9 Types of Google Ads & When to Utilize Them for Your Campaign

With over 5.6 million business users, Google Ads is a potent platform for paid advertising. If you’ve ever found the array of campaign types confusing, you’re not alone. The truth is, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Therefore, we’ll delve into the details of all Google Ads types to offer a comprehensive understanding.

How many types of Google Ads are there?

Google Ads provides advertisers with lots of advertising options, and you may wonder how many types of Google ads are available now. After lots of updating going on this year, Google Ads is now encompassing 9 types of campaigns, which are: Search Ads, Display Ads, Shopping Ads, Video Ads, App Ads, Demand Gen Ads, Local Services Ads, Smart Ads, and Performance Ads.

Each Google Ad type operates across various Google platforms, encompassing channels such as YouTube, Google Shopping, the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP), Gmail inboxes, and the Play Store. Additionally, many formats offer opportunities for display on third-party partner platforms across the web. In this article, we will give you a deeper understanding of each type of ads on Google.

Different types of Google Ads campaigns

Google Ads offers various campaign types, each tailored to different advertising objectives and strategies. Let’s explore 9 types of ads on Google with us.

Search Campaigns 

Search Campaigns or Search Ads are a type of online advertising that allows businesses to display their ads on SERPs. When a user searches for a specific keyword or phrase, Google will return search results that display ads that match or closely match the keywords in your ad.

Key features

• Target users based on their search queries, allowing advertisers to reach potential customers actively seeking information, products, or services related to their offerings.
• Appear as text-only ads within SERPs, featuring headlines, descriptions, and URL paths. This format ensures a clean and streamlined user experience.
• Target specific keywords relevant to their business, ensuring their ads are displayed to users searching for related terms.
• Support various ad extensions, such as site links, callouts, and structured snippets, providing additional information and enhancing ad visibility and relevance.

Types of Google Search Ads

Now, there are 3 formats of Search Campaigns you need to know:

• Responsive search ads: Responsive search ads (RSAs) allow you to create up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions for your ad. Based on user search queries, Google Ads will continuously test to identify which ad variation is more effective to display.

• Dynamic search ads: Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) automatically create ads based on the content taken from your website. This means that you don’t have to manually create and manage individual ad variations, which can save you a significant amount of time.

• Call-only ads: This type means to drive calls to your business. They display a prominent call button that allows users to initiate a phone call with your business with a single tap. However, one thing to notice is to set your keywords for call-only ads to target high-intent searchers who are looking for quick answers and have no time to research. 

Who should use Search Campaigns?

With this understanding, Search ads are the best to work for a wide range of businesses that:

• Businesses have products that people already know
• Businesses want to immediately convert from other ad channels

Focus on aligning ad copy with keywords, business names, product descriptions, and key benefits. This ensures your product matches the customer’s search intent.

How to create a Search ads campaign

Creating a Google Search ads campaign involves several steps:

• Define your campaign objective, conversion action, and preferred method to achieve your goal (e.g., website visits, phone calls, form submissions).
• Determine your bidding strategy, such as focusing on conversions, conversion value, or clicks.
• Configure campaign settings, specifying the networks to display on (search and/or display), target locations, languages, and audience segments.
• Choose relevant keywords to target or utilize auto-generated suggestions.
• Craft ad components, including URL paths, headlines, descriptions, business names, logos, and callout extensions.
• Set an average daily budget to control your campaign spending.

Display Campaigns

Unlike text-based Search Campaigns, Google Display Ads use visually appealing ads that passively appear on a vast network of websites and videos within the Google Display Network (GDN). Display Ads focus on targeted audience segments, relevant topics, and strategic placements instead of just keyword targeting. This type of ads ensures that the ads reach the right people at the right time, maximizing their effectiveness. 

Key features

• Utilize images, videos, or rich media formats to capture users’ attention and convey messages effectively.
• Appear on millions of websites, videos, and apps within the Google Display Network, allowing advertisers to reach a broad audience across various platforms.
• Offer advanced targeting options, including demographics, and remarketing, enabling advertisers to reach specific audience segments with relevant content.
• Support a wide range of ad formats (banners, interstitials, native ads, and video ads), catering to different advertising objectives and creative preferences.

Types of Google Display Ads

There are two formats of Display Ads that you can choose for your business:

• Static Display Ads: Static banner ads are basic ads with unchanging content like text, images, and a CTA. They’re ideal for generic promotions like Black Friday sales or holiday gift ideas. 

• Responsive Display Ads (RADs): The only difference thing with Responsive Ads as mentioned above is instead of text-based, RDAs dynamically combine images and text to deliver the most effective ad variations across different placements. 

