A significant number of reports now continually highlight the importance of mobile devices for purchases that are made online, which in turn, makes the ‘purchase by mobile’ market a significant battleground for those looking to secure the next wave of customers. With this trend being one which is not expected to change anytime soon, Google has today announced two new ad formats which are being introduced that first and foremost, cater to mobile searches.
The first one is specifically designed to make searches made through image search on Google easier and more informative. The basic logic being that when you are searching for a specific image of a product, you are also likely to be interested in buying that product as well. As a result, now image searches will come with a small selection of ads shown at the top of the image search results page. According to Google, this solves a problem that many Google Image users had been looking for, with information now visible on how much certain products cost when they are searching for images of a product. The second ad format being introduced is not exactly a new one, but one which is being improved upon. Again, starting from today, those who use Google Search to look for stock near their current location will now see an improved ability to check stock levels at local retailers and will also find it easier to know if you can buy online and pickup in store. The second aspect, buy online and pick up in store, will need to be added by the retailer to the local product page before it is live, but once added, anyone landing on that ad or product page will see that the product is available as an option to pick up locally. While the improvements to real-time inventory levels is one which is designed to ensure that customers know that a product is in stock even before clicking through to the website. This information will be searched and identified by Google and then shown on the same page as the store’s opening hours, directions and other general information.
On the face of it, it does seem that these new ad formats are meant to be specifically designed to remedy the need to have to continually click through links before you find out that a product is available near you and through a certain retailer. However, there are also clear indications that this is designed to improve and increase the number of purchases that are made through Google and especially via Search on Mobile, especially considering these ads do seem to be rolling out to mobile in the initial stages. Although, it does seem likely that their desktop counterparts/alternatives will not be too far away.