What are the Different Types of Digital Ads?
Google ads has been and continues to be the biggest digital advertisement platform for the last 15 years, pioneering and ever-expanding the different ways businesses can present themselves online. There are so many different ways of advertising your business today that it is getting harder and harder for small business owners to keep up with the new updates in features. This is why agencies like us can be quite helpful as keeping up with those updates is part of our day-to-day job. And even we sometimes need a bit of help!
This is why in this blog we will try to cover all types of ads that Google provides as of November 2024 and when each of those will be useful for your business.
Search Ads
Starting off with the most obvious type – the Search Ads.
These types of ads are one of the most popular and easy to set up. They can be broken down into Text Ads, Call Only Ads and Responsive Search Ads.
- Text Ads appear on Google result pages when users search for relevant keywords. They are one of the most basic ads and one of the most used. You just need a few keywords, a landing page and ad copy to get you going. After that depending on your strategy and maintenance you will be able to get a great ROI.
- Call Only Ads have one purpose, which is generating calls. They appear on mobile devices and are primary used by emergency service providers. – Tyre repair centres, emergency recovery companies, maintenance companies etc.
- Responsive Search Ads are a dynamic way of generating text ads. They work through an automated algorithm that scans your website and provides automatically created headlines and descriptions and picks the best landing pages according to the Google algorithm. Even though this sounds like an amazing and easy way of setting up ads we would only recommend this on matured accounts as sometimes the generated content can do more harm than good. This also gives Google too much power in taking crucial decisions and ad spend.
Display Ads
Display ads require specifically provided artwork or images based on business brand guidelines and can be a great way of retargeting users who are already familiar with you as well as increasing brand awareness due to their low cost per click (CPC). They are online billboards!
- Image Ads are static or animated images shown on websites on the Google Display Network. They have strict sizes and dimensions and need to be designed prior to uploading.
- Responsive Display Ads can be auto-adjusted by Google as they’re a mash-up of images and text that can be uploaded and mixed.
- Gmail Ads appear in user’s mailboxes, often in promotional tabs.
Video Ads
- YouTube Ads – They appear before, during or after videos on YouTube. They can be both skippable and unskippable.
- Bumper Ads – They are short non-skippable and up to 6 seconds.
- Outstream Video Ads – They appear on mobile devices often in apps and different supported websites.
Shopping Ads
Shopping ads are a great way for all businesses that sell products online as they can showcase their whole inventory and make the buyer journey short and simple.
- Product Shopping Ads show an image, title, price and brand for a product.
- Showcase Shopping Ads group related products together allowing users to browse multiple products at once.
- Local Inventory Ads can show your store’s local products to people searching nearby.
App Promotion Ads
- App install Ads encourage users to download apps by displaying ads across all platforms (Search, GDN, YouTube, Google Play).
- App Engagement Ads targets users who already have an app installed to encourage reengagement.
Smart Ads
- Smart Search Ads are ads created automatically by Google that also target through an automated algorithm based on a business’s goals and website.
- Smart Display Ads similarly are created by Google where it automatically creates images and optimises based on targeting.
Local Ads
Local Search Ads appear when users search for local businesses based on location. They show your business name, your phone number and a direct contact CTA.
Discovery Ads
Discovery Ads appear on the Google Discovery Feed, YouTube feed or Gmails promotional tab. They are a simple way to increase your brand awareness.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we can all agree that Google offers a huge variety of ad types that are not always suitable for businesses and need to be properly maintained so that they can help grow and support other digital activities.
Businesses need to consider their goals, audiences, and resources before deciding what ads they should use. This can be crucial to achieving the set targets and maximising the ROI. For this reason, our trained PPC team at CMe Media and CMe Automotive are more than happy to discuss your needs and goals so that we can advise you on what will work best!
Get in touch today and book your valuation!
