What is Google Lightbox and Rich Media Ads

What is Google Lightbox and Rich Media Ads?

Google Ads is always evolving, like much of the digital marketing landscape. People want to engage brands, and they are more open to embracing exciting content like videos and games.

With that being the case, rich media ads are fast becoming an essential part of the modern PPC manager’s toolkit. Relying on text ads alone is leaving a lot of opportunity on the table.

1. What is Google
Lightboxand Rich
Media Ads?
Nowadays, advertising is all about engaging
people in the most exciting ways possible.
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How to Leverage Google Lightboxand Rich Media Ads
Nowadays, advertising is all about engaging people in the most exciting ways possible. Back in 2012,
Google Ads released a new ad format called Google Lightbox, which effectively laid the foundations for a
new era of interactive advertising.
With this new format, pay-per-click (PPC) managers were able to create more engaging ads that helped
them catch the eye of prospects. Early tests indicated that these rich media ads could potentially
generate 6-8 times as much user engagement compared to standard click-to-expand ads.
Read on to discover more about the power of Google Lightbox, and see how you can use rich media ads
to get better results in PPC advertising.

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Essential Knowledge About Rich Media Ads
Rich Media Ads are advertisements that include advanced features like audio, image, and video. In doing
so, these ads offer an enhanced experience for users, which is more likely to elicit a response. When
compared to simple text ads, rich media ads are a more fun and attractive type of ad that users may
engage.
As they provide more ways for user interaction, rich media ads have a more extensive range of metrics
that PPC advertisers can monitor to gauge their impact. For instance, you can track the following
aggregated metrics on your audience’s behavior:
•number of expansions
•multiple exits
•video completions

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Essential Knowledge About Rich Media Ads
These metrics give you granular data, allowing you to analyze your campaign performance, and
determine the efficacy of your rich media ads.
Marketers use these ads for several reasons, most notably because they can potentially offer the
following benefits:
•Higher user engagement
•More conversions
•Budget-friendly costs
•Better tracking system
•Increased space for ad creative
•Multiple buttons

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3 Types of Rich Media Ads
While you can customize these ads in a myriad of ways, there are essentially just two main types of rich
media ads:
•In-stream video ads
•In-Page rich media ads
•Out-of-page rich media ads
Let’s look at each in more detail to see how you can use them.

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In-stream Video Ads
In-stream video ads are ads that adapt television commercials into an online stream. In a mobile-mad
age, advertisers are looking for ways to reach wider audiences.
Therefore, in-stream video ads are seen as a potent channel as you can create attractive video ads for
popular platforms like Facebook and YouTube that people will want to engage. These ads are growing in
popularity and can also be found on many news sites and blogs.

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In-Page Rich Media Ads
AnIn-Pagerich media ad is one that appears in a rectangle within a webpage. Here are two common
examples:
1. In-banner Video
You can create simple banner video ads with just a few clicks. Once you create your banner, you can
embed the video and save it in HTML5. This will give you a short presentation of your product displayed
on that banner. The advantage here is that users can view the presentation on the page without having to
navigate to another website.

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In-Page Rich Media Ads
2. Expanding Banners
This type of banner ad expands whenever the user’s mouse cursor hovers over the ad. When it expands,
the ad will cover a larger area of the screen, presenting a visual story of a brand, or its product, service,
or promotion.
These ads permit multiple slides and special animation effects, making it possible for advertisers to
create a more appealing ad that encourages user interaction.

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Out-of-Page Rich Media Ads
The other main type is an out-of-page rich media ad. Within this category, there are three common types
of ads –pop-ups, floating ads, and lightboxads.
1. Pop-up Ads
Marketers have been using pop-up ads for decades. For a long time, the consensus among internet users
was that pop-up ads were annoying and unwelcome distractions from their browsing experience. Many
people still see them as a nuisance or even a potential virus threat.
However, with the rise of personalized marketing, advertisers are finding ways to make pop-up ads more
engaging and relevant. By doing this, brands can catch the user’s attention and potentially drive traffic
and conversions.

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Out-of-Page Rich Media Ads
2. Floating Ads
Floating ads exist independently from a webpage, as they float on the screen, only moving down
whenever the user scrolls down. Some can maintain a locked position on the screen. Floating banners are
usually mobile -responsive, which allows them to adapt to different screen sizes and device types.
3. Lightboxes
Lightboxads are advanced interactive ads, which offer advertisers a lot more leeway for creativity. This
makes them perfect for building engagement with complex actions. These ads expand to cover the
available screen space, displaying videos, maps, games, and more to capture the user’s attention.
That’s it in a nutshell, but now it’s time to dig deep!

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What is Google Lightbox?
Google Lightboxis an interactive ad format, which appears like a standard ad until users hover the mouse
cursor for two full seconds. After this, the ad will expand into a super-size canvas takeover.
These rich media ads can contain various elements, such as:
•YouTube videos
•Photos
•Games
•A shopping experience
With the two-second wait, these ads help minimize accidental expansions, giving PPC advertisers an
accurate reflection ofaudience engagement. Better yet, you only pay when the ad is expanded, rather
than for clicks.

