Are Google Shopping Campaigns Expanding to TV Placements?
Google Shopping advertisers may have noticed an interesting discovery recently: TV screens now show as a device for some Shopping campaigns.
Our Retail Search specialists first started noticing impressions for this new placement starting in September.
“It actually looks like this goes back to September 1st, where impressions first started showing for some of our accounts,” says Josh Brisco, Senior Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy.
Smart TVs, Gaming Consoles, and Chromecasts As New Device Type?
At first look, it seems a bit ambiguous as to what kind of TVs Shopping campaigns could display for.
It appears, however, that within Google Ads there is a definition of what kind of TV’s qualify as a device for this inventory.
“It’s likely that these are devices that stream TV content such as smart TVs, gaming consoles (XBOX), and connected devices like Chromecast,” explains Brisco.
“It’s also stated that this targeting option is only available for Display and Video campaigns.”
“What’s interesting is that we are seeing impressions within Shopping campaigns. These may be impressions from people browsing on Google via a Smart TV device.”
-Josh Brisco, Senior Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy
“At the moment there are very few clicks and the average CPC is $.01, so I wouldn’t worry about this racking up spend any time soon — but it’s something to keep an eye out for.“
Brisco also notes that performance in terms of impressions has been “mixed” from retailer to retailer.
“While this is exciting in that we can reach in-market audiences on a new device type, thus widening Shopping’s reach, the inherent limitations due to limited audience usage of eligible devices and an extremely low interaction rate, make TV screens for Shopping a very low-impact medium for now.”
At the moment there are no official support pages or statements from Google about TV devices being eligible for Shopping placements, but it’s likely that there will be more official information about this new inventory in 2019.
Google Is Quietly Testing New Ad Inventory
This finding follows several other discoveries in recent months, including ads displaying within the Google News Feed as well as video for Showcase Shopping.
Want to learn more about Google Shopping?
Q4 Google Shopping Best Practices and Advanced Strategies
Google Shopping | How to Target Every Part of the Funnel
The 2018 Google Shopping Guide
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