Leading B2B Marketers: Have You Tried Google Discovery Ads Yet?
to me The GoogleDiscovery ads:
“…help you reach up to 2.9 billion people as they browse feeds on YouTube, check promotional tabs in Gmail and social networks, and scroll through Discover to follow their favorite topics.”
What are Discovery Ads?
Unlike search ads, Discovery ads are visual, responsive, and dynamic. The exact format and layout depends on where the ad appears, among other factors.
Like many Google products, on initial review, Discovery ads seem geared toward ecommerce rather than lead generation/B2B advertisers.
All examples in Google help section Focus on shopping or e-commerce.
As a result, B2B advertisers may shy away from trying Discovery ads.
do not be!
We’ve found Discovery ads to be an effective way to increase awareness and leads for B2B advertisers.
How to successfully use discovery advertising for lead generation
Discovery ads are an effective tool for using the mid-conversion funnel in the buyer’s journey.
The Discovery ad format is sandwiched between Google Display (upper funnel) and Search (lower funnel).
The best time to use Discovery ads for lead generation is when you’re not getting the volume of leads you want from search, perhaps because you’re advertising a new product that your users may not be aware of.
Discovery ads have the dual advantage of generating awareness while improving conversions.
Because the ads appear off the search results page — in YouTube and Gmail — they’ll reach users who may be early in the decision-making journey, and help make them aware of your product.
Combine with retargeting
As with most top and middle tactics for lead generation, it’s important to use Discovery ads in conjunction with retargeting to get the best results.
In fact, you can even use retargeting audiences in your Discovery campaigns. More on this in a minute.
Complete search campaigns
You also want to make sure that you’re using Discovery with search ads.
Since Discovery ads can be targeted to keywords using a custom segment, you’ll need to make sure you’re bidding on the same keywords in your search campaigns.
We typically use keywords from existing search campaigns to create our personalized Discovery segments.
But if you’re launching an entirely new campaign, it might work the other way around; You’ll create a custom segment first and then use those keywords in a new search campaign.
Target the competitor’s keywords
Another great use for Discovery ads is targeting competitors’ keywords.
Unlike competitor targeting in search, which tends to be expensive due to poor quality scores, competitor targeting in Discovery works more like it does in paid social networks.
Competing keywords act as a signal to tell Google what type of users are interested in your ad.
Properly measuring conversions is critical to achieving successful lead generation with Discovery ads.
This is true for any Google Ads campaign, but it’s especially true for higher-funnel ad types like Discovery.
Set up Micro Transfers
For some B2B advertisers, the actual lead volume may be too low for discovery to work efficiently.
In this case, you’ll want to set up mini-conversions – non-leadership actions that indicate user participation and raising their hand.
Actions like watching a video or downloading an e-book can be considered small diversions.
Small conversions will help increase enough signal volume for your discovery campaign in terms of the type of users you want to reach.
Link your potential customer sources to Google Ads
Another recommendation is to link your lead sources to Google Ads.
Typically, conversions measured in Google Ads are not qualified leads; It’s an action that signals a lead, like filling out a form or downloading an asset.
These initial contacts go into the lead system, where leads are qualified and scored. They are often called “marketable qualified leads” (MQLs).
Some companies also use Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) or Advertising Qualified Leads (AQLs).
Whatever you use, there is a temporary step between a user successfully completing a form and becoming a lead in CRM.
Fortunately, Google Ads allows advertisers to import data on qualified leads from their CRM system. The most popular CRMs, such as Salesforce and HubSpot, Supported.
You can use your CRM data as a primary conversion if you have enough lead volume. Or, you can use the data just as a reference to make sure that you actually get qualified leads.
This is especially important if you are using Typical assets.
Too often, advertisers see a large number of poor quality leads from lead form origins (formerly lead extensions). Importing data from your CRM will help you see how many of these form fillers have become qualified leads.
Setting up exploratory ads for success
Proper campaign setup is crucial to successful discovery campaigns.
Choose your targeting
Discovery ads have many different targeting options. You can target by keyword, audience, in-market, or topic targeting.
We’ve found that creating separate ad groups for each targeting option works best; It allows you to see how each option performs and optimize based on performance.
Make sure to include ad groups for relevant retargeting audiences.
