Approaching the holiday season of 2018, shoppers are looking forward to buy more items and shops hoping to get the most of the year's sales as the year ends.
Here, Google debuts video in Shopping Showcase ads and Shoppable Image ads, to help advertisers get new customers. The two ad formats are tailored for retail and brand advertisers so they can reach users using Google Search and Google Image search respectively.
The first one, the video in Shopping Showcase ad is to extend advertisers video assets.
As part of Google's multi-image Shopping format that was rolled out in 2017, video in Shopping Showcase ads integrate with advertisers' YouTube videos, allowing them to link their video content to images within the search network.
With the format, according to Google, retail and brand marketers can extend the footprint of their video materials by placing the content prominently on their product landing pages.
When clicked, the ad directs users to the advertisers' Google-hosted landing page that features the promotions and descriptions. The video ad will play in full at the top of the page, presenting users with a list of products from the advertiser’s product feed.
Typically, this type of ad appears on brand and broad queries.
Google touted the ad type as a vehicle for attracting new customers, the top-of-funnel advertising slot reportedly driving results 3.6 times higher than the average click-through rate, as well as 20 percent more conversion credit with first click attribution.
The ad format is available to advertisers that have previously run Showcase Shopping ads.
The second ad format, is the Shoppable Image ads. This type of ad is aimed to attract new customers whey they are looking for images on Google Image search, as well as on other websites.
On Google Image search, the Shoppable Image ads are large units, and products showcased have their images labeled with prices. The units are shown as 'Sponsored', and also have a white shopping label icon in the lower left corner.
When seen on third-party websites and clicked, the ads will show a carousel of product listing ads with product similar to what is shown on the image.
According to Google, more than one-third of holiday shoppers in 2017 searched for images before shopping in a store. And Shoppable Image Ads are meant to get advertisers' products up front to those eager shoppers, as they look for images on Google as well as on other sites
Initially, Google doesn't have that much advertisers using this ad format. But expect to see an increase of as the ads' impression volume increases over 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.