Google has announced the introduction of shoppable ads on Google images, providing more ways for retailers to showcase products and reach potential customers.
Visuals are key to online shopping and Google said in its blog post: “We’ve seen that 50 percent of online shoppers said images of the product inspired them to purchase”.
The shoppable ad format applies to sponsored images only and will show product details such as brand and price when hovered over.
Retailers will be able to highlight multiple products within a single ad unit.
Google is currently testing the format on a small percentage of traffic with select retailers, and broad queries such as “home office ideas” and “abstract art”, but plans to roll it out to further retailers and categories over the coming months
Google also announced that Showcase Shopping Ads would be extended to Google images.
Both Instagram and Pinterest, known for stunning visuals, have versions of shoppable ads. Instagram runs Shopping Posts, while Pinterest announced Product Pins (taking over from the old Buyable Pin format) last October.
Google’s latest formats show its keenness not to lose any market share, but to make itself an equally rich visual shopping destination.
