What are the different types of campaigns I can run on Google ads?
Let us start from the top of the funnel.
- Display Campaigns (Google Display Ads)
You can create a display campaign made up of some texts, some images, and some videos to blast it across various placements across the internet. You can control the placements you would like to appear on or exclude them. Display Ads are commonly used in either one of these 2 ways. Either used as the top of the funnel for consumers to discover or used as retargeting to push ads to a user who just visited your website.
For this type of campaign, you will need a variety of image and video sizes. You can check out the different image and video sizes that Google supports here. - Video Campaigns (Video Ads/Youtube Ads)
You can create video ads, now there’s a video action campaign as well. You can choose to push these video-only ads to either Youtube alone or allow the system to deliver them across the web to any available opportunity to show your video ad. Video ads can be super short bumper ads or longer skippable ads. You can create the right video for your marketing objective. Best to prepare a few videos and get a video sequence up with a call to action most prominent in the last sequence. - Discovery Campaigns (Discovery Ads)
Discovery appears across Youtube Home, Watch Next feeds, Discover tab, Gmail, and more. It is a type of “Smart” campaign that leverages Google’s machine-learning signals to reach customers at scale and drive conversions. When running Discovery ads, you need to be prepared for massive fluctuations in ad spending and delivery while the system is figuring out and learning. So, do not be surprised if you see the graph look like a stock market. - Offline Campaigns (Store Visit Ads)
Today if you are a retailer or a service centre with a brick-and-mortar space, your front door is no longer your shop entrance. Your front door is now what users see when they search for you online, essentially your website. With Google Ads, you can run ads to target people who are actively searching for your products or services and then attribute the user’s visit to your shop due to the online search the user made. (Disclaimer: To be able to use this function, certain criteria need to be met.)
- Search Campaigns (Text Ads)
This is the main one that almost everyone knows about, Search Ads, also traditionally known as PPC (Pay Per Click) Ads. Well, nowadays, it’s no longer called PPC ads as there’s an option to choose to pay based on conversion rather than just clicks. But generally, its main function as a PPC platform still remains. Search Ads are extremely powerful as it is intent-based. You do not even necessarily need to target a specific audience as you want your ads to appear only based on certain searches. For search ads, you can tailor your campaigns to capture top-of-funnel searches like the very broad business category or industry to mid-funnel searches when the user is considering and making comparisons to the bottom of the funnel where users want to buy something. - Shopping Campaigns (Shopping Ads)
Shopping ads are generally considered the bottom of the funnel as your product is displayed somewhat like an eCommerce store but on the Google Search Results Page. With an image of your product, product title, price, description, etc. To do this, you will need to have a Google Merchant center account linked to your eCommerce store and maintain the product feed. Users who see your product can click on it and will land directly on the product description page. The next step is just for them to put the product into the cart and buy. - Performance Max Campaign
This is the latest product from Google Ads which is really powerful. Performance Max lives up to its name. Its function is to maximize the performance of your ads by leveraging Google’s machine learning and audience signals to drive your desired audience from the top of the funnel all the way down to the bottom. I’ve personally seen campaigns crushing it on performance max. Performance Max should still be run together with the usual search ads side by side and not on its own. I will deep dive into Performance max separately.
This is a brief overview of the different types of campaigns, funnel stage,s and assets you can leverage on Google Ads.
