Google has announced a variety of new features for Google Shopping designed to boost business for brick-and-mortar merchants.
“There are brand new ways for people to find and engage with businesses, and it’s becoming critical for marketers to remove friction at every step of the consumer journey,” the company wrote in a press release.
The company points out that with almost 80 percent of shoppers visiting a store when they need an item right away, Google is expanding affiliate location extensions to video campaigns on YouTube. The company revealed that adding this feature to TrueView in-stream and bumper ads can increase clickthrough rates by over 15 percent.
There will also be new local catalog ads on display to help shoppers discover products before they visit a store. One-third of shoppers say finding inspiration is something they enjoy most about the shopping experience.
“This interactive experience highlights a hero image and your inventory in an easy-to-scroll, mobile layout that helps shoppers explore your products. It also features in-store availability and detailed pricing information,” the company explained. “This new format can complement your traditional print campaigns – including catalogs, flyers, and circulars – with the added audience and measurement benefits of digital ads.”
The new program allows point-of-sale or inventory data providers, like Cayan, Pointy, Linx and yReceipts, to provide sales and inventory data to Google for merchants. In addition, retailers can showcase their local inventory for free on the “See What’s In Store” feature on the search knowledge panel.
Finally, new price benchmarks in AdWords will be available soon to show Shopping advertisers how other retailers are pricing the same products.
Since its launch, thousands of retailers have requested to join Google Shopping, and more than 70 retailers are currently live on the program. The company says that early testing shows that these retailers on average see an increase in total clicks and conversions at a lower overall cost per click and conversion, compared to running Shopping ads alone.