What Are Your Display Ad Targeting Options? The Complete Guide

Google Display can show your ads to people across millions of websites, apps, and Google properties. The challenge is ensuring those people are actual potential customers.

This guide explains every Google Display targeting option available in 2026 and how to use them to reach people who are more likely to buy.

One quick note before we begin: Google is moving standalone Display campaigns into Demand Gen through 2027. Display inventory isn’t going away, and the targeting concepts in this guide remain the same, though some workflows and settings will change.

Let’s get into it.

What Is Display Ad Targeting?

Display ad targeting is how you tell Google who should see your ads across the Google Display Network (GDN), which spans millions of websites, apps, YouTube, Gmail, and other Google properties.

Think of targeting as the steering wheel. Without it, your ads can appear in front of people who are unlikely to become customers. With it, you can focus on audiences based on demographics, interests, online behavior, previous interactions with your business, or the content they’re viewing.

Modern Display campaigns rely heavily on Google’s AI. Responsive display ads automatically combine your headlines, descriptions, images, and logos to fit available ad placements, while AI-powered bidding and targeting help determine who sees them.

That doesn’t mean you’ve lost control. It means your job has shifted from manually picking every detail to giving the system strong signals and then guiding how far it can roam. We’ll cover exactly how to do that throughout this guide.

Display Targeting vs Search Targeting

Before we dig into the options, it helps to understand the difference between Search ads and Display ads.

Search ads reach people actively looking for a solution. Display reaches people while they’re consuming other content.

In short, Search captures demand, while Display helps create it.

Here’s a quick side-by-side to make the difference concrete:

Factor	Search Ads	Display Ads
User intent	High (they’re searching now)	Lower (they’re browsing or being introduced)
Where ads appear	Google search results	Websites, apps, and videos across the web
Primary job	Capture existing demand	Build awareness and re-engage
Ad format	Text	Image, banner, responsive, video
Typical cost per click	Higher	Lower
Best for	Bottom-of-funnel conversions	Awareness, consideration, remarketing

Neither is better. They do different jobs at different points in the buying journey, and the smartest accounts use both. If you want a refresher on the search side, our Google Search Ads guide covers it in detail.

Google Display Targeting Options at a Glance

Google organizes Display targeting into a few buckets. Once you create a campaign and land in your ad group, you’ll set targeting around two big ideas: the people you want to reach, and the content where your ads appear. Layered on top of that are settings like location, device, and brand safety controls.

Here’s the full lineup. We’ll explain each one in plain English below.

Audience segments

Audience segments are groups of people defined by their interests, habits, or shopping behavior. This is the “who” side of targeting.

Google builds these segments by watching what people do online over time. The main types include:

• Affinity segments are broad interest groups, like “Cooking Enthusiasts” or “Sports Fans.” These work well for awareness because you’re reaching people with a genuine, ongoing interest in your category.
• In-market segments are people actively researching or shopping for specific products or services right now. Someone in the “in-market for running shoes” segment is closer to buying, which makes these segments strong for prospecting.
• Custom segments let you build your own audience by feeding Google relevant keywords, URLs, or apps. If you want to reach people interested in content similar to your competitors’ sites, this is where you’d do it.
• Detailed demographics and life events capture longer-term traits (like “new parents”) or major moments (like “recently moved” or “getting married”).

Demographics

Demographic targeting narrows your audience by age, gender, parental status, and household income. It’s a simple filter, but a useful one.

If you sell luxury home goods, you might lean toward higher household income brackets. If you run a children’s tutoring service, parental status matters. You don’t always need to restrict by demographics, but it’s there when your product clearly fits one group better than another.

Keywords and contextual targeting

Keyword targeting (often called contextual targeting) shows your ads on pages whose content matches the keywords you choose. If you pick “home espresso machines,” Google looks for pages about espresso machines and shows your ad there.

This is about the content of the page, not the person reading it. You’re betting that someone reading about espresso machines is a decent prospect for your espresso-related product.

Topics

Topic targeting is contextual targeting’s broader cousin. Instead of choosing specific keywords, you select entire categories of content, like “Autos & Vehicles” or “Travel.”

Topics cast a wider net than keywords. You’re telling Google, “Show my ad anywhere across this whole subject area,” which is handy when you want reach more than precision.

Placements

Placement targeting lets you hand-pick the exact websites, apps, YouTube channels, or videos where your ads appear. Unlike keyword or topic targeting, where Google places your ads automatically, you choose these spots yourself.