If your target audience is large enough, discovery is a very effective way to reach those users with a relevant offer that can entice them to convert.
Create KPIs carefully
While Discovery campaigns use a maximum conversions bid strategy, you won’t want to subject them to the same key performance indicators (KPIs) as your search campaigns.
Remember, Discovery campaigns don’t just work in search – they appear in YouTube search results and in Gmail.
While users in these channels may perform some type of search, the intent is not the same for those searching on google.com.
You’ll find that Discovery users move further up the conversion funnel, so clicks per action (CPA) are likely to be higher than search ones.
Use all available assets for your ads
In addition to providing titles and descriptions, you will need to include images for your Discovery ads.
Provide all recommended sizes/aspect ratios, as this will help ensure your ads appear in as many positions as possible.
Google suggests that advertisers use at least three headlines, descriptions, and images (in portrait, square, and landscape formats) to increase ad exposure.
Find out more Google Discovery best practices here.
A couple of case studies
We have successfully utilized Discovery campaigns for our B2B clients to generate potential customers cost effectively.
For one of our technology clients, we launched Discovery campaigns with the initial goal of increasing volume while maintaining efficiency.
We wanted to see how we could incorporate new campaign types into our search engine marketing strategy and how they fit into our existing full funnel approach.
We’re starting with separate audience lists, each combined into distinct ad groups. We’ve taken advantage of our old fans and made use of product-based menus.
Results?
Discover campaigns saw a 690% increase in impressions compared to search engine marketing campaigns. Even better, Discovery resulted in a 93% lower cost per click and a 70% lower cost per visit.
The customer has been thrilled with these results and is moving forward with a great selection of Discovery across its entire product line.
Author screenshot, October 2022We saw similar performance for another client in the technology sector. The customer was already using search, the display network, and YouTube.
The top and bottom of the funnel were covered – they just needed the middle of the funnel strategy.
Enter Discovery Ads.
This client’s results were almost identical to the first example above.
Discovery ads saw significantly lower CPC and lower cost per lead (CPL) compared to search, with Discovery generating 60% more leads compared to search only 32% of the cost.
Author screenshot, October 2022In these two examples, Discovery ads were an effective way to spread a wide network and reach qualified users who might not have seen our ads otherwise.
Caveats for discovery ads
As you can see, Discovery ads can be a very effective way in the middle of the conversion process to drive leads. But they aren’t perfect.
It is important to understand what to look out for when launching Discovery campaigns.
Make sure you have enough assets
This includes images and advertising text.
Think of discovery ads like paid social ads. The more ad formats you use, the easier it will be to test them and avoid ad fatigue.
If you only have one image and one text variant, your ads probably won’t perform well. more is better.
Watch your impression and click the size
Especially if you’re using Customer Match Audiences, you may find volume is too low for your Discovery campaigns at first.
Remember, Discovery campaigns are run on a cap conversions or target CPA bidding model. To increase conversions, you will need to increase your impressions and clicks.
If it doesn’t happen soon after launch, you’ll find your volume is severely throttled as the system tries to find traffic to convert.
Your traffic may even drop to zero.
Small customer match audiences can present volume challenges with any campaign, but especially so for Discovery, where there is no ‘maximum clicks’ bidding option.
Don’t expect your expeditions to do everything
We forced customers to test Discovery, expecting that they would see leads at the same cost as search. And while I’ve shared a couple of examples of this happening, it’s not always the case.
We’ve tested Discover campaigns that brought in thousands of clicks but only a lead or two, with 20x the search cost.
Discovery doesn’t work with everything.
It’s also important to remember that discovery is different from offering; The CPC will not usually be as low as it is for the Display Network.
We’ve found that discovery click costs are usually closer to display than search, but still around 50% higher than the display network.
So if your goal is low cost clicks, or you are trying to build a targeted audience, display is a better option than discovery.
If you’re looking to expand your B2B lead generation efforts beyond search, try Discovery Ads.
They deserve to be tested.
More resources:
- The do’s and don’ts of Google Discovery ads for more successful campaigns
- 9 tips to help your Google Ads B2B campaigns shine
- PPC 101: A Complete Guide to the Fundamentals of Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Featured image: eamesBot/Shutterstock
