Dive Brief:
- Native Gmail ads have moved out of a long beta phase to become available to all marketers using AdWords.
- The ad units had been in beta since 2013 as “sponsored promotions ads” that appeared at the top of Gmail users’ “Promotions” tab in the inbox.
- Within AdWords, Gmail ads is now an option in the new campaign Ad Gallery.
Dive Insight:
After two years of beta testing, Google is now offering native Gmail ads within AdWords. The Internet giant and freemail provider didn't heavily promote the ad option during the two-year testing period.
What had been tested as “sponsored promotions ads” at the top of the “Promotions” tab in users' inboxes is now available to all marketers via a new Ad Gallery option in AdWords. Marketers creating AdWord campaigns will have a Gmail ads as an option in the Ad Gallery dropdown menu.
In creating the ads marketers have three templates plus an option for custom HTML upload. The “image” template option features a single image, and the “single promotion” template includes an image, description and call-to-action button. The third template option is “multi-product” and allows for multiple products after expansion. Marketers can target the ad type through keywords, affinity audiences, demographics, and topics, and only pay for clicked ads.