Google Discovery Ads vs. Display Ads: The Complete Guide

Every merchant knows the importance of establishing a solid online presence to forge ahead in this cutthroat competition. But how does one do that? Yes, you guessed it right: Google Ads!

Today, more than 80% of merchants trust this tool by Google to globalize their businesses. But to do so, it’s vital to be familiar with its many facets. To make the most of it, understanding discovery vs display ads is crucial.

Although both are part of the same ad platform, discovery and display ads differ from each other in many aspects. Right from how they appear to who they target, the nuances aren’t just many but also significantly vital to the success of your campaign. 

In this blog, we will explore the intricacies of Google discovery ads and display ads, highlighting how each can be used to elevate your business substantially. Let’s dive in!

Understanding Discovery Ads and Display Ads

When browsing a website on Google, how often have you noticed some brand’s promotional banner popping up on the screen out of nowhere? Quite often, we assume? Well, those are called advertisements, or ads, in short.

Generally, these Google Ads are of two types: discovery and display. How can you tell one from the other? Well, there are many differences between Discovery and Display Ads.

Google Discovery ads can only be seen on Google-owned sites and platforms like YouTube, Gmail, and the Google Discover feed. These ads have one purpose: spreading the word and creating awareness about a brand. This is why they are used by merchants who wish to reach out to a new audience consisting of individuals actively looking for a solution. 

To put it in perspective, here’s what a typical Google Discovery Ad looks like:

On the other hand, Google display ads can be seen across all websites on the Google Display Network (GDN), including its own platforms. The intent of these ads is multi-dimensional.

However, most commonly, they are leveraged for remarketing purposes. Explained simply, Display Ads are responsible for prompting a website’s visitor to take a desired action—make a purchase, book a call, etc.

These ads look something like this:

Discovery vs Display Ads – Placements and Formats

Discovery and display ads differ in several aspects (and moving ahead, we’ll discuss each of them in detail). However, the most noticeable distinction is in their visuals.

As mentioned before, Discovery Ads are displayed on four platforms under the roof of Google: YouTube, Gmail, Google Search Results, and Google Discover Feed.

On the other hand, display ads can appear anywhere on the internet. Whether you’re going through the news on your favorite channel or playing a game online, display ads can make their way to you in the form of a banner or a video across the GDN. This difference in ad placement also has an effect on the appearance of the ad types. 

This table encapsulates the differences between the formats and specifications of Discovery Ads vs Display Ads:

Point of difference	Discovery Ads	Display Ads
Ad format	Support carousel ads	Only support static images, banners, and video ads
Text specifications	Character limit for headlines is 40 characters Only 4 descriptions can be added	Character limit for headlines is 30 characters As many as 5 descriptions can be added
Image specifications	Support portrait images of 960 x 1200 pixels.	Don’t support portrait images
Video specifications	Do not support video assets	Do support video assets
Shopping feed	Merchants can insert in-ads lead form	Merchants can’t insert in-ads lead form

However, in terms of format, these ad types also share certain similarities. For instance:

• Both ad types support square and landscape images.
• Both ads allow up to five headlines.
• Both allow logo insertion.

Discovery vs Display Ads: Targeting and User Intent

Discovery and display ads don’t just appear in different places. They also target users on different customer journeys. But despite this, both ad types use similar targeting tactics.

This includes targeting;

• In-market audiences
• Affinity audiences
• Custom audiences
• Audiences based on specific demographics
• Audiences based on previous life events
• Previous website visitors

If you’re using both display and discovery ads, you’ll want a remarketing pixel. It’s like a tool that helps you create a list of people who visited your website before, so you can show them ads again.

In this regard, consider teaming up with AdNabu. With their Retargeting For Google Ads, you can run both display and discovery ads for people who visit your site without the hassle of making lists. Plus, it’s easy to use—no learning is needed!

Act fast and start a 7-day free trial with AdNabu today!

