Digital marketing is an essential part of running a business today. It’s a great way to connect with new customers and reengage existing ones. There are endless opportunities in the digital sphere for promoting your company. Utilizing pay-per-click ads is one of the fastest ways to see results.
Within search ads, there are multiple options and opportunities for ad types and campaigns to run. One type is a gallery ad. In this article, we explore what you need to know about gallery ads. Discover the basics of the ad type as well as its benefits and considerations. Determine whether they’re a good fit for your business model and product offerings.
Gallery Ads: The Basics
Gallery ads in Google search results are images. While they’re not present for every query searched on Google, people see them often. There are multiple factors that go into gallery ads populating on a SERP (search engine results page).
Think of gallery ads like an advertisement in a magazine, such as a magazine spread or a digital flipbook. Gallery ads provide a “lifestyle” view of products and add context. For example, if an e-commerce company sells men’s golf shirts, a gallery ad could place that shirt on the backdrop of a golf course.
Many shoppers need visuals to see the actual product and receive information and ideas on how that product can fit into their homes or lives.
More About Gallery Ads
More than providing a real-world scenario to go with the product, gallery ads allow users to see things at scale. While listing dimensions is effective, many people still can’t imagine what those dimensions look like in a tangible form. Gallery ads let customers see the item at scale with visual sizing references. For example, the size of a throw pillow may be difficult to decipher on a simple white background, but the second you place it on a couch or a love seat, users can imagine its scale in their own homes.
Benefits
There are many benefits to using gallery ads. While the advantages are selective and don’t always apply to every company, they are notable and worth achieving. Below are the main benefits of gallery ads:
- Broadens the picture
- Helps customers imagine
- Takes up shelf space
- Engages customers for longer
Broadens the Picture
Gallery ads broaden the view a user sees. They provide context on how a product looks in its natural environment. For example, a rug company can display a rug in a room to show what it looks like in use.
Helps Customers Imagine
Showing customers a product in its environment helps them to picture themselves with that product. Showing a user examples of real-world applications of an item can motivate them to make the purchase. Consider a home décor sign for winter. Alone, customers may struggle to picture where in their home the sign would go. With a picture of an entryway decorated to highlight the sign, they may start to picture the sign on their own entryway.
Takes up Shelf Space
Gallery ads take up a good amount of space on search results pages. Much like a grocery store, taking up the most shelf space possible makes your company more visible and memorable to users. If your products and company take up a ton of space on the search results page, the user is much more likely to notice you and investigate further.
Engages Customers for Longer
This ad type is big and eye-catching. It makes the user take notice. It encourages more engagement as the customer examines the real-world applications of a product they like. When something catches your eye, you tend to spend more time looking at it. When it comes to gallery ads, they’re interesting enough to grab and hold attention while enticing users to click to learn more.
Considerations
While the benefits of a gallery ad campaign type are immense, the ad type isn’t beneficial for every company or situation. Generally, gallery ads aren’t extremely effective for service-based businesses or less aesthetically pleasing products, such as tools.
Gallery ads aren’t always easy to set up. They require a full product set, so they’re not ideal for companies with only a few product options. Diversity in product sets is essential to this form of digital marketing.
What Kind of Companies Should Use Gallery Ads?
Gallery ads are most effective for e-commerce companies that operate product-based businesses with robust online offerings.
If this description doesn’t match your business, it doesn’t mean that gallery ads are a bad choice for you—they’re worth testing for most companies that are already performing well in their current PPC campaign types.
Return on Ad Spend
While there is no set number or industry standard to expect from gallery ads, there are a few benchmarks. It’s reasonable to expect similar returns in the range of your current overall search ads account, plus or minus a point.
Gallery ads can be extremely effective, but due to their nature, their success varies much more than for shopping or text ads. You must find the “sweet spot,” or the most lucrative method. Every business performs differently in terms of return on ad spend.
How Logical Position Can Help
Here at Logical Position, we’re dedicated to our clients’ success. We know that there is no cookie-cutter solution to every digital marketing campaign. There are countless options that may or may not yield results for different companies.
As a Google Premier Partner, Logical Position has an inside track into data points and can best determine what makes the most sense for campaigns. Our clients enjoy a dedicated team, including an account manager that builds their account and keeps them informed on every change and opportunity. Our collaborative values ensure all opportunities are explored.
Contact us today for a free consultation on our local PPC management services and discover whether gallery ads are right for your business. We can inform you of what you need to know about gallery ads. We’re dedicated to your growth and can assess whether gallery ads are a promising opportunity for your business after learning more about your goals and your current offerings or business model.