Google launches Ad Creative Studio to customize video and display ads

The new feature is aimed at allowing advertisers to dynamically change ads aimed at multiple audiences and demographics.

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Google has announced a new way to create ads. The Ads Creative Studio was officially launched after a beta last year and is now available globally. 

Ad customization is possible. In the ACS, advertisers or creators can create multiple versions of a single display or video ad. The ads can be customized for different audiences, locations, languages, or contexts.

How does it work. To make the changes, creators select the changes they want to make and provide the different versions of that particular element based on the rules you set. 

The feature is now available for video and will soon be launched for display as well.

Seamless workflows. Google is now allowing advertisers to export images from the ACS asset library to the Google Ads asset library of any linked account. This means that when you’re assembling creatives for display or Performance Max campaigns, you’ll be able to easily find the images you want to use. 

Another newly released feature is the ability to connect the ACS account to Campaign Manager 360. Previously the ACS was available to those advertisers in beta, but starting today it becomes available for everyone to upload, manage, and export HTML5 creatives. Google says that video exports will also be available “soon.”

Early testing and results. The feature was available to PepsiCo who wanted to use it to reach audiences in different contexts such as house parties, BBQs, and sporting events. The creative team at PepsiCo used ACS to customize their ads at the relevant audiences and found the results to be “smoother and more efficient and, with a single tool, the team was able to standardize processes across functions.” PepsiCo and Google did not share numbers or specific stats related to performance, however.

General Motors South America wanted to boost brand awareness of the Cruze 5 model. The brand decided to customize beyond the basics and needed to produce 14 unique ads without sacrificing time, budget or resources. Using Ads Creative Studio, the brand reduced costs by 30% and the campaign saw a 56% increase in Google searches for “Chevrolet Cruze” and a reduction in cost per view of 32% compared to the industry benchmark.

Learn more about Ads Creative Studio. You can read the announcement from Google here.

Why we care. ACS will be an interesting feature for advertisers to test. If you’re running campaigns aimed at multiple audiences, the ACS seems like a helpful tool to quickly manage and make dynamic changes to video ads when you’re trying to reach multiple demographics, without creating additional campaigns or ad types. While we haven’t tried ACS ourselves, we’ll be interested to see how this works in comparison to just creating new ad sets.


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About the author

Nicole Farley
Contributor
Nicole Farley is the founder of Web Sprout, an inbound marketing agency. She formerly was PPC Editor for Search Engine Land (from 2022-2023), covering paid search, paid social, Google Analytics and more. In addition to being a Marine Corps veteran, she has an extensive background in digital marketing, an MBA and a penchant for true crime, podcasts, travel, and snacks.

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