The AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative

Black Friday may be behind us, but Cyber Monday, one of the busiest days of the year for online retailers, has just begun. And just as users' searches for Cyber Monday deals and information have increased over time, so have their expectations about the types of information they want from the ads.

Last week, the Official Google Blog provided an overview of some of the new search ad formats we've introduced over the last few months. These new formats are part of our AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative and showcase the ways we've worked to include richer types of information in our ads. This initiative is Google's next chapter in search advertising and over the next year it'll be a major focus for AdWords, so we'd like to give you an idea of what to expect.

The AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative has two themes: ad extensions and new ad models.

• Ad extensions offer you the ability to enhance your existing text ads with additional relevant information. Some examples of ad extensions include Ad Sitelinks which allow you to provide additional links pointing to specific information on your site and Product Extensions which allow you to show images and prices of relevant products from your Google Merchant Center account. By putting the most salient information directly wiithin the ad, ad extensions are designed to help users more quickly and easily find the products and services they seek on Google.
• New ad models are formats that offer better solutions to more complicated queries. For example, Comparison Ads enable users to specify the exact product or service they're looking for and compare multiple offers in a single location. New ad models also offer advertisers new pricing models, like cost per action for Product Listing Ads. Our new ad models are designed to make it easier for users to find exactly what they want and for you to reach more users with better information.

The AdWords New Ad Formats Initiative is part of our core mission to deliver the right information to the right user at the right time. As more and more users come online searching for products and services, we'll continue to test new ad extensions and new ad models that make it easier for them to find the information they're searching for.

We hope you have a successful Cyber Monday and look forward to working with you to make AdWords even better in the new year.

Posted by Dan Friedman, Inside AdWords crew