Dominating page one on the Google SERP (Search Engine Results Page) has long been a goal of marketers everywhere. Theoretically the more times your company shows at the top of the page, on the right side of the page, and in organic results, the better. It simply increases your odds of getting the traffic you want to your site.
Google implemented rules years ago that restrict the number of ads for any one URL on a search results page. You can’t set up 10 separate logins and 10 separate AdWords accounts all bidding on the same keywords directing to the same landing page. You will get banned from results if you try something like that.
So up until recently you could show up a maximum of 2 times on a page – once in the ads, and once organically. Now that’s changed.
PLA (Product Listing Ads)
What are Product Listing Ads? They are a type of PPC (Pay Per Click) Ad. Direct from Google:
Product Listing Ads are search ads that include richer product information, such as product image, price, and merchant name, without requiring additional keywords or ad text. Whenever a user enters a search query relevant to an item in your Google Merchant Center account, Google will automatically show the most relevant products along with the associated image, price and product name.
Here’s how they currently show up in Google SERP:
Here’s a brief video to help explain how to set up PLA’s from either your Google Merchant Center, or Adwords:
So How Does This Impact Page One?
As a PPC company, we can now help you show your products multiple times on the first page. Now you have a 3rd, 4th, 5th or more opportunities to show up on page one. As an example, I went online to search for Michael Kors Watches, and the retailer The Bay is heavily advertising those watches. As you can see below, they appear three times in the ads and four times overall on the page: Twice in PLA’s, once as a text ad, and once in the organic results:
For clarity, this is the loophole. You were never able to do this before.
What’s Even More Exciting?
Currently, the SERP’s show in this order:
Three paid text ads, then organic results, PLA’s to the right.
PLA’s usually show on the right hand side above ad position #4 as per the screen shot above. The exciting news is PLA’s are moving to the middle of the page, ABOVE the top level text ads. So SERP’s will show in the following order:
PLA’s, then three paid text ads, then organic results.
This will push organic results down the page even further than they are currently allowing you to dominate page one even if you don’t show organically!
If you have a product to sell, and you want to get found, Google is making it easier than ever to get ahead of the competition.
Happy Marketing!
Dave Burnett
About The Author
Marketing Team
The AOK Marketing Team is a diverse group of amazing individuals driven to help all of our clients succeed. Great people are everywhere, and we believe that people should control their workday, their work environment, and where they live. We have team members in 9 countries: United States, Canada, Egypt, Belgium, Ireland, Australia, India, Pakistan, and Hong Kong.
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