Earlier this year, Google said that local intent was behind one-third of mobile searches on its site, and the company has been busy capitalizing on that data point ever since. Add to that the fact that mobile searches grew 130% during Q3 for the company and it’s easy to see why there’s been such heavy emphasis and development on its mobile services.
With a focus on local mobile searches for things like business and product listings, Google has been rolling out numerous mobile ad formats to help local businesses and national retailers alike capture increased conversions. The latest of which is the addition of its seller ratings ad format to the mobile platform, allowing searchers using Google on the mobile Web to see ratings of merchants within a traditional search text ad.
Just like its Web-based counterpart, the new mobile format allows advertisers to include a rating for their business, which is aggregated from various merchant review sites. Google says the ratings will only display in an ad when a merchant’s Online store has a rating of four or more stars and includes at least 30 reviews. Google cautions that these types of ads are only appropriate for “advertisers who provide users with paid goods or services or those that enable the buying or selling of products or services via a marketplace,” and that the new formats are only available in the US, UK and Germany.