Who should use Display Ads?

When executed effectively, Display ads can leave a lasting impression, influencing future decisions. So, they are best suited for businesses who:

• Enhance brand awareness or promote product and service consideration.
• Expand your sales funnel or engage potential customers who aren’t actively searching for similar offerings.
• Want to reconnect with their website/app user base through targeted ads.

How to create a Display ads campaign

Creating a Google Display ads campaign involves the following steps:

• Choose a campaign goal and specify a conversion action.
• Provide essential campaign details, including locations, languages, and display schedules.
• Establish an average daily budget and select bidding preferences such as bid focus and target cost per conversion action.
• Opt for automatic targeting optimization or define ad targeting parameters such as audience segments, topics, and keywords.
• Develop the ad by inputting assets and details such as the business name, images, logos, videos, headlines, and descriptions.

Shopping Campaigns

Another type of Google Ads is Google Shopping Ads. Anyone who has searched for a product on Google’s search bar will be familiar with this type of advertisement. They are the visual ads you see on the Search and Shopping tabs on Google.

The shopping ads are different from other types of Google ads since they require fewer setups or management compared to others. Google will automatically fetch your product data from your Google Merchant Center (GMC) account. 

Key features

• Feature product images, allowing users to visualize items before clicking on the ad.
• Automatically populate with data from the Merchant Center, ensuring accurate and up-to-date product information.
• Appear across various Google properties such as Google Search, Google Shopping, and search partner websites, enhancing visibility and potential customer engagement.
• Provide detailed product information such as price, brand, and availability, enabling users to make informed purchasing decisions directly from the ad.

Types of Shopping Campaigns

Shopping Campaigns are divided into 2 kinds:

• Product Shopping Ads: These are the typical Shopping advertisements visible on the SERP when searching for online purchases. They feature an image of your product accompanied by relevant details, such as the price.

• Local Inventory Ads: These advertisements will be displayed to local searchers. These ads are similar to Product Shopping ads but provide additional information about the availability of the featured item for in-store pickups.

• Showcase Shopping Ads: This ad type allows you to feature more than one product from your website. This ad format starts with a single product but lets your audience tap to reveal a curated selection of related items from your website.

Who should use Shopping Campaigns?

Shopping ads are a versatile advertising platform that can be beneficial for a wide range of businesses, particularly those that sell physical products. Here are some specific types of businesses that can effectively utilize Shopping ads:

• Merchants aim to display their products and market their retail offerings visually. 
• Individuals seeking to boost online sales and generate leads. 
• Owners of brick-and-mortar stores are interested in selling their local inventory to nearby customers.

How to create a Shopping campaign

To create a Google Shopping ads campaign, follow these steps:

• Choose your campaign objective and conversion goal, and connect your Merchant Center account or select a previously connected one. If targeting specific feeds, select those as well.
• Specify your campaign preferences, including inventory filters, localization settings, budget allocation, networks (such as Google Search, Google Shopping, and search partners), and bidding type (like manual CPC or automated bidding strategies).
• Name your ad groups and set daily bidding limits for each group. Ad groups are automatically generated based on your Merchant profile and contain products from your feed. Adjust bidding limits as needed to optimize performance and control spending.

Video Campaigns

The Google Ads Video campaign is a form of advertising initiative enabling businesses to advertise their products or services using video ads across diverse platforms, such as YouTube and other websites. 

Key features

• Utilized to promote products through video content or to enhance the visibility of existing videos.
• Available in various formats, including pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ads, allowing advertisers to display their content before, during, or after YouTube videos.
• Displayed across third-party apps, games, and websites within the Google Display Network, extending their reach beyond YouTube.

Types of Video Campaigns

There are many different formats of Video campaigns:

• Skippable in-stream ads: These ads appear before, during, or after videos and were broadcast before the commencement of my video. Due to the length of 12 seconds – 6 minutes, they are best suited for remarketing your brand. 
• Non-skippable in-stream ads: This version of in-stream ads plays until the ad is over, with no skip option. The length of these ads is only 15-20 seconds, depending on the region. This format of Video ads is for raising brand awareness. 
• In-feed ads: When a user scrolls past the ad, the video may automatically start playing in mute. If the user is interested in the ad, they can click on it to watch it in its entirety. There is no requirement for the length of these ads. You can utilize this format for your remarketing activities. 
• Bumper ads: Similar to non-skippable in-stream ads, bumper ads play at the start of a video but are shorter, lasting just six seconds. Despite their brevity, they serve multiple purposes, making them ideal for brand awareness, remarketing, and mobile devices.
• Outstream ads: These video ads exclusive to mobile devices are visible on Google Video Partner sites, excluding YouTube. They initiate automatically for viewers with muted sound and encourage them to view the complete version with sound enabled.

