If I had a dollar for every time someone “caught” Google testing a new feature, I’d have enough money to put Oprah back on the air (we miss you, O!). However, sometimes those experimental features could have quite an impact and I think this one could qualify!
Google has confirmed with Search Engine Watch that they are, in fact, testing a new feature in AdWords that will display a click count beneath select advertisers PPC ads. I couldn’t get any results to populate with this feature (this seems to be a trend for me), but the screenshot from SEW looks like this:
Google has yet to release any information about which and/or how advertisers or ads are chosen to receive this extra line of ad text including the number of clicks for that advertiser.
I look forward to seeing how this feature is received as it could greatly change the way users choose the ads they click on. If your ad has 156,000 clicks and the ad featured directly underneath yours has over 59 million, the average user will naturally believe the ad with a higher number of clicks must be more trustworthy or have a better deal or whatever else they may deduce from this data. This might be a good time to get out there and do some competitor research and brush up on what you have to go up against!
How do you see this feature changing your account metrics? Do you plan on making any ad copy or targeting changes to offset the feature? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
For further information about this topic, check out the following links:
- Google AdWords Experiments with a Click Count Feature-Search Engine Watch
- Official: Google Testing Display of Click Counts On Paid Search Ads-Search Engine Land
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more news updates from PPC Hero!
