Google offers AR shopping on search, shows product feeds on YouTube Shorts

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Google is bringing AR shopping to customers by allowing brands to have 3D models of their products appear directly on Google Search. Shoppers can experience products from different angles and interact with them in a real environment, increasing their buying confidence even as they remain in their own spaces. To enable this, brands will have to offer 3D content feeds or update their existing feeds within Google's Manufacturer Centre, a platform that allows merchants to upload detailed product information.

google ar shopping ads Google is also offering highly visual shopping ads, adding visual-first results on apparel queries to help shoppers discover more products and brands directly from Search. These ads will appear in dedicated ad slots throughout the page and clearly labelled as ads, later this year. Apparel shoppers, in particular, will be able to see more visual results from brands and retailers, as well as recommendations from lifestyle magazines, blogs, video reviews and more. According to Google, categories such as apparel have seen great success as consumers tend to explore information in more visual and browsable ways.

On the visual front, Google is also unveiling new ways to showcase multiple product images within shopping ads in the US, and information such as product descriptions, reviews, and product availability. No further action is required of advertisers. Meanwhile, through its multisearch function, shoppers can also search by taking a photo and asking a question at the same time. This makes it easier for them to find items even if they do not have the words to describe what they are looking for.

Meanwhile, brands will soon be able to promote their loyalty benefits to potential customers in the US when they are shopping across Google in the coming months. According to Google, loyalty programmes represent a meaningful relationship between brands and customers, and this feature will soon be allowed to be integrated with Google ads.

Campaigns automatically scale to YouTube Shorts

Short-form content is becoming more popular these days and Google has been experimenting with ads in YouTube Shorts since last year. Later in 2022, brands will be able to connect their product feed to their campaigns, making their video ads on YouTube Shorts more shoppable.

With product feeds expanding to YouTube Shorts, brands can now show beautifully curated product images to users watching short-form content, and inspire potential customers on YouTube Search. This feature will soon be available through Video action campaigns, with early experiments starting soon for Performance Max campaigns. According to Google, this is a key step on its road to developing a long-term Shorts monetisation solution for its creators and brands, which it will share more about soon.

To help brands better understand the business impact of its ads, Google is also introducing lift testing later this year. Brands will be able to run Search and Conversion Lift tests directly in Google ads, Display and Video 360. Where Conversion Lift tests enable brands to measure incremental conversions based on users and geography, Search Lift tests will allow it to measure the impact of its YouTube campaigns on driving organic searches on Google and YouTube. These new functions will roll out globally by the end of the second quarter.

Meanwhile, on the ad front, Google recently blocked eight million ads related to the war in Ukraine and removed ads for more than 60 state-funded media sites across its platforms. It also separately instituted a "Sensitive Event" section under its ad policies to ensure that ads on its platform do not exploit the situation in Ukraine.

Photo courtesy: 123RF

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