What Should You Know About Gmail Ads?

Know more about Gmail Ads

Gmail is a central hub for most people’s daily communication and activity. Since 2013, Google has been beta testing their native Gmail ads. They look like typical email service, and most users don’t find that they’re intrusive or obstructive.

In 2015, Google made the announcement they were bringing together Gmail Ads with users’ Google AdWords accounts so that it was available to all advertisers.

“It allows businesses to interact and engage with users like we’ve never seen before,” according to

Ajay Goel of GMass

The following are some

things to know if you’re not already fairly familiar with Gmail ads.

The Reach

There are one billion active Gmail users monthly, and these people are in the habit of checking their email several times a day at a minimum in most cases.

With Gmail’s ads, you’re working with a massive base of potential customers.

Not only are there a billion or so Gmail users who are active, but with Gmail Ads, you can measure important analytics such as open rate and CTR, and it’s all included within the cost per click for your regular AdWords.

In the most general sense, it works by showing the customers you’re targeting an ad teaser directly in their inbox. If they click that teaser, then they’ll see your full ad, and you can customize that ad with Google templates.

The template options include Gmail image, single product, Gmail multiple products, and a custom code upload option. With this last option, you can do things like embedding videos from YouTube.

Effectiveness

Google spent several years beta testing Gmail Ads to see what was going to work best. During their research, they found that it’s more effective to show users fewer ads, but make them highly targeted.

The ad shows up at the top of the user’s email inbox, and if someone clicks on it, it opens right in the inbox.

Something else to note that’s unique about Gmail Ads is the fact that the goal is targeting people that are demonstrating a high intent to purchase. For example, if someone is using Google search and they include specific and long-tail keywords, it shows that they are a potential buyer who’s already gone past the initial research phase.

Also, as a note, the analytics metrics that are used for Gmail Ads within AdWords are forwards, saves and clicks to website.

Targeting

Targeting options can fall into three categories. First, there’s Affinity and Custom Affinity. This is based on what a user’s habits and interests are. There are preset options from Google, and you can also customize your targeting. You might base this on people who’ve shown interest in your location, visited websites that are within your category, downloaded apps that target people related to your customized affinity, or who have searched a keyword related to it.

You can target by intent as well, which is valuable since the predictive elements of Google Ads are so useful. You can use in-market audiences to customize intent features.

Finally, there is also an audience keywords option. This uses Google searches and browsing history.

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