AdWords Plus Box

This is in a similar spirit as my prior post about Google Checkout (how it increases CTR)

Like that, it applies if you have an online store, and do advertising on AdWords. With the additional requirement of having your products listed in “Google Base” (previously done under “Froogle”). Something you should be doing anyway (though that’s another post!)

Google has quietly rolled out the “AdWords Plus Box”, in beta, for a while. But most people don’t realize how to get it, or how it works

I’d give my store as an example, but I don’t want to get a ton of clicks from people just playing with it!

I’ll give you an example, from “JomaShop”. If trying this on your own, then please don’t click on the ad (or product links) … unless you’re actually interested in the watches. As a fellow AdWords advertiser I don’t want them paying for “curiosity” traffic!

So I searched for “mavodo watches” and “movado watches”.

One of the resulting ads is this -

That last line with the plus box and “Show products …” is the AdWords Plus Box.

If you click on that box it will show actual product listings, with images (when applicable).

Google takes some sample products and populates the listings.

Sample listing, for Movado watches

You only pay when someone clicks on your actual ad or a specific product. So it doesn’t cost you when someone clicks the plus box to see the listing.

In most cases it won’t be showing all the products you have available. But it gives a sample.

So it’s a way to let searchers take a peek into your store, without it costing you. If they do click, they’re more qualified (on average) than if they had just seen your ad.

It’s a beautiful thing to see your ad expand like that. You have just a regular ad, with the cool “Plus Box” line. And then after that click, your ad expands to take up a Lot of space … pushing the other ads way down.

I discovered some interesting pieces to online marketing, and it was fun to write up my case study!