Product Listing Ads are about to gain a new placement, right at the top of image searches in Google. This announcement was one of a few made at the Shoptalk tech event in Vegas this past Monday. With Google confirming that they will begin a slow rollout of shopping ads onto image Search results pages.

The soon to be introduced ad placement will take up the entire first line of screen space, which otherwise would have been taken up by images. According to Business Insider, Google has confirmed that these changes are taking place because people are already using image search as a starting point for shopping.

Source: adwords.blogspot.com.au

Apparently, some of the most common questions people search when browsing images include how much items cost, and where items can be purchased. Google aims to use the new placement to help answer those questions, by including the price and online location of the items within the ads.

“Whether they’re looking for a new sofa or the perfect pair of earrings, people who search and shop on their smartphones at least nice a week say that product images are the shopping feature they turn to most.” Google’s Jonathan Alferness wrote in an announcement post.

According to Search Engine Land, the new ad placement may be launching as soon as Monday the 23rd. It will now be considered part of the Google Search Network. This means Product Listing Ads will automatically begin displaying in image search results, for those with existing AdWords shopping campaigns with search partners selected.

It will be interesting to see how the new placement effects AdWords campaign performance for advertisers and how users will respond to the ads.

Have your say! Are you excited to see Google broadening PLA reach via Google Images?

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