The biggest announcement is a new ad format for broad, non-brand product searches like “women’s dresses” or “patio furniture”. Google says 40 percent of product queries are for these kinds of broad terms. Where in the past Google has often either not shown any product listing ads on broad queries or shown individual products (“patio furniture”, for example, might yield a mix of individual dining and lounge sets), going forward Google will show what it’s calling Showcase Shopping Ads. Ads appear with a main image and two smaller side images related to the product search. At the bottom of the ad is space for a promotional message or distance to the location for Local Inventory advertisers.
When clicked, users are taken to a special google-hosted landing page of the seller’s related products.
Advertisers will be charged when a user clicks on one of the products on the landing page to the retailer site, and not for the click from the search results.
This is a significant update for advertisers, who will want to begin closely monitoring performance as this new format rolls out. Google says it doesn’t have any performance metrics to share on this type of format because it’s brand new, but many retailers may want to rethink their strategies for broad, non-brand queries as soon as this this marquis-style format rolls out in order to be prepared for the holidays — including for Customer Match and RLSA targeting for Shopping campaigns.
Showcase Shopping ads will automatically impact merchants running Shopping Campaigns in the US, UK and Australia. This will be the standard Shopping format on broad queries in these markets starting this month.
Courtesy of SearchEngineLand
