Show Your Star Ratings in Google Ads

Google Ads can be one of the best tactics to use in your online marketing strategy. They might seem simple and not impactful, but there is more to them than meets the eye. Did you know you can set up your Google Ads campaigns to display multiple additional elements? Star ratings are one of those elements and they're one of the best ways to draw attention to your ad and boost click-through rates.

Online marketing has so many facets these days, that it's hard to keep track of everything. However, some of the "oldest" methods still work best. Google Ads are considered part of a search engine marketing (SEM) strategy.

SEM is defined as a method of placing your business in search engine result pages (SERPs), which includes both paid and organic strategies. So, despite all the fancy tech and features that Google is known for, their strongest product is still their search engine. Hence the success of Google Ads and why it will probably always be Google's cash cow.

Before continuing, consider downloading our in-depth Google Ads Guide! Just click below:

