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What Are Google Discovery Ads and How They Work In the ECommerce World
Google Discovery ads are a fundamental aspect of digital marketing. We see them every day, but what exactly are they? And how do they function in the eCommerce world?
This informative article will discuss everything you need to know about Google Discovery ads and why you should use them for your brand’s advertising campaigns.
Table of Contents
What Are Google Discovery Ads?
Google Discovery Ads are a category of Google Ads.
They are visually compelling advertisements engineered to appear to your target audience around the time they are most likely to make a purchase. Google uses intuitive data-driven software to identify consumer buying cues so your brand pop-ups to the right people during their peak interest in a product or service.
Google Discovery ads appear in 3 crucial places:
- The Google Discovery feed
- YouTube
- Gmail
These domains are owned by Google and have some of the highest traffic rates on all of the internet.
Why Are Google Discovery Ads Important?
Google Discovery ads are necessary for a variety of reasons. First of all, they’re essential for reaching groups of new customers. Google Discovery itself plays a pivotal role in a brand’s effort for expansion as it bases itself around the acquisition of audiences based on demand and interest.
This leads to the second point on why Google Discovery ads are important: reaching existing customers. In addition to finding new customers, you’ll also have the opportunity to increase customer retention and loyalty simply by reminding them you exist.
The fact that they already bought from you once is an indicator that they are likely to buy from you again.
Finally, running a Google Discovery ad campaign will allow you to scale your conversions and determine how effective your marketing tactics are. Conversion rates are the number of people who visit your site and become customers.
Essentially when more clicks equal more sales, your conversion rates are good, and your marketing campaign is working.
Who Should Use Google Discovery Ads?
The great thing about Google Discovery ads is that they’re incredibly versatile and can be used virtually by any brand.
Yep, it doesn’t matter if you’re a small business trying to make ends meet or a multi-billion dollar corporate conglomerate; anyone can make use of this feature.
How Google Discovery Ads Work in the ECommerce World
Google Discovery ads are pretty ingrained into the digital trade scene. With an oversaturation of content, brands, and products on the internet all using the same platforms, you will need precise targeting measures.
The tactics employed by Google Discovery analyze correlations between consumer purchases and previous searches to make intuitive guesses about when a person is most willing to buy something. This helps distribute traffic evenly and makes findability easier for all parties involved.
As for what makes a compelling Discovery ad, there are two encompassing components; the visual and a short description.
The visual is especially important because it uses psychological cues to capture the attention of prospective customers and entices them.
The description further feeds into this by giving them some information on why they would be interested in the product. For example, if a company sells skin products, they might want to use words popular in skin care eCommerce, such as “brightening” or “smooth.”
This is also the perfect place to inform people of ongoing sales or limited-time deals.
What’s the Difference Between Discovery Ads and Display Ads?
Google Display ads and Discovery ads may seem like the same thing, but that’s not entirely true. While they perform similar roles in digital commerce, their ultimate goals and means are slightly different.
Discovery ads specifically target customers who are likely ready to make a purchase, whereas Display ads are more for spreading general awareness of a company or product. They each have their own applications, but if your goal is strictly sales, then you should opt for Discovery ads.
If you’re trying to create a reputation and get your business on the map, then that’s when you might want to consider using Display ads.
Knowing the key differences between the two will allow you to determine which is best for your marketing campaign (if not both) and which one is unnecessary.
Google Discovery ads may seem unassuming on the surface, but they can be deadly precise when it comes to reaching and attracting customers due to the tools' intuitive learning procedures and compelling visual cues.
How to Create a Google Discovery Ad
Now that we’ve discussed the basics of Google Discovery ads, it’s time to create your own. Here is a step-by-step guide on how you can get started right now:
Step 1: Create a Google ads account or sign into a pre-existing one
Step 2: Go to “Campaigns” (top left corner) > click “+” > hit “New campaign”
Step 3: Choose a marketing objective
Step 4: Change it to “Discovery campaign,” then hit continue
Step 5: Insert location, language, and audience targets
Step 6: Set bidding strategy and daily budget
Step 7: Save your progress
After you do this, you’re all set to start your Discover campaign. All that’s left is to implement your creative assets (images, headings, and descriptions).
Implementing and Optimizing Assets
There are two main types of Google Discover ads: regular Discovery ads and carousel Discovery ads.
Regular Discovery Ads
The base Discovery ad comprises a single image, a title, and a short descriptive blurb.
For this type of ad, you’ll submit a variety of headings, descriptions, and images. Google AI will then use computer learning to test various combinations and eventually create custom ads for individual customers, thus maximizing effectiveness.
You’ll be allowed a maximum of 5 headlines (40 character limit each), 5 descriptions (90 character limit each), and up to 20 images.
Images can be uploaded in the following formats:
- Landscape (1:91:1)
- Square (1:1)
- Portrait (4:5)
- Logo (1:1)
The ad will also include your business’s name and a hyperlink to your main site.
Carousel Discovery Ads
Unlike regular Discovery ads, carousel Discovery ads display all of the images you upload in a carousel format. You only have to include one 40-character max heading and one 90-character max description.
Customers seeing your ad can move from image card to image card, and each one will take them to a specific page on your site. The order in which you upload the images will determine the order they show up in ads.
Here are the image parameters for carousel ads:
- Landscape (1:91:1)
- Square (1:1)
- Logo (1:1)
Like a regular Discovery ad, the Carousel will also include the business name and all of your URLs.
Tips for Maximizing Your Discovery Ad Experience
Here are a few valuable insights and tips on how you can maximize the use of the Google Discovery ad tool:
Use High-Quality, Compelling Images
When you offer a high degree of quality and polish in your creative assets, you give the impression to viewers that your company provides equally high-quality products and services.
Additionally, doing research on the types of shapes, colors, and pictures customers in your target audience is most receptive to will allow you to attract even more traffic and make your leads much more compelling.
Know Your Niche
There are billions of users on the internet each day, and millions of companies compete to get their attention. There is no way you will reach everyone, so your best shot is to go after your niche.
By whittling down your target audience through research and analytics, you can determine your niche and tailor your ads specifically for them. Not only will this increase the efficiency of your ads, but it will also make it easier to adjust to their needs.
Time You Campaigns
The time of day and the day of the week play a pretty important role in your marketing campaign.
Your aim should be to run ads where customers in your niche are most likely to buy. If your research comes back inconclusive or you’re unsure, you can acquire this information through the Google Analytics feature or your own analytics tools.
Experiment
Experimenting with different creative assets and campaign measures can help you optimize your marketing efforts and ensure you get the most out of your time and resources.
You can also use this opportunity to experiment with different audiences and determine which groups respond most to your Discovery ads.
The experimentation of various marketing tactics will provide you with a larger sample size of data which will translate well into overall company optimization and expansion.
Main Takeaways
Google Discovery ads may seem unassuming on the surface, but they can be deadly precise when it comes to reaching and attracting customers due to the tools’ intuitive learning procedures and compelling visual cues.
They apply to any business’s marketing campaign and are something you don’t want to miss out on using.
Are you looking for an elite marketing firm to help you with your advertising campaigns? Adcore is a digital marketing agency focused on providing performance-driven marketing solutions and growth.
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