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Why You Should Consider Google LightboxAds
So, are Google Lightboxads for you?
These ads are best if you want to offer a great user experience through your ads. Users can interact with
Google Lightboxads in several ways, including clicks, taps on mobile, or by hovering the cursor on the
ads. As such, these ads are inherently more captivating than standard ads.
Furthermore, these rich media ads automatically adapt to whatever device the user is on, ensuring a
good user experience on desktop, tablets, and mobile across the Google Display network.

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A Better Way of Bidding
Sometime back, when Google Ads was known as Google AdWords, there were two bidding options for
Google Lightboxad users:
1.Viewable cost-per-thousand-impressions (vCPM)
2.Cost-per-engagement (CPE)
Now, Google Ads operates with a cost-per-engagement (CPE) bidding strategy, where advertisers pay
whenever users engage with the ads.
Pre-expanded ads like interstitials consider user engagement to be any action the user takes after the ad
displays. By comparison, expandable ad formats like a Google Lightboxad determine user engagement by
the actions the user undertakes to make the ad expand. (i.e., a hover, click, or tap).

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A Better Way of Bidding
This format offers another boon for advertisers, as Lightboxads are budget-friendly. You only pay for
expansions instead of clicks, so you’ll incur less wasted spend. The two-second wait is a good filter that
makes it more likely you will only attract genuine users who are interested in what your ad is offering.
When the ad expands, it takes over the whole screen, making for a more engaging presentation that
commands the user’s attention. In turn, this is quite effective at driving prospects further along your
marketing funnel. It’s a good idea to use a strong call-to-action in the ad expansion to encourage people
to visit your website and learn more about your products and services.

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How to Create Google LightboxAds
Google Lightboxads are specifically for the“Product and brand consideration”marketing goal. Once you
have your basic account set up in Google Ads, you’ll find Lightboxads there.
Now that you understand the basics of these rich media ads, it’s time to learn how to set up a Google
Lightboxad in Google Ads.
Here’s how it’s done:
•Login to your Google Ads Account
•Navigate toAd and Extensionson the menu page
•Navigate to theBlue Plusbutton, then click on theLightboxAd.

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How to Create Google LightboxAds
•Select Images, Videos, or else start with a feed card. You may create up to 10 cards for your ad, by
following these steps:
•Go to thenew image, then add your assets by selectingScan website>Upload, or by
selectingrecently used images or videos. You have the option of adding up to 10 images to a
single gallery card.
•Add new videos fromYouTube, Upload,orRecently used. Remember that each video requires its
card.
•Next, add a product gallery from your Google Merchant Center feed. You do this by linking it to
your PPC campaign first, and then you selectStart with feed card.

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How to Create Google LightboxAds
1.Next, selectSave.
2.Add your captions, call to action (CTA), and links for your images or feature photos for your videos by
expanding your cards in the panel given on the left. You can view your changes by selectingPreview.
3.Add additional cards by clicking theBlue Plusbutton card, and then selecting add an Image gallery,
Video card, Feed card or Map card as before.
4.Add details about your business, such as a company logo and up to 10 messages or CTAs to
encourage users to take action. For example, you could include CTA text like“Buy now”or“Visit our
website”.
5.Now, your Google Lightboxad is ready for review. After final approval, you can start running your ad
in your PPC campaign.
With your ad up and running, let’s see how you can maximize rich media ads for the best possible return
on investment (ROI).

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How to Optimize Your Google LightboxAd
As you know by now, these ads are all about user interaction. By focusing on the ways your prospects
interact with rich media ads, you can reap greater rewards, making sure yourPPC budgetgoes further.
Here are three smart optimization tips to do more with a Google Lightboxad:
1.Remember that you can adjust the image size of your Lightboxad. Experiment with different sizes of
images and videos to determine the most effective size for your audience.
2.Look out for ads that aren’t generating much engagement as this could be a sign that you need to
adjust your audience targeting or ad creative.
3.Write compelling ad copy that invokes a reaction from users, enticing them to hover on the ad and
make it expand to discover more.
Learn More:14 Must-Have Hacks For Stellar Ad Copy

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The Major Drawback of Google LightboxAds
While there is a lot to like about this ad format, it is not without its limitations. The most obvious issue is
that a Google Lightboxad will usually generate less traffic than standard ad formats. People are less likely
to deliberately interact with an ad by hovering on it for two seconds.
As such, a Google Lightboxad may not be the best choice for very defined targeting. Instead, you should
only use them for broader brand awareness campaigns where you can get a lot of impressions, thus
increasing the chance of expansions.

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Wrap Up
Google Ads is always evolving, like much of the digital marketing landscape. People want to engage
brands, and they are more open to embracing exciting content like videos and games.
With that being the case, rich media ads are fast becoming an essential part of the modern PPC
manager’s toolkit. Relying on text ads alone is leaving a lot of opportunity on the table.
By experimenting with rich media ads, you can discover more about what works for your audience. The
significant advantages of using a Google Lightboxad can truly be felt when you want to increase brand
awareness of your company, or a specific product or service.
The nature of its design means you have a cost-effective, highly-engaging channel that can drive more
potential leads into yoursales funnel. So, how will you get started?

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