Marketers knew it as ‘Google Now’ in its earliest avatar; then it was re-christened to ‘Google Feed’. Now, the third wave of change has come across the platform and is known as ‘Google Discover’. Today we will cover how the ads being displayed on this platform have undergone substantial changes to give it a fresh look.
A background of the platform rebranding
The 20th anniversary in September 2018 event at Google saw a flurry of updates made. One such update covered Google Feed, which had 800 million active users at that time. Google has taken cognisance that the platform was becoming a revenue base for many third party advertisers considering the massive traffic on the platform. Hence it had gone ahead and renamed Google Feed to Google Discover. The mobile version of Google Home page will have this new change implemented.
At the core of the update were some important changes like an improvement on the design layout and addition of new user controls along with new functionalities. Each new item started showing a topic heading (which was as good as a search query). There was also an additional emphasis on video content on the mobile version.
You may ask – “Why is this coverage important”? The answer is simple. Efforts have been made to ensure that the new ad delivery interface appearance and layout matches the overall rebranding outcomes so that they work in sync for a user.
What is the new look?
Google had been conducting tests to best leverage the previously untapped source of mobile ad inventory. For this, it was testing native ads on Google Discover (or its earlier version – Google Feed)
It focuses on a content card for each ad with three key elements – the heading, the image, and the description of the ad. Just like the PPC ads of Google search engine, the ads in the mobile version are depicted by an ‘ad’ marker to differentiate it from organic content that is displayed on the user’s feed. The look mimics the news cards content layout that is popular with mobile views. The ad label positioning next to the headline is the same as text ads we are accustomed to seeing in Google search results. The new look also sports the advertiser name in the topic header.
Many marketers have confirmed that Google Discover is a previously unexplored revenue driver for them. With Google’s recent move to improve the visual appeal of the platform interface, it shows how serious Google is to bring more advertisers to have a look at this platform and display ads. It opens up yet another advertising medium within the Google ecosystem to permit the advertisers to reach users on both mobile and desktop.
For its broader impact, we need to wait and see how the advertisers worldwide will embrace the new platform and the new look of the native ad delivery mechanism. But one thing that becomes amply clear from the small beta testing is this – the platform is a high volume traffic magnet. By advertising on this platform, both advertisers and Google will expect it to be a win-win proposition for them.
