With the Google Ads advertising platform, the search engine operator offers the ability to manage campaigns and enhance them with multimedia ads in the Google Display Network.

Key Takeaways

Google Ads is Google’s central platform for search engine advertising, with ads in Google Search, on YouTube, and across the Display Network.

  • Key formats include Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) and Responsive Display Ads.
  • Ad delivery is based on keywords, automation, and an ad auction that determines Ad Rank.
  • Costs are incurred through models such as CPC, CPM, or CPA within defined budgets.
  • Performance is measured with Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Consent Mode v2.

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads, known as Google AdWords until 2018, is Google’s central platform for search engine advertising. Over the years, it has developed into the world’s largest online advertising network, allowing businesses to place ads in Google Search, on YouTube, and across millions of partner websites.

Through Google Ads, advertisers can manage campaigns for Google Search and seamlessly expand them to include placements on the Google Display Network and YouTube. This makes it possible to pursue a wide range of marketing objectives—from increasing reach to driving specific conversions—within a single, central platform.

Ad formats in Google Search

Google Ads allows advertisers to place ads on Google search results pages, as well as on platforms such as Google Play and Google Shopping. These ads are displayed above and below the organic results on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). In addition, Google Ads works with a range of partner search services to extend ad reach.

Within the search network, Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are now used almost exclusively. Advertisers submit several headlines and descriptions, which Google then automatically combines to generate relevant ad variations. The following character limits apply:

  • Headlines: max. 30 characters
  • Descriptions: max. 90 characters
  • Path: max. 15 characters

Ad formats in the Google Display Network

Google Ads’ reach is not limited to the search engine. The Google Display Network enables advertisers to place ads on Google services like Gmail or YouTube as well as on various third-party sites. In addition to text ads, advertisers also have multimedia ad formats available here.

Instead of static banner formats, Responsive Display Ads are predominantly used today. These ads automatically adapt to different placements, devices, and screen sizes.

  • Image ads: Banner ads are still based on standardised formats, but are delivered and optimised automatically.
  • Video ads: Google Ads offers various video ad formats, including in-stream ads, in-feed video ads, and video ads in YouTube Shorts. These can be served on their own or as part of modern campaign types.

How Google Ads works

The stated goal of Google’s advertising network is to deliver the most relevant ads possible. For this reason, Google Ads campaigns are keyword-based, but today they also take user signals, context, device type, location, and the time of the search query into account.

While individual keywords used to be the key factor, Google Ads today relies heavily on automation and machine learning. Ads are served dynamically to maximise the likelihood of a desired action—such as a purchase or an enquiry.

Keywords

The core idea behind Google Ads is to place ads in a way that feels helpful rather than disruptive, offering added value to users. Keywords still play a role in assigning ads to topics and matching them to relevant search queries. They can consist of single terms or longer keyword phrases that potential customers use when searching for products or services. However, the success of a Google Ads campaign today no longer depends solely on manual keyword selection. Instead, it is driven by the interaction of search intent, automation, and data.

In modern campaigns, broad match keywords are frequently used in combination with automated bidding strategies to capture relevant searches. This approach also allows advertisers to reach semantically related queries without relying on exact, predefined keywords.

The Keyword Planner remains a helpful tool for evaluating keyword ideas, search volumes, and competition. For ongoing optimisation, however, actual search queries and conversion data are far more valuable than forecasts alone.

Ad auction

Google decides which ad is served for an ad-relevant keyword based on what is known as an ad auction. This process determines the ad rank, which decides whether an ad appears and in what position.

Key factors include:

  • the ad bid
  • the Quality Score
  • ad extensions
  • contextual and user-related signals, such as device or location

Quality Score remains relevant, but today it is supplemented by automated optimisation and data-driven models.

Costs

To determine the costs of an ad campaign in Google Ads, advertisers can choose from various bidding and billing models. Today, there is less manual bidding and a greater focus on automated strategies that align with defined campaign goals.

Costs can still be grouped according to different billing models:

  • CPC (cost per click): With cost-per-click pricing, advertisers pay only when a user clicks on an ad. The actual CPC is determined by the ad auction and is often lower than the maximum bid set. Search campaigns are commonly billed on a CPC basis.
  • CPM (cost per mille): Cost-per-mille pricing is based on impressions. Advertisers define how much they are willing to pay for 1,000 ad impressions. This model is mainly used for display and video campaigns, for example to increase brand awareness.
  • CPA (cost per acquisition): This model focuses on specific actions, such as purchases or enquiries. Today, CPA is usually not a fixed price per conversion but a target value used by automated bidding strategies.

In addition, automated bidding strategies such as Target CPA or Target ROAS are widely used. Here, Google automatically adjusts bids to achieve predefined campaign goals, taking numerous signals into account, including device, location, time of day, and user behaviour.

To ensure full control over spending, Google Ads campaigns are managed using individual budgets. Ads are displayed only until the defined budget is reached.

Performance measurement, tracking, and data privacy

Following the introduction of the GDPR, the Digital Services Act (DSA), and growing browser restrictions on third-party cookies, tracking in Google Ads has changed fundamentally. Traditional cookie-based measurement is increasingly being replaced by cookieless tracking, which relies on modelled data, consent signals, and server-side solutions. As a result, reliable performance measurement now requires new technical and organisational approaches.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) has become the central standard in this context. Its event-based data model and direct integration with Google Ads make it possible to record conversions, analyse campaign performance, and optimise campaigns based on data-driven insights.

At the same time, data privacy has become significantly more important. Advertisers who want to use Google Ads and GA4 with personalised features such as remarketing in the European Economic Area (EEA) must implement Consent Mode v2 under Google’s policies. It passes users’ consent choices to Google and allows Google Ads and GA4 to use modelled conversion data even when consent is limited. The legal basis, however, remains valid user consent, for example collected via a cookie banner.

In addition, server-side tagging is gaining importance. It offers greater control over collected data, improves the stability of measurement, and helps organisations better align tracking and performance measurement with regulatory requirements.

This applies in particular to the Republic of Ireland, which is fully subject to the GDPR and Irish data protection law. Advertisers using Google Ads must ensure that any personal data collection or tracking has a valid legal basis, typically unambiguous user consent (for example via a compliant cookie consent tool).

Irish advertisers should also follow guidance from the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the national authority responsible for enforcing data protection rules in Ireland, and ensure that tracking, remarketing, and personalised advertising are only carried out with proper consent and transparency.

Boost a website’s success with Google Ads

Before advertisers launch an ad campaign with Ads, they need to define the goals of this marketing measure. Typical objectives are:

  • Increase brand awareness
  • Increase website traffic
  • Generate leads
  • Drive sales
  • Drive visits to brick-and-mortar stores

Google Ads offers enormous reach and a wide range of options for reaching potential customers at exactly the right moment. At the same time, using the platform successfully requires clear strategic planning, a clean setup, and reliable performance measurement. Legal requirements—especially those related to data privacy—must also be considered from the very beginning. Businesses that consistently align their ads with defined marketing goals, make effective use of modern automation features, and regularly review and optimise their campaigns can use Google Ads both effectively and cost-efficiently in the long term.

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