PRODUCT ADS ON GOOGLE SHOPPING: The Importance of High Quality Images

So, you’ve built your website. All preparations have been made to begin selling your product catalog. The website is fully white hat optimized, product pages have had all titles and descriptions and alternative text checked for organic optimization. It’s now time to sell. Very steady organic traffic could be considered a lofty goal to have for a new store as it also happens to take the longest to produce profitable results. As such, eCommerce stores generally must rely on some form of online advertising to increase the reach of their influence and attract new customers. At nearly 70% of the search market share and reporting around 18 billion searches performed a year, the top pick for an online advertising channel goes directly to Google and the AdWords system. September 2014 marks the official transition to a new, retail-centric type of product advertising in AdWords dubbed Google Shopping. Roughly 90% of consumers in the United States alone rely on search engines to source and purchase products online. Of that, nearly half utilize mobile devices to stay eternally connected to the online consumer channel.

The efficiency of Product Ads on Google rely heavily on optimized components of a product page in an online store such as title and description. However the human brain is more naturally attracted to imagery as opposed to text-based information. More so than ever, eCommerce businesses rely on very high-quality, web friendly product images to succeed in marketing and eventually selling product lines. High quality product images ignite the emotional part of the human brain to produce a chemical reaction that drives an individual to make a decision. At the same time, the logical portion of the brain is able to determine the difference between a business that takes pride in what they do by going the extra mile and a business that cuts corners. When choosing to advertise products online with Google Shopping it is not only a recommendation that product images be very high quality, but there are strict guidelines on quality standards that can spell the difference between actually being able to list those items on the Google Shopping network.

“In order to provide a high-quality experience to our users, the product data provided to Google needs to accurately describe your items and has to reflect the status of the products on your website at all times. If your product data doesn’t meet our quality standards, your products will be removed from Google Shopping until the issues have been addressed.” Google Merchant Center Help

There is no sense in risking precious sales by not utilizing high-quality product images both in-store and on Google Shopping. A study by compete showed that 25% of consumers were dissatisfied with a product purchased online because it “was not as described.” By assuring that all product images meet SEO standards and Google Shopping guidelines, online store owners can better guarantee customer satisfaction because the product image displayed exactly what the customer received. Roughly 50 million US consumers per year, between the ages of 18 and 65, will search for a product on Google. Store owners owe it to themselves to be as optimized as possible to drive more sales and secure more return customers. High quality product images can spell the difference between profit or loss at the end of the next quarter. Are you willing to take that chance?