Google advertises for its 'Ads' offering; targets B2B audience

Google is running ads for its 'Ads' offering on YouTube. The 15-second pre-roll ads show Google Ads acting as the link between the consumers and a small business that sells what they're searching for. 'Ads' is Google's online advertising program that allows business owners to reach out to new customers and grow their businesses.

If a customer searches for a particular query on Google Search (engine), then Google Ads displays results across different aggregators as ads, hence helping the customers find what they are searching for and small businesses find more customers.

Google Ads also show results for queries related to small businesses using the Maps feature.

The pre-roll ads show similar queries on Google Search, and focus on the different ways that a small business can use them (the ads) to direct traffic back to its website, make its business phone number accessible, etc.

The ads feature an interesting mix of independent business owners and established small businesses. One ad shows a pregnant woman craving for home-made pickles, whereas another one shows a concerned father searching for coaching classes for his daughter. The pickle-maker and the tuition teacher are both middle-aged women trying to earn a living independently.

The other two ads in the series feature the owners of a coffee shop and a furniture store. Interestingly, the ad with a coffee shop owner features a rather niche search query, 'freshly roasted coffee beans', and the furniture one features a search query for a 'modern wooden chair'. Both these terms reflect the ways in which people use Google Search engine for business and transactional queries.

Expert panel

Alpana Parida, former owner of the firm DY Works, points out that due to COVID, advertising revenues are down, and simultaneously, the demand for local businesses has gone up.

"It is an opportunity that has arisen due to these circumstances. As online demand surges, this is a great way to increase potential revenue. However, Google's Search engine user interface has a long way to go. It needs to up the experience. But yes, it will eventually play the role of an aggregator for small businesses," she opines.

Joono Simon, founder and chief creative officer at Brave New World, calls the ads ‘little 15-second gems’. He points out that they are tactical and very succinctly allow a business to feel personal and a person to feel closer to business.

“The split screen treatment really work to showcase the platform as a facilitator between the two. The simple, yet delightful ad format ensures that you’ll never run out of ideas because the platform will never run out of unique buyers and sellers. ‘Googleyness’ is all about intellectual creativity, after all,” he concludes.