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Google Ads Display & Remarketing

A hands-on, beginner-friendly path through the Google Display Network and remarketing: how to structure campaigns, build audiences, design responsive banners, cap frequency, and measure view-through and assisted conversions across the funnel.

Marketers, small-business owners, and PPC beginners who already run or want to run Google Ads and need to make Display and remarketing actually profitable.

Course content

The GDN, Inventory, and the Display Auction45m
Display vs Remarketing vs Performance Max45m
Mapping Display to the Marketing Funnel45m
Tagging, Lists, and the Audience Builder45m
Audience Types: Affinity, In-Market, Custom, and Match45m
Segmentation, Exclusions, and Layering45m
Responsive Display Ads and Banner Sizes45m
Creative Principles That Earn the Click45m
Policy, Disapprovals, and Suitability45m

Workbook & downloads

Put the course into practice — a printable workbook plus editable templates you can fill in and reuse.

Download workbook (PDF)13 KBDownload (XLSX)7 KBDownload (XLSX)8 KBDownload (CSV)1 KB
Preview the workbook
This workbook turns the course into a launch. Work through each section as you build a real account: map your funnel, build audiences and exclusions, design banner assets, set frequency caps and bids, and stand up a weekly optimisation routine. Fill the worksheets and templates with your own numbers — keep totals blank until you calculate them yourself.

How the Google Display Network Actually Works

Pin down where Display and remarketing fit in your funnel and set the metric each campaign will be judged on.
Exercise: Estimate your Display economics
Using your own product and a realistic CPM, work the impressions-to-clicks-to-cost math so you understand why Display is judged differently from Search. Do the arithmetic by hand; do not skip steps.
  1. If you spend 200 USD at a 2.00 USD CPM, how many impressions do you buy?
  2. At a 0.5% click-through rate, how many clicks is that, and what is the effective cost per click?
  3. What would the same number of clicks cost on Search in your niche, and what does that tell you about which channel to use for awareness?
  4. Which single metric (CPM, CPC, conversions, or view-through) will you report for each campaign, and why?
Worksheet: Funnel-stage campaign plan
Before opening Google Ads, declare one line per campaign so no campaign is ever judged on the wrong metric. Complete one row per planned campaign.
  • Campaign name
  • Funnel stage (awareness / consideration / conversion)
  • Campaign type (Display prospecting / Remarketing / Performance Max)
  • Primary audience
  • Bid strategy
  • Single success KPI
  • Monthly budget (USD)
Checklist: Foundations in place before launch
  • Conversion tracking is installed and a test conversion has fired
  • The Google Ads remarketing tag (or GA4 link) is live on every page
  • Each planned campaign has a declared funnel stage and KPI
  • You have decided which campaign launches first (recommended: remarketing)
  • You can explain the difference between a click conversion and a view-through conversion

Building and Segmenting Audiences

Build the remarketing lists, prospecting audiences, and exclusions that decide exactly who sees your ads.
Worksheet: Remarketing list design
Design each remarketing segment with a membership rule, duration, and bid intent that match how hot the audience is. Fill one row per list.
  • List name
  • Membership rule (URLs / events / conditions)
  • Membership duration (days, up to 540)
  • Funnel intent (hot / warm / cold)
  • Relative bid (highest / medium / lowest)
  • Estimated active users (must be 100+ to serve)
Exercise: Build a custom audience for prospecting
Approximate Search-level intent at Display CPMs by defining a custom audience from keywords and competitor URLs for your own product.
  1. List 8 to 12 buying-intent keywords your ideal customer would search before purchasing
  2. List 3 to 5 competitor or category URLs whose visitors you want to reach
  3. Which in-market segment most closely matches your product, and would you layer it on top?
  4. What is your single converters exclusion list, and which campaigns will it be applied to?
Checklist: Audience and exclusion hygiene
  • Every acquisition campaign excludes recent converters
  • First-time-buyer offers exclude existing customers via customer match
  • Very short / bounced sessions are excluded from remarketing
  • No ad group is layered so tightly that reach collapses below spend
  • Audience sizes were re-checked this month for expiry shrinkage

