Types of Google Ads and different formats

Do you know what types of advertising exist on the Google Ads platform? The vast digital world gives us many opportunities to expand our brand awareness, reach more people and therefore be more competitive.

If you're looking to attract as many users to your website as possible to perform a desired action, be it an order, an enquiry or a phone call, awareness of the different ad formats on Google Ads can be key.

In this article, we at Grow Easy will introduce the different types of Google Ads and how they can help reach your target audience more effectively, easily and quickly. Happy reading!

Types of Google Ads

All of us have seen advertising on the Internet - whether while making a search engine query or while simply watching a YouTube video. Well, most of these ads are the work of the Google Ads platform.

There are different types of ads, each designed for distinct marketing purposes and offering unique opportunities to reach potential customers.

Google Search Campaign | Ad Types

Google Search Campaign ads are one of the main forms of advertising on Google Ads. They appear in search results when users enter keywords.

These keywords can be either a single word or phrases or specific expressions. If a user makes a query on the search engine related to the products or services we offer, this ensures high relevance and chances of clicks as the ads are targeted exactly to the user searching.

Google Search ads are basically PPC ( pay-per-click) or you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

The effectiveness and relevance of ads is determined by both the maximum cost per click a business is willing to pay (CPC) and their quality score (Quality Score). It is determined by:

• Expected click-through rate
• Relevance to the user's search engine query
• Relevance of the landing page

With a higher CPC budget, the opportunity to rank the ad above that of competitors is higher. This can also ensure the ad is displayed to the first pages of Google's search engine.

Google Display Campaign

Think your phone is tracking you? Or that someone is constantly watching you and running ads for things you've only searched for once on Google? Well, it probably won't surprise you when we say that YES, your actions are being tracked.

This is all possible through the use of Google Display Campaign. Display ads in Google Ads are visual banners that appear on the Google Display Network. This network includes millions of websites that are Google partners, as well as Google apps themselves.

Google Display Campaign ads can also be placed on the side of pages or inserted into their content and even in mobile apps.

Google determines which ads to show based on the content of the page, the user's browsing history, and how their actions match the market categories defined by the advertiser. Digital agency professionals achieve this with narrow and specific targeting.

Display ads act as digital billboards that follow users throughout their online journey and increase brand recognition even when they are not clicking.

Video Campaign| Ad Types

As you may be getting tired of, video ads are hosted on YouTube and are primarily produced there. The Google Ads platform offers 6 types of advertising on YouTube:

• Skippable in-stream ads: these ads appear before, during or after videos. There is no length limit and they continue until they are skipped by the user, which can happen after 5 seconds from the start of the ad.
• Non-skippable in-stream ads: these can be up to 15 seconds and play to the end with no skip option.
• In-feed ads: These ad types allow advertisers to promote a video by displaying it on the YouTube homepage, among search results, or below actively playing videos.
• Bumper ads: Similar to Non-skippable in-stream ads, but only 6 seconds long and play at the beginning of videos.
• Outstream ads: Similar to display ads, these videos only play on the Google Video Partner Network and have no length limit.
• Masthead ads: These ads are available as a booking, through a Google representative. They are produced automatically without sound and are up to 30 seconds in length.

Google Demand Gen Campaign

Looking for a way to get your business in front of people who haven't even heard of it? With Google Demand Gen Campaign, it's totally possible.

Unlike other Google Ads, Demand Gen campaigns are designed to reach consumers before they even start actively searching for a brand.

Instead, these Google campaigns focus on attracting new audiences and generating interest among users through a more visual presentation of content.

Demand Gen campaigns show ads on Google Discovery Feed, Gmail, and YouTube, including YouTube feed, In-Stream, and Shorts within the same campaign.

Google Shopping Campaign | Ad Types

Shopping ads are extremely useful for retailers and online stores. These ads display products directly in search results and make it easy for users to browse and compare different offers.

• Google SERP: Similar to Search Ads, Shopping Ads can appear on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) when users search for keywords. These words are related to products/services that businesses offer.
• Google Shopping.
• Google Images: Carousel ads featured in Google Shopping Campaign also appear at the top of image search results related to product keywords.
• Google Maps: Ads for local products are located at the top of the listings, where you also find related keywords entered in your Google Maps searches.
• Google Partner Sites: Shopping ads also appear in the search results and directories of hundreds of partner sites.

It is important to note that this type of advertising is not yet available for the Bulgarian market.

Google Ads App Campaign | Ad Types

App campaigns are specialized for mobile app promotion. They automatically optimize ads depending on performance and aim to increase the number of times the app has been installed.

All that is needed to run this type of ad is to give a brief description of the app, choose a preferred language and set a budget. Google retrieves the rest of the information itself from the Play Store spaces. Easy, fast and convenient.

App campaigns use a variety of formats, including video and images, to grab users' attention.

They appear in a variety of places such as Google SERPs, Google Discover, Play Store search results, YouTube, and the Google Partner Search Network.

Google Ads Local Campaign | Ad Types

Local campaigns are aimed at attracting customers to physical stores or locations where a certain type of service is performed. To take advantage of this type of advertising, we need to connect GMB "Google My Business "with the Google Ads platform.

They use geolocation data to show ads to users who are near the business, increasing the chances of a physical visit.