google discovery ads: why should you use them?
In April, Google Discovery ads were made available worldwide, taking us further into the future of advertising. A new way to inspire customers and get your brand discovered in more places, Discovery Ads work with the user to enhance their experience.
With Google’s customer intent insights and the power of machine learning, you’ll stay one step ahead of the user. Discovery Ads deliver high quality, visually inspiring and personalised ads to those who are ready to discover and engage with your brand. And all through a single campaign.
what are discovery ads?
Capable of reaching up to 2.8 billion people worldwide, Discovery Ads are visually engaging, mobile-optimised, clickable images. These ads are served based on signals of customer intent, users’ website visits, video watches, app downloads and even map searches.
The purpose of Discovery Ads is to introduce users to your brand, products and services before they even know they want them. By generating demand for your offering to a relevant and engaged audience, these ads can increase brand awareness, conversions and ROI.
are discovery ads for you?
Discovery Ads create the opportunity to reach new customers at a point in time when they’re open to engagement. Teamed with Google’s understanding of customer intent, you can share relevant ads to those most interested. Here’s why Discovery Ads could be for you:
increase brand awareness: Promote products and services while building your brand’s image in front of the users that matter most.
capture audience attention: Create visually impactful ads that are displayed in a seamless and undisruptive format.
drive conversions: By serving ads to relevant audiences who seek new content, brands can experience higher conversions and ROI.
reach new customers: Share visually rich, inspiring creatives across different feeds to drive interest from potential customers while they're open to new brands.
reconnect with valuable consumers: Users return time and time again to the platforms they enjoy using. Discovery ads give you more opportunity to drive action from people who know your brand best and are more likely to engage with you.
what do our experts think?
“Discovery ads are a game-changer for many of our clients, particularly those who are early-adopters while competition levels are low. Increasing the reach of our campaigns through access to exclusive Google inventory, with high impact creative and benefiting from machine learning technology helps strengthen our audience-based strategies and we’re already seeing some excellent results!” - Tom Walkden, Head of PPC
where are discovery ads displayed?
59 percent of consumers have found their favourite brands while watching videos on mobile, catching up on their interests and reading emails. So, it comes as no surprise that Google has chosen to display Discovery Ads across three specific feeds:
Google Discover: Used by over 800 million people, this is the place to reach those actively engaging with daily activities and interests. Even better, users of Google Discover can personalise their feed by following or unfollowing chosen topics, creating highly personalised and curated results. Google Discover – the new name for Google Feed - is shown on the homepage of the Google app or the Google.com homepage on mobile.
YouTube home feed: With more than one billion people collectively watching six billion hours of YouTube videos every month, this is an ideal space to target users while they regularly consume content.
Gmail: Checking your emails and catching up on what is important, Gmail is an effective platform to reach users with relevant ads through the Social and Promotions tabs.
what do discovery ads look like?
Designed in a way that natively integrates with the platform experience, Discovery Ads change based on which feed the ad is being displayed on.
Visually, they are similar to Display Ads with a focus on designing highly visual and engaging creatives. Alongside a single image, they are also available in the form of carousel ads, allowing advertisers to use multiple images in one ad.
what are the targeting options of discovery ads?
Rather than using keywords, Discovery Ads target using audiences. Much like the Google Display Network, Discovery Ads targeting using custom, affinity and in-market audiences. You can also target remarketing audiences - a brilliant method of re-engaging with those who have already shown interest in your brand.
The platforms these ads are displayed across are ones that users regularly interact and engage with. As such, a more detailed overview of what they do and don’t want to see is created. This allows Google to learn more about the user behind the screen, tailoring their newsfeed and preferences for a highly curated experience that allows you to target people based on their interests, or what they’re searching for.
Designed for engagement as users browse their favourite feeds, Discovery Ads rely on machine learning to build and showcase your brand across different channels and devices. Using Smart Bidding can help meet your performance goals by maximising conversion biddings or target CPAs to optimise your campaigns.
Google Discovery Ads allow you to expand your inventory, placing your ads in front of people before they even know they want your product or service. An ideal fit for advertisers looking to reach high-intent audiences, the content displayed across YouTube, Google Discover and Gmail is already highly curated to the user. Using Discovery Ads, our team of experts can match your brand up to relevant audiences, seamlessly slotting your presence into this personalised browsing experience.
As a paid media agency, we believe this new ad format shows a lot of promise for brands. What do you think of discovery ads? Get in touch to chat to our team and find out more.
