What is Advertising on Google?

Google and its parent, Alphabet, make around $75 billion a year from advertising. More specifically, they make it from digital advertising in their Search and Display Networks. In fact, around 90% of Google’s revenue is from advertising sales. This accounts for approximately a third of the world’s digital advertising revenue. Google is the most successful in what it does, in large part, because it was among the first to do so effectively.

Why Google?

The major reason other search engines aren’t as profitable is there is no need for them to be. Google provides the latitude and value to keep the general population from seeking its fortunes elsewhere. As such, it is in Google’s interest to make the advertising experience as diverse and effective as it can in order to keep a vice grip on digital advertising money. To encourage that, Google offers a number of ways to mix and match your marketing portfolio.

Search Advertising

One of the primary methods of advertising with Google is on the Search Network. The Search Network is a group of websites and applications on which an advertisement may appear in the same area as the organic search results. The precise location of an ad varies depending on the platform; on Google Search, the ad is either above or below the search results––if it appears at all. Whether your ad is eligible for a search depends on a variety of factors.

Bidding

The main determinants are keywords you select in conjunction with an ad as well as the bid you provide in an auction for search priority. Usually an ad will cost less if it is well-structured and useful. More specifically, Ad Rank is decided on with respect to bid amount, ad and landing page quality, as well as the value of a given extension or other formatting alternative. There are a variety of bidding strategies and deciding which is best is paramount.

Display Advertising

The Display Network is the other half of Google’s advertising apparatus. It is composed of millions of sites, including Gmail and YouTube, with which it is connected to 90% of internet users. Rather than substituting itself for the Search Network, they are often used in conjunction for an even more effective ad campaign. If you want to use them in unison, you would choose “Search Network with Display Select.”

Why Display?

On the Display Network, you can customize your advertisement with a visually dynamic suite of choices, including images and video. Moreover, you can be even more discerning with optimization for targeting existing audiences and sussing out new ones. Display is like the Search Network, except the relevance is determined by context, which includes content and topic matter. Ads are placed with AdSense and on DoubleClick Ad Exchange publisher sites. You can also use the Ad Gallery for an array of existing templates if you want to get up and running faster.

Google Shopping

If you are selling a product rather than a service, you may benefit from making a Google Shopping campaign. The first thing you need to do is register on the Merchant Center, submitting a product feed to Google and generating a corresponding campaign in AdWords. Google then makes Shopping ads using all the information you provided. These are often more effective than mere text ads because prospective customers can actually see what is for sale.

What’s in a Shopping Ad?

A shopping ad contains an image of your product along with its title, price, name of the vendor and other information. Additional details will further encourage consumers looking for your product because they have even more context for their decision. As a result, leads facilitated by Google Shopping are often more qualified than leads derived from standard searches. Shopping ads use the details of your product instead of keywords for placement.

AdWords for Video

Video ads are able to display on both YouTube and the Google Display Network. Insofar as many people spend an ever increasing amount of time on YouTube––and access it on mobile, video can be a very effective means of communicating your brand and the products it is offering. You cater your video to the same targeted audiences as other Display Network ads, including keyword targeting, demographics, affinity audiences, and remarketing lists.

TrueView In-Stream Ads

The two central means of advertising video on YouTube are TrueView in-stream ads and TrueView video discovery ads. In-stream ads occur before, during, or after existing videos on YouTube or the Display Network. Being that users view a video, the pricing is different from a text ad. In-stream, you are charged once a user views 30 seconds of your video––or the full duration if it’s briefer––or interacts with the ad, e.g. clicking on a call-to-action.

TrueView Video Discovery Ads

On the other hand, Discovery ads appear on YouTube near relevant videos, YouTube search results, or on the YouTube mobile homepage. It is effective if you want to reach users in the process of searching for content rather than those who have already selected it. In this way, Discovery ads are more like Search Network advertisement. Users who are intrigued by your content can view it again on a YouTube profile and engage with it there.

Bumper Ads

Finally, you can design a bumper ad if you want to provide a very brief and memorable message to increase awareness of your brand instead of getting into the particulars of your product or service. A bumper ad is six seconds or less and, like an in-stream ad, is before, during, or after an existing video. Unlike in-stream advertisement, a user is unable to skip a bumper ad. You are charged in terms of CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) bidding.

Conclusion

Google AdWords is a very useful asset if you manage your campaigns effectively. If you are unfamiliar with the best practices for a successful campaign and produce ineffectual copy while focusing on misguided targeting metrics, you will waste your budget. If you understand how to focus your campaign on the right audience using metrics from AdWords reports and Google Analytics, you can begin to facilitate an effective e-commerce loop.