Creative, Formats, and Policy

Produce responsive display assets and banners that pass policy, fit every slot, and earn clicks.
Worksheet: Responsive Display Ad asset checklist
Plan the assets for one RDA so you do not lock yourself out of inventory with missing text or images. Record what you will supply for each asset slot.
  • Landscape image 1.91:1 (1200x628) — filename
  • Square image 1:1 (1200x1200) — filename
  • Logo 1:1 and 4:1 — filename
  • Headline 1 (<=30 chars)
  • Headline 2 (<=30 chars)
  • Long headline (<=90 chars)
  • Description 1 (<=90 chars)
  • Call to action
Exercise: Three message angles to test
Write three distinct banner concepts for the same product so Google's asset rotation has strong variety to optimise.
  1. Discount / offer angle: write the value proposition and CTA
  2. Social-proof angle (e.g. number of customers or a rating): write the value proposition and CTA
  3. Core-benefit angle (the outcome, not a feature): write the value proposition and CTA
  4. Which fixed banner sizes will you also upload, and which is your design master size?
Checklist: Policy and suitability pre-flight
  • No all-caps shouting, excessive punctuation, or unverifiable guarantees in any asset
  • Logo, value proposition, and CTA stay legible at 300x250 and 320x50
  • Account content suitability set to Standard or Limited while learning
  • Sensitive content categories and parked domains excluded
  • A reusable negative placement list exists and is applied to campaigns

Frequency, Bidding, and Measurement

Cap exposure, choose a bid strategy that matches your data, and run a weekly routine that proves performance.
Worksheet: Frequency cap and bid-strategy decision
Record the cap and bid strategy for each campaign and the data threshold that justifies it. Fill one row per campaign.
  • Campaign name
  • Frequency cap (impressions per user per day/week)
  • Conversions in last 30 days
  • Chosen bid strategy
  • tCPA or tROAS target (if applicable)
  • Date strategy last changed (respect the learning phase)
Exercise: Set realistic Smart Bidding targets
Avoid starving a campaign with an over-aggressive target by basing tCPA/tROAS on your own history.
  1. What is your historical average cost per conversion, and what tCPA would you set first?
  2. What is your average order value, and what tROAS multiple equals your target return?
  3. Do you have at least ~15 conversions in the last 30 days to support Smart Bidding yet?
  4. If conversions dry up after a target change, will you loosen the target or revert, and how long will you wait?
Checklist: Weekly optimisation routine
  • Pulled the placements report and excluded wasteful sites and apps
  • Compared audiences and shifted budget toward the best performers
  • Cut Low-rated creative assets and added fresh variants
  • Confirmed frequency is within target and refreshed any stale creative
  • Checked conversions, cost per conversion, view-through, and assists together

Your Action Plan

  1. Install conversion tracking and the remarketing tag, then confirm both fire with Google Tag Assistant
  2. Write a one-line funnel plan (stage, audience, creative angle, bid strategy, KPI) for every campaign
  3. Build remarketing lists by heat (cart abandoners, all visitors, converters-as-exclusion) and wait for the 100-user threshold
  4. Create at least one custom prospecting audience from buying-intent keywords and competitor URLs
  5. Produce one Responsive Display Ad with full image and text assets plus three message angles
  6. Add your best fixed-size banners (300x250, 728x90, 160x600, 320x50) as uploaded ads
  7. Set content suitability, exclude sensitive categories and parked domains, and apply a negative placement list
  8. Set manual frequency caps (start ~3 to 5 per user per day for remarketing) on every campaign
  9. Choose a bid strategy that matches your conversion data and set realistic tCPA/tROAS targets
  10. Run the weekly routine (exclude, reallocate, refresh, re-check frequency) and re-justify budget monthly with attribution and view-through

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