**Google Ads Update**
Gmail
Google has announced that from the July 1 2021, Gmail campaigns will become “read only”. This essentially means that after this date advertisers will no longer be able to create or change any existing Gmail campaigns.
However, all is not lost: while removing the granular control over formats on this specific platform, Google have suggested that advertisers can migrate their Gmail campaigns over to their new Discovery campaigns…
So, what are Discovery campaigns?
To put it simply, Discovery campaigns are a visual, single ad campaign with a potential reach of 2.9 billion people monthly on multiple Google platforms such as YouTube Home and Watch Next feeds, Gmail Promotions and Social tabs and Discover.
The ad format will change based on which of the Google properties it appears on, as seen below.
Who can you target?
Pretty much anyone! There is a broad range of targeting available, much like the existing campaign types advertisers are already familiar with, such as interest, life-events, in-market & affinity. You also can remarket to pre-defined audience lists already in the account which is always a good place to start if you want to test this campaign.
What about the ads?
They work much like the updated Responsive Display ads apart from one real difference: advertisers are given the option of two unique ad formats – a single discovery ad (one card with logos, image and supporting text) or a carousel ad that gives the option to offer multiple cards that the user can scroll through. These will include different images, text and landing pages. This acts and feels much like the social ads we have become accustomed to on platforms like Facebook.
And performance?
With the added benefit of being able to combine Google smart bidding strategies to help improve performance, early results from this new campaign type have been very promising, with some clients, after an initial learning period, seeing vast improvements in performance in both direct and assisted conversions.
If you need help or want more information on this update, get in touch with our award-winning digital specialists.