The Future of Google PLAs?
Just before Google’s Q2 2013 earnings came out, Business Insider examined the “massive revenue driver” that is Google Product Listing Ads. Here are the key takeaways of their analysis:
- close to 10,000 U.S. advertisers are now on Google PLAs (and rising)
- PLAs push Amazon SERPs further down the page
- And here’s the big one: “Google may be planning to upgrade PLAs so that people can make purchases in the ad without ever actually arriving at the third-party site.”
Does that 3rd point sound like something familiar? Google could be making a legitimate push for an Amazon Marketplace-like program sometime in the future. Some of our experts weigh in.
Tien Nguyen, CPC Strategy Co-founder and Director of Technology, says, “If that’s true, it’ll make accurate prices/stock information so crucial, like it is on Amazon. I can’t imagine Google trusting merchants to have 100% accuracy so I can see a Google marketplace going either of 2 ways:
- Google will be like Amazon and only accept people with really high merchant ratings.
- Or, the one-click purchase option will only be available to specific merchants who qualify and be closed off to the masses, who will have the regular PLA option (and have shoppers be redirected to their site).”
Our CEO, Rick Backus, closes, “The Google Marketplace is coming. It might not be in the same form as Amazon but it’s clearly something they are working on.”
If that’s true, it will be HUGE for online retailers to get a head start on management for the program.
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