With Google Discovery Ads, You Optimize Your Performance Marketing

1. What are Google Discovery Ads?
2. Why Google Discovery Ads are relevant
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Google Discovery Ads compared to other Google Ads campaigns?
4. For which areas of application are Google Discovery Ads recommended?
5. How are Google Discovery Ads successfully implemented?
6. 7 tips for successful Google Discovery Ads
7. Best Case Google Discovery Ads: Ted Baker
8. Which tools support the implementation of Google Discovery Ads?
9. Conclusion

Do you want to generate more revenue with Google Ads? Then Google Discovery Ads are a good option that you should not miss. Discovery Ads allow placement of your ads on various channels. The individual display convinces ready-to-buy users and helps you achieve your business goals.

Besides Paid Search and Display Ads formats Google Ads offers different ad formats. Depending on the individual business objective, brands and agencies can select the most suitable format from the extensive offer. However, advertisers often lack an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the respective options. The result: A decision for the "wrong" format, through which great potential is wasted. To prevent this, this guest article by Burak Murat Görmez gives you the necessary information about Google Discovery Ads.

When you have read this article, you know:

• What Discovery Ads are.
• What benefits and advantages Discovery Ads have.
• What is the difference to other Google Ads formats.

What are Google Discovery Ads?

Google Discovery Ads combine inspiring visual elements with strong targeting features to create an interaction-friendly advertising experience. Because that's exactly what creates demand.

Google Discovery Ads campaigns are played out next to the Discovery Feed on YouTube and Google Mail, reaching millions of relevant users. The broadcast on these channels enables Discovery ads to offer potential new customers relevant and rich content throughout the entire purchasing process.

There is a big difference between Google Search and Google Discover. On the search page, users enter terms when they are looking for specific information. Discover, on the other hand, does not need search queries. It pursues a proactive approach by offering people content that might interest them.

Furthermore, Discover sorts the content according to its relevance and not according to the date of its publication. Users can find articles in their feed that were published months ago if the Google algorithms consider them relevant.

Since you want to specifically increase sales with this format, Google Discovery Ads can be optimized for conversions. Currently, two bidding strategies can be used for this purpose: Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversions with Target CPA.

• Maximize Conversions: This bidding strategy focuses on maximum generation at the lowest cost. Once potential customers in the "low cost" range are exhausted, the algorithm tries to generate more conversions through higher daily bids. This can result in a significant increase in costs and CPA.
• Maximize Conversions with Target CPA: By defining the Cost Per Conversion you give the algorithm a framework within which it can move. A minimal overshoot of the CPA can occur, but still you have good control. The disadvantage is that you might misjudge your CPA and potentially set it much higher. Therefore, it is worth starting without a CPA to get a feel for the bids and then define a CPA.

Targeting with Discovery Ads is based on Targeting of audiences, not keyword-based Search Intent Targeting. The Ads are visually diverse, mobile-oriented, and prompt the willing-to-buy user to take action. How do we know this? Google uses signals it derives from previous consumer behavior patterns (website visits, app downloads, viewed videos, etc.) – and that is the power of Google.

Why Google Discovery Ads are relevant

Google Discovery Ads are relevant to you if

• You want to create awareness for your product and your brand at the same time
• You want to get more engagement with your product ads to improve ad recall
• You want to deliver visually stunning ads
• You want to target audiences for whom your product is relevant
• You want simple campaign management

What are the advantages and disadvantages of Google Discovery Ads compared to other Google Ads campaigns?

Discovery campaigns allow your brand or product to extend its reach to a larger audience and achieve campaign objectives.

The most important advantages of the format are:

• Increasing reach with a single ads campaign
• More engagement thanks to optimized and more relevant ad display
• Visually appealing and natively adapted ads on Google placements
• Automated bidding strategy to reach paid targets

In addition to the advantages, Google Discovery Ads also have disadvantages, such as:

• The ads focus on mobile devices, which is why they are only played out on the desktop in Gmail. So you can primarily only reach your target group via mobile. This is the biggest disadvantage of Discovery Ads.
• Discovery Ads scale your performance, but they must be used in a Google mix and are not a replacement for other Google Ads.

Strong targeting thanks to integration of user signals

The placement of Google Discovery Ads is determined by the topics that users are interested in. Based on signals such as videos that the respective users watch on YouTube or content they follow on Discover, individual preferences are determined. Content that is classified as not interesting for the users is automatically excluded from the placement of the Discovery campaigns. This ensures that your ads only appear next to relevant content.

