Responsive Display Ads (RDA) has been Google’s default display option for advertisers since 2018 but they’ll be getting an upgrade that Google says will double your ad performance.

Marketers will now be able to dream up portrait RDAs, which should promise to be a far more effective way to deploy a full-screen mobile campaign. Furthermore, you can now take advantage of auto-generated videos to catch your audience’s attention and draw their hard-earned money out of their wallets.

Jerry Dischler, VP and General Manager of Ads, Google

“Our all-new, mobile-first layouts can accommodate any portrait image or video asset, and our automatically generated videos can help you access full-screen mobile ad inventory. By using machine learning to speed up the design and iteration process, you can deliver engaging display ads faster than ever.”

Additionally, it will deploy ‘uncropping’ to make sure your images are displayed in the best way possible, and auto-generate vertical videos using machine learning to help busy advertisers create a wider range of ad material.

Keeping up with the times

Google wants to provide brands with the best advertising experience it can, and, it says, is interested in taking the load off overworked marketers (can I get a hooray!?)

Jerry Dischler, VP and General Manager of Ads, Google

“Google has dedicated significant resources to helping brands navigate this labyrinth of creative formats. Our campaign automation tools, a pillar of our product roadmap, enable marketing teams to invest more resources in creative storytelling and less in the operational tasks associated with ad placement.”

All of which is very nice in theory, but the real world is often different and the jury will be out until these upgraded RDAs are fully tested and understood.

Look good, feel good… sell good

The new RDAs give advertisers more control over what their ads look like on mobile, which marketers will always welcome. As mentioned, machine learning and auto-generation will help advertisers access more assets than they could before. Auto-cropping could bring big benefits, with better looking, slicker adverts becoming the norm.

RDAs – not the holy grail

Responsive Display Ads automatically adjust size, appearance and format to fit ad space. One of the biggest benefits of RDAs is that it can help advertisers reach a broader audience, and maximises where your ads are seen by your target audience.

Furthermore, you can use RDAs for video and it helps marketers save time – which makes it perfect for small businesses with fewer resources.

However, this does require you to give up some control of your ad assets, and Google does make mistakes which could lead to your brand being a little misrepresented.

More power to the machines

Machine learning will become a big part of Google’s ad offering moving forward. Its image uncropping promises to help images ‘seamlessly expand to fill available space’ and should mean that your ad images look better and are more likely to be clicked on by your audience.

Auto-generated videos could help marketers who don’t have access to vertical videos. However, it’s probably a good idea to watch them before you click the button and make them public.

Creative Inspiration hub – learn from the rest

Another new feature from Google is its creative inspiration – a filterable tool that lets marketers view some of the finest ad creative around the world.

The hub is supposed to help brands see what is possible and use that to lift their games, so go on, see what other players in your industry have been doing, what makes it successful and use that to build your next campaign.

Not the only fish in the sea

Google’s rivals offer similar features to marketers:

• Facebook has its Ad Library, a place anyone can view and search for ads. It includes all active ads running on Facebook, and people can view ad details such as impressions, the amount spent and demographic information. Of course, that information could be used by marketers to see what their rivals are doing and use it to plan something better.
• TikTok’s creative centre is designed to be a place advertisers can seek inspiration – TikTok actually calls itself ‘your ultimate TikTok muse’ (which is a bit grim, but here we are). From Creative Center, you can see top-performing ads via region, industry, campaign objective, reach, engagement and other criteria. You can also use it to discover trends and view case studies.