Google Testing Automated PLAs

By Tinuiti Team

Jun 11 2015

Google Automated Testing in Shopping Tab

Retailers may have noticed Google’s latest testing within the Shopping Tab. In reference to the below example, Google is not using Promotional text created by an advertiser – rather they are dynamically inserting what appears in the Detail section of the comparison page.

If this type of testing becomes a mainstay – it could directly impact click-through-rate.

In the example below all the listings have Promotional copy that matches the Details section from the shopping tab.

Example 1: Google Automated PLA

Example 2: The Automated Google PLA testing can also be seen from within the comparison page in the Shopping Tab.

Example 3: Below are two SERPs that compare an advertiser’s promotional copy vs. an automated promotional copy by Google, based off details related to tax and shipping (two added costs retailers set within their Google Merchant Center or feed).

While this could help improve click-through-rate for some retailers – those who unfortunately do not offer free shipping (and include tax) will not be able to offer any promotional copy to be automated by Google.

At this time, all automated promotional copy is being pulled from the detail pages and as far as we can tell never mixes promotional copy vs. automated promotional copy in the same SERP.