Yes, you can target specific websites. If you know your customers spend time on a particular industry publication, you can place your ads there directly. We’ll talk later about why placements are also one of your best tools for cleanup.

Your data/remarketing

“Your data” is Google’s current term for what used to be called remarketing or retargeting. It’s how you reach people who already have a relationship with your business.

These segments include people who visited your website, used your app, watched your YouTube videos, or interacted with you before. Because these folks already know you, your data segments tend to be among the most efficient targeting you can run.

Customer Match

Customer Match lets you upload your own customer lists, such as email addresses or phone numbers your customers gave you, and show ads to those people as they browse Google properties and the Display Network.

It’s a powerful way to re-engage past buyers, reach loyalty members, or win back lapsed customers. One thing worth knowing: campaigns using Smart Bidding and optimized targeting automatically pull in all the Customer Match lists in your account to help hit your goals, so your customer data may be working harder than you realize.

Location, language, device, and schedule

These are your campaign-level settings, and you’ll usually configure them first.

• Location controls the geographic areas where your ads show, from entire countries down to a radius around a single address.
• Language matches your ads to the languages your audience uses.
• Device lets you reach people on desktop, mobile, or tablet, and adjust how you treat each.
• Ad scheduling sets the days and hours your ads run, so you’re not paying for clicks at 3 a.m. if that’s a dead zone for your business.

Exclusions and brand safety

Exclusions are how you tell Google where you don’t want to show up. This is your brand safety toolkit, and it matters more than most advertisers think.

In Google Ads, you manage content exclusions in the same unified area as your other content targeting (more on that in a moment). You can opt out of specific topics, block placements that don’t fit your brand, and filter out sensitive content categories. Account-level content suitability settings give you another layer of protection across your campaigns.

Audience Targeting Options Explained

Now let’s slow down on audience targeting, because this is the “who” engine that drives a lot of Display performance.

Audience targeting is about showing your ads to a specific type of person, regardless of what page they happen to be on. It’s like inviting people to your party based on who they are and what they’re into, rather than where the party is held.

The trick is matching the audience type to your goal. For top-of-funnel awareness, affinity segments reach people with a steady interest in your category, which makes them good for introducing your brand. For mid-funnel consideration, in-market segments find people who are actively shopping, so they’re a step closer to a decision. For precision prospecting, custom segments let you describe your ideal audience using keywords, URLs, and apps you know they engage with.

One note on terminology, since Google has shuffled the names around. The old “Similar Audiences” feature, where Google built lookalike lists from your existing data, has been retired in standalone Display. If you read an older guide telling you to add “Similar Audiences,” that advice is out of date.

Here’s where the Demand Gen shift matters. Similar Audiences are evolving into Lookalike segments, which Google now lists as a Demand Gen feature, including for GDN running inside Demand Gen. As your Display campaigns move into Demand Gen, Lookalike segments come back into the toolkit as a way to reach new, qualified people who share characteristics with your existing customers. In the meantime, optimized targeting and your data segments still do the work of finding new converters automatically.

Layering audiences is where things get interesting. You can stack multiple segments, combine them, and even build combined segments that require people to match several criteria at once. Just remember that every layer you add narrows your reach, so balance precision against volume based on your budget and goals.

Contextual Targeting: Keywords, Topics, and Placements

Where audience targeting is about the person, contextual targeting is about the place. It’s like making sure your party happens at the right venue, the board game cafe rather than a random street corner. The focus is on the environment, not the individual.

Google recently simplified all of this into a single page. You’ll now find topics, placements, Display keywords, Video keywords, search keywords, and exclusions together in one view under the “Audiences, keywords, and content” menu, on a page called “Content.” Having everything in one spot makes it much easier to see and manage how your ads match to pages.

To get there in the interface, follow this path: Campaigns → Audiences, keywords, and content → Content. That’s where you add topics, placements, and keywords, and where you’ll scroll down to set exclusions.

Here’s an important detail about how these methods work together. Google states that combining content targeting methods can broaden your reach, because your ads may show on any of the content you’ve selected. So if you target a topic and a keyword and a placement, you’re not narrowing to pages that match all three. You’re opening up to pages that match any of them. That’s a common point of confusion, and it explains why some campaigns reach far more places than the advertiser expected.

