Google’s display network is a great way for small business advertisers to dabble in the banner advertising space.

Whilst the planning, set up and management of banner advertising through Google’s display network is fairly straight forward, one part of the process was a bit more convoluted than it should have been – the bidding on managed placements.

People who’ve used “managed placements” in the display network might have recalled seeing 3 default bids for their ad groups – namely:

• Regular default bid
• Managed placements bid
• Display network bid

According to feedback from users, Google realised that most people were confused by the three default bids displayed and few actually bothered to use the Managed Placements default bid.

Accordingly, as of the 15th Mar 2011, Google will be removing the managed placements default bid option, which should remove some of the confusion.

From the Google release post, this is how the change will impact you:

• Starting today, we’re no longer allowing managed placement bids to be set for new ad groups containing placements. You won’t be required to enter a new bid when you add managed placements for the first time (we’re launching this change gradually, so it may take about a week to reach your account).

• Starting on March 15, we’ll automatically update existing managed placement bids. There are several changes we’ll make in order to make sure your ads will continue to serve as normal with the bids you intended. Learn more about the changes that apply to your account in our Help Center.

• If you’re eager to say goodbye to the managed placements bid today, you can do that too! You can change your managed placements bid to 0, which will cause it to disappear from your account (this change is also launching over the next week).
  The display network can be a real pocket of advertising gold for small business owners, especially if they target their placements carefully.

Whilst I don’t think the change above is overly dramatic, any steps that Google takes to make the display network more user friendly for advertisers is a good move. I’m keen to see more small business owners embrace the opportunity that the display network offers.

• Do you currently use Google’s display network for your advertising?
• Does it deliver strong results for your campaigns?

Share your thoughts below: