Last year Google showcased Discovery ads in order to help brands find new audiences and engage with potential customers while they browse Facebook.
Now Google has announced that this has been rolled out globally for advertisers to make the most of.
More consumers are now finding their next favorite brand or product through a growing variety of touchpoints—in fact, 86 percent of online consumers say they’re on the lookout for shopping ideas as they watch videos or explore content across the web. With Discovery ads, you can rely on Google’s understanding of consumers’ intent across our properties to engage these audiences as they scroll through their favorite Google feeds—no search query needed.
https://blog.google/products/ads/discovery-ads/
You can now create discovery ads that are shown on:
- YouTube – Products can be showcased on the YouTube home page and in the Watch Next Feed. Google claims 90% of users discover new brands and products via these feeds.
- Google’s Discover page – You can now advertise in the Discover feed on the Google Search app as people are browsing news and updates based upon their interests.
- Gmail – you can advertise specific offers to potential customers when they are checking their Gmail inbox in the social and promotions tabs.
These ads are eerily similar to Facebook’s offerings, which are largely image-based ads shown on Facebook, Instagram and various other platforms. The carousel ad on Facebook is largely the same as what Google allows on YouTube.
Early results sound positive, as quoted on Google’s blog:
UGG used Discovery ads to promote its holiday gift guide, connecting with fashion-forward shoppers open to trying new products while scrolling through their favorite Google feeds. The global lifestyle brand repurposed high-quality images from social campaigns, featuring popular products like its Classic Short Boot and Men’s Neumel Chukka. As a result, UGG saw a strong increase in the quality of its website traffic and a revenue return ten times its original ad spend. Deckers now plans to implement Discovery ads across the rest of its brand portfolio, including HOKA and Teva.
https://blog.google/products/ads/discovery-ads/
As it stands, this is Google’s version of social media advertising, if you class YouTube, the Google Discover page and Gmail as forms of “social” media. There is currently 1 ad slot on the Discover Feed, and will only show the most relevant ads. Google is attempting to keep the quality of ads high for the time being.
These visual ads are targeted based on what an audience has expressed interest in and what data shows they will want to see, as opposed to what terms they search for. Google claims that a 2.9 billion audience is available across the 3 platforms, this is similar to Facebook’s own audience.
Discovery ads can now be seen under Discovery campaigns – which allows for 2 formats. Discovery carousel ads which feature multiple images, and Discovery ads which feature 1 image. Google can scan your site for images, you can upload images, or select stock from ShutterStock.
Google’s tips include:
- Use high quality images of 1200x628px, and 1200x1200px
- Use single-image and carousel ads with square and landscape images
- Use the headlines and descriptions to offer information about your product and offerings
- Only capitalise the first word and proper nouns
- Ensure campaigns are set to the same language as the creative
- Focus on audiences likely to convert
- Include 10 converting Search keywords in each custom intent audience
There is still much to be learnt and trialled with Google’s Discovery Ads – but it is potentially a very unique offering which could prove very interesting for brands looking to find new customers.
If you are looking to take your Google Ads performance to the next level, get in touch with Xanthos to speak to our PPC experts and see how we can help.
