The Introduction Of Google Free Product Listings And The Impact On Advertisers

Google has announced a significant change to the way that the Shopping tab results will display (US only at this stage), moving away from showing solely paid ads to showing a mix of free and paid ads. The majority of the Shopping results will now be free for merchants and paid ad positions will be limited to the top and bottom of the page.

With less available ad real estate on this tab, there is the potential for increased competition on this tab, especially on mobile devices. For advertisers, it also heightens the importance of appearing in available Shopping real estate on the main search results tab and increases the importance of the Shopping ad exposure across other Google properties.

We (unfortunately) don’t know the extent to which this change will end up impacting existing Shopping campaigns, but we do have a few best practice tips that can help to deliver an excellent Shopping campaign result, with either paid or free ads in the Shopping tab results.

• Tip #1 – Campaign structure, campaign structure, campaign structure
• Tip #2 – Maintain strong visibility across key search terms, particularly those that are high intent
• Tip #3 – Expand to other channels to take any sting out of higher competition on the Shopping tab