Bidding Strategies and Performance Metrics

Now, let’s talk business. 

Based on your campaign goals, you can optimize a plethora of bidding strategies for both of these ad types.

Let’s take a closer look at the list of Discovery vs Display Ads bidding strategies:

• For Discovery Ads: Maximize Conversions, Target Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
• For Display Ads: Manual Cost Per Click (CPC), Return On Ad Spent (ROAS), Conversion Value, Conversions, Clicks, Impressions, etc.

Discovery ads are instrumental in boosting website conversions. So, both their bidding strategies are tailored to help your business drive conversions. On the other hand, display ads are more comprehensive in nature. They can boost sales, create awareness, and more. Because of their versatility, the strategies for bidding on these ads are also varied.

But the question is: how can you figure out if your preferred bidding strategy is reaping the best results? Through performance metrics!

In Google Ads, you can gauge the impact of your campaign by implementing performance metrics—to do this you can access Google Ads Reports. Some common ones are Interactions, engagement, conversion rate, click-through rate (CTR), and cost-per-click (CPC).

Discovery vs Display Ads – Benefits and Best Use Cases for Each Ad Type

Although both Discovery and Display ads are diverse, each of them has its own set of advantages:

Benefits of Discovery Ads

• Visually appealing: Discovery ads are highly immersive. As they also support carousels, they tend to be more appealing than other ad types.
• Precisely targeted: Discovery ads only show up on a user’s feed based on their interests, search behavior, and other online activities. This tailored approach makes it easy for businesses to target their audience specifically.
• Expand reach: Discovery ads are great for businesses that want to reach more people and tell them about what they offer. In fact, according to Google, this ad type can reach up to 2.9 billion people across its platforms!

Benefits of Display Ads

• Reach a wider audience: Display ads appear across gazillions of websites, apps, and platforms on the GDN. So, their audience reach is vast.

• Versatile: From static images to videos, – display ads leverage a multitude of resources and prove to be versatile for a range of marketing purposes.
• Increased retargeting: With display ads, you can easily retarget a previous visitor to your website. This increases the chances of sales.

Based on these benefits, these ad types prove exceptionally fruitful for a business in certain marketing scenarios. 

For instance, say you want to create brand awareness or run a promotional product launch campaign. With the help of Discovery Ads, you can easily do so by reaching out to fresh geographies and spreading the word about your offerings. Other use cases include running seasonal ad campaigns, event promotions, and remarketing.

In the case of display ads, we all know retargeting is the best way to leverage them. But thanks to their versatility, you can also use Google Display Ads to educate the audience, generate fresh leads, showcase your product range, do affiliate marketing, and much more.

Discovery vs Display Ads – Comparing Costs and Return on Investment (ROI)

Before kickstarting any paid ad campaign, a crucial aspect you must consider is budget. So, let’s compare discovery vs display ads in terms of cost and ROI.

	Discovery Ads	Display Ads
Cost	These ads operate on a cost-per-click (CPC) model.	These ads operate on a cost-per-mille (CPM) model.
Return on Investment (ROI)	They tend to generate better ROI.	They tend to generate an average ROI.

In a case study conducted by Google, Discovery Ads saw a 120% lower cost-per-lead (CPL) as compared to display ads. But is that always so? Maybe not.

All ad types, including Discovery Ads and Display Ads, are influenced by certain factors that affect their overall cost-effectiveness. 

Factors Affecting Discovery Ad’s cost-efficiency

• Target: As these ads are targeted at a specific group of audience members, they tend to be more cost-effective.

• Competition: If the competition for keywords is high, ad costs may increase.
• Ad relevance: If your ad isn’t precisely tailored to the audience, cost efficiency will decline.

Factors Affecting Display Ad’s cost-efficiency

• Target: Display ads are targeted at a wider audience, so they tend to be less cost-effective.

• Ad format: Using appealing ad formats can increase engagement and, thus, cost-efficiency.
• Ad placement: The platform where an ad appears can also affect its cost.

