Are you maximizing your brand's pricing power with Google Display Ads?

When a British skincare brand raised its product prices by 14% in 2024, the data dashboard of the marketing department showed an anomaly: sales only fell by 7%, while overall revenue grew by 7%. Behind this is a key indicator that is ignored by most companies - price elasticity improved from -0.7 to -0.6, and the core engine driving this change is the brand equity that the brand has built through Google Display Ads for three consecutive years. The latest research by Google and Kantar Group revealed that the pricing power of strong brands can be twice that of competitors (price index 0.69 vs industry average 1), which is particularly valuable in the European market with an inflation rate of 5.8%. However, a survey of 250 senior executives in Europe showed that only 43% of marketing executives believed that they had reached a strategic consensus with the finance team, which is far lower than the 61% collaboration level that finance executives believe they have. This cognitive gap caused the frozen food giant McCain to spend nine months convincing the board of directors when implementing the golden ratio of "60% brand advertising + 40% performance advertising". The final data proved that this combination reduced the brand's price elasticity by 47% and drove a 44% sales growth. This article will break down how to build pricing power through Google Display Ads and provide a quantifiable cross-departmental collaboration framework.

I. The correlation between marketing trends and brand pricing capabilities in 2025

1. Analysis of the current status of collaboration between marketing and finance teams

A survey conducted by Google and NewtonX revealed a cruel reality: 61% of finance executives believed that they had reached a consensus with the marketing department, but only 43% of marketing chiefs agreed with this view. This "illusion of collaboration" stems from the fundamental difference between the two sides in the time dimension - the quarterly profit pressure of the finance team and the long-term brand building of the marketing department have a structural conflict. The case of a European luxury group shows that when the finance department requires a 20% cut in the brand advertising budget to shift to promotions, its price elasticity deteriorates by 23% six months later, forcing the company to spend 1.85 times the original savings to rebuild its market position.

2. Brand value proposition in an inflationary environment

The price strategy transformation of British skincare brands is a classic textbook. By continuously placing visual ads that emphasize "laboratory-grade ingredients" through Google Display Ads, the product perception was successfully reshaped from "basic care" to "skin care solution". When it raised the price from £18.5 to £21.1, the price elasticity improved by 10% buffering effect, so that 76% of the 7% revenue growth can be directly attributed to the previous brand advertising investment. This "value anchoring effect" has been verified in Kantar research: the price sensitivity of consumers of strong brands is only 53% of the market average.

3. The economic benefits of long-term brand investment

The 9-year brand tracking data of frozen food company McCain is more convincing. It has increased its brand premium ability by 47% by mixing GDN's situational advertising (such as the "family dinner moment" scene) and product function display. This is reflected in the financial statements, with an increase of €0.38 in gross profit per unit of product and a 44% expansion in market share. Ipsos MMA's cross-industry analysis pointed out that the optimal ratio of this "brand-effect" compound strategy is 60:40, which can simultaneously improve short-term conversion rate and long-term pricing power.

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II. Google Display Ads strengthens pricing power

1. Quantitative relationship between brand assets and pricing power

Kantar’s willingness to pay index shows that the pricing power of top brands shows nonlinear growth. When the brand health score increases from 70 to 85 (out of 100), the improvement in its price elasticity will accelerate. The visual impact of Google Display Ads solution plays a key role here - a certain infant food brand used GDN to launch an image ad of "Nutrition Scientists' R&D Process". Six months later, its "Professional Credibility" index increased by 31%, directly supporting a 9% price increase without additional promotion.

2. The impact of display ads on price elasticity

Programmatic GDN delivery can accurately target "high-value cognitive audiences". In the case of a skin care brand, visual ads comparing laboratory instruments and commercially available products were launched for users who had browsed beauty review websites, reducing the price sensitivity of this group by 2.3 times that of the overall audience. This "cognitive pre-adaptation" effect reduces the market impact of subsequent price adjustments by 10-15%. Domino's Pizza's practice also shows that when GDN ads reinforce the quality promise of "30-minute delivery", even if the unit price increases by £1.5, the order volume still grows by 8% against the trend.

3. The cognitive shaping function of visual ads

GDN's dynamic creative optimization (DCO) technology can achieve advanced applications of "one thousand people, one price". A test of an electronic product brand found that when users who had browsed technology forums were shown the "engineer disassembly structure diagram" version of the ad, their acceptance of the £129 price was 22% higher than the standard product image version. This "value visualization" strategy increased the average selling price of the product line by £15, while the return rate decreased by 3.4%. BCG's 4S behavior model confirms that users who have browsed technology ads are 47% more likely to search for "high-end model comparison".

