled prospecting tests once the economics of your core acquisition channels are established. That’s a budget recommendation, not a requirement for every store.

Oh, and Google is also changing where Display campaigns live. (Of course it is.)

Let’s talk about it.

Key takeaways

• I’d usually fund Display after establishing the economics of Shopping, Performance Max and Search; the right sequence depends on the business.
• Dynamic remarketing can show visitors products they viewed and other relevant products. It is worth testing, but profitability varies by store.
• Google is moving Display campaigns into Demand Gen. A phased migration-tool rollout began in June 2026; Google lists later creation restrictions and automatic migration as coming later.
• Set placement exclusions before launch. Review mobile apps, games, parked domains and made-for-ads sites for suitability and performance rather than assuming every placement in a category is wasteful.
• Measure Display on MER and incrementality, not on in-platform ROAS or view-through conversions alone.

What the Google Display Network does for ecommerce

The Google Display Network shows visual ads to people while they browse websites, use apps, watch YouTube or check Gmail. Google says Display campaigns can reach people across 35 million websites and apps, plus Google-owned properties like YouTube and Gmail (Google Ads Help).

That’s a lot of real estate.

But here’s the thing I need you to remember: reach is not intent.

Someone reading a news article or crushing candy in a mobile game is in a completely different headspace than someone searching “buy trail running shoes.” Display can reach people earlier in the buying process than Search, as well as previous visitors closer to purchase. Mix those two up and you’ll make some very expensive budget decisions.

That said, Display isn’t useless when it plays the right role. Google says the Display Network drives nearly 20% of total conversions for the median advertiser (Google Ads Help). The page does not provide enough methodology or a study date to treat that figure as a current ecommerce benchmark or evidence of incremental conversions. Hold that thought for the measurement section.

Where your Display ads appear

Display ads show up on third-party websites (news sites, blogs, review sites), inside mobile apps and on Google properties. Demand Gen and Performance Max include Gmail inventory; Google also lists Gmail among the properties available to Display campaigns. YouTube in-stream and in-feed ads run through Video, Demand Gen and Performance Max rather than standalone Display.

And where your ad appears changes how it performs. A shopper reading a product review may be closer to buying than someone tapping through a mobile game while waiting for their coffee. The placement alone does not establish their intent. That’s why placement control matters just as much as audience targeting when you run Display for an online store.

Why Display is not a first-dollar channel

For most ecommerce brands, I’d establish the economics of Search and Shopping before testing Display. The right order still depends on your product, demand and goals.

Search and Shopping reach people at the exact moment they’re looking for a product. Display reaches them while they’re doing literally anything else. Clicks can be cheaper, but lower click costs do not guarantee lower acquisition costs or profitable sales.

Think of Display as the supporting cast, not the lead. It extends your reach, brings back visitors who left without buying and lets you test audiences you can’t reach with search terms alone. Brands with gorgeous visuals and products that photograph well may see prospecting work earlier. Even then, prove it with an incrementality test before you scale.

Display ads vs Search ads: where each channel earns its budget

Search ads appear when someone types a query into Google. Display ads appear on websites, apps and Google properties while people browse. In other words: Search is triggered by what someone types. Display can use audience signals, contextual targeting and selected placements, rather than relying only on a current search query.

Channel	Intent	Pricing	Typical role for ecommerce	How to measure
Display	Low to medium	CPM or CPC	Remarketing and controlled prospecting	MER, view-through conversions, holdout tests
Search	High	CPC	Capturing demand for products and brand terms	Conversions, ROAS
Shopping and Performance Max	Varies: Shopping captures product searches; Performance Max spans multiple stages	Shopping can use manual CPC or automated bidding; Performance Max uses conversion-based Smart Bidding	Product visibility and sales across Google	ROAS, new-customer revenue, MER

For most online stores, I’d start by evaluating Shopping, Performance Max and Search before allocating a separate Display test budget. Display can absolutely earn more budget. It just has to prove incremental revenue first. For the Performance Max side of the house, see our Performance Max guide.

