3 Ways to Leverage Your Online Presence with Search Ads vs. Social Ads vs. Discovery Ads

In an ideal world, you’d be able to pour all of your advertising dollars into content marketing, social media marketing, and SEO to drive as much organic traffic to your site as possible. But the harsh reality is that businesses can’t afford to invest all of their time and money into these channels. That’s why it’s so important to have a robust online presence from the get-go. After all, you can’t expect search engines to begin indexing your pages, videos, and other content if they don’t already know about you. That’s where search ads come in. These ads are usually only sold to businesses with a solid online presence. That way, potential customers can find you organically — rather than searching for your business. Google and other search engines place a lot of value on websites with great content and a relevant audience. But they also prefer sites with a lot of natural, monthly search volume. It’s a bit different from social media, but it’s still worth exploring to make the most of your advertising dollars.

If you’re getting serious about using (PPC)  Pay Per Click Advertising to promote your business, you will have to answer several essential questions. Which channels should you use? Which platform works best for your audience? What type of ad will bring more qualified leads? And how can you get the best ROI from your advertising spend?

As the rise of more sophisticated digital advertising has increased, so has our ability to collect and analyze data. So we’ve got access to loads and lots of data across various industries to help you understand how humans interact with online content, how to search, social, and discover ads perform, and how they compare.

Let’s start with a brief tour of these three PPC ad types and the different ways that your audience relates to them:

Search

Paid search ads are advertisements that appear at the top or side of search results pages. There are approximately 1.2 trillion searches conducted on Google alone every year. Search ads are displayed when people are actively searching for something. A search ad is delivered when a user is already focused on the topic of the ad. If someone searches for “round plant holder,” and your ad appears, stating ‘Discounted prices on high-quality plant holders,’ you’ve successfully optimized your ad. Viewers are more likely to click on an ad if they think it’s relevant valuable.

Bottom line

Search ads are great when trying to target customers who are already looking for you. They searched your company name or your product) or if they are searching specifically for a particular product, service, or bit of information that you can offer. For this reason, search ads tend to bring higher-quality leads that are more likely to convert.

Social

Social media ads are advertisements that appear on social networks. They’re either promoted or sponsored content in your news feed or on the sidebar. They’re a powerful tool. It is estimated that 49 percent of 18-29-years-old Americans have bought something they saw in a social media advertisement. Paid social ads are delivered via algorithms that determine what the user might be interested in, based on past activities in their social accounts, including likes, shares, and com­ments. Unlike search, which focuses on one specific goal, browsing social media is more relaxed. Think cat memes, vacations snaps, and fun quizzing. However, the social media platform has amassed masses of data about every user, which can target specific audiences with advertisements that are likely to be attractive to them.

Bottom line

Social ads are best for targeting audience segments that may be interested in your product or service based on a range of targeting criteria – location, age group, gender, hobbies, interests. For example, with social networks, such as Facebook, you can target your ads very specifically. For example, you can target people who live in a particular city or region.

Discovery

Native ads are ads that appear within a publisher’s content. They are usually served by a content recommendation platform. These ads are called “The discovery platform serves ads in the form of links to interesting, informative, or humorous pieces of content. When a person sees a discovery ad, they’re in what’s known as ‘discovery mode.’ They’re browsing online, leaning back, taking it easy. They’re reading about a site they enjoy visiting and may even visit frequently. The discovery ad provides valuable content and an engaging experience. It reminds viewers of the brand. Suitable discovery ads invite readers to click through to get even more engaged.

Bottom line

Now, to the All-Important Numbers

Performance marketing is all about numbers, but there are some significant differences in search versus social media. Social vs. discovery ads, what their message is compelling.

Page Views

Research shows that page views for discovery content are 5.2x higher than search and 5x higher for social ads.

That means that a user is five times more likely to click on a discovery ad than a regular search or social ad, which results in them visiting more pages per session.

Bounce Rate

Discovery ads have a bounce rate of 39%, whereas search ads have a bounce rate of 42% lower than discovery ads, and social ads have a rate of 42% lower than discovery.

The Numbers in Action – Auto Category

For example, in 2017, readers spent 1½ times longer reading content on OutBrain’s discovery network than on social and 3.7 times more extended on search campaigns. For auto enthusiasts, discovery content is the clear winner.

Discovery Ads – The Secret Ingredient

Why are discovery ads so engaging than traditional search or social ads?

Let’s go back to the original intent of the reader when she was looking at different ads. For search ads, viewers are highly focused on the search term. They’re looking for a specific product. They need to be completed. They’re probably not in the mood for browsing the internet.

Social ads are simply ads that appear in social media feeds. They’re usually displayed when people are casually browsing through their social networks. They’re not necessarily looking for anything in particular, but they may not know if there is something they’re looking for. More importantly, social ads serve the viewer based on their past likes and shares. These may not necessarily reflect their actual interests.

On the one hand, Discovery ads are served as an ideal opportunity for reader engagement; on the other hand, they’re not necessarily the best way to drive traffic. Viewers are in discovery mode – they’re primed to discover great content. The things they want to read. It’s no wonder that discovery ads can attract and maintain the reader’s interest.

Lesson Learned

Performance marketers should use various content types, including videos, infographics, and ebooks, to reach their target audience. They should then leverage advanced targeting tools to ensure that their messages reach the right people at the right time.

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