Google has introduced a new ad unit that will be displayed on the search engine’s home page in mobile browsers.
The new Discovery ads were announced today at Google Marketing Live and will be available to all advertisers later this year. An example is shown above.
In addition to appearing in Google’s ‘Discover’ feed in mobile browsers, Discovery ads will also appear on YouTube’s home feed and in the Gmail promotions tab.
Discovery ads are designed to help users discover products they weren’t even looking for.
As Google explains:
“Discovery ads are a new way to reach people across Google properties in the moments when they’re open to discovering your products and services.”
According to a recent Google / Ipsos study, 76% of consumers enjoy making unexpected discoveries when shopping.
Further, 85% of consumers will take a product-related action within 24 hours of discovery.
Google highlights the following features of Discovery ads:
- Rich creative: Showcase your brand or products in a swipeable image carousel, rendered natively across each Google property.
- Results: Anticipate what your customers want ahead of time with Google’s understanding of intent.
- Reach: A single ad campaign across the YouTube home feed, the Gmail Promotions and Social tabs, and Discover feed has the potential to reach hundreds of millions.
It’s worth noting that Google was spotted testing ads in the Discover feed back in October 2018. Google didn’t acknowledge the test at the time, but it would appear the test led to a new advertising product that will be available to everyone soon.
To that end, prepare to see even more ads across Google’s mobile home page, YouTube’s home page, and Gmail later this year.