Standalone Display, Demand Gen and Performance Max (and the big 2026 change)

Here’s the news a lot of brands missed: Google is moving Display campaigns into Demand Gen.

Display inventory isn’t going anywhere. It’s just getting a new home. Demand Gen started serving image ads on the Google Display Network in April 2025, with channel controls that let you choose among supported channels, including YouTube, Discover, Gmail and the Display Network (Google Ads Help). In June 2026, Google began rolling out a migration tool for existing Display campaigns. Later, new Display campaigns can only be created inside Demand Gen, and remaining eligible campaigns will be migrated automatically. Google lists those later phases as “coming later” in its migration guidance.

So what does that mean for you right now?

Standalone Display (while it lasts) lets you manage Display placements, audiences and creative in a separate campaign. The controls available after migration differ, so review Google’s current migration guidance. Existing campaigns stay editable until they’re migrated. Use that window to audit your placement exclusions, app exclusions and brand safety settings, so you can rebuild them properly in Demand Gen instead of scrambling later.

Demand Gen is Google’s successor to Discovery ads. It serves on YouTube (including Shorts), Discover, Gmail and now the Display Network, with richer creative like carousels and video. Our Demand Gen first results post shares what we saw when we tested it.

Performance Max already includes display placements alongside Shopping, Search, YouTube, Gmail and Discover. You get wide reach with automated optimization, but less control: placement exclusions are managed at the account level, while the channel performance report now lets you examine Display results separately. Bidding still optimizes across the campaign rather than independently for each channel.

If you’re already running Performance Max, it can already buy Display inventory. Check the channel performance report to see whether yours is doing so. Plan your Demand Gen setup so the two don’t trip over each other.

Responsive display ads and dynamic remarketing

Responsive display ads are a standard format for standalone Display campaigns. Demand Gen uses its own ad formats and specifications, so check those separately when migrating. You upload headlines, a long headline, descriptions, images, logos and a business name, and Google mixes and matches them to fit each placement. Google’s responsive display ad specs:

• Text: 1 to 5 headlines (30 characters each), 1 long headline (90 characters), 1 to 5 descriptions (90 characters each) and a business name (25 characters).
• Images: horizontal 1.91:1 (1200 x 628 recommended, 600 x 314 minimum) and square 1:1 (600 x 600 recommended, 300 x 300 minimum). You can upload up to 15 of each, and Google recommends 5.
• Logos (optional): square 1:1 (1200 x 1200 recommended) and landscape 4:1 (1200 x 300 recommended).

Now, the good stuff. Dynamic remarketing is a useful Display tactic to test for an online store, although it is not automatically the most profitable.

For retail, it uses your Merchant Center feed and website or app event data to personalize ads, including products visitors viewed and other relevant products. Keep the feed accurate so prices and images stay current. Someone who looked at a pair of boots sees those same boots, at today’s price, on a news site the next day. Standard Display can use different creative and audience segments. Dynamic remarketing goes further by selecting product content from a feed for individual users. For the full setup steps, see our dynamic remarketing guide.

Audience targeting options for Display

Audience options for Display include the following:

• Your data: people who visited your site or app, and customer lists you upload (Customer Match), subject to account eligibility and applicable restrictions.
• Custom segments: audiences modeled using keywords, URLs and apps that describe your ideal customers. URLs help reach people who browse similar sites; they do not identify everyone who visited a competitor’s site.
• In-market: people actively researching a product category.
• Affinity: people with a long-term interest in a topic.
• Detailed demographics: for example, parental status or homeownership.
• Life events: for example, moving house or getting married.

For ecommerce, I’d rank the four most useful like this: your data, custom segments, in-market and affinity.

Your data comes first because those people have already shown interest in your products. Custom segments come next because you can build them from competitor websites and product searches. In-market is useful but broader. Affinity is better for awareness than for sales. And detailed demographics and life events work for specific products, like baby gear for new parents.

