New Google Ad Formats Showing Promise

Google’s new ad formats introduced in 2018 are seeing some impressive results, making it a promising opportunity to more profitability for business owners in 2019.

RESPONSIVE SEARCH ADS

Using machine learning, Google pairs together up to 15 unique headlines and 4 descriptions (which the advertiser provides) to serve up custom ads to consumers based on their shopping preferences and behaviors.

Why Should You Use Them?

While overall desktop revenue still exceeds mobile by a fair margin, that gap is closing quickly. And with mobile CPCs nearly 50% lower than desktop, mobile advertising remains a highly profitable channel with incredible growth opportunity.

RESPONSIVE DISPLAY ADS

These are very similar to Responsive Search Ads. The big distinction here is that you can also upload multiple images that Google can choose from to further customize, and there are additional formats for display to make sure ads perform well on mobile and tablet as well.

Why Should You Use Them?

In Q4, 11% of all ROI client display impressions were from new responsive display ads. They generated as many impressions as traditional image ads in Q4, with a higher CTR and conversion rate.

SMART SHOPPING ADS

These ads feature both product and display ads (including remarketing) which appear on the Google Search & Display Networks, as well as on YouTube, Gmail, and other sources.

Through Google’s machine learning, these ads are dynamically assembled and personalized based on user preferences; all content is pulled directly from your product feed.

Why Should You Use Them?

Smart Shopping impressions blew up in the second half of 2018. From less than a million impressions at the beginning of Q3 to over 4 million impressions by the end of Q4, Smart Shopping campaigns saw a staggering growth rate of more than 400% QoQ!

SHOWCASE SHOPPING ADS:

This ad format appears on Google when someone searches using a generic term, such as “headphones”. These ads allow you to group together a selection of your related products into one singular ad unit. These ads are incredibly useful for building brand awareness as consumers are still in the research/discovery phase of their buyer’s journey.

Why Should You Use Them?

In Q4 2018, we saw a 141% increase in Showcase Shopping ad impressions. With the holidays in full swing, these ads helped our clients introduce shoppers to their brand and relevant products, helping to guide them down the funnel into consideration and eventual purchase.

DYNAMIC SEARCH ADS

Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) have been around forever. However, there’s an impressive trend that’s been occurring in DSAs for our clients since the beginning of 2017: consistent, scalable revenue growth in comparison to advertising cost.

In Q1 2017, DSAs were responsible for roughly $1.7m in revenue, with a cost of just over $390k, for a 425% ROAS. Fast forward to the end of 2018, where revenue grew nearly 3x to $4.5 million per quarter, yet advertising cost only rose to $935k per quarter, for an average ROAS of over 480%!.

Why Should You Use Them?

With nearly triple the revenue in 2018, ROAS was still on the rise. Google has continued to make improvements to DSAs, including investing time to make sure they work with automation. They will continue to streamline these ads, meaning there is incredible opportunity to leverage this format for increased profitability.