Product Listing Ad performance proves relevancy to searchers

Product Listing Ads are overwhelmingly more relevant to consumers' searches than text ads, according to new research released by Marin Software.

by Helen Leggatt

In July this year, the number of searchers that viewed a Product Listing Ad (PLA) and went on to click on it - the click through rate (CTR) - was 21% higher than the CTR for text ads.

Furthermore, the year-on-year the share of PLA clicks to text ads is up 93% as is the percentage of spend versus text ads.

Of course, all that means another rise - and Marin's findings show that PLA cost-per-clicks increased 53% year-on-year. In comparison, text ad CPCs rose 10%.

"From October through December 2012, when Google first transitioned shopping results in the US, PLAs experienced an almost exponential growth in impressions and clicks," writes Kye Mou on Marin's company blog.

"Since then, retailers have continued to embrace the richer and more engaging ad experience, providing online shoppers with highly relevant creative that include product details, images, and price."

Tags: CPC trends, CTR trends, Google, Product Listing Ads, search advertising, search engine, search marketing