III. Practical operation framework: integrating Display Ads and pricing strategies

1. Establish cross-departmental measurement indicators

The marketing mix model (MMM) is a powerful tool to eliminate departmental differences. After a car brand introduced dual-track indicators including "brand search volume" and "dealer inquiry conversion rate", the financial team finally recognized the contribution of GDN advertising to the terminal transaction price of £1,200 premium. The model shows that for every 100,000 additional brand-related display exposures, dealer bargaining space can be expanded by 2.3%. It is recommended to track the correlation curve between "consideration/purchase intention index" and "price premium acceptance" and translate it into net present value (NPV).

2. Value delivery strategy of advertising content

Comparative tests show that the long-term pricing benefits of "emotional narrative" GDN advertising are significant. Although the initial click-through rate of the "craftsman handmade documentary" advertisement of the furniture brand Article was 15% lower than that of the promotional advertisement, it brought a 28% increase in customer unit price after six months. The key lies in its advertising sequence design: the first wave launches the value story, the second wave emphasizes the material comparison, and the final stage introduces the price information. This "cognitive ladder" strategy makes consumers spontaneously come to the conclusion that "it should be more expensive", and the recognition of "high price is reasonable" in the brand questionnaire has increased by 20%.

3. Optimal budget allocation ratio

Ipsos MMA's golden allocation recommendations need to be adjusted dynamically. Empirical evidence from the tourism operator TUI shows that the flexible combination of "45% brand + 55% effect" in the summer peak season and "65% brand + 35% effect" in the off-season can increase the average annual room rate by €42. Its GDN advertising focuses on "destination cultural in-depth content" in the off-season, effectively reducing travelers' sensitivity to dynamic pricing. AI-driven budget control tools can detect changes in market price elasticity in real time and automatically adjust the brand/performance advertising ratio.

IV. Topkee's Google Display Ads solution

Topkee's Google Display Ads solution is a one-stop advertising management service based on Google Multimedia Advertising Network (GDN). The solution helps companies achieve efficient and precise marketing by systematically integrating key links in the advertising delivery process. At the advertising account management level, Topkee uses professional TTO tools to realize full-process automation operations, and all links from account review, account opening and recharge to conversion target setting can be centrally processed, greatly improving the efficiency of advertising collaborative management. At the same time, for the production of advertising landing pages, the team uses the Weber technology platform to quickly generate landing pages that are highly matched with advertising activities, ensuring that the page design can perfectly echo the call to action (CTA) in the advertising copy, and maintain the consistency between the advertisement and the landing page through a complete customer tracking and data feedback mechanism, providing potential customers with a smooth conversion experience.

In terms of target audience positioning, Topkee deeply analyzes user behavior data through the TAG tracking system, divides the audience into refined groups according to interactive characteristics, and designs differentiated personalized marketing content accordingly. This data-driven positioning method can effectively reduce customer acquisition costs while improving the accuracy of advertising delivery, reaching more than 90% of Internet users worldwide. The creative production stage combines AI technology and manual expertise to generate innovative advertising themes from four core dimensions such as service characteristics, market competitiveness, and brand values, and then uses the TM tracking system to achieve more detailed effect monitoring than traditional UTM. It can customize tracking links based on multiple dimensions such as advertising sources and media types, and evaluate the performance of each creative theme in real time and quickly iterate and optimize.

To ensure continuous improvement in advertising effectiveness, Topkee provides a complete data analysis system, including periodic advertising execution reports, conversion funnel analysis, and ROI return on investment evaluation. Certified marketing consultants will provide executable improvement suggestions for key indicators such as budget allocation and click-through rate optimization, and regularly hold online report interpretation meetings to help customers grasp the latest market trends and policy changes. In terms of advertising type selection, in addition to traditional GDN advertising that can be used for cross-site remarketing through graphic materials, it also integrates Google Pmax advertising's smart bidding technology and uses AI to automatically adjust cross-channel delivery strategies to maximize conversion opportunities. The entire solution particularly emphasizes the two major features of "data transparency" and "process agility", enabling advertisers to respond quickly to market changes and achieve quantifiable business growth while shaping their brand image.

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Conclusion

When a British skincare brand used GDN advertising to improve price elasticity by 10%, they not only achieved a 7% revenue growth, but also verified the substantial impact of marketing spending on pricing power. From McCain's 47% price elasticity improvement to Domino's Pizza's 45% ROI increase, the data consistently points to: Google Display Ads is the brand premium engine in the inflation era. It is recommended that companies immediately initiate three actions: use the MMM model to quantify the contribution of brand advertising to gross profit, test the 60:40 brand/performance budget allocation, and include AI-generated value proposition advertising in the price adjustment warm-up period. If you need to accurately calculate the potential for pricing power improvement in your industry, please contact our brand strategy consulting team.