Ratings & Reviews Added to Product Listing Ads

As announced in a recent blog post, Google AdWords is beta testing product ratings (on a scale of 1 -- 5 stars) and the number of reviews being displayed "across all Product Listing Ads where we have product review data available."

According to Google, the testing runs until October 2014 and after that merchants will have the choice to share/display review data or not. AdWords staff reported a higher click-through rate when reviews and ratings are displayed. A few important pointers to keep in mind:

• Products must have 3 reviews in order for product ratings to be eligible to show.
• Product ratings on PLAs are only visible to users on desktop computers. This feature is not supported on tablets or mobile.
• Merchants can directly submit review/rating data to Google, or use an Approved Third Party Product Review Aggregator.
• This feature is limited to merchants targeting the US. However, it will be rolling out internationally in the near future.

• Even if your product reviews/ratings meet Google's requirements, they might not be shown. From AdWords staff:

  "We'll show ratings on Product Listing Ads when we determine that the information will be accurate and relevant for the user."

If you would like reviews/ratings displayed after October, fill out the Product Ratings form to get started. For more information, visit the Google Merchants Help site.