A quick rundown of the three contextual methods:

• Keywords match your ads to pages containing words and phrases you choose. Good for targeting specific subjects with some precision.
• Topics match your ads to broad categories of content. Good for wide reach across a subject area.
• Placements let you choose exact sites, apps, channels, and videos. Good for control and for cleaning up where your ads run.

If you want surgical control over where your brand appears, placements are your friend. If you want reach and trust Google to find relevant pages, then topics and keywords can do the heavy lifting.

Remarketing and First-Party Data Targeting

Remarketing, now filed under “your data,” is one of the highest-value plays in Display. These are people who already raised their hand by visiting your site, using your app, or engaging with your content.

Why does this matter so much? Because warm beats cold almost every time. Someone who browsed your product page last week and didn’t buy is a far better prospect than a stranger who’s never heard of you. A well-built remarketing campaign quietly reminds those people you exist and nudges them back.

Your first-party data is the foundation here, and it’s getting more valuable as third-party cookies and tracking signals get squeezed. The stronger your own data, the better your targeting holds up. Your data segments can include all visitors, all converters, cart abandoners, specific page visitors, and more, depending on how your Google Tag is set up on your site.

Customer Match deserves a special mention in this section. Uploading your customer lists gives Google high-quality signals about who your actual buyers are, which improves both your remarketing reach and the AI’s ability to find new people like them. If you’ve got an email list collecting dust, this is a reason to put it to work.

Before you build remarketing campaigns, it helps to map out your first-party data into clear segments, because “people who visited my site” is too blunt to be useful. Here’s a simple framework to work from:

• “All visitors” is your widest pool, good for broad reach but low intent. Use it sparingly or as a starting signal.
• “High-intent page visitors” are people who viewed pricing, product, or demo pages. They’re worth a dedicated, more aggressive segment.
• “Cart abandoners” added something and didn’t finish. These are some of the highest-converting people you can talk to, so give them their own messaging.
• “Past customers” have already made a purchase before. Reach them with upsells, cross-sells, and loyalty offers rather than the same acquisition pitch.
• “Churned customers” lapsed or canceled. A win-back segment with a tailored offer can be quietly profitable.
• “Excluded converters” are people you don’t want to keep paying to reach. Adding recent converters to an exclusion list stops you from spending on people who already did the thing you wanted.

Sorting your data this way turns a vague “remarketing” effort into a set of focused conversations, each matched to where the person already is with your brand. And if your tracking is a tangle, that’s the kind of thing we like to help clients straighten out, so feel free to contact us.

Optimized Targeting: How It Works in 2026

Optimized targeting is one of the main AI features in modern Display, and it’s worth understanding clearly because it’s on by default.

Here’s the short version. Optimized targeting is an ad-group-level setting that’s enabled automatically in all Display campaigns. It looks at the signals you’ve added, like your audience segments and contextual keywords, and treats them as a starting point. Then it goes hunting for new, relevant people who are likely to convert, even if those people fall outside the segments you originally chose.

In other words, the audiences you pick become suggestions rather than hard walls. Google’s machine learning studies who’s actually converting in your account and expands toward people who look similar.

As Display moves into Demand Gen, optimized targeting stays part of the audience toolkit, but it’s no longer the only expansion lever. It now sits alongside Demand Gen features like Lookalike segments and channel controls, which give you more ways to shape who gets reached and where. Think of optimized targeting as one tool in a slightly bigger box rather than the whole box.

This is great for acquisition. When your goal is finding new customers and your conversion tracking is solid, optimized targeting can surface people you’d never have thought to target. You can run it as a standalone option, or you can feed it signals to point it in the right direction. Feeding it good signals usually helps, because it gives the system a smarter place to start.

You’ve got three ways to handle it:

• Keep it on when you want maximum reach and new customer acquisition, and you trust your conversion data.
• Guide it with signals when you want expansion, but with a sensible starting point, by adding your best audience segments and keywords.
• Turn it off when you want tight, controlled remarketing and don’t want Google reaching beyond your defined audience.

There’s one rule that saves a lot of premature panic. Optimized targeting needs time to learn. Google recommends waiting until a new campaign has reached at least 50 conversions, or has run for at least two weeks, before you judge its performance. For existing campaigns, give it a minimum of two weeks. Pulling the plug after three days of data is almost always a mistake, because early numbers don’t reflect how the campaign will settle once the system finds its footing.

