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Google debuts Shoppable Image ads, video in Shopping Showcase ads

The new formats, introduced for the holiday season, are intended to help advertisers attract new customers.

Ginny Marvin on September 14, 2018 at 9:14 am

Google’s Shoppable Image ads can show on third-party sites (left) and in Google Image search (right).

This week, Google announced two new ad formats for retail and brand advertisers ahead of the holiday shopping season that deliver shopping experiences on third-party sites, in Google Image search and in Google Search.

Add video in Showcase Shopping ads

Now, Google is rolling out another space for retail and brand marketers to extend the footprint of their video assets. This time in Search with videos in Showcase Shopping ads.

Showcase ads are the multi-image Shopping format that Google rolled out last year. When users click on the ads, they go to a Google-hosted landing page that features promotions, descriptions and select products from the advertiser’s product feed. They typically display on brand and broad queries.

Videos are displayed in the featured image position. After clicking on the ad, the video plays in full at the top of the Google-hosted landing page that features a selection of products from the advertiser’s product feed.

Google touts Showcase Shopping ads as a vehicle for attracting new customers and should be thought of as top-of-funnel consideration formats. The top Showcase slot drives 3.6X higher than average CTR, and Showcase receives 20 percent more conversion credit with first-click attribution, according to Google.

The option is currently available to advertisers already running Showcase Shopping ads.

Videos in Showcase Shopping ads.

Shoppable Image ads pilot

Google says more than one-third of holiday shoppers last year searched for images before shopping in a store. To get in front of those people as they look for images on other sites as well as Google Image search, Google is releasing Shoppable Image ads.

Clicking on the tag icon in a Shoppable Image ad on a third-party site brings up a carousel of product listing ads with products similar to what is shown in the image.

On Google Image search, the Shoppable Image ads are large units. Products shown in the image are labeled with prices. The units are tagged as “Sponsored” and also have a white shopping label icon in the lower left corner.

You might not see these often, yet, but expect the format’s impression volume to increase over the time.

“Over the next year, we will continue to roll out this experience to more publishers, as well as pilot new surfaces like Google Image Search, where we also know shoppers go to look for inspiration,” Google said.

About The Author

Ginny Marvin

Ginny Marvin is Third Door Media's Editor-in-Chief, managing day-to-day editorial operations across all of our publications. Ginny writes about paid online marketing topics including paid search, paid social, display and retargeting for Search Engine Land, Marketing Land and MarTech Today. With more than 15 years of marketing experience, she has held both in-house and agency management positions. She can be found on Twitter as @ginnymarvin.