One warning. Audience quality makes or breaks prospecting. A custom segment built from one broad search term wastes impressions. One built from relevant competitor URLs and product terms gives Google more specific signals, but does not guarantee purchase intent. On third-party Display inventory, search-term inputs are interpreted as interests or purchase intentions; the option based on actual Google search behavior applies to campaigns running on Google properties (Google’s custom-segment guidance).

Six ecommerce Display ad examples

Here are six illustrative uses, alongside relevant account examples. The case-study results reflect broader campaign strategies, not isolated proof of standalone Display performance.

• Dynamic product remarketing. A visitor looks at a product page but doesn’t buy. The next day they see that product, with its price and a “Shop now” button, on a news site. Audience: product page viewers. Measure: incremental conversions or revenue using a holdout where feasible, with MER and view-through conversions as supporting context. In practice: for pet supplement brand Four Leaf Rover, we paired Shopping, dynamic remarketing and brand campaigns. Comparing April 2021 with October 2022, the case study reports revenue reaching 4.5 times its starting level, ROAS rising 153% and cost per conversion falling from $35.60 to $23.86 (Four Leaf Rover case study).
• Cart recovery. A visitor adds to cart but doesn’t check out. Within 48 hours they see a free shipping offer. Audience: cart abandoners. Measure: conversion rate compared with a holdout group that didn’t see the ad. (Go easy on the discounts, or you’ll train shoppers to abandon carts on purpose. They’re smarter than we give them credit for.)
• New collection launch. People in a custom segment modeled using relevant competitor URLs see lifestyle images from your new season with a “Shop the collection” button. Audience: custom segment. Measure: new-customer acquisition cost and MER during the launch. In practice: for a men’s denim and streetwear brand, we prospected for its men’s and kids’ collections with Shopping and YouTube top-of-funnel campaigns rather than standalone Display. After launch, new customers rose 56% and orders rose 46%, and the published case-study headline reports $260,337 in revenue on $36,826 of ad spend over two months (clothing brand case study).
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Past customers and recent visitors see your BFCM offer with a clear end date. Audience: Customer Match plus remarketing. Measure: incremental revenue where feasible, with MER and year-over-year results as context rather than proof of causation.
• Prospecting with custom segments. People Google identifies as having relevant interests or purchase intentions see brand creative on relevant blogs. Audience: custom segment built from product-related terms. This does not directly target confirmed Google searchers on third-party Display sites. Measure: new-customer revenue and incremental lift, with view-through conversions as supporting context.
• Cross-sell after purchase. Past buyers see products that go with what they bought, 30 to 60 days after their order. Audience: Customer Match segmented by product purchased. Measure: repeat purchase rate and MER. In practice: for PetMeds, we segmented Customer Match lists into new and returning customers and imported new-customer sales from the CRM, so each campaign could be steered toward the right group. The case study reports a 65% reduction in new-customer acquisition cost while maintaining returning-customer volume; this was a Performance Max strategy, not a standalone Display cross-sell test (PetMeds case study).

Display campaign setup checklist

Before you launch, run through this list:

• Decide the goal: remarketing or prospecting.
• Choose your audience from the list above. For a strictly remarketing-only Display test, turn off optimized targeting so the campaign does not expand beyond your selected audience. Confirm the controls available in your campaign type.
• Set a budget and bidding strategy.
• Upload responsive display assets in every required size.
• Set a frequency cap. Three to five impressions per person per day is a reasonable starting point (that’s my rule of thumb, not a Google rule).
• Add your placement exclusions before launch.
• Let the campaign run for 7 to 14 days before making big changes.

For standalone Display bidding, consider target ROAS for conversion value, Maximize conversions or target CPA for conversions, viewable CPM for awareness, or manual CPC for click-bid control, depending on availability. Demand Gen has its own bidding options; do not assume every Display strategy transfers unchanged. Smart Bidding needs conversion data to work well, so start conservative on a new campaign.

If you’re building something new today, remember the Demand Gen move and plan for it, rather than building a shiny standalone campaign that gets migrated out from under you.

