For many people, the Google Display Network (GDN) can be a source of an abundance of potential customers, leads and profits. But if it is not managed correctly, it has the potential to destroy an entire AdWords account.

As we have spoken about in a recent case study article here, we recently acquired a new client who was one of the unfortunate victims at the hands of a mismanaged GDN campaign. I won’t go into much detail about it here as if you want more information, read the case study, but their campaign was wasting money each and every day. It wasn’t a lot of money each day, but added up over time, it totalled about $4,800!

So, whilst we all know the GDN is a great way to broaden the reach of your brand or even remarket to past website visitors, we cannot stress enough the importance of monitoring display placements – that is, monitoring where are ads are being displayed. This also extends to adding negative placements to prevent your ad from being shown in certain places.

The major culprit for bad placements is mobile apps. Even if you have turned off mobile ad placements (that is your ad cannot be shown on any mobile device), you are not safe from these placements as your ads still show up on tablets. Let’s face it, if you’ve got young children who are using iPads (whose children aren’t, right?), they click on the ads inadvertently. All these little clicks keep costing you money and certainly add up over time.

How Do You Know If You Have You Been Affected By Mobile Ads?

If you are running any kind of GDN campaign, I urge you to follow these steps to see if your account has been affected by mobile apps.

 

If Your Ads Are Showing For Mobile Apps – Now What?

So, how do you prevent your ads from showing up on mobile apps for both mobile and tablet?

It’s easy and we have outlined the steps below.

1. Go to Shared Library (left hand side of your account) and click on Campaign Placement Exclusions

 

2. Create a new list and call it something

 

3. Then add the following URL to that list: adsenseformobileapps.com

 

4. You will then need to assign this list to whichever display campaign you are running.

 

And there you have it. Just follow the steps above and learn from other peoples expensive mistakes!

And importantly, you will save lots of money. Happy days.