Visual Ad Formats are King on Google

Consider the impact of this statement on your ad strategy: 50% of online shoppers say images of the product inspire them to purchase. If your ad strategy is solely text based using Google search, there’s a high probability you’re missing out on prospects who are actively looking to purchase. Because Google knows online shoppers are visually motivated, they are investing more in shopping solutions across their properties. Let’s explore a few of the new visual formats Google announced in March of 2019.

Shopping Ads on Google Images

These ads were launched to provide shoppers more visual inspiration.

• Now you can highlight multiple products available for sale within your sponsored ad in Google Image results.
• You can scroll through the images and hover over the sponsored ads to see the items for sale in the image, along with their prices, the brand and more.

Check out the gif below for a visual on how they work.

Source: Google

Showcase Shopping Ads

These shopping ads are also available now to Google Images (previously only available in shopping campaigns). When these ads were originally launched in shopping campaigns, over 40% of shopping-related searches on Google were for broad, research-oriented terms like, “bedroom furniture”.

• These ads are designed to help shoppers narrow in their focus when they’re in exploration or discovery mode.
• Unlike the product and price specific ads mentioned above, Showcase Shopping Ads let you promote your brand and product through beautiful imagery.
• Opening these ads up to Google Images is a natural fit with where curious shoppers look for inspiration.
• Furthermore, Google’s blog provides compelling statistics for how these ads have previously been successful in shopping campaigns: “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.

Source: Google

Merchant Center Expansion

In perhaps some of the most exciting news of the year, Google’s Merchant Center has expanded beyond a solely pay-to-play model. Retailers can now provide product data to Google, free of charge so that you can start showing more of your product information to potential shoppers.

Contact our Team to Explore Visual Ad Formats

Consumers’ increased reliance on visual ad formats will not only affect e-commerce business models. Conduct a few searches for products like your own, and you don’t have to look far to find competitors in the visual space where you’re lacking coverage.

Contact us to start the conversation about how to take advantage of this visual space or to combat competitors who are currently taking up your share in search results.