If you have been searching for product information lately on Google, there’s a good chance that you’ve been seeing stars. Merchant star ratings to be exact. Google has introduced a number of ad extensions over the past year that extend the information you can provide in paid search advertisements. For example, local extensions, product extensions, ad sitelink extensions, and phone extensions are all available now to advertisers. Using these extensions, you can provide additional valuable information in your ads, including addresses, phone numbers, product visuals and pricing, and links deeper into your site.
As I help clients with paid search, I’ve seen ad extensions make a difference with both click-through and sales. It’s not hard to understand why. When you are dealing with such a limited space in paid search ads, even minor additions can make a difference.
Seller Rating Extensions
The latest ad extension to hit Google.com is seller rating extensions, which display the merchant star rating for companies that meet a certain criteria. The ad extension will show up below the paid search ad in question and show the merchant star rating, along with the number of reviews present on Google Product Search. In addition, you can click through the review total to read the reviews on Google Product Search. Needless to say, merchants that qualify for seller rating extensions have an advantage as shoppers are determining which ads to click through on Google.com. Again, minor enhancements to paid search ads can make a big difference (given the limited space available).
Actually, I think seller rating extensions are important enough for paid search advertisers that I made it the topic of my latest post on Search Engine Journal. In my post, I provide an overview of seller rating extensions, provide screenshots of what they look like, explain the criteria that advertisers need to meet in order to have seller rating extensions show up, and I explain how to gain more reviews from customers. But, you probably know the drill already… You’ll have to visit Search Engine Journal to read my post. :)
Head over to SEJ now to learn how seller rating extensions can make an impact for you:
“My God, It’s Full of Stars” – Seller Rating Extensions in Google AdWords
GG
When managing campaigns, search marketers are always looking for ways to improve performance. Paid Search is a multi-faceted online marketing channel, and some of the factors impacting your campaigns are not always easy to determine. For example, is your keyword list sufficient, can you create better ads, should you geotarget your campaigns, etc? But what about the time of day or day of week that you are running your ads? Could your ad scheduling (or lack thereof) be impacting your ROI more than the previous factors mentioned? These are all good questions and the answers lie in the campaign analysis you perform. The good news is that you can find the answers to these questions, but you just have to look in the right places.
