Google AdWords is an online advertising service developed by Google to help marketers reach their customers instantly.

When someone searches on Google for a particular term, say ‘travel packages’, Google would throw a list of searches for you. But if you look closely, you will notice that the top and the bottom results are generally ads.

But how did Google know which ads to display?

Type of ads in Google AdWords

1) Search Ads

Like travel example earlier, when a user searches for something on Google, the list of ads that appear above the organic listing are called search ads.  For example, when a user searches for “Kashmir holiday packages”, the search results will look something like this.

The ones marked “Ad” are ads.  And, the results below that are organic.

Google considers many factors before deciding which ad to display first, as well as the sequence of ads that follow.

Important factors in search ads

1. Targeting – For instance, your ads will be shown in the geography that you choose.
2. Search term and keyword – What is being searched for by the user + the keyword that optimize the ad for.
3. Ad copy relevance – Ads that appear for a specific search term should be relevant. A search for colleges should not throw results for travel packages.
4. Landing page experience – How relevant is the landing page to what the searcher wanted? Did he get what he was looking for?
5. Conversion rate – This is again controlled by relevance, landing page quality, and experience.
6. Bids – If 2 advertisers have perfect ads and landing pages, the higher bid will get preference over the lower one.
7. Quality score: Quality score again depends on all of the other factors mentioned above. So, it’s more like a cycle than everything else. Everything is interrelated.

In addition to the standard search ads, you can also run these special ads in search network. 

1. Call-only ads – This ad is available only on call enabled mobile devices. After clicking the ad, instead of taking you to a landing page, you make a call directly.
2. Dynamic ads– This ad type is more suitable for businesses who have a well-managed website. This is because the content of the ad as well as the landing pages is taken dynamically from the website. They are very similar to text ads, except that no keywords are involved here. For example: a training institute is running dynamic search ads. A user searches for “java courses”. Google displays a list of ads. But dynamic ads would automatically replace the ad headline with “java course” (the search query) and the ad text with the relevant website content and landing page”.
3. Mobile app promotion- These ads are suitable for businesses with mobile applications. The goal of this ad is to encourage users to download your app or take a desired action within the app.

2) Display ads

While you are reading a post or viewing a video on some random website, you see ads in a lot of different places on the page, and in different dimensions. These are display ads.

Here the searcher is not explicitly looking for what is ad offers. But, based on a number of factors like keywords, audience interest, managed placements etc, Google decides to show them to you. These display ads only appear on advertising-supported websites.

Below are the targeting criteria, based on which Google selects the websites to place the banner ads.

1. Keywords – The ads are displayed based on the keywords that they are optimized for. Let’s say the keyword for the ad is “Social Media Marketing”, then Google would choose websites that have content on the topic.
2. Placements – Placements are nothing but the websites on which you want your ad to appear. Just add the websites where you want to show the ads, instead of keywords. For example, if you want to show your ads only on travel related websites, then look for advertising supported travel sites and add them to your targeting.
3. Remarketing – This helps you reconnect with your existing website visitors. Using this, you can target visitors who have come to your website but have not taken any action.
4. Topic – There are specific topics in AdWords, under which all websites are grouped. It will be easier for the advertisers to choose topics related to the businesses. For example, websites related to travel will be listed under the topic ‘travel.’

3) Shopping ads

This type s of campaign would make more sense for you. This ad type boosts traffic to your website and helps in generating quality leads as well as increasing your conversions.

This is how shopping ads would appear on the search network.

Requirements for running shopping ads:

1. Setup an account with Google Merchant Center (It is a platform that helps retailers to upload all their product listings in a specific format).
2. Setup an account with Google AdWords & link them together.
3. Submit updated product data every 30 days to Google Merchant Center.

Since both the tools are linked together, shopping ads take all the product details from Google Merchant Center, matches the search query and displays relevant ads to the user.

4) Video ads

This ad type lets advertisers run video ads on YouTube and other Google Display Networks.

The 3 main benefits of running video ads are:

1. Better targeting – This ad type has demographic, location, interest, keyword and device targeting which helps you reach the right audience on YouTube and Google Display Network.
2. More reach – As of January 2017, YouTube is the 3^rd most visited website and has 30 million visitors every day. Additionally, video ads are also available on Google Display Network. This means that you have access to a wider audience.
3. Measurable – Unlike advertising on TV, YouTube ads let you know all the necessary metrics like views, view rate, clicks, reach and frequency, engagement, performance etc.  This helps you measure the success of video ads.

5) Universal app campaign

This campaign is helpful for businesses with a mobile app. Here, the advertiser can promote the mobile app across search, PlayStore, Display & YouTube. AdWords uses ad text ideas and other assets right from your app store listings. All you need to do is provide some text, a budget. and a starting bid. Also, don’t forget to set languages and locations for the ad.

By utilizing all this information, AdWords itself designs a variety of ads in different formats. Google will automatically test different ad combinations and display the one that performs the best.