Users with different demographics from different milieu generate signals that Google uses so that the users see relevant ads. As advertisers, it is our job to ensure a match between the ad and the users.

Every action in the Google world is recorded and passed on in the form of "signals" to the Machine Learning so that Google Ad campaigns are performant and you can reach your goals.

For which areas of application are Google Discovery Ads recommended?

The Google Ads Manager uses the uploaded assets (texts, images, headlines, CTAs, products etc.) to create the ad for the respective channels. As can be seen in the example below from UGG.com, the correct presentation is the be-all and end-all and the reason for the high interaction rate with the Discovery Ads.

Gmail Feed

You can find Discovery Ads on the "Social" or "Advertising" tabs in Google Mail.

YouTube Homepage

In addition to the Gmail feed, your ads can also appear on the YouTube app homepage (the small yellow ad field appears in the left corner).

Google App Feed

In addition, Google Discovery Ads can also appear in the Google App feed. A small green hint appears in the lower corner to mark your content as an "ad", as you see in the Google Discovery Ads examples below.

How are Google Discovery Ads successfully implemented?

There are two campaign subtypes between which you have to decide: Standard Discovery campaign and Discovery campaign with product feeds.

The only major difference between the two campaign subtypes is that in the standard version you have to manually add products, while in the product feeds campaign you can pull all products from the Merchant Center.

In the Merchant Center, you can set up your product range by linking it to your shop system. By using products via the Merchant Center, you can extend your ads with products (with relevant product information) and thus promote direct sales. Furthermore, you have important insights in the Merchant Center that provide insights into your performance, enabling you to derive optimizations.

These are the assets required for setting up Google Discovery Ads:

• Up to 5 headings (40 characters)
• Up to 4 descriptions (90 characters)
• Company name (25 characters)
• URL
• CTA
• Images
• Logo

Do you need more details? Then I have the list from the Google Support Forum for you.

These are the requirements for single images:

Google 

Important: Always follow the Google requirements, which you can find in the Google Support Forum. This prevents a delay of the campaign start and a waste of resources.

Further requirements apply to carousels:

Google 

Recommendation: I recommend using all dimensions to leave the dynamic design and optimization of the Ads to Google.

7 tips for successful Google Discovery Ads

You will hear and read many different opinions and tips about Google Discovery campaigns. Keep in mind that these are just the experiences of the respective media buyers. Don't let yourself be too influenced by this. Of course, a certain amount of experience is necessary when booking the Ads. But even for beginners among you, I guarantee that with these seven tips you will have a safe start to the world of Google Discovery Ads:

1. Stick to the creative guidelines and advertising guidelines of Google to use time and resources sensibly.
2. Use carousels to be able to display several products, as this will increase the interaction with your ad.
3. Test the "Audience Expansion" function in an A/B test, because it may well be that there will be a better ROAS without the audience expansion.
4. Stay away from stock images. Use at least five high-resolution, quality images in landscape or square format.
5. Use call-to-actions and headlines that make users stop when they scroll.
6. Use your storytelling primarily in retargeting so that users can be guided through your brand world. Carousels offer enough space for this.
7. Test your images, formats and texts as often as possible in different A/B tests (plan additional budget for the tests!)

Best Case Google Discovery Ads: Ted Baker

In the summer of 2020, British fashion brand Ted Baker used their creative resources for social ads to create Discovery campaigns targeting previous website visitors and clothing-interested customers. The result: Ted Baker recorded a 70% increase in revenue and a 62% increase in return on advertising spend (ROAS) in less than a year.

Think with Google

Pay attention to your success measurement

Of course, a campaign setup is only as good as the Google Ads Conversion Tracking. Make sure you can measure your conversions smoothly and plan ahead a tracking concept with the responsible developers, if you need support here. The Google Support also provides a good guide.

Which tools support the implementation of Google Discovery Ads?

• For the creation of the Google Discovery Ads you of course need the Google Ad Manager

• For the collection of the most important data on the website I definitely recommend setting up Google Analytics.
• If you are an agency and your creative team needs specific guidelines, then Think with Google can help you.

Conclusion

Google Ads are indispensable for marketing. If you want to scale your performance, you should use Google Discovery Ads in addition to SEA, YouTube Ads, and Display Ads.