In a matter of a few years, Online Marketplace has become a highly competitive place. A marketer/seller has to do a lot more than just show up to the party in order to sell their products viably and profitably.

One of the most important tools in any online marketer’s arsenal when they wish to grab direct eyeballs from their potential customers is PLA or Product Listing Ads.

What exactly is PLA and what does it do?

Product Listing Ads (also called Shopping Ads or Google Shopping Ads) is an online advertising tool used by e-commerce brands and digital marketers on desktop and mobile to promote sales, boost website traffic, and generate qualified leads. Product listing consists of product images, real-time pricing information, and reviews.

PLAs are displayed in search results in Google and Bing.  They appear when someone enters a search term in google in that same product category. Their position is what makes them such an effective tool. These eye-catching product listing ads usually appear at the very top of the “search results” page.  So, they are often the first thing searchers see. These ads can appear to the right of search results too. Or, if searchers click on Google’s ‘shopping’ tab, they will be displayed even more prominently.

Product Listing ads work on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis and are in that manner different from other google ad tools.  Therefore, if you were to take out a product listing ad on Google, you would only pay for the times when a user clicked on that ad. No payments are made when users see the ad but don’t decide to click.

This makes every lead generated by a PLA a true and qualified lead, and that is why PLA is an efficient tool in terms of cost and outreach.

Advantages of using Product Listing Ads

We have already discussed how PLA ads offer an easy and efficient way to directly reach your target audience. Let’s discuss the advantages of PLA in some more detail to understand it better:

• Google search is the most widely used search engine in the world and most online shoppers search for products they wish to buy via google search. A slew of surveys and data confirm that placing product listing ads on google search can result in massive exposure just due to the sheer number of people who use Google to search for products.
• PLAs put your product and its information in the perfect spot for marketing. Even if the user does not click on it, your ad manages to get their attention.
• Product Listing ads are sales ads. The most attractive draw for a potential customer is the look and the price of the product. If they click on your PLA, there is a high chance they are going to buy.  That is why PLA offers a very high conversion rate compared to Google display ads.

So, PLAs are visible, attractively placed, and provide the easiest pathway between a customer and the seller and that is what makes them such great online advertising option for any brand or marketer.

How to set up product listing ads(in 4 easy steps)?

It is quite easy to set up PLAs.

• Set up an account in the Google Merchant Centre. You will need a Gmail account and will have to provide some information about your business.
• Verify to google that your business/store is authentic and you are the owner/manager of it. You will have to verify it via your website URL.
• PLA does not work on keywords as Google itself extracts useful information to make your ad.Although, if you want to see some relevant keywords in your ads, you can upload your product data to Google through an automated feed or a .txt file.

The product feed can also be integrated through Google content API. Although it is a technical process and requires an expert.

• Go to Google Ads to set up specific ad groups and targeting rules for your products. 

As there are no keyword rankings here, their placement is based on competitive auction bids. The cost per click rate is based on the category of the product.

Thus, it can be concluded that product listing ads are one of the most important online marketing tools if an online brand wishes to increase sales, awareness, and traffic. It is also ridiculously convenient for both buyer and seller which is just the cherry on the top.

If you make it easier for the shopper to come to you, they will do it more and more.

Need some help with your eCommerce strategy? Or, are you looking to build a brand from scratch? Are your social media pages in need of a complete overhaul?

Design Pundit has an eclectic team of Google Adwords and Search Engine Marketing experts that can help implement solutions to all these requirements and much more. Contact us today to learn more.