Understanding Google Ads
Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google where advertisers pay to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, or videos to web users. It allows businesses to promote their products and services across Google’s vast network, including the search engine, YouTube, Mobile Apps, and other partner websites.
Through Google Ads, businesses can target specific demographics and audiences based on keywords, location, interests, and other relevant factors. It’s a flexible platform, offering a variety of campaign types that suit different business objectives, whether for brand awareness, website traffic, or direct sales.
Google Ads operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning advertisers pay only when someone clicks their ad.
Advertisers have the ability to control their budget, audience targeting, and ad placements, ensuring ads reach the right people at the right time.
Why use Google Ads
Google Ads is suitable for almost all businesses, from small startups to large corporations, because it offers scalable options that can grow with your business. Businesses with specific goals like increasing brand awareness, generating leads, boosting sales, or promoting a mobile app can use Google Ads to target the right audience.
Type of Businesses Should Use Google Ads
Businesses that should consider Google Ads:
E-commerce: Google Shopping campaigns and Performance Max are ideal for driving product sales.
Service Providers: Search and Display campaigns work well for businesses offering services like home repairs, legal consultation, etc.
Mobile App Developers: App campaigns are perfect for increasing app downloads and engagement.
Content Creators & Publishers: Video and Display campaigns are effective for building brand awareness.
Local Businesses: Google Ads allows precise location targeting, ideal for businesses that rely on a local customer base.
When to Run Google Ads
When we have clear marketing goals, a well-defined target audience, and a sufficient budget to test different campaign types, here are some strategic considerations for when to run Google Ads:
Launching a new product or service: Use ads to drive initial awareness.
During peak sales seasons: For example, Black Friday, Christmas, or other key retail seasons.
To improve slow sales or website traffic: Running ads can boost engagement during low-traffic periods.
When optimizing for search engine results isn’t enough: Paid campaigns can give an instant traffic boost while waiting for SEO to show results.
The 7 Types of Google Ads Campaigns
Google regularly updates its campaign types to enhance performance and stay current with evolving advertising trends. For example, Smart Campaigns and Local Campaigns were merged into Performance Max, while Discovery was rebranded as Demand Gen. These changes give advertisers access to stronger automation and broader reach across Google’s platforms.
Here are the current 7 main campaign types available in Malaysia:
Search Campaign
A Search campaign allows your ads to appear in Google’s search results (SERP) when users type in relevant keywords.. These ads target users actively searching for specific keywords that relate to your product or service.
Suitable for: Businesses that want to drive conversions (like e-commerce, service providers) or generate leads (like legal services or education).
What to prepare:
- Keyword research: Choose high-intent keywords that match user queries.
- Compelling ad copy: Your ad text should directly address the user’s search intent.
- Landing page: Ensure the landing page matches the ad content for better user experience and conversions.
Performance Max (PMax) Campaign
A Performance Max campaign uses Google’s machine learning to deliver ads across all of Google’s inventory, including Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
Suitable for: Businesses looking for an all-in-one solution, businesses looking to reach a wide audience across Google’s full inventory, as it optimizes ad delivery based on your conversion goals (lead generation).
What to prepare:
- Creative assets: Have a variety of images, headlines, or videos.
- Clear goals: Choose a conversion objective for Google’s AI to optimize towards.
- Conversion tracking: Set up to ensure the algorithm learns from real data.
Display Campaign
Display campaigns use visual banners and image ads across Google’s Display Network, which includes millions of websites, apps, and videos.
Suitable for: Businesses aiming for brand awareness or remarketing to people who have previously interacted with their site.
What to prepare:
- High-quality visuals: Engaging images that capture attention.
- Targeting settings: Decide whether you want to target users by demographic, interests, or remarketing lists.
- Compelling offers: Highlight promotions, discounts, or events.
Shopping Campaign
Shopping campaigns showcase your products directly in the search results. They include an image of your product, price, product information, and store name to help users make quick purchasing decisions.
Suitable for: E-commerce businesses selling physical products. It’s particularly useful for retailers and online stores.
What to prepare:
- Product feed: Set up a Google Merchant Center account and upload your product data.
- Clear images: High-quality product photos that make your listings stand out.
- Competitive pricing: Ensure your prices are competitive to attract clicks.
Video Campaign
Video campaigns let you advertise through video content on YouTube and across Google’s video partner sites. Video ads appear on YouTube and other video partner sites. These can be skippable or non-skippable and are great for building brand awareness or driving conversions.
Suitable for: Businesses looking to create brand awareness, promote a product, or tell a story visually. Ideal for content creators, lifestyle brands, and entertainment industries.
What to prepare:
- Engaging video content: Short, attention-grabbing videos (6 seconds for bumper ads, 15-30 seconds for skippable ads).
- Target audience: Utilize demographic, interest-based, or remarketing targeting to reach the right viewers.
Demand Gen Campaign
This newer campaign type is designed to generate demand by using rich media and video ads, targeting users across Google’s ecosystem who are more likely to be interested in your product based on behavioral signals.
Suitable for: B2B and B2C businesses looking to build awareness and demand for new products or services.
What to prepare:
- High-quality content: Create visually appealing ads and videos to attract users.