• Masthead ads: Encounter a Masthead Ad when Google prominently displays a branded video at the top of your YouTube homepage, often with links to brand channels and websites nearby. These Google Ads video campaigns are showcased at the peak of the YouTube Home feed on desktop, mobile, and TV screens.

Who should use Video Campaigns?

Video campaigns are a versatile and effective way to reach a wide audience and achieve a variety of marketing goals. Hence, businesses that are seeking to enhance their brand or showcase their products through visual storytelling are best suited for this type of Google Ads.

How to create a Video campaign

Here are the steps to create a Video campaign:

• Choose settings such as location targeting, languages, bid strategy, and display networks for your campaign.
• Create ad groups and specify audience targeting criteria. Utilize advanced settings like optimized targeting and keywords to refine your audience reach.
• Search for an existing YouTube video within your account or upload a new video to use in your ad campaign.
• Input ad details such as call-to-action, headline, long headline, description, and target URL. Ensure that your ad copy is engaging and relevant to your target audience.

App Campaigns

App campaigns aim to boost app downloads or user engagement and may appear across various platforms, including Search, Google Play, YouTube, Google Search’s Discover, and the Google Display Network. Their appearance resembles other campaigns, featuring concise text and an app image tailored to the specific placement.

Key features

• Enable targeting both new users and current users of mobile applications, allowing advertisers to reach their desired audience segments effectively.
• Displayed across a broad range of advertising surfaces, including Google Search, Google Play Store, YouTube, Google Display Network, and other Google properties, maximizing exposure to potential users.
• Can be optimized for various objectives such as installs, engagement, or pre-registration (available for Android apps only), providing flexibility to advertisers in achieving their app marketing goals.

Types of App Campaigns

There are three different types of App campaign ads:

• App installs: You can recognize these ads by seeing a download button.
• App engagement: Advertisers can focus on users who have previously installed their app using engagement campaigns, encouraging them to perform specific actions within the application.
• App pre-registration (Android only): Build an audience for your app before it’s released on Google Play.

Who should use App Campaigns?

App campaigns are ideal for individuals or businesses looking to promote either an existing mobile application or an upcoming app, with a focus on Android platforms. This type of campaign is particularly beneficial for app developers, mobile app companies, businesses with mobile apps, or anyone aiming to increase app installations, engagement, or pre-registrations. Whether you’re seeking to drive installs for a newly released app or boost engagement for an existing one, App campaigns offer a comprehensive solution tailored to achieve app-specific marketing objectives.

How to create an App campaign

Creating a Google App ads campaign involves the following steps:

• Search for the app you wish to promote. Then, choose from three campaign subtypes: app installs, app engagement, or app pre-registration (exclusive to Android), specifying your preference for the iOS or Android mobile platform.
• Select general campaign settings, such as display locations, languages, and the desired date range.
• Set an average daily budget for your campaign and determine your overall bidding strategy based on your advertising goals.
• Designate product groups and assets such as URLs, headlines, and calls to action to craft compelling ad creatives tailored to your target audience.

Local Services Campaigns

Local Services Ads technically aren’t part of the core Google Ads hub, but they’re a Google Ad type nonetheless. Advertisers with localized products and services can create these campaigns within the Local Services Ads hub if they meet Google’s license, insurance, and background check requirements. They combine your Google Business Profile with your Google reviews to get your business to the top of the list when people search for a local business like yours.

Key features

• Target users based on their geographic location, allowing businesses to reach potential customers in specific service areas.
• Eligible for the Google Guarantee, which provides customers with added confidence by offering reimbursement for unsatisfactory services.
• Streamline the booking process by enabling customers to contact businesses directly from the ad, making it easy for them to inquire about services or schedule appointments.
• Display verified reviews from past customers, helping businesses build credibility and trust with potential clients.

Types of Local Services Campaigns

Types of Local Services Ads:

• Google Guarantee: Primarily tailored for home services such as plumbing, housekeeping, and locksmiths. With this type, Google offers a refund of up to $2000 for dissatisfied customers.
• Google Screened: Better suited for white-collar services like real estate agents, lawyers, and accountants. Businesses must undergo a thorough screening and background check. Other eligible businesses include financial planners, tax preparers, and marketing agencies.

Who should use Local Services Campaigns?

