Google Product Listing Ads Click-Through Rates Soar

Google Product Listing Ads Momentum Grows

Having been introduced to the online retail world in 2012, it didn’t take long for Google Product Listing Ads to gain momentum and traction. According to digital marketing tech firm IgnitionOne Inc., the click-through rate for Google’s PLAs was 47% higher in 2013 than that of text-based pay-per-click ads (2.8% vs 1.9% on average, respectively).

PLAs are ads that feature enriched content for users, including images of products and prices from merchants, and served as the replacement for comparison shopping listings. It appears that replacement is working.

During the fourth quarter of 2013, advertisers decided to embrace the PLA, and spend 618% more this year than last year on these enriched ads. As a result, impressions increased by 380% and clicks increased by 312%.

Product Listing Ads (PLAs) And The Holiday Season

The week of Thanksgiving is a pivotal time for online retailers. This past Thanksgiving season, 13% of all clicks online went to product listing ads. But, more importantly, the click-through rate during that time was 3/4 higher than on Google’s pay-per-click ads.

The Trend Continues

Google is the dominant force in all of online advertising. They don’t just lead the pack, they own it, with more than 77% of the total market. Their PLAs are growing in popularity for both advertisers and consumers, because of the PLAs ability to catch attention and target the right consumer.

But this is just evidence of an overall trend toward online marketing. Google has continued to refine a retailer’s ability to target consumers based on behavior, location, and where they are in the buying cycle. This allows retailers to design ads in a variety of manners, to be shown to users based on certain criteria and demographics.

This ability to pinpoint consumers with near-perfect precision is what is making online advertising, and Google’s PLAs, so popular.

They also have apparently aided in combating the dreaded banner/ad blindness. Eye-tracking studies have shown that consumers can effectively ignore and look past many types of ads littered throughout a webpage.

However, not only do PLAs stand out from text ads, but if set up and deployed properly by retailers, those PLAs will speak directly to the consumer, making the ad far more useful and attractive.

But how can you make sure your Google Product Listing Ads are living up to all this potential? It isn’t just about putting together your data feed and hoping for the best. Analyzing your data, market, and past campaigns helps you to modify and refine your future marketing strategies. It’s not about blanketing the web with your PLAs, but targeting your PLAs toward the audiences most likely to convert. In that approach, you’ll enjoy the greatest return on investment. OperationROI can help. Call us at 1-888-277-5429 or fill out our contact form for more information. OperationROI is recognized as a Top Digital E-Commerce Agency on DesignRush.