Google Discovery Ads 8211 How The Format Can Be Worth It For Companies
Management Summary
This article provides a deeper insight into Google Discovery Ads and provides recommendations on best practices when using this form of advertising.
What are discovery ads?
Google Discovery Ads enable with stored text & Image variants automatically display user target groups on YouTube, GMail and also in the Discovery Feed. Previously this was only possible in the Google Discovery Feed, but by expanding to YouTube and GMail, greater reach can also be achieved for this campaign type.
As the name suggests, Discovery Ads aim to reach users who are open to new products & Services that you want to “discover” – in order to ultimately make a conversion. Although discovery ads can in principle be classified as push marketing, they only work with conversion-based bidding strategies and therefore pursue performance goals rather than branding goals.
Unlike display or YouTube campaigns, not all targeting options are available, but the targeting only works on target groups. This gives you the following targeting options:
- Demographics
- Remarketing to website visitors or YouTube users
- User purchasing behavior and interests
- Active Search Behavior – split between Life Events, Ready to Buy Audiences, and Custom Intent Audiences
It is advisable to start with custom intent or remarketing audiences if you want to start with as little wastage as possible and the expected higher performance.
What do discovery ads look like?
Discovery ad on YouTube, Discover and Gmail. Source: Google
As can be seen here, Google Discovery ads target users who are most likely to be searching for products at an early stage. Whether on the YouTube homepage, in the video directly, on the Gmail homepage, in the Gmail feed or in the Discovery feed – all of these products offer a high reach.
Best practices
To get the most out of discovery campaigns, the following best practices have proven useful.
1. Define the ideal budget for your goals
Google recommends a daily budget that is at least 10x your CPA goal.
This is essential to give the campaign a learning phase in which data is collected.
2. Choose the desired bidding strategy
Discovery ads use automated bidding to maximize conversion rates through Target CPA or Maximize Conversion bidding strategies. Target CPA bids focus on achieving an average CPA target. If your goal is to get as many conversions as possible within your budget – regardless of a tCPA goal – Maximize Conversions is for you.
3. Use eye-catching images
The use of high-quality and eye-catching images is the key to a successful campaign as it increases awareness of the advertising material. Only a minimal amount of text is allowed on the images. It is recommended to use images without text.
4. Use the right messages for the right user
This campaign type can target a variety of audiences from in-market audiences, affinity audiences to custom audiences. Make sure your campaign strategy is structured so that users get the right message based on brand awareness and funnel stage. It is important that all headlines and descriptions are filled with the right message. Here, it’s a good idea to mention benefits, features, offers, and general brand messaging.
5. Don’t optimize too early
Let the campaign collect data without major changes unless something is clearly incorrect. Automated bidding strategies take time to optimize within the limits you set, so wait a few weeks and then optimize.
Conclusion
In summary, discovery campaigns through machine learning offer a very good opportunity to reach users at the right time with a visually appealing, relevant message. With the best practices mentioned above, you should be able to do this.
If you’re not already using this campaign type, it’s high time you give Discovery Ads a try!