A word of caution for anyone with low conversion volume or messy conversion goals. If your account tracks weak signals, like page views instead of real leads or sales, optimized targeting will optimize toward whatever’s easy to generate, not toward profitable outcomes. Garbage in, garbage out. Get your conversion tracking right before you lean on the AI.

Classic Display vs GDN in Demand Gen

Since the migration is the elephant in the room, let’s put the old and new side by side so you can see exactly what changes. This table is built from Google’s own migration documentation.

Factor	Classic Google Display Ads	GDN in Demand Gen
Inventory	GDN, YouTube, Gmail	GDN, YouTube, Gmail, plus Discover and Maps
Audiences	Optimized targeting, remarketing, custom segments, Customer Match, interests, demographics, contextual	All of those, plus Lookalike segments
Lookalikes	Retired (was “Similar Audiences”)	Lookalike segments available
Bidding	Max conversions, max conv. value, tCPA, tROAS, Manual CPC, Max clicks, Viewable Impressions, Pay for Conversions	Max conversions, max conv. value, tCPA, tROAS, Max clicks, Target CPC, Manual CPC, Viewable Impressions, and Pay for Conversions not supported
Creative formats	Responsive display ads, uploaded display ads, feeds	Responsive display ads, uploaded image ads, product feeds, carousel ads, generative image tools, more video; HTML5 coming later
Reporting	Placement reporting, channel reporting	Placement reporting via “Where ads showed,” channel reporting, and format segmentation
Migration	Standalone campaign type	Moved via the migration tool, which can port roughly 42 days of history to cut learning time to 1 to 2 days

The headline takeaway: you gain inventory, lookalike segments, and richer creative options, and you give up a handful of manual controls in favor of more automation. If you’ve built your Display program around tight manual levers, this is the part to study closely before you migrate.

Targeting vs Observation Mode

This distinction trips up many advertisers, so let’s make it simple.

When you add an audience to a campaign, you choose how it behaves: targeting or observation.

Targeting mode restricts your campaign to only the audiences you’ve selected. If you add the “in-market for office furniture” segment in targeting mode, your ads show only to people in that segment. It narrows your reach to those specific people.

Observation mode doesn’t restrict anything. It lets your ads run as usual while watching how the audience you added performs. You get performance data for that segment without limiting who sees your ads, and you can adjust your bids up or down for that group based on what you learn.

So when do you use each? Use targeting when you have a clear, specific audience and you want to reach only them, like a focused remarketing campaign. Use observation when you want to gather data and keep your reach broad, which is the safer default for prospecting because you learn without choking off volume.

A common smart move is to launch in observation mode, watch which segments perform, and then build tighter targeting around the winners once you have real data.

One heads-up tied to the Demand Gen migration: a few legacy controls don’t carry over the same way. Google’s feature list shows that the non-demographic observation setting isn’t supported in Demand Gen, and the same goes for Combined Audiences, Manual CPC, Viewable Impressions, Pay for Conversions, and certain bid adjustments. Some of these have close equivalents (Pay for Conversions campaigns switch to pay-per-click with a Target CPA, for example), and audience definitions you used to handle through observation are now handled in the Audience builder. If your current setup leans on any of these, plan to rebuild that piece during migration rather than expecting a clean one-to-one copy.

How to Combine Targeting Options by Funnel Stage

Targeting options aren’t meant to be used in isolation. They work best when you match them to where someone is in their journey. Here’s how the pieces fit together across the funnel.

At the top of the funnel (awareness), your goal is reach and introduction. Lean on affinity segments, topics, and broad in-market segments. Optimized targeting can stay on here if your conversion data is healthy, since broader expansion helps you find new people. Keep expectations realistic, though. You’re planting seeds, not harvesting yet.

At the middle of the funnel (consideration), your goal is to capture active interest. In-market segments and custom segments shine here, because these people are researching and comparing. Contextual targeting against relevant keywords and placements also works well, since you’re reaching people while they consume related content.

At the bottom of the funnel (conversion and remarketing), your goal is precision and efficiency. These are your data segments, Customer Match, and cart abandoner lists. Here you’ll often want tighter control, which may mean turning optimized targeting off so Google stays focused on your warm audience rather than wandering off to find new strangers.

Here’s a “best option by goal” table to keep handy.

