Whenever you search for a product online, the first thing you will see are sponsored product ads from the search engine. These product ads are highly effective. If most people know the item they want to buy at a great price, they are likely to buy from the sponsored retailer, rather than search sites for a slightly lower price. Google plans to apply this logic to another of its search products. Google recently announced that visual ads would soon be coming to Google Images.
The heyday of radio has long past, and most consumers demand imagery for they buy a product. According to research cited by Google, 50 percent of online shoppers said images of the product inspired them to purchase.
Many consumers will use Google Images to look for additional images of products they want to buy since it allows them to see the product from a variety of angles and how they look while in use. It makes sense to place ads for these products in a place where people are searching for them.
As a Google manager wrote in a blog, “Now, we’re introducing shoppable ads on Google Images as another way we’re helping you connect with consumers. This new format enables you to highlight multiple products available for sale within your sponsored ad among Google Images results. We’re currently testing this on a small percentage of traffic with select retailers, surfacing on broad queries like “home office ideas,” “shower tile designs,” and “abstract art.”
The ads are designed to not interfere with the typical Google Images experience. In fact, it doesn’t have to be one product per image. A business can take a photo with multiple products for sale and list them all for individual sell.
Google gave an example of how the feature is currently set up. If a shopper is searching for home office ideas then goes to Google Images to look at room designs, a sponsored image will be included among the images seen while scrolling. Hovering over any sponsored ad with the price tag will show the items for sale in the picture, along with prices, the brand, and more.
Right now, the shoppable image ads are only available to select retailers. The feature is still in the testing phase, and it will take some time to get all the data needed to roll this ad product out to a broader audience. According to Google, the plan is to make these ads open to more retailers over the next few months. A wide released can be expected sometime after that.
Google may be stealing a page from Pinterest’s playbook, but the results will still be useful for online retailers. While you wait for shoppable ads to become available for Google Images, you can take advantage of the other new features have made available to retailers, such as changes to Merchant Center that let retailers add more product data. And for another way to show ads on Google Images, consider Showcase Shopping ads, which allows you to promote your brand and products through beautiful imagery, descriptions, and relevant promotions. These Showcase Shopping ads are also coming to Google Ads soon.
For more recent news about changes and updates at Google, read this article on the end of the average position metric for Google Ads.
