Blog Which Google Channel is Right for Me?

Which Google Channel is Right for Me?

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AUTHOR: Erin Mast

Apr 25, 2024

8 Min Read

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You may have noticed quite a few shifts in the Google landscape as of late: Discovery campaigns have been upgraded to Demand Gen, Performance Max is Google’s new golden child, and some campaign types that have done well in the past might be struggling to achieve the same levels of success now.

Just like assembling a team for a group project, you want to make sure your combined efforts on Google are supported by a mix of channels that bring a variety of strengths and opportunities. To help you assemble your Google Dream Team, here’s everything you need to know about the current roster of Google advertising channels: Paid Search, PMax, Demand Gen, YouTube, Display.

Your Dream Team at a Glance

*Ready to Buy vs. Reaching New Audiences

When it comes to targeting different audiences, we at CI use “the marketing funnel.” At the top of the funnel are folks new to your world. When we say “upper funnel” in this post, it refers to targeting new audiences. “Bottom of funnel” refers to those ready to buy—they’ve been in your orbit for some time, have engaged with your content again and again through various advertising efforts, and are primed for a purchase.

Paid Search

Paid Search is truly the bedrock of Google Ads and is almost always a good bet to have on your Google Dream Team. It is the most user and intent-driven of all the channels, so it’s often the most reliable for achieving strong conversion rates and returns on investments (ROIs). Paid search can also achieve many objectives, from building and maintaining brand visibility in a competitive field to reaching new audiences searching for things to do in their area.

Paid search might be right for your organization now if you want to…

Appear more frequently and prominently on the SERP (search engine results page), especially if you often compete with third-party ticket sellers.
Ease the purchase path for users who have seen your ads on other platforms and are ready to take action. Paid search campaigns are an incredibly strong tool in and of themselves, and especially when run in tandem with campaigns on other channels.
Increase visibility for people looking for more general activities or arts events in your area.
Increase search impression share share over what you can achieve in your Google Grant alone, if it’s consistently low.
Run a bottom-of-funnel campaign that is likely to result in a high ROI.

You may want to hold off on paid search if you…

Have a limited budget and are getting search coverage with a Google Grant account.
Want to reach people making upper-funnel searches but don’t have the budget to be competitive in a crowded field.
Aren’t targeting new audiences in other Google channels for productions or exhibitions that are lesser-known (the campaign goal for this type of targeting is “customer acquisition”). These works often have low search volume—or few search queries on Google—because folks don’t know to search for it.

Remember

A search ad does not appear unless someone searches for whatever it is you are trying to promote. If you don’t actively build awareness in other channels, a paid search campaign will struggle to serve ads and therefore, drive conversions.

Performance Max

Performance Max (PMax) came on the scene in November of 2021, but has only recently gained greater attention among advertisers—mostly because of Google’s very unsubtle hinting that it really wants us to use it. Regardless of how PMax came to be, it’s a powerful tool that is already seeing promising results among CI clients. PMax is goal-based and allows advertisers to access Google Ad’s entire inventory of placements from one campaign facilitated by Google’s AI technology. This includes Search, Google’s Discover Feed, YouTube, Gmail, and the Display network.

There are two main trade-offs PMax takes in exchange for access to its abundance of placement options and Google AI technology:

Less visibility into data about individual asset performance and placement.
Less control over where and to whom our ads are being served. We can still provide audience signals, but they act more as suggestions rather than strict criteria for targeting.

PMax might be right for your organization now if you…

Have a well-defined, conversion-based goal, such as ticket sales.
Have assets to start your campaign, including images, video, and written copy.
Consistently see poor results in other Google campaign channels that used to perform well for you.
Want to get ahead of competitors, both big and small, who have not yet transitioned to this new campaign type.
Don’t mind where and to whom your ads are being served, as long as they drive conversions.
Are also running a paid search campaign.

You may want to hold off on PMax if you…

Don’t have the budget to support a concurrent paid search campaign as its data is vital to the success of PMax campaigns—PMax was designed by Google to complement search.
Want to maintain a higher level of control over what types of ad placements within the Google landscape are being prioritized and who is being shown your ad. (e.g. search versus display).
Want to be able to access quantitative data about how your ad components are performing and where they are being shown.
Aren’t ready to move away from individual Display, YouTube or Demand Gen campaigns. There currently isn’t much worth in duplicating those efforts within a PMax campaign.

Demand Gen

This past fall, you may have noticed Google started to automatically upgrade Discovery campaigns to Demand Gen campaigns. Are you still wondering what Demand Gen actually brings to the table? Demand Gen is similar to Discovery in that it only promotes ads across Google-owned placements (YouTube, Gmail, and the Discover feed on Android devices), but with the upgrade we gained access to video and image carousel placements, as well as the integration of Google Ads AI technology.

Demand Gen might be right for your organization now if you want to…

Generate demand (yep, the name says it all). This tool is more acquisition-focused to reach folks in the consideration phase of the buying journey on Google’s most visual placements.
Take advantage of Google’s dynamic content creation, Smart Bidding AND you want to retain a greater amount of control over where your ads are appearing and how budget is being allocated.
Control audience targeting more than is possible in PMax, and also leverage AI-powered Lookalike audiences.
Run ads on YouTube, but don’t have video content to start off your campaign (you can always add in videos later on, unlike with PMax and YouTube campaigns).
Get more bang for your buck: i.e. if Performance Max is not an option for you because you don’t have the budget or search volume to support a concurrent paid search campaign.

You may want to hold off on Demand Gen if you want…

To serve programmatic display ads within non-Google-owned websites, apps, and videos.
To primarily focus your campaigns on driving purchases and are NOT interested in having budget also support acquisition efforts.

YouTube

Although videos can now be incorporated into all Google campaigns except Search, there are still some valid reasons to consider running a YouTube (video) campaign on its own. The most compelling reason to run paid campaigns on YouTube is to reach younger audience members. According to a recent study from Archival, over 57% of Gen Z use YouTube to learn about new brands, products, and experiences, followed by search, TV ads, and TikTok. It seems that the YouTube campaign structure might also be shifting more towards reach and acquisition, so if that sounds of interest to you, it might be worth keeping YouTube in the mix.

YouTube might be right for your organization now if you want to…

Build awareness of your brand, especially among younger audiences.
Run video ads only on YouTube. YouTube videos pulled into other campaigns like PMax and Demand Gen might show up in the Discover feed or Display placements.
Use vertical video (Hello, Youtube Shorts).

You may want to hold off on YouTube if…

Your primary goal is to drive conversions, particularly purchases. Your YouTube videos are more likely to achieve this goal within a PMax or Search campaign.
You are trying to share timely messaging with your core audience of brand enthusiasts.

Display

Although Display has been a loyal member of our Google Dream Team for some time now, we recommend you consider retiring this channel. This recommendation comes off the back of many ailing Display campaigns that once flourished. For Google’s part, their eye is fully turned toward AI and the future, and are primarily focusing on and investing in newer campaign types like Demand Gen and Performance Max.

That said, if Display campaigns are still working for your organization, there is no harm in holding on to them for now. We just encourage you to try out new channels and figure out what else works well in case Display takes a turn for the worse and you need to make a quick switch.

Your Dream Team Awaits

Just like any great team in the making, it will take trial and error to figure out the ideal mix of Google channels that will help your organization achieve its goals. As long as you take it one step at a time and let the data guide your strategy, you should be well on your way to building your Google Dream Team.