Did You Know?
Shopping campaigns account for an estimated 76.4% of all retail search ad spend, and drive about 85.3% of clicks on retail-focused Google Ads campaigns.
When Google Ads first launched, back in 2000 under the name Google AdWords, there was only one type of campaign available within the platform. Still, the fact that marketers could now place powerful text ads right onto the search engine results page was a big step at the time.
These ‘Search’ ads, as they became known, are still available today and represent the bread and butter for anyone using paid search to boost their business. However, over the years, new and exciting campaign formats have been introduced to allow users to reach people via Google’s growing number of channels, including YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Shopping.
So, if you’re new to Google Ads or you’re considering dipping your toe into these waters, here’s a rundown of each type of campaign, their pros and cons, and how they’re best utilised.
Search Campaigns
The original, and still the most effective in a lot of cases, Google Search campaigns are text-based ads that are powered by keywords. Because every target phrase is selected by whoever is running the ads, you have a great deal of control over when and where they appear.
Search Campaigns are comprised of Responsive Search Ads, which themselves are made up of 15 different headlines and four lines of description text. Google then combines these in as many ways as possible to discover the optimum make-up of an ad.
Over the years, many different types of ‘extensions’ have been added to search campaigns, meaning you can now include sitelinks, phone numbers, promotions, pricing information and more directly within the ad. As well as giving the searcher more information about your product or service, these take up real estate in the SERPs, helping you fend off competitors also using Google Ads.
Pros
- Easy to set up
- Lots over control over bids and keywords
- No images, videos or products needed
Cons
- Require lots of manual optimisations to get the most of of them
- Only triggered when someone searches
Display Campaigns
Next to be launched were Display campaigns, as Google decided to introduce a visual element to the ads available. This started by giving advertisers access to the AdSense Network as a way of using up extra budget on slow days, a setting that is still in use today, only it’s now simply known as the Display Network.
However, Display campaigns later evolved to become standalone image-led ads that can be placed on websites related to your brand that have Google-specific ad space. These are not triggered by keywords and instead target users based on their demographics and the type of content they consume. This and their visual nature make them an ideal choice for brand awareness, particularly for brands that are better suited to showing their products than writing about them.
Pros
- Can be viewed passively – don’t need to be triggered by a search
- Usually cheaper as often not charged per click
- Great for remarketing
Cons
- Extra resource needed for design
- Lower intent shown from those who see them
Local Ads
A few years after Google Maps was launched, Google started experimenting with ads directly on the map. Known as Local Search Ads, these would allow businesses to pinpoint the location of their premises and highlight a call to action to anyone searching the map in their area.
The information would be taken directly from a company’s Google Business Profile and proved to be a powerful tool for brands trying to influence people in a small radius around their property. Today, Local ads now form part of Performance Max campaigns, which we will talk about a bit later on.
Pros
- Great at driving in-person visits
- Ads on map can be very powerful in the moment
- Automations make it easy to set up and optimise
Cons
- Limited control as to where ads appear
- Difficult to measure results
Video Campaigns
Shortly after Google bought YouTube, short video ads started appearing across the platform. This was the start of Video Campaigns and led to adverts before, after and during YouTube videos.
Depending on your advertising goals, you can create skipable and non-skipable in-stream ads, as well as those that appear in a variety of other placements. These include the YouTube search results, on a channel’s homepage and even overlaid on other videos.
Pros
- Reach a vast audience on YouTube
- Lots of flexibility as to what the ads look like and where they are placed
- Perfect for storytelling
Cons
- Extra resource needed to create strong videos
- Skippable ads are easily ignored
Shopping Campaigns
Shopping campaigns are perhaps one of the most advanced additions to the selection of opportunities, as they diverge significantly from the initial Search campaigns that Google started with. Instead of providing keywords and text of varying lengths, advertisers can connect their e-commerce shop to Google Ads and have live product data appear directly in the search results. The ads are then shown to people based on demographics, interests or events like visiting the website in the past.
This introduction was so transformative that it heralded a new section of the SERPs in the form of the carousel at the top of the page when you use a transactional search term. These prominent tiles include product pictures, prices, titles and descriptions that are all taken straight from the seller’s website.
Pros
- Easy to manage with a link to your product data
- Strong ROAS opportuntities for e-commerce
- Appear at the top of the SERPs
Cons
- Competition from large retailers can be strong
- Difficult to customise creative
Performance Max
The newest campaign type to be added to Google’s arsenal is the AI-driven Performance Max, often shortened to just PMax. Created as a way to offer advertisers the chance to spread their marketing across all of Google’s channels at the same time, it combines Search, Display, Local, Video, and Shopping ads into one easy-to-manage campaign.
You don’t have to connect e-commerce products to use this type of campaign, but it typically works best for brands that can offer up assets for each of the different aspects of Performance Max. That means creating headlines and descriptions like in a Search campaign, adding images and videos as with Display and Video campaigns, and including details direct from your product listings to capitalise on the benefits of a Shopping campaign.
Once all the information is in place, Google uses machine learning to decipher which aspects of the campaign perform best and shifts the budget accordingly. Even though there are elements of a Search campaign included in PMax, no keywords are chosen by the advertiser. Instead, you can suggest phrases, audience segments and signals to help Google find the right people, but this will only be used as a starting point.
In fact, until recently, there was no way to see the words and phrases that people were using before interacting with your Performance Max ads. However, the ability to view these search terms and add any related negatives to the campaign has recently been rolled out worldwide, giving marketers greater control over who sees the ads.
Pros
- Manage ads across all of Google from one place
- Great for testing previously untried campaign types in a short period of time
- Automations make it easy to manage
Cons
- Limited visibility or control over who sees the ads
- Increased set-up time and reliance on strong visual assets makes it not one for beginners
If you’re looking for advice and guidance as to which types of Google Ads campaigns would best suit your business goals, speak to the expert Paid Media team at Reach. Our Google Ads professionals can help set up and optimise your campaigns to bring measurable ROI and meaningful results. Get in touch today!
About the author
Chris Mayhew has great experience in a wide range of digital marketing practices, focussing predominantly on paid media. By implementing iterative A/B tests, he optimises Google and Meta Ad campaigns to maximise results.
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