Local Services Campaigns are a valuable tool for local service businesses that want to connect with potential customers who are searching for their services online. Besides, the best suit for this format ads are the businesses who want to:

• Increase sales from physical stores or venues looking to drive in-person sales 
• Generate leads from local customers who are actively looking for their services
• Looking for multi-channel marketing under one campaign

How to create a Local Services campaign

To create a Local Services Ads campaign, follow these steps:

• Businesses offering localized services must verify their eligibility for the Local Services Ads program by completing a general form and establishing a business profile. Upon approval, a Google representative will provide further guidance.
• Enter general business information such as the business name, registration name, contact details, owner’s name, and address.
• Designate the service area covered by your business, specify the types of services offered, and provide business hours for scheduling purposes.

Smart Campaigns

Google handles the setup and management of Smart campaigns, requiring only initial information from you. These campaigns promote your business across platforms like Google Search, Maps, YouTube, and partner sites. Smart campaigns target potential customers using location and search terms, offering either Search or Display ads as mentioned earlier.

Key features

• Serve as centralized hubs for cross-channel advertising, allowing advertisers to manage campaigns across various channels from a single platform.
• Prioritize campaign-wide goals over channel-specific ads, ensuring that advertising efforts are aligned with broader business objectives.
• Target keyword themes rather than specific keywords, allowing for more flexible and dynamic ad targeting based on broader topics or interests.

Types of Smart Campaigns

Smart campaigns are automated campaigns capable of serving both Search and Display ads, similar to traditional campaigns. The primary distinction lies in their setup and optimization: Smart campaigns are configured and fine-tuned automatically by Google, while traditional campaigns necessitate manual setup and management. Powered by machine learning algorithms, Smart campaigns ascertain optimal audience targeting, ad creatives, and bidding strategies to fulfill the advertiser’s objectives.

Who should use Smart Campaigns?

Smart Campaigns are a great option for small businesses that want an easy and effective way to advertise their products or services online. They are especially well-suited for businesses that:

• Have limited time or resources to manage their advertising campaigns
• Are new to online advertising 
• Have a limited budget 
• Want to focus on reaching local customers

How to create a Smart Campaign

To create a Smart ads campaign, follow these steps:

• Enter your website domain and connect any relevant Google accounts.
• Define your campaign objectives, whether it’s generating leads, driving website visits, increasing views, etc.
• Review automatically generated headlines and descriptions provided by Google, and customize them according to your preferences.
• Select relevant keyword themes that align with your campaign goals and target audience.
• Choose the regions where you want your ads to be displayed to reach your desired audience.
• Set a daily budget to control your campaign spending and ensure it aligns with your advertising goals.

Performance Max Campaigns

Performance Max campaign is a campaign type that Google Ads introduced in 2022. Performance Max will be replacing Local campaigns and Smart campaigns altogether. It aims to assist advertisers in finding more customers and boosting conversions across all of Google’s channels, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.

Key features

• Utilize advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to optimize ads automatically, ensuring optimal performance and efficiency.
• Automatically displayed across all Google advertising channels, including Search, Display, YouTube, and more, maximizing reach and exposure.
• Can identify new market segments based on specified goals and real user behavior, allowing advertisers to effectively reach and engage with previously untapped audiences.

Types of Performance Max Campaigns

Performance Max ads by Google leverage machine learning to automatically place ads across various channels including Search, Display, YouTube, and Discover. These Google Ads campaigns cater to diverse objectives such as driving website traffic, generating leads, or boosting sales, all with the aim of maximizing performance and extending reach across Google’s entire network.

Who should use Performance Max Campaigns?

Performance Max campaigns are a type of Google Ads campaign that uses automation and machine learning to help advertisers achieve their marketing goals across all of Google’s advertising channels. They are particularly suitable for businesses that:

• Have complex marketing goals
• Limited time or resources
• Want to reach a wider audience
• Use automation and machine learning

How to create a Google Performance Max ads campaign

You can create a Google Performance Max ads campaign by following these steps:

• Choose a campaign objective and specify the desired conversion action.
• Determine your bidding strategy, including the bidding plan, optional cost per bidding action, and whether to target new customers or both new and existing customers.
• Adjust general campaign settings such as location targeting, languages, and whether to allow Google to automatically generate assets.
• Provide assets such as target URLs, images, logos, videos, headlines, long headlines, and descriptions to be used in the ads.
• Set an average daily budget to control your campaign spending and ensure it aligns with your advertising goals.

