In recent months, Google rapidly announced 5 innovative ad formats that we are happy to introduce to you. The main common denominator is that they are all very visual. In addition, Google offers new interesting targeting opportunities to reach your audience ever better by shifting the focus from targeting on search behavior to audience targeting.
Discovery Ads
These ads consist of an image or a number of images in a carousel and can be placed on Youtube, Gmail and in the Google Discovery Feed on Android phones. After initial beta testing, it appears that this ad form generates 50% more clicks than regular video ads. The advantage is that this way you can also benefit from the reach of Youtube if you don't have a video or if traffic is a more important objective than awareness.
Gallery ads in search
Images are also becoming more important on the search results page. Google wants advertisers to be able to offer even more relevant information in search ads and is therefore rolling out Gallery Ads. Here the well-known text ad is enriched with a carousel with different image. This will always be at the first position of the search results.
This is a great addition for a search campaign if you have a strong visual product such as clothing, furniture, vacations or food. That beautiful image of a white beach with palm trees or melting cheese in a recipe says more than a thousand words. Besides, images stand out more than text anyway and in this way you can distinguish yourself from advertisers who are below you on the search page with a regular text ad.
3D ads: 'Swirl'
With new 3D ads, Google wants to help advertisers create an interactive and engaging experience. For example, consumers can view a shoe in 3D, rotate the product or zoom in and out to get a better look at details. We think it is especially a nice and innovative ad format for e-commerce parties such as shoe stores that sell products that people in the store like to see up close, because the "swirl" makes their products digitally a little more tangible than a video or static image. A potential barrier may be the investment in 3D modeling/photography of products. Time and experimentation will tell if that is worth it.
Boost Youtube Live Streams
Live streaming is still "hot. Google is now making it possible to further distribute YouTube livestreams and reach your target audience beyond Youtube by embedding the live stream in display ads.
Youtube Augmented Reality
Another ad format Google wants to use to lower the barrier to buying online is by making a visit to the store unnecessary. This is called the Beauty Try-On Youtube. This is an Augmented Reality (AR) ad where people can digitally test makeup while watching related videos. With this, Google is going after Google, Facebook and Snapchat who already launched Augmented Reality Shopping ads last year in which consumers can digitally try on sunglasses, for example.
Target group targeting expanded
In addition, Google is greatly expanding its targeting capabilities. Originally, search behavior was the main targeting tool that made marketers embrace Google advertising. For the first time, you could reach people you knew were actively searching for your product. Later, affinity and intent targeting groups were added. Here you can target interests of the target group and people who are in the market for your product or service based on search and surfing behavior. So as a travel agency, you can reach them even if they don't literally search on "book summer vacation" but also if they visit sites with travel stories or look up (travel) information about specific countries.
Now in terms of targeting, it will be possible to combine affinity and intent audiences to reach a specific audience. You can use these Custom Audiences in search, Gmail, YouTube, display and campaigns with discovery ads rolling out later this year.
In addition, just like on Facebook, you can reach look-a-likes of your target audience with the audience expansion tool. With this, Google is increasingly creeping toward the extensive (interest) targeting capabilities that Facebook has offered for years.
We do have to be patient for a while to put the new ad forms into practice. They will all be rolled out by the end of 2019. Would you like our help to be the first to deploy them? Then get in touch. We will be happy to keep you informed about our first experiences.