Google introduces product listing ads in India

Internet giant Google today said it has introduced product listing ads that would appear from now on shopping-related queries on Google.co.in.

It said the ad format would help users easily find and compare relevant products and prices, with clear product images and links to fine tune what searchers are looking for.

"Every day, millions of shoppers use Google search as a starting point to research and discover products to purchase online and offline," it said in a statement. "To better serve these shoppers, Google India is introducing a new ad format in India called Product Listing Ads. This new format connects users to rich product-information such as product images, price and brands."
 
The product listing ads will be targetted at merchants to present their business and promote their products.

"We're excited about building delightful shopping experiences for consumers in close partnership with merchants. The new Product Listing Ads will help shoppers turn their intentions into actions lightning fast. Today's changes are a first step toward providing technology, tools and traffic to help power the Indian retail ecosystem," Google said.

Google says these ads would improve the quality of leads by showcasing what exactly is for sale and at what price, helping shoppers make informed purchase decisions.

These adds, would also get the merchants a broader reach.  For a given shopping-related search, the product listing ads unit will feature listings from several advertisers. The unit could include two or more listings from the same merchant.  Also, when relevant to the user's search, these Ads may also show alongside text ads.

With the use of product-targeting technology, merchants won't need to use keywords. Product listing ads are matched with commercial searches using the information provided by merchants in their merchant centre account.

The product listing ads will initially be placed on the right-hand side of the search results page above text ads and be labelled as 'sponsored'. For example, when a shopper enters a search for 'mobile phones', product listing ads will appear like this: