Google Merchant Promotions will be approved faster this holiday, Google says

It’s that time of year. The ad platforms are starting to wheel out their holiday advertising updates. On Tuesday, Google announced new capabilities for Local campaigns and Shopping Promotions.

Local campaign updates. Local campaigns, Google’s automated campaign type for local businesses, can now optimize for store visits indicators such as clicks on directions or calls.

This can be seen as a proxy for store visits when Google doesn’t have enough actual store visits for a location. The algorithm will aim to optimize for users likely to take those actions on a store listing.

Multi-location retailers can now set up location extensions in Local campaigns from a list pulled from Google Maps.

Merchant Promotions updates. Getting Merchant Promotions — set up in Google Merchant Center — approved in time for your sale can be a big pain. Google says this holiday there will be “near instant promotion approvals on eligible offers” in the U.S. In addition, advertisers in the U.S. will be able to make edits to live Promotions without causing long re-approvals.

Google Shopping will feature more sales filters for users that are based on Merchant Promotions. For example, it will support flash sales in the U.S. and users will be able to filter for those types of offers.

Why we care. The holidays are always critical for retailers, but with the pandemic crippling local retail, in particular this year, there’s even more on the line.

Google is also hosting a Think Retail on Air virtual event Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. ET. You can register here if interested.