With Google’s recent announcement of its Google +Post Ads on the GDN, social media and display advertisers were all a buzz.
While at first glance this may appear to be a social media advertising opportunity, it is actually a display advertising product that leverages the organic Google+ space as a testing ground for paid display banners. This new product takes the interactive and social capabilities of a G+ post and expands them to the display advertising space.
Advertisers can review organic content on the brand’s Google+ page to see what types of posts resonate best with the audience, and then leverage the best performing content as display ads that are served across the Google Display Network (GDN).
To begin, advertisers must link their AdWords account to their G+ page. The 50 most recent G+ posts show up within the interface. Advertisers then select which post to turn into a display ad and the advertiser is prompted to complete the display ad creation process, and layer in targeting. The ads then serve on GDN—they are not promoted within Google+. Although these ads can be tracked similarly to any ad on GDN, iProspect believes that their greatest impact will likely be on awareness—direct response conversions are expected to be low.
This is is yet another example of how the lines between channels in this ever-evolving and fragmented space we call digital marketing are becoming increasingly blurred. G+ Post Ads on the GDN have greater implications for digital marketers beyond what these particular ads may have to offer. It’s becoming increasingly important to approach all things digital marketing from a holistic view, with specialist expertise and an integrated approach, leveraging learnings across the channels, in order to achieve a higher level of performance and maximum synergistic impact.