So, be sure to evaluate these points before selecting an ad according to your budget. 

Also read: 15+ Google Ads Examples That Actually Deliver Results

Choosing Between Discovery and Display Ads

For any merchant, picking between Discovery Ads and Display Ads can be difficult. Not only do they have specific nuances, but these ads are the backbone of any paid digital marketing campaign. So, it is safe to say – your choice can make or break the whole thing.

But don’t worry; we will ease the decision for you. Check out this table to assess which ad type to choose based on your campaign:

	Discovery Ads	Display Ads
Objective	Ideal for merchants seeking brand awareness	Ideal for merchants seeking leads, brand awareness, and product promotion.
Target Audience	Effective for reaching audiences based on their online activity.	Effective for reaching audiences based on their demographics.
Budget	Tends to have a higher CPC.	Tends to have a lower CPC.
Performance Metric	Measurable in terms of engagement and CTR.	Measurable in terms of conversion rates and ROI.
Remarketing Strategy	May not be the most ideal option for remarketing a product.	This is a good tool for remarketing a product.

Both discovery and display ads have different functions. So, as a merchant, make sure you assess your needs against their offerings to understand which of them could work best for you. It’s also okay to opt for both discovery and display ads instead of one, as display and discovery ads can complement each other effectively as part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

This way, you can make your campaign more comprehensive and all-encompassing.

Conclusion

To summarize, both Discovery and Display Ads are efficient online advertising solutions. Whether the aim is to broaden audience reach, retarget website visitors, or simply promote your business, as a merchant, you can do all this and much more with these Google Ads.

However, it’s important to be precise about the objective of your campaign and the impact you want it to create. If you take these points into consideration while choosing the ad type, success is promised.  

FAQs

1.  What are the main differences in ad placement between Google Discovery and Display Ads?

Although Google Discovery and display ads have several differences, the biggest one lies in their ad placement approach.

While Discovery Ads appear exclusively on Google-owned sites such as YouTube, Google Search, and Gmail, Display Ads are placed across all the websites in the Google Display Network (GDN), including Google-owned sites.

2.  How do the targeting capabilities differ between Discovery and Display Ads?

Discovery and display ads vary in their approaches. Discovery ads focus on specific audience segments, using user signals like clicked videos and social media topics to reach people even before they search for items. This makes them effective for sales and acquiring new customers.

In contrast, display ads target broader audiences based on demographics and online behavior, aiming to prompt actions like filling out forms or visiting brand pages. Display ads are well-suited for building brand awareness.

3. What is the difference between Search Ads and Discovery Ads?

Search ads and Discovery ads are both Google services. However, they are slightly different from each other. Search Ads appear in Google SERPs based on a user’s search, whereas Discovery Ads appear across Google platforms based on a user’s interests, behavior, demographics, etc.

4.  What is the difference between Discovery campaigns and GDN?

Discovery ad campaigns aim to showcase the products and services of a merchant across Google platforms like YouTube and Gmail. GDN (Google Display Network) is spread across the internet and, therefore, also displays ads on third-party websites.

5.  Which ad type should I choose for my marketing campaign?

To choose the appropriate ad type for your marketing campaign, you must first understand your campaign’s strategy and objectives.

Both Google Discovery and Display ads serve different purposes and render different results. So, it’s best to consider these and choose the ad type that best aligns with your campaign’s motto.

In case you are interested, you can check out Search Ads 360, which is another ads platform offered by Google. Search Ads 360 is a sophisticated search management platform that enables brands to manage multiple ad accounts and campaigns across various search engines through a unified interface.

6.  What is the cost and performance comparison between Discovery and Display Ads?

Discovery and display ads are very different in terms of cost and performance. Generally, discovery ads are believed to perform better and cost less to acquire a lead than display ads.

That being said, it’s not at all a general notion, and the results can vary depending on the nature of a particular ad campaign.

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