Did Google Ads just recommend you use "Display Expansion" and offer a tiny 0.3% boost in your optimization score?
Don't click Apply just yet.
In the competitive world of digital advertising, a simple notification can derail your entire strategy. For a small business, it can feel like a "no-brainer" upgrade. However, it's often a hidden trap that kills your budget.
This post looks under the hood of the Display Expansion feature recommendation. We'll analyze the intent behind the traffic it generates and provide you with a data-backed verdict on whether you should click "Apply."
Quick Answers to Your Top Questions
Display Expansion is a setting that automatically takes leftover Search budget and spends it on text ads across the Google Display Network, placing your ads on websites, apps, and placements outside of active search intent.
Google positions it as a way to drive more conversions at a similar CPA. In practice, it allows Google to monetize low-demand Display inventory by reallocating your Search budget to placements that require far less intent to trigger a click.
It usually degrades lead quality. Clicks are cheaper, but engagement drops. Expect higher bounce rates, lower conversion rates, and more time spent chasing leads that were never ready to buy.
No. Combining Search and Display contaminates your data. You lose visibility into what is actually driving performance, which makes optimization guesswork instead of strategy.
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Understanding the Feature
As someone who has managed millions of dollars in ad spend over the last 20 years, I can tell you that what makes Google more money doesn't always make you more money.
Here is why you should probably ignore this specific recommendation.
What is Display Expansion in Google Ads?
Display Expansion is a setting that allows Google to take any unspent portion of your Search Campaign budget and spend it on the Google Display Network. The Search Network is where people go to find answers. The Display Network is the rest of the internet, including millions of random websites, mobile games, and apps.
Display Expansion is a Google Ads setting that allows your Search Network budget to spill over onto the Google Display Network (GDN). When enabled, Google takes your unspent Search budget and uses it to place your text-based ads on millions of websites, mobile apps, and YouTube videos. Essentially, it takes ads designed for a search engine results page and pushes them into "interruptive" placements across the web.
Google Ads Restaurant Display Ad Example
Essentially, Google is asking for permission to show your text ads to people who are just browsing the web or playing games, rather than people who are actively searching for your services.
The "Upside": What Google Promises You
To be fair, Google doesn't pitch this as a way to waste money. They frame it as a benefit for your business growth. There are two main reasons a business owner might be tempted to turn this on.
Google's promise is simple: they claim you will get more conversions at a similar cost per acquisition. However, as a scientific marketer, I look at the data, and the data often tells a different story.
To put it bluntly, Google recommends this because they hate seeing unspent budget. If your search ads aren't using every dollar you set, Google wants to find somewhere (anywhere) to spend the rest of it.
They promise "incremental conversions," but their primary goal is to monetize their leftover inventory on random apps and sites. They wrap this up in a nice "Optimization Score" boost to make you feel like you're improving your account, but in reality, they're just moving your money from high-intent searches to low-intent browsing.
The Problem With Mixing Search and Display Intent
In the world of data-driven marketing, intent is everything. There is a massive psychological difference between a buyer and a browser.
Think of a Search Ad like a sign inside a hardware store. The person is already there to buy. A Display Ad is like a billboard on the I-15 freeway. People might see it, but they are focused on driving, not on hiring a plumber or a lawyer.
When you turn on Display Expansion, you are essentially telling Google to mix two very different types of traffic into one bucket. This has a massive impact on your performance data. Search traffic is high intent because people are actively looking for a solution. Display traffic is low intent because people are just browsing.
When you blend them, your conversion rate usually drops and your bounce rate climbs. Why? Because you are paying for clicks from people who might have clicked your ad by accident while playing a game or reading the news. Worst of all, it dilutes your metrics. You will not be able to see which specific keywords are making your phone ring and which are just wasting your money. To truly optimize for profit, you need clean data, and mixing these networks makes that impossible.
Why This Recommendation Kills Your Return on Investment
When you allow Google to mix these two types of traffic, your data becomes a mess. This is a problem for two reasons.
- 1Accidental Clicks and High Bounce Rates: Many clicks on the Display Network, especially inside mobile apps, are accidental. You pay for those clicks even if the person leaves your site in less than two seconds.
- 2Diluted Performance Data: You won't be able to see clearly which keywords are actually driving phone calls. Because the high quality search data is mixed with low quality display data, you lose the ability to optimize your campaign effectively.
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The Verdict: Should You Click Apply?
So, is this feature ever worth enabling?
After weighing the "pros" (reach and ease) against the "cons" (wasted budget and muddy data), the decision typically comes down to one factor: Control.
When to Avoid It
For 99% of small to medium-sized businesses on a tight budget, do not implement this recommendation.
Ignore the tiny 0.3% boost in your optimization score. That score is a vanity metric that often benefits the platform’s inventory goals rather than your revenue goals.
The Better Alternative: Dedicated Campaigns
If you want to utilize the Display Network to build awareness or remarket (which can be very effective), do not let it leech off your Search budget.
Create a Separate, Dedicated Display Campaign.
This gives you complete control over:
Toby Danylchuk
Successful Marketing Boils Down to two things:
"Getting the right people to your website, and then effectively turning those visitors into potential customers and sales."
The Bottom Line on Long-Term Growth
Every piece of your marketing infrastructure must have a clear job.
- 1Search Ads are meant to capture demand.
- 2Display Ads are meant to build awareness.
When you try to combine them into one budget, you end up with a strategy that does neither job well. The most successful campaigns are the ones that focus on data and logic over automated suggestions.
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