Google has announced a number of new features for AdWords, with the biggest new change being the Shopping Showcase Ads.
Google is focusing in on how to improve the shopping experience on Google ahead of the holiday period in 2017, along with how this can help retailers sell more online, and through Google AdWords itself.
As more and more people are shopping on their mobiles, they can be shopping anywhere. Google is introducing innovations to help meet expectations.
The biggest change was the announcement of Shopping Showcase Ads, which bring about a very distinct difference from normal shopping ads.
What are Shopping Showcase Ads?
This new form of ad lets you group together a particular selection of related products within the Google Shopping feed, and present them together in order to better help build your brand and introduce your business to potential customers.
Google has stated that data proves that the new ads work:
Brands like Overstock.com are seeing the benefit: the team recently created 50+ Showcase Shopping ads and saw a 3x increase in brand searches and 32% more click-assisted conversions leading to a purchase compared to standard Shopping ads.
Google has also introduced brand logos to the shopping ad section, as well as filters that allow potential customers to narrow down their options based on sizes, prices, or otherwise.
“Similar looks” also allows for recommendations based upon previous clothing preferences of the shopper in question.
Google explains it in the following:
Consumers sometimes know exactly what they’re looking for, but over 40% of shopping-related searches on Google are still for broad, research-oriented terms like “women’s athletic clothing” or “living room furniture.”1 To help curious holiday shoppers discover your brand and product selection when they’re still in exploration mode, we’ve launched Showcase Shopping ads in the new AdWords experience, and made it available to more advertisers globally in 15 new countries.
These ads let brands curate a collection of lifestyle images and products to help people explore and discover what they want to buy and who they want to buy from. Additionally, If you use DoubleClick Search, Kenshoo or Marin as your third party bid management system, you can also track and report on Showcase Shopping ads, as they are now supported.
We began testing Showcase Shopping Ads last year and found that shoppers who engage with them are more likely to consider your brand as they narrow down their search. On average, users search for a merchant’s brand terms twice as often after they’ve expanded that brand’s Showcase Shopping ad.
Showcase Shopping ads build on the Product Listing Ads and Shopping Campaigns with the series of images that can be swiped horizontally. By curating lifestyle or product images, marketers can better market to consumers who are still in the research phase.
Overall, Google is attempting to help brands drive the discovery of their brand and products in a more visual way, ahead of the holiday season. By allowing shoppers to see reviews and view more items, it gives less incentive to leave Google. This does benefit Google, but it should also help brand awareness and engagement, whereas search ads can be typically ignored if not engaged with. At least with more visual shopping ads, people will begin to see your brand.
