Ratings Come To Google Product Listing Ads In The U.S.

Spotted in a test back in May, product ratings and reviews are officially rolling out on Google Product Listing Ads as of today — just weeks ahead of the full transition to Shopping Campaigns.

Available in the U.S. only for now, consumers will begin to see the 5-star rating system appear on PLAs on Google search and Google Shopping. Mike Capsambelis, Product Manager of Google Shopping said in the announcement:

We believe these ratings will help differentiate products across google.com and google.com/shopping and will help merchants drive more qualified traffic through Product Listing Ads. In initial tests, product ratings also helped increase click-through-rates of Product Listing Ads.

Merchants targeting the United States have until October to share all their review data with Google in order for ratings to appear in PLAs. However, Google is instituting a grace period between now and October, allowing ratings show on any PLAs where product reviews are available. Ratings data can be shared directly or through approved third party aggregators. The company says product ratings on PLAs will be available in other markets in the coming months.

Unlike the test spotted by CPC Strategy in May, in the example provided by Google above the PLAs don’t appear to be ranked by star rating or total number of product reviews.

Merchants who want product ratings included in their PLAs should complete the product ratings form.

Expect more extensions to show in PLAs. Capsambelis states that, “Product ratings are one of several extensions we may show with Product Listing Ads, so please note that just because a product has reviews does not mean that we’ll always show ratings.”