Placement exclusion checklist

Here’s the honest truth: bad placements can waste Display budget, just as poor targeting, weak creative and a bad offer can. When we build Display campaigns at Solutions 8, placement exclusions are the first thing we check after launch.

• Mobile apps: check for accidental taps and poor conversion quality. (Fat thumbs are not a buying signal.)
• Parked domains: pages with no real content.
• Game placements: check whether these placements produce meaningful engagement and sales for your products.
• Made-for-ads sites: pages built to show ads, not to serve readers.
• Unmoderated user-generated content: brand safety risk.
• Any site outside your brand safety standards.

Review your placement report every week for the first 30 days, and investigate placements with material spend and poor results, allowing for conversion delay and sufficient data before excluding them. For a deeper method, see our Performance Max placement reports guide.

When not to run Display, and how to measure it when you do

Skip Display if Search and Shopping aren’t profitable yet, if placement exclusions aren’t set up, if your site has too little traffic to build a remarketing list, or if your overall MER can’t absorb a channel with lower in-platform ROAS.

Now, measurement. This is where Display gets messy.

A view-through conversion is recorded when someone sees a qualifying ad impression, does not interact with the ad, and later completes a tracked conversion within the configured view-through window, subject to Google’s attribution rules. Last-click reporting gives Display zero credit for those sales. In-platform reporting can swing the other way and over-credit Display for sales that would have happened anyway.

So who’s right? Neither, on its own.

Monitor marketing efficiency ratio (MER), defined here as total revenue divided by total ad spend. Comparing periods with Display running and paused can be informative, but seasonality, promotions and other channel changes can affect the result. For a cleaner answer, run a properly designed geographic holdout or a Google Conversion Lift study if your account and campaigns are eligible. Our incrementality testing guide explains the method.

Here’s why this matters. A medical-grade skincare brand came to us after its previous agency ran Search, Shopping and Display focused on existing customers and failed to add new ones. We judged the account on MER and new-customer cost instead of in-platform ROAS. For January 2023–February 2024 compared with November 2021–December 2022, the case study reports approximately 165% growth in conversions/sales and a new-customer acquisition cost of $29.45. (skincare brand case study).

And if you’re choosing between remarketing channels, read why YouTube remarketing can outperform Display remarketing.

FAQ: Google Display ads for ecommerce

What is the Google Display Network?

The Google Display Network is the group of websites, apps and Google properties where Google shows visual ads. Google says it can reach people across 35 million websites and apps, plus YouTube and Gmail. For ecommerce, it works best for remarketing and controlled prospecting.

Is Google getting rid of Display campaigns?

Google is moving them into Demand Gen. Display inventory stays, with a phased migration-tool rollout beginning in June 2026. Google lists later restrictions on new standalone campaigns and automatic migration of remaining eligible campaigns as “coming later.” Existing campaigns stay editable until they’re migrated.

How much do Google Display ads cost?

Display campaigns can charge for clicks, viewable impressions or, for eligible setups, conversions, depending on the bidding and payment options. Clicks may cost less than Search clicks, but actual costs depend on the auction, audience, placements and campaign settings. Start with a test budget you can afford to lose, and judge results on MER and incrementality.

What is the difference between display ads and search ads?

Search ads appear when someone types a query into Google, so they reach people looking for a product right now. Display ads appear on websites and apps while people browse, so they reach people earlier. For most online stores, Search earns budget first.

Do display ads work for ecommerce?

They can, through dynamic remarketing or controlled prospecting. I’d usually establish the economics of higher-intent channels first, but there is no universal channel order that applies to every store. Success depends on tight audiences, placement exclusions and measuring incremental revenue.

What to do next with your Display budget

Here’s where I land. Display earns a place in your media mix as dynamic remarketing and controlled prospecting, measured on MER and incrementality, not on in-platform ROAS alone. And with Display moving into Demand Gen, now is a very good time to get your setup right instead of letting a migration tool decide for you.

Our team manages Display alongside Shopping, Performance Max and Search, so every channel has a defined job and a measured return.

If you want Display run by a team that treats it as a profit center instead of a budget line, let’s talk about your Google Ads management.