- Audience strategy: Leverage Google’s audience insights to target users likely to be interested in your offering.
- Follow-up strategy: Have a plan for nurturing leads or retargeting users who engage with the campaign.
App Campaign
App campaigns are designed to promote your app across Google’s vast network, including Google Search, Play Store, YouTube, and Display Network. Aim to drive installs, engagement, and in-app actions.
Suitable for: App developers or businesses with mobile apps that want to increase downloads or in-app purchases.
What to prepare:
- App listing: Ensure your app store listing is optimized with good reviews, descriptions, and screenshots.
- Creative assets: Images, videos, and text to attract users.
- Conversion tracking: Track in-app events to measure success.
- App store optimization (ASO) to ensure your app performs well in organic listings.
Local Campaigns, Smart Campaigns, and Discovery Campaigns are now considered legacy campaign types, replaced by newer, more advanced formats.
Local Campaigns were originally designed to drive in-store visits through Maps, Search, and YouTube, but have since been absorbed into Performance Max.
Smart Campaigns offered a simplified, automated setup for small businesses, and while still available in some older accounts, they are gradually being phased out in favor of Performance Max as well.
Discovery Campaigns, focused on visually rich placements across YouTube, Discover, and Gmail, have been rebranded and upgraded into Demand Gen to support more creative formats and AI-powered targeting.
How Google Ads Works (Simple Explanation)
Google Ads works like an online auction where businesses bid to show their ads when people search for certain keywords or browse Google’s partner platforms. When a user enters a search query, Google runs an instant auction to decide which ads appear and in what order. The winner isn’t just the highest bidder—Google also checks ad quality, relevance, landing page experience, and expected performance. If your ad wins, it gets shown, and you only pay when someone clicks (PPC model).
Behind the scenes, Google’s machine learning studies user behaviour, your conversions, and your targeting signals to find people most likely to take action. Over time, the system optimizes your ads automatically, helping you get better results with lower costs.
How Do the Bid & Auction Work in Google Ads?
What triggers a Google Ads auction?
A Google Ads auction happens every time a user performs a search on Google. If the search is relevant to your keywords, your ad enters the auction automatically.
Do the highest bidders always win?
No. Google does not pick the winner based only on money. It ranks ads using Ad Rank, which is calculated from:
Your bid
Ad relevance
Expected click-through rate
Landing page experience
Ad extensions
Auction-time signals (device, location, time, etc.)
A lower bid with better quality can beat a high bid with poor quality.
Do I pay my full bid amount?
No. Google uses a second-price auction.
You usually pay just enough to beat the advertiser below you, not your full bid.
Example:
You bid RM5
The next competitor needs RM3.20 to beat
➡️ You pay slightly above RM3.20
Does Google always choose the most expensive ad to show?
No. Google prefers the most relevant and useful ad for the user, even if it has a lower bid.
Google makes money when people click — so it prioritizes ads more likely to get clicks.
How often do these auctions happen?
Billions of times per day. Each search triggers a new, real-time auction, so results can vary depending on time, competition, device, etc.
Is manual bidding better than automated bidding?
Usually no. Google’s automated Smart Bidding uses machine learning to optimize bids for every single auction (device, time, location, intent signals).
Manual bidding can work, but it is slower and less efficient unless you are very experienced.
Google Ads vs Google AdWords: What's the difference?
Google AdWords was the original name of Google’s advertising platform, launched in 2000. In 2018, Google rebranded it to Google Ads to better reflect the wide range of advertising options available beyond just search — including YouTube, Display, Shopping, and app campaigns. The platform’s features, interface, and campaign types have evolved significantly since the rebrand, but the core purpose remains the same: helping businesses reach customers across Google’s network.
Why are Search campaigns usually the first and always-on campaign for most businesses?
Search campaigns reach people who are actively searching for a product or service, making them one of the highest-intent and most reliable campaign types. They deliver strong conversion potential, predictable results, and clear measurability.
They also collect valuable audience and conversion data, which helps Google’s AI learn about your ideal customers and improves the performance of future campaigns like Performance Max, Display, or Demand Gen. Because of this, most businesses launch Search first and keep it running as their core, always-on campaign.
The 5 main types of Google Ads Targeting:
Keyword Targeting:
Choose the words or phrases that can trigger your ads when users search for them.Audience Targeting:
Target users based on their interests, behaviors, or past actions. Google groups people who share similar interests, have searched for certain topics before, or have visited specific websites.Demographic Targeting:
Target users based on demographic information in Google’s database, such as age, gender, income, or education level.Location Targeting:
Target users based on their geographic location, such as country, city, or within a specific radius.Device Targeting:
Show your ads on specific devices, including desktops, laptops, mobile phones (Android or iOS), and tablets.
Know Your Business before start advertising:
Before running campaigns, consider the following:
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Top-selling products or services: Which items generate the most revenue?
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Customer locations: Where are your customers located?
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Profit margins: Ensure your profit margin makes sense compared to CPC. (For example, it doesn’t make sense to spend $10 per click if your profit is only $5.)
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Focus locations: Which regions should you prioritize in your campaigns?
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Business seasonality: When is your peak season and off-season? (For example, it wouldn’t make sense to advertise mooncakes during the Christmas season.)