GDN Campaign Structure

[jimbanks46]

Much better to run whitelist of sites that are contextually relevant.

Otherwise it’s a game of whack a mole.

I always suggest you go in with low (like pennies) bids and walk your bid up in 1 cent increments.

Eventually you go from getting no traffic to thousands in minutes at that tipping point, which will be different for every site.

Grab the placement source using a valuetrack parameter so you can monitor performance by site.

Create audiences based on engagement from that campaign.

Layer in demographic and interest data and use those audiences to nurture other campaigns you are running, like search.

PMax is a dumbed down amalgamation of all of that strategic stuff. But at least this way you have an element of control.

Properly optimized GDN campaigns can perform so well, but most advertisers go in too hard, burn cash, say it doesn’t work and weekly go for PMax.

This gives you a chance of making it happen for you.

Same with YouTube ads on their own.

[WhitePhantom7777777]

Gdn for remarketing and top of the funnel. Select websites where you want to appear for tofu.

[TTFV]

GDN is mainly useful for top of funnel brand awareness and remarketing. These should always be run in separate campaigns.

Targeting for top of funnel should use specific audience targeting to get in front of the right people… size to be commensurate with your market size and budget. I would also layer in content targeting to improve performance… but don’t get too cute or you’ll have a problem with serving, particularly if your audience is on the small side.

As always with GDN, use content suitability settings to block low quality placements and then monitor and block additional placements manually.

For remarketing ensure you don’t use any audience expansion features.

I would also consider using Demand Gen campaigns to leverage Google’s premium inventory. This could be done with or without the GDN.

P-Max is a “done for you” full channel marketing campaign that works best with high-performing search companion campaigns. While you still need to get targeting and creative right, it automates a lot for you at the expense of granular control. This combo is great for budgets around $10-25K.

[Aika_LW]

or education, broad GDN can definitely get messy — tons of impressions, little intent, and lots of wasted budget. That’s pretty common.

What I’ve found works better:

* **Remarketing first** → nurture people who already visited key pages (course details, sign-up form, etc.).
* **Custom segments** → build audiences around search terms like “online degree in X” or “best certification for Y.” This narrows it down to higher-intent users.
* **Placement exclusions** → education campaigns often get dumped on kids’ apps/sites unless you clean that up aggressively.

PMax can work, but it’s a black box. I usually run PMax alongside remarketing GDN — then compare quality of leads and cost per enrollment.

In short: for education, GDN shines more as a *support channel* (retargeting + very specific custom audiences), while PMax can test broader reach.

[ppcwithyrv]

GDN is nothing but view through conversions. They rarely have first or last click relevancy. II would go with demand gen.

[GoogleAdExpert]

On GDN I mostly keep it to remarketing and tight custom segments—broad prospecting usually burns budget fast. For education, PMax can work better since it blends placements with intent signals.