Gallery ads and Discovery campaigns may suit some businesses later this year, but a small account gains more now from conversion tracking, location settings and search terms. Test a new format only once the basics hold.

What Google announced this week

On Tuesday, at Google Marketing Live, its annual advertising event, Google announced a long list of changes. Two of them are new formats that small advertisers will hear a great deal about.

Gallery ads put a swipeable row of images, each with a short line of text, at the top of mobile search results. Google has tested them with a small group of advertisers and plans a wider release later this year.

Discovery campaigns place image-led ads in the YouTube home feed, the Promotions and Social tabs in Gmail, and the Discover feed in the Google app. They are announced, with a wider rollout promised later in the year.

Both are built around pictures, and around Google's automation deciding who sees what.

Why the small account should wait

Every new format arrives with a sense that early adopters win. For a large account with a full-time manager, testing early can make sense.

A small account is usually in a different position: one person, a few hours a month, and a budget that cannot absorb much experiment.

For that account, a new format is one more thing to set up and watch. Whatever it might gain is usually smaller than the waste already sitting in the account unnoticed.

New formats also change as they go. Features, rules and placements can shift between an announcement and general release.

The basics that come first

The first is the one everything else depends on. Without conversion tracking, nobody can tell whether the account works now, so nobody could tell whether a new format made it better.

What gallery ads would ask of you

A gallery ad is only as good as its pictures, and it needs several, each strong enough to stand alone at the top of a phone screen.

A business with a library of good photographs of finished work, or of products people choose by eye, has the raw material. One relying on stock images or a logo does not.

Each image also needs a short line of text that says something specific, which is harder to write than it looks.

If you would struggle to fill the format well today, that is a sign to start building the photo library, not to rush in.

What Discovery would ask of you

Discovery ads reach people who are browsing, not searching. They are scrolling through videos or their inbox, and they did not ask for a plumber.

That suits businesses whose products people enjoy coming across: clothing, home goods, travel, food. It suits poorly the businesses people look for only when something has broken.

It also leans heavily on automation that learns from conversions, which brings the question back to tracking. A campaign that cannot see results cannot learn which audience produces them.

And it hands most of the decisions to Google. Where the ad appears, and to whom, are largely chosen for you.

A worked example

A kitchen and bathroom renovation company with six staff runs a modest search campaign, managed by the owner in the evenings.

Reading about gallery ads, the owner wanted to try them straight away. The company has good photographs of finished kitchens, and the format looked made for them.

First, the owner looked at what the existing account could say. It recorded form submissions but not phone calls, though most of the company's work starts with a call.

The location option was still on its default, and the search terms report included searches for cabinet hardware and kitchen design jobs.

So the month went into call tracking, a switch to presence targeting and a page of negative keywords. The photographs went into the site's project pages, where they were needed anyway.

If gallery ads reach the account later in the year, they will arrive in an account that can measure whether they helped.

How to tell whether a format suits you

Three questions settle most of it.

First, do customers find you by searching for a need, or by noticing something they like? Search formats serve the first; feed formats serve the second.

Second, do you have what the format needs: photographs, video, short lines of text that are true and specific?

Third, can you measure the result? A format whose effect you cannot see is a cost you cannot judge.

A no to any of these is not a permanent no. It is a list of what to build first.

Testing when the time comes

When a format does suit the business and the basics are sound, test it on its own budget, for a set period, with the question written down in advance.

Record what the existing campaigns produce in a normal month first, so the test has something to be compared with.

Leave the existing campaigns running unchanged alongside it, so any difference can be traced to the new format rather than to everything changing at once.

And decide beforehand what result would mean stopping. Tests without an end date tend to become permanent costs.

The counter-case

Some small accounts are ready now.

A store with strong product photography, conversion tracking that has run cleanly for a year and someone who reviews the account weekly is exactly the kind of advertiser a beta wants, and may learn something useful early.

And knowing what is coming is worthwhile even when the answer is not yet, so the photo library and the tracking are in place by the time the formats are widely available.

For most small accounts, though, the order holds: basics first, measured, then new formats one at a time.

Before applying for anything new

  1. Confirm conversion tracking records calls and forms.
  2. Check the location option in each campaign.
  3. Read the search terms report for last month.
  4. Fill in every relevant extension.
  5. Start a photo library of real work.
  6. Write down what a test should answer.
  7. Give any test its own budget and end date.

Step one is the one that makes every later decision possible. Without it, a new format, an old format and no ads at all are hard to tell apart.

The setting most small accounts leave on its default is covered in location targeting that includes people who are not there.

Frequently asked questions

What did Google announce at Marketing Live?

Among other changes, gallery ads, a swipeable row of images at the top of mobile search results, and Discovery campaigns for feeds, both rolling out more widely later this year.

Should a small account try them now?

Usually not. A small account gains more from conversion tracking, location settings, negative keywords and extensions, and without tracking it could not judge a new format anyway.

What do gallery ads need from a business?

Several strong photographs, each able to stand alone on a phone screen, and a short, specific line of text for each. Stock images and logos will not carry the format.

Which businesses suit Discovery ads?

Businesses whose products people enjoy coming across while browsing, such as clothing, home goods, travel and food. Trades that people search for only when something breaks suit them poorly.

How do I tell whether a format suits me?

Ask whether customers search for a need or notice something they like, whether you have the material the format needs, and whether you can measure the result.

How should a new format be tested?

On its own budget, for a set period, with the question written down first and existing campaigns left unchanged, so any difference can be traced to the format.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Tempted by the new ad formats?

We will check your tracking, location settings and search terms first, so any test you run can be measured.

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