Discovery Ads are run across the Google Discover Feed (Google homepage, YouTube home feed, Gmail etc.). Google Discover Feed has over 800 million active users who are being shown relevant and personalised content due to Google’s machine learning algorithms.
These ads allows businesses to promote their product or service to those likely to be interested. This means your no longer shooting in the dark as you can effectively target audiences and interest.
What are Discovery Ads and why are they so great?
They’re a visual type of ad, that exact look of which changes based on where it’s displayed. However, they tend to focus on being aesthetically pleasing and engaging.
The main benefit of these Discover Ads are that they’re interest driven. Analysing data such as your search history, browsing history, app activity and location (depending on your settings), Google will present a solution maybe before you even think of the problem!
Using interest driven data for ad targeting is nothing new inherently – social media ads do this all the time. However, Discovery Ads have a significant level of automation, with several aspects that Google handles automatically. As marketers, we like to get into the nitty gritty and have a granular level of control. However, for those that want a more “plug and play” advertising solution, these Discovery Ads are an option that’s worth exploring.
Another advantage of Discovery Ads is that they can be a cheaper avenue for promotion, with lower cost-per-action than other display based campaigns. While conversions rates do seem to be rather low, because click cost is also low, there’s a good chance the campaign will be profitable.
Where do Discovery Ads appear?
Discover ads don’t just appear to users of Google Discover – they also appear in a list of places such as
- Google’s iOS, Android and desktop home page
- YouTube Home and Watch Next feeds
- Gmail Promotions and Social tabs
Considering the size of the Google ecosystem, this is pretty good coverage and chances are, you’ve already seen a Discovery Ad.
What do Discovery Ads look like?
As mentioned earlier, they are visually appealing, mobile-optimised, clickable ads, much like the ones you see on social media. Depending on where they appear, they’ll be slightly different, but here are some examples:
Image source, https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2019/05/17/discovery-ads
How to set up Discovery Ads
If you already advertise on Google using Google Ads, setup should be relatively straight forward. You can use your existing marketing messages to create the Discovery Ads. You need up to 5 headlines and descriptions, the business name, URL, call to action and good quality images. Then you need to setup your targeting, which can be a bit tricky, and you should be good to go.
Of course, if you have any issues or are interested in other paid advertising opportunities, get in touch.