Your goal	Best targeting options	Optimized targeting
Brand awareness	Affinity segments, topics	Keep on (with good data)
New customer acquisition	In-market segments, custom segments, optimized targeting	Keep on
Consideration	In-market, custom segments, contextual keywords	Keep on or guide with signals
Remarketing	Your data segments, Customer Match	Often turn off for control
Brand-safe placements	Hand-picked placements, exclusions	Off or guided

For a quick reference you can scan in one pass, here’s each targeting option with its best use, its main risk, and a tip to get more out of it:

Targeting option	Best use	Risk	Optimization tip
Affinity segments	Awareness, broad interest reach	Low intent, weak conversions	Pair with remarketing to re-engage the warm ones
In-market segments	Active shoppers, consideration	Segments can be broad	Layer with demographics or location to sharpen
Custom segments	Precision prospecting, B2B	Setup takes effort	Feed it competitor URLs and high-intent keywords
Demographics	Filtering an obvious-fit audience	Over-restricting reach	Use as a layer, not a standalone target
Keywords (contextual)	Reaching people by page content	Loose matching to pages	Keep keyword themes tight and grouped
Topics	Wide reach across a subject	Too broad on its own	Exclude irrelevant subtopics to trim waste
Placements	Hand-picked sites and apps	Limited scale if it is too narrow	Start from your “Where ads showed” winners
Your data/ remarketing	Re-engaging warm visitors	List size limits delivery	Segment by intent and recency, not one big list
Customer Match	Past buyers, loyalty, win-back	Needs a healthy list	Upload and refresh lists regularly
Optimized targeting	New customer acquisition	Drifts toward easy conversions	Feed it strong signals and good conversion data

Let’s ground this with three examples.

E-commerce: An online shoe store runs awareness with affinity segments (“Fashion & Style”), captures shoppers with in-market segments (“athletic apparel”), and remarkets to cart abandoners using their data segments. They upload their buyer list through Customer Match to win repeat purchases and feed the AI strong signals.

Local services: A regional HVAC company tightens location targeting to a radius around its service area, uses in-market segments for “HVAC services,” and remarkets to past website visitors. Because their service area is small, they keep a close eye on placements and exclusions so they’re not paying for clicks outside the region.

B2B / SaaS: A software company builds custom segments around competitor sites and industry publications, targets relevant topics and placements where decision-makers spend time, and uses Customer Match to reach known prospects from their CRM. For B2B specifically, optimized targeting needs careful handling, because the algorithm optimizes for whatever conversions your account records. If you’re only tracking low-value micro-conversions, it may expand toward cheap clicks that never become customers. Track real, qualified leads, and the AI has something worth chasing.

Common Mistakes That Waste Display Budget

Even good advertisers leak money on Display. Here are the usual suspects, so you can avoid them.

• Ignoring placement reports. Your ads will inevitably show on some low-quality sites and apps. If you never check where your ads ran, you never catch the junk. Review your placement report regularly and exclude the duds.
• Forgetting exclusions. No exclusion list means your brand can end up next to content you’d never choose. Set up topic, placement, and content-type exclusions early, and revisit them.
• Mixing awareness and conversion in one campaign. Trying to do both at once muddies your reporting and inflates your cost per acquisition. Separate your awareness and acquisition goals into different campaigns.
• Judging optimized targeting too soon. We said it above, and we’ll say it again, because it’s the most common impatience mistake. Give it 50 conversions or two weeks before you decide.
• Weak conversion tracking. If your conversions are set up wrong, the AI learns the wrong lessons. Fix tracking before you scale spend.
• Over-narrowing. Stacking too many audience layers can shrink your reach to almost nothing, which starves the algorithm of the data it needs. Give the system room to work.
• Set it and forget it. Display isn’t a slow cooker. Creative gets stale, placements drift, and audiences shift. A steady review cadence keeps performance from sliding.

How do you avoid wasting budget on poor placements specifically? Check your “Where ads showed” report often (Campaigns → Where ads showed), exclude anything irrelevant or low quality, and consider starting with tighter placement or topic controls before opening things up.

Best Practices Checklist

Print this, bookmark it, or tape it to your monitor. Run through it before and during every Display campaign.

