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What is an asset group?
Before we delve into asset groups, let's start with creatives. Creative assets are files such as images, videos, and text that you upload onto your Google Ads account to provide ad content. These are used to build an inventory for all ad formats to meet your advertising objectives.
Asset groups are a set of those files used to create channel-specific ads. Consider organizing your asset groups the same way you would your ad groups, by a common theme or target audience.
One way of segmenting the files is by different product or service types. For some advertisers, it's easier to segment your groups by sections, categories, or themes as they appear on your website.
When you build your campaign, you can start with one asset group, but you can add extra ones once your campaign is live. Google will automatically transform the group assets into the required ad formats for your goal. The more creatives you provide, the more ad formats Google can generate, and your ad will have the chance to appear on more channels.
Asset group requirements
Google has requirements for asset groups divided into four main sections.
However, the first and most important requirement is the product. Usually, this is set within the listing groups, where you can choose to have all the products linked to your feed or segment products based on specific attributes.
Your products should ideally have the following criteria as part of their setup.
Text
- Add 1 final URL.
- Add up to 5 headlines.
- Add up to 5 long headlines.
- Add up to 4 descriptions.
- Add 1 business name.
- Add 1 call-to-action.
- Add up to 2 display URL paths.
Image
- Add 3 landscape images.
- Add 3 square images.
- Add 1 extra square image for campaigns with Store Visits only.
- Add 1 portrait image.
- Add 1 square logo.
- Add 1 landscape logo.
Video
- You need a video longer than 10 seconds for all Performance Max Campaigns.
- If you do not upload a video, Google will generate one for you from other creatives.
Extensions
- Though extensions aren't required to launch a Performance Max campaign, adding them can incentivize users to take action on your ad.
Tips for creating impactful asset groups
Challenging as it may sound, creating functional asset groups is straightforward if you follow some best practices.
- Each Performance Max campaign must have at least one asset group, which isn't shareable across other campaigns. There is a maximum of 100 assets allowed per campaign.
- Asset groups must contain at least one final URL, but you can add more if needed. Use the URL most relevant to the conversion path for your objectives and chosen asset group. You can't exclude the final asset group URL from the webpage campaign criteria.
- Use lifestyle images as much as possible.
- Try to create your own video, but if you don't have a video, Google will create a basic slideshow-style one. It's not a fantastic production so it's advisable to make one you would prefer your customers to see
- Keep an eye on the ‘Ad strength’ indicator to replace low-quality assets with better creatives.
- Add as many assets as you can to improve your chances of serving your ads on more channels.
- On the Asset group page, you'll see an option at the bottom for audience signals. You can create your audience signals from here ad-hoc, but if you already have existing audience lists, it's better to set up the audience signals beforehand.
