Search Network

The Search Network is the most common network for Google Ads. When you search for something in Google, you are greeted with a mix of paid and organic results. Paid results show at the top and bottom of the page, accompanied by a green text box which clearly shows the result is an Ad. This allows businesses to reach users who are actively searching for products or services the business is advertising.

There are two types of adverts you can create on a search network pay per click campaign: text ads and call-only ads. Call-only ads only display for users with a mobile device, and instead of directing the user to your website it allows the user to instantly call your business. On the other hand, a text ad allows up to three headlines and two descriptions to be shown along with a range of extensions, such as sitelinks, call extensions, structured snippets, prices, offers and more.

Display Networks

The Display Network is the adverts you see when browsing websites, such as YouTube and other 3rd party websites. This allows advertisers to serve ads to users who are browsing websites and pages related to their product/service/business. The Display Network allows users to create a variety of graphic adverts, such as image, interactive and video ads alongside standard text ads.

Users have a high degree of control when it comes to selecting where their adverts will be displayed. Users can target websites by categories, such as websites about cars, or choose specific websites by URL. Websites can also be excluded using the same options.

Google allows users to combine the Search Network and Display Network together in one campaign, also this means you will be limited to creating text-only ads.

Shopping Ads

Shopping Ads are great for eCommerce websites and businesses selling physical products. Shopping ads serve on Google search results and have the most visibility of other ads with a product name, description, price and image being displayed.

Shopping Ads are more likely to lead to conversions as users are searching for specific products and they can see detailed information about the product without even clicking the ad.

However, the policy restrictions on shopping ads are a lot more strict than the other networks. You can only advertise physical products on shopping ads. Furthermore, policies for descriptions limit how you can market your product. Descriptions are to be used to only describe the product being sold as opposed to actually market it, which works better for some products and proves to be an obstacle for other products.

Which Network Is Best For Me?

With such a choice of networks which offer many different features and uses, it can be confusing for some people to decide which network to use for their pay per click campaigns. I recommend new users to start with a basic search network campaign and eventually opt into display network if their budget and business allows. Shopping ads work great for eCommerce businesses as most customers have already been identified as ready to buy by the time they are greeted by your shopping ad.

Blue Whale Media

As a digital marketing company, Blue Whale Media specialises in a range of marketing solutions including pay per click campaigns. We can guide your business through the wilderness of pay per click marketing and get your business in front of new customers. Call us today on 01925 552050!