• Conversion tracking is set up correctly and tracks real, valuable actions
• The campaign goal is clear (awareness, acquisition, or remarketing) and not mixed
• Responsive display ad assets are loaded with varied headlines, descriptions, images, and logos
• Location, language, device, and schedule settings match your business reality
• Audience segments are matched to the funnel stage
• Your data segments and Customer Match lists are uploaded and active where relevant
• Optimized targeting setting is intentional (on, guided, or off) based on your goal
• Content exclusions and brand safety settings are configured
• Observation mode is used for prospecting before locking into targeting mode
• A schedule is set to review placements and exclude poor performers
• You’ve committed to waiting 50 conversions or two weeks before judging results
• Creative refresh is planned so ads don’t go stale

If you’re heading into the Demand Gen migration, add these to the list:

• Check whether your account has a Display-to-Demand Gen migration alert or notification
• Use the migration tool where eligible, since it can port performance history and cut learning time
• Review channel controls so you serve where you actually want to (keep GDN-only if that’s the plan)
• Confirm your logo and business name assets are in place, since Demand Gen requires a logo
• Rebuild any unsupported settings (Combined Audiences, non-demographic observation, Manual CPC, etc.) ahead of time
• Monitor delivery and performance closely for the first several days after migration

If your checklist has more empty boxes than you’d like, that’s normal, and it’s fixable. Display rewards discipline more than cleverness.

FAQs

What are the main display ad targeting options? The main options are audience segments (affinity, in-market, and custom), demographics, contextual targeting (keywords, topics, and placements), your data segments for remarketing, Customer Match, and campaign settings like location, language, device, and schedule. Layered on top is optimized targeting, Google’s AI feature that finds new people likely to convert.

What is the difference between audience targeting and contextual targeting? Audience targeting reaches a specific type of person based on who they are and what they’re interested in, no matter what page they’re on. Contextual targeting reaches people based on the content of the page they’re viewing. One focuses on the individual, the other on the environment.

Should I use optimized targeting in Google Display campaigns? Usually, yes, especially when your goal is finding new customers and you have solid conversion tracking. It uses Google’s AI to find people likely to convert beyond your selected segments. Give it at least 50 conversions or two weeks to learn before you evaluate it.

When should optimized targeting be turned off? Turn it off when you want tight, controlled remarketing and don’t want Google expanding beyond your defined audience. It’s also worth turning off if your conversion tracking is weak, since the AI will otherwise optimize toward easy but low-value actions.

What is placement targeting? Placement targeting lets you hand-pick the exact websites, apps, YouTube channels, and videos where your ads appear. Unlike keyword or topic targeting, where Google places ads for you automatically, you select these spots yourself.

What is the difference between topic targeting and keyword targeting? Topic targeting matches your ads to broad categories of content, like “Travel” or “Autos.” Keyword targeting matches your ads to pages containing specific words and phrases you choose. Topics give you a wider reach, keywords give you more precision.

Can I target specific websites with Google Display Ads? Yes. Placement targeting lets you choose specific websites, apps, channels, and videos where you want your ads to show. It’s the most precise way to control where your brand appears.

What is remarketing in Display campaigns? Remarketing, now called “your data” in Google Ads, means showing ads to people who already interacted with your business, such as past website visitors, app users, or YouTube viewers. Because these people already know you, remarketing tends to be highly efficient.

What are your data segments in Google Ads? “Your data” is Google’s current term for remarketing audiences. These segments include website visitors, app users, video viewers, customer lists uploaded through Customer Match, and automatically created groups like “All Visitors” and “All Converters.” They’re built from your own first-party data.

How do I avoid wasting budget on poor placements? Check your “Where ads showed” report regularly, exclude irrelevant or low-quality sites and apps, set up content exclusions early, and consider starting with tighter placement or topic controls before broadening your reach.

What display targeting options work best for B2B? B2B accounts tend to do well with custom segments built around competitor and industry sites, topic and placement targeting where decision-makers spend time, and Customer Match lists from the CRM. Be careful with optimized targeting in B2B, because it optimizes toward whatever conversions you record. Track real, qualified leads rather than micro-conversions so the AI chases the right outcomes.

How should I combine targeting options by funnel stage? At the top of the funnel, use affinity segments and topics for reach. In the middle, use in-market and custom segments plus contextual targeting for active researchers. At the bottom, use your data segments and Customer Match for efficient remarketing, often with optimized targeting turned off for control.

Are Google Display campaigns going away? Not the network, just the standalone campaign type. Google is moving Display into Demand Gen, where the GDN becomes one inventory channel. Starting in June 2026, you can use a migration tool to move existing campaigns, with the rollout continuing into 2027. You can keep serving GDN-only through channel controls, and you also gain access to surfaces like YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps if you want them.