Types of Google Ads: Search, Display, Video, Shopping & More
Explore the main types of Google Ads you can run—Search, Display, Video, Shopping, App, Discovery, and more—and what each one is best suited for.
Search ads: text ads that answer search queries
Search ads are text based ads that appear on Google Search results when someone types a keyword related to your business. They usually include a headline, two description lines, a display URL, and optional extensions (sitelinks, callouts, call, location).
Search campaigns are ideal if your goal is to capture high intent traffic—people actively searching for products, services, or information similar to what you offer.
Display ads: banner and image ads across the web
Display ads show on millions of websites, apps, and blogs that are part of the Google Display Network. These can be static images, animated banners, or responsive ads that automatically adjust size and format.
Display works best for brand awareness, remarketing, and visual storytelling, allowing you to reach people based on interests, topics, or who previously visited your site.
Video ads: YouTube and video based advertising
Video ads run on YouTube and across video partner sites, appearing before, during, or after videos (in stream), next to videos (in feed), or in the YouTube Shorts feed. You can choose formats like skippable, non skippable, bumper, or Masthead ads.
Video campaigns are powerful for brand building, product demos, and engagement, especially when you want to tell a story or show your product in action.
Shopping ads: product focused ads on Google
Shopping ads showcase your products directly in Google Search, Shopping tab, and Google Images. They include an image, title, price, store name, and sometimes reviews and are built from your Google Merchant Center product feed.
Shopping campaigns are best for e commerce brands that want to drive product level sales with highly visual, data driven ads that match what users are searching for.
App ads: promoting mobile apps across Google
App campaigns (now often called Universal App Campaigns / UAC) are built by Google to automatically deliver your app ads across Google Search, Play Store, YouTube, and Display. You provide assets (images, videos, text), and Google optimizes where and how they appear.
App campaigns are ideal for install driven marketers who want to grow app downloads, in app actions, or subscriptions with minimal manual setup.
Discovery ads: native style ads for feeds
Discovery ads appear in Google Discover, YouTube Home, and Gmail based on user interests. They use image and text formats that look like organic content in feeds, focusing on visual appeal and relevance.
Discovery works well for awareness and engagement campaigns, especially when you want to reach cold audiences in a non intrusive, scroll feed environment.
Performance Max and other smart campaign types
Performance Max campaigns combine Search, Display, YouTube, Discovery, Gmail, and even local inventory ads into one automated campaign. You provide assets, goals, and a budget, and Google AI decides where to show your ads.
These are useful if you want maximum reach and conversion efficiency with less manual management, especially for e commerce, bookings, or lead gen businesses.
How to choose the right ad type for your goal
• Use Search ads for high intent traffic and conversions.
• Use Display ads for brand awareness and remarketing.
• Use Video ads for storytelling and engagement.
• Use Shopping ads for e commerce product level sales.
• Use App ads for mobile app installs and actions.
• Use Discovery for feed based brand awareness.
• Use Performance Max when you want broad, automated performance.
Matching the right ad type to your objective and audience will help you build a more effective, multi channel Google Ads strategy.
Tags
Google Ads types, Google Search ads, Google Display ads, Google Video ads, Google Shopping ads, Google App campaigns, Google Discovery ads, Performance Max, types of Google Ads
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