Discovery was a big theme at this year’s Google Marketing Live, the annual event where Google announces new ads products.
Discovery ad campaigns are native ads that appear in Google feeds, including the YouTube home feed, Gmail social and promotions tabs and Google Discover feed (Google has reported that 800 million people now use Discover a month).
Advertisers upload ad copy, a landing page and creative assets, which are formatted to fit in the size and format of the different placements. Google will then optimise the best performing combinations using machine learning.
The targeting is based on Google audiences: interest, in-market, affinity. Advertisers can also use custom intent audiences. Those audiences are generated based on signals spanning Google properties, including users’ search activity, YouTube watch behaviour, visits to Google Display Network sites, and apps downloaded from the Play store.
Discovery ads will become available to advertisers later this year, worldwide. Our Google reps have hinted that there is more to come this year, with the inventory expanding to include much more. Advertisers should consider setting up in this space, in preparation for the expansion, as we believe that this will be a big opportunity in the years to come.
Read more information on our digital services.