11 Types of Google Ads: Which One’s Right For Your Business?
Google Ads is one of the most popular ad platforms used by many businesses over the last 20 years. You may have seen all the types of Google Ads without even realizing it. You can run several types of ads on the Google Ads platform. Have you ever seen an ad about books while reading an article related to literature? This is not coincidental but something Google Ads does best. Moreover, there are several Google ad types you can use as per your account needs to get relevant traffic, more leads, conversions, or sales. The most commonly used Google ad types are listed below in this post.
Types of Google Ads
1. Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
The main purpose of Google search ads is to attract more people and those who are already searching for your products. These are the ads you see on Google search engine results pages. Here, one of two things can happen: Either your ad will crawl over all organic search results and appear at the top of the page or it will be shown at the bottom of the page.
As of June 30, 2022, Google eliminated expanded text ads and responsive search ads (RSAs) are the standard text ads in which you are allowed to add up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions so that you may reach greater audiences and can do A/B testing without creating separate ads. However, responsive search ads have a drawback as the headlines can appear in any order so you will have to ensure the message is clear in all headlines so they can stand alone on their own. You also have the option to pin some headlines.
2. Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs)
Dynamic search ads are one of the simplest means to grasp the attention of customers searching on Google for services/products related to yours. They are a powerful way to bring more volume to your website. You don’t have to use keywords or create ads as dynamic search ads automatically use content from your website. This saves you a lot of time and ensures you are using all the keywords you might have missed otherwise. Nevertheless, you still lose control over your ad copy, which is a notable drawback of dynamic search ads.
3. Display Ads
Display ads appear on Google partner websites that provide ad space – all these websites form the Google Display Network (GDN). They are image-based and Google shows them on websites your target audience usually visits. Here you have the option to use static or animated graphics to attract more people. Unlike search ads in which you target keywords, in Display ads, you target placements, audiences, and topics. Display ads are quite beneficial to increase brand awareness and help you generate more leads and sales. They are also cheaper than search ads. Display ads are primarily of two types – Single image display ads and Responsive display ads (RDAs).
4. Video Ads
Similar to Display ads, Video ads appear on YouTube or other websites to target a specific audience. The primary difference between Video ads and display ads is that Video ads have several formats. They can be advantageous for businesses as they can explain their products, services, or offers in detail. Furthermore, Video ads can increase your brand awareness, drive relevant traffic, and help you get more leads. Following are some formats of Video ads:
- Skippable in-stream ads
- Non-skippable in-stream ads
- In-feed video ads
- Bumper ads
- Outstream ads
- Masthead ads
5. Shopping Ads
All the visual ads that appear on the Search and Shopping tabs on Google are known as Shopping ads. If you have an e-commerce store, they are highly recommended for you to increase sales. They show products with an image, title, price, and a link to the store. Google creates these ads based on the information gathered from your GMC account which has all the product data in the feed. As there is no keyword targeting, you will have to be careful about the negative keywords.
Shopping ads are of two types namely, product shopping ads and local inventory ads. The usual shopping ads you see on a Google search engine page when you are searching for a product to buy are called product shopping ads. On the other hand, local inventory ads will be shown to your nearby searchers if you have submitted your store inventory to GMC. They are kind of identical to the product shopping ads, the only difference is that they show if the displayed product is available for in-store pickups or not.
6. Performance Max Ads
You will need Performance Max ads for the Performance Max or PMax campaign, which is a type of automated Google Ads campaign. With the help of a Performance Max campaign, you can get your products discovered by millions of prospective customers who search for related products each day. PMax ads will show on the search engine result page, Google Maps, Google Display Network (GDN), Gmail, YouTube, and Discovery networks.
7. Call-Only Ads
You can use Call-Only ads if you want to promote and make the most of phone calls. With Call-Only ads, you have the option to set them to run only during working hours or 24/7, according to your needs. These ads will appear as regular search ads with headlines and descriptions, but what happens here is that when users click on a Call-Only ad, you will get a call directly from the search engine result page. Nonetheless, there is a difference between Call-Only ads and call extensions – the latter run as separate ads urging potential customers to directly call you instead of redirecting them to your landing page.
8. App Promotion Ads
The main goal of App Promotion ads is to promote an app and increase app installs, app engagement, and pre-registrations for an app. App promotion ads run on the Google Search Network and Google Display Network – Google Play, YouTube, and Google Discover. If you have a mobile app for your business, you can promote it with an effective App Promotion campaign on Google Ads. App ads can be created if you want people to install an app or want people to take any particular action within it. You don’t even have to create individual ads for your App Promotion campaigns. All you have to do is provide some text, starting bids, a budget, a few languages, and locations for your App Promotion campaign. If there are any relevant HTML5 assets for your business, you can include them as well. Google Ads will modify all the information you have provided for different ads across various formats and networks.
9. Local Services Ads (LSAs)
Local Services ads are a great option for all businesses that provide a particular service in a specific area, for instance, plumbers, tax services, lawyers, etc. They don’t exactly run through the Google Ads platform, but they are still shown on Google Search. With these ads, you will get direct leads from your prospective customers. Apart from that, you will have to pay for only the leads you get from the ads. If you see an ad at the very top of the search with icons like “Google Screened” or “Google Guaranteed”, it’s a Local Services ad. If you want to run Local Services ads, Google will first screen and verify your business by conducting a background check.
10. Local Search Ads
Local Search ads are for you if you want to bring more customers to your local store or drive calls to some particular business locations. Based on the assets you provide such as text, images, videos, etc. Local Search ads will be shown on the Google Search Network (GSN), Google Maps, YouTube, and the Google Display Network (GDN).
11. Discovery Ads
Discovery ads are another type of automated Google ad that allows you to increase brand awareness. These ads appear across all of Google’s feed placements and you can extend your reach up to 3 billion potential customers on Google Discover, YouTube Home, Watch Next feeds, Gmail promotion, Social tabs, etc. – all in a single campaign. In addition, these ads are similar to Display ads as you will get to visually communicate your brand’s value, idea, and message.
Besides, Discovery ads will allow you to target people who are most likely interested in your products/services or search for products and services related to your businesses. Discovery campaigns don’t require you to do much as they are mostly automated, you can try them but if you like to have more manual control over the campaigns, they may not be for you.
Which is the right type of Google ad for your business?
Creating a strong marketing strategy is crucial for all businesses. There are several things businesses lack which lead them to failure. One of them is not implementing a sound marketing strategy for their business. While many businesses are aware of the importance of marketing, they don’t realize the importance of having an equally strong and efficient strategy that helps them stay at the top of their marketing game.
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