Google began testing shoppable ads within image searches that only apply to sponsored ads in an effort to capitalize
on “visual shoppers.”
The test is pretty controlled, with only a small percentage of users who search for certain broad topics — such as home office ideas, shower tiles, and
abstract art — having the ability to see the test.
“Shoppers aren’t just doing their searches on Google.com,” wrote Surojit Chatterjee, vice president of product management
at Shopping, in a blog post. “We’ve seen that 50% of online shoppers said images of the product inspired them to purchase, and increasingly, they’re turning to Google
Images.”
The move puts Google in direct competition with Pinterest, which also announced a similar service on Tuesday. Pinterest, however, bills its services as a visual search
engine.
The ad units act in a way that is similar to shoppable pins on Pinterest where advertisers can tag for sale multiple items within a photo. Hovering above the price tag icon in the
photo reveals the prices of the item, along with the brand name and other information.
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Volume of searches is the one benefit that Google holds over most engines, including Pinterest, but what
about Amazon’s marketplace, which has been dominating ecommerce?
co-founder at Constructor.io. “About half of shoppers beginning a product search will go straight to Amazon, or will be directed to an Amazon product through a Google search. By inserting ways to
purchase products directly into images, Google can potentially both take a greater share of initial product searches, but also earn more referral dollars by guiding people away from
Amazon.
He said instead of a shopper first finding something they might want in a Google image search, then looking for it on Amazon, Google can short circuit that interaction by
taking that shopper to exactly what they want to buy from the image.
Google also said it will bring Showcase Shopping ads, which historically only appear in textual search results, to
image search.