Types of Paid Search Ads

1. Search Ads
2. Display Ads
3. Traditional PPC – Search engine text Ads
4. Google shopping (Product lists Ads)
5. Native Ads
6. Remarketing / Retargeting Ads
7. Social Media Ads
8. Inbox Ads

Search Ads:

These are designed to appear when the consumer is already looking for an answer or product.
The most common form is a Google Ad; these are paid-for results that show above organic
results when you use Google to search for something.

Search ads have three main components — a headline, display URL, and description text —
all designed to convince users to click through. Ad extensions can also be included to provide
users with additional information.

How often search ads appear, their rankings, and the cost per click CPC — all depend on the bid
and Quality Score – (Quality score is a Google metric and is a measure of the quality of the ad.
The higher the quality score, the higher your position potential)
Display Ads:

Display ads are paid

 Banner Ads
 Pop-up Ads
 Flash Ads
 Video Ads

The main difference between Google search ads vs. display ads is that search ads are a form of
“pull” advertising while display ads are “push” advertising. Meaning, search ads only appear to
those who are already searching for your product or service, while display ads are paid
placements that appear based on various targeting parameters.
Native Ads:

Native Ads are ones that blend into the other content on the webpage. You often find them on
publisher sites (News, Journalism etc.) and most Social Media Ads take this form.

The idea behind them is two-fold. From the publisher’s point of view they are relatively
unobtrusive and unlikely to cause an adverse reaction in the casual consumer. For the advertiser
these kinds of ads may bypass our subconscious ‘ad-block’ and they do tend to return better
interaction rates than Banner Ads.

Native Ads are required to identify themselves as paid-for content, usually by marking the ad
as ‘Promoted’ ‘Sponsored’ or simply as ‘Advertisement.’

Google Shopping – Product Lists Ads (PLA’s)

Product list ads are Google’s way of shortcutting customers directly to a product. They are
increasingly prominent in the search results, which is a reflection of their power to convert
customers. PLAs are controlled via a shopping campaign and require your product inventory to
be submitted to Google Merchant Centre. What may seem on the face of it to be quite complex is
in fact relatively straightforward, and if you are retailing low- to mid-cost products, it is highly
recommended.

Remarketing / Retargeting Ads:

For Example: if you’ve been searching for holidays you’ll suddenly find lots of banner ads for
travel companies and hotels popping up on the sites you visit.

Remarketed content generally comes in the form of traditional Display Ads or as Native Ads.
Remarketing can be a great way to increase your brand recognition and awareness.

Social Media Ads:

Most Social Media platforms have some Ad capability. This is because of the native element,
how these ads blend into your newsfeed. These ads are also very carefully crafted.

The great thing about ads on a Social Platform is they can be shared and interacted with in many
more ways than a normal ad.

Interaction is king on Social Media. Social Media Ads also allow for the greatest amount of
targeting, depending on the size of your targeted segment they can also be highly affordable. A
common strategy for businesses is to create a post and then promote it once or twice over the
course of a week, this gives them a second bite at the cherry and has the added bonus of all the
previous post interaction still being there creating the illusion of a larger conversation being
ongoing.
Traditional PPC – Search Engine Text Ad:

These are the most common form of Pay Per Click Ad. They show up in the SERPs ahead of
organic listings. Depending on the cost of the ad and the search engine they may appear above,
to the right or below organic listings. They are required to identify themselves as paid-for
content. Google Ad Words has the biggest market share of these Ads, but Yahoo and Bing also
have their own ad platforms.

These ads are simple and elegant, you decide the search term that will trigger them and simply
write your Ad as you’d like it to appear, following the search engine guidelines of course. They
work on a ‘bid’ system, the higher you would like to appear in the SERPs the more you will have
to pay. Keywords with little competition are cheaper. It’s possible to target these ads in a number
of ways, by location, time of day or by using negative keywords are just a few examples.

These ads are easily tracked, measured and managed. Setting a budget is easy and you can target
them very specifically. It’s also important to remember that you only pay when someone clicks
on the ad, so you’re not paying every time you make an impression but every time a consumer
makes the choice to choose your ad. Search Engine PPC is easy to start but difficult to master
and it’s a never ending learning curve!

Inbox Ads:

Google has recently made the Google Mail Inbox open to all Ad Words users. This means that
you may now find ‘Sponsored’ content sitting at the top of your email box. Just as with all other
Native Ads they have to identify themselves as paid-for content. These ads use not only your
search history and cookies but the actual content of your inbox to better target ads toward you.

These are perhaps the most targeted ads offered by Google and they remain reasonably
unobtrusive. Unless clicked, they simply appear like an email.