The way people shop and discover new brands has changed: personalized feeds like news, video and social now play a significant role in helping people find inspiration throughout their consumer journey. In fact, 85% of people say they take action within 24 hours of discovering a product, like comparing prices or making a purchase.1
Last year we introduced Discovery campaigns to help you reach these consumers in the moments when they’re open to learning about new products and services. As of April, Discovery ads are generally available to all advertisers globally.
An example of a Discovery ad on YouTube, Discover, and Gmail
Drive action from highly engaged audiences
Discovery campaigns help you reach up to 2.9 billion people as they browse feeds on YouTube, check the Gmail Promotions and Social tabs, and scroll through Discover to catch up on their favorite topics. By pairing this expansive reach with Google's machine learning and unique understanding of intent, brands are finding it easier to connect with new, qualified customers at scale.
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European eyewear manufacturer Brillen.de was looking for ways to increase eye appointments from previous website visitors in late 2019. After remarketing to these engaged visitors and using audience expansion, the brand saw a 20% improvement on its cost-per-lead and a 300% higher conversion rate to supplement their Display results. Says Dennis Wruck, Marketing Director at parent company SuperVista AG, "It was easy to quickly scale our social media reach to new audiences with Discovery ads—our ads are driving great performance alongside Search and Display." |
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Best Practice: Use Smart Bidding to optimize the performance of your Discovery ads. For example, if your goal is to drive more conversions, you may want to use the Maximize conversions strategy. You can also use the Target CPA recommended based on your account performance to achieve your marketing goals. To learn more about optimizing Discovery ads, check out our best practices checklist. |
Inspire consumers with a new canvas
With Discovery campaigns, you can showcase your products or services with ads that are rich, authentic, and relevant. Connect with consumers and inspire them to take action using either a single image or an image carousel–which can help you tell your brand's unique story as people swipe through each card.
An example Discovery ad using the multi-image carousel
Getting started is easy: If you're already running media campaigns for social or video, you can repurpose your highest-quality images and messaging. Once your ads are live, Google’s machine learning will then find the best combination of assets and render them natively across each Google property.
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Best Practice: Upload a variety of high-resolution images in our recommended image sizes: 1200x628 and 1200x1200. Learn more about our creative guidelines in the Google Ads Help Center. |
Unlock insights about your customers
Discovery campaigns can also help you learn more about your customers and what resonates with them. For example, let’s say you’re an auto dealership running a special Summer promotion. Using asset-level reports, you might find that an image of your brand's blue SUV seen from the side performs better than one of the same red SUV seen from the front. You can then use this insight to include more of your blue SUV's top-performing images throughout your other marketing campaigns.
Asset-level reporting for a Discovery ad
In addition, audience-level reports help you understand which customers are most likely to interact with your ads, as well as which are most likely to take action or make a purchase. For instance, a home improvement brand using “Real Estate” and “Home & Garden” in-market audiences might remove the "Real Estate" audience if they see more conversions from people shopping for home and garden tools.
For more help creating your first Discovery campaigns, visit the Google Ads Help Center. And be sure to check out the full best practices checklist and download our creative guide for more tips on maximizing your performance.
Posted by Jerry Dischler, Vice President, Ads Platforms & Google Properties
1. Google / Ipsos Connect, Consumer Discovery Study, U.S., December 2018, n of 2,001 US consumers age 18-54 who go online at least once a month.
