Google announced new Google ad format, the Google Shopping Ads. E-commerce retailers have all the reasons to rejoice!

In 2015 alone, the market for E-commerce was RM4 billion just for retail itself. This does NOT include travel (hotels, flight tickets, ride-hailing) and Online media (ads + gaming). This is purely retail. You know, the likes of apparel, electronics, household goods, food, groceries, etc. In 2025, it is predicted to scale up 8x more, yielding a market cake of RM32 billion. Yummy! So, if you’re an e-commerce retailer, this is definitely a good news for you and you would want to take all the advantages possible to be ahead of the game. But how do you actually do that?

You see, the first thing that we always do in pursuit for answers, for pretty much anything in our daily lives today is running a quick search on Google. But Google has not really optimised the search results much for people who are actually in it for a shopping search. That was before. Today, Google officially announced what they call the Google Shopping Ads which will change quite the perspective. So if you’re searching for something and you might actually want to purchase it, Google will make it easier for you. Check out the difference in the search results below:

This is actually awesomer than you would actually think. It’s more than ‘just another ad format’. You might be aware that advertising on Google is very competitive as you’re fighting against similar keywords in the pursuit of getting the best bid. Naturally, e-commerce initiatives that are running enticing promotions are highly likely to place higher bid amounts to score better positioning. This means, Google will help you do the hard work of looking out for the best deal available in the market for the product that you’re looking for. Get it?

So, Google has been doing the experiment with 11street for the past 6 months. If you have seen this ad anytime recently, you’re one of the chosen one who got selected in the experiment. Now, this feature is available to ALL Google AdWords users.

Online shopping is fast becoming a trusted and preferred way of shopping for Malaysians. 30% of Malaysians are now already making purchases online, and 51% of offline sales are being influenced by research done online. The immersive visual experience as well as real-time prices and availability will help Malaysians shop better and faster, and help merchants increase their online marketing return on investment. Su Ann Lim, Industry Manager of Ecommerce and Travel, Google Malaysia

Peter Lee, VP of Marketing at 11street with Su Ann Lim

The key benefits of Google Shopping Ads for you, if you’re a retails, is that you can use Google Shopping Ads to promote the products that you sell, boost traffic to your website or local store, and find better qualified leads by putting product images, prices and your business name in front of people who are searching on Google. Similar to search ads, you will only pay when people click through to your website.

Pokdepinion: If you are an e-commerce retailer, you should totally dig into Google Shopping Ads and get your products available in the new format! If you are using e-commerce platform like Magento or WooCommerce, there are plugins already available for you to integrate, making it even easier.