At last years Google Marketing Live event, Google introduced the digital marketing world to Discovery ads. According to our favorite blog wordstream, “these new discovery ads allow advertisers to show their products to targeted audiences for the first time ever on Google’s Discover feed as well as prominently at the top of YouTube and Gmail. These prominent ad placements reach audiences in the moments even before they search. According to Google, nearly 85% of people will take action within 24 hours of discovering a new product so these ads can significantly impact your customer’s journey to purchasing from you.”
What are Google Discovery Ads and Where Do They Show Up?
Discovery ads are single image and carousel ads that are featured on YouTube and Gmail. This is an attempt from Google to steal some more ad share away from Facebook/IG ads. Though Discovery ads sound like an awareness play, we’ve found that they convert much better than your typical display campaign. In the e-commerce space, these ads have shown to be a great way to visually represent your product and influence customer interest.
How Do I Set Up a Google Discovery Ad?
Discovery Ads are very straight forward to create and manage. Much like the majority of Google’s campaigns, automated bidding and AI learning will play a huge role in optimizing towards your KPI goal. To get started, you will need:
- Up to 15 images (Square 1:1 and Landscape 1.91:1). To reiterate, UP TO 15 images
- Final URL
- Up to five, 40 character headlines
- Up to five, 90 character descriptions
- Business Name
- Call to Action (optional)
Once your ads are created, you will need to set up the audiences that you wish to target. Similiar to Google Display ads, you can choose prospecting based audiences and retargeting based audiences. The audience choices include:
- Retargeting – Website visitors, past converters, etc.
- Demographics – Age, gender, homeowner status, parental status, relationship status, and education
- In-Market Audiences – Google created audiences that includes people that have been identified as ready to buy
- Life Events – Includes life milestones such as ‘newly bought home’
- Affinity and Customer Events – Audiences that are based off of what people have recently searched for
The bidding strategies are consistent with what Google offers their other campaigns, such as Target CPA and Maximize Conversions.
As we have more and more case studies involving Discovery Ads, AdToro will be sure to share any updates! If you need help with your Google Ads needs, please contact: contact@chrisc62.sg-host.com.