Demand Gen Campaigns

Starting from October, Demand Gen arrives for all advertisers, with existing Discovery campaigns having the chance to graduate to the next level. Google’s Demand Gen Campaigns are AI-powered ad campaigns designed to drive demand and business results on Google’s most browsable and entertainment-focused platforms, such as YouTube, Google Discover, and the Gmail promotions tab. 

Imagine Discovery campaigns as a basic flip phone. Demand Gen is like the latest smartphone – it does everything the flip phone did, but way better, faster, and with a whole lot more bells and whistles.

Key features

• Extend across various Google and YouTube domains, including YouTube Home, Search, Watch Next, Discover, Gmail, YouTube Shorts, and YouTube In-Stream, broadening audience reach.
• Blend image and video ads within a single campaign, providing advertisers with the flexibility to preview creatives across different surfaces and conduct A/B experiments for optimal impact.
• Advertisers can explore diverse formats like short-form videos, carousels, portraits, and square images, tailoring their approach to maximize engagement and appeal to diverse audiences.
• Offer dynamic bidding strategies powered by Google AI, catering to unique campaign goals and optimizing performance efficiently.

Types of Demand Gen Campaigns

Demand Gen Campaigns encompass a spectrum of strategies tailored to different stages of the customer journey. Awareness and consideration campaigns aim to introduce products or services to potential customers and engage with prospects who have shown initial interest, respectively. 

Lead generation campaigns focus on capturing leads by enticing prospects to provide their contact information through various incentives. Engagement campaigns nurture relationships with existing customers or prospects, encouraging interaction and participation with the brand. Lastly, conversion campaigns drive sales or desired actions by persuading prospects to take the final step towards becoming paying customers.

Who should use Demand Gen Campaigns?

Demand Gen Campaigns are a great type of Google Ads campaign for businesses that want to reach a wide audience and achieve a variety of marketing goals, such as:

• Merchants aim to expand their reach and enhance brand awareness using visually engaging advertisements.
• Businesses who want to test and experiment with their ad creatives.
• Advertisers who want detailed reporting and insights.
• Those who are interested in leveraging AI for tailored ad experiences.

How to create a Demand Gen Campaign

To create a Demand Gen Campaign, follow these steps:

• Determine the specific goals of your campaign, whether it’s to increase brand awareness, generate leads, drive engagement, or boost conversions.
• Clearly define your target audience based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and other relevant factors.
• Create enticing offers or incentives (valuable content, special promotions, discounts) to attract and engage your target audience.
• Select the most appropriate channels (social media, email marketing)  to reach your target audience based on their preferences and behaviors.
• Develop high-quality content (blog posts, videos, infographics, webinars) that aligns with your campaign objectives and resonates with your target audience.
• Set up tracking mechanisms to monitor the performance of your campaign and measure key metrics such as website traffic, lead generation, engagement, and conversions.

How to choose the best types of Google ads for your business?

Knowing the types of campaigns in Google ads and choosing the right one for your business can significantly contribute to meeting your marketing objectives. After defining your marketing objectives,  you need to understand these campaign types to choose the one that best aligns with these objectives. Then allocate your budget based on the performance of your campaigns, which will help you to amplify their impact and accelerate your progress towards achieving your objectives. 

Also, consider running multiple campaigns focusing on different objectives to determine which ones convert best for your business. This also helps you to maximize their power when putting them in the right placements. NestAds was born to make it easier for you to manage all these ad tracking data. You can manage all of your ads within a dashboard and get deeper insights into your ad performance by monitoring crucial ad metrics. 

So, what are any reasons that hinder you from this effortless way in ads management? Experience the power of simplicity with NestAds, the user-friendly analytics platform that simplifies complex data into actionable insights.

FAQ

What are the 3 levels of Google Ads?

Google Ads has 3 levels: accounts, campaigns, and ad groups. Your account is linked to a distinct email address, password, and billing details. Within campaigns, each possesses its allocated budget and settings dictating the placement of your ads. Ad groups, in turn, house a collection of cohesive ads and keywords that share thematic relevance.

What type of advertising is Google AdWords?

Google AdWords, now known as Google Ads, is a type of online advertising platform offered by Google. It falls under the category of PPC advertising, where advertisers bid on keywords to display ads on Google’s SERPs, as well as on other Google properties and partner websites. 

What are the four Google Ads networks?

Text ads, Dynamic search ads, responsive search ads, and call-only ads are the predominant ad formats found on the Search Network. These advertisements are typically labeled with “Ad” or “Ads” on the search results page, and may carry an “Ads by Google” label when displayed on partner sites. They frequently include ad assets, enabling advertisers to incorporate business details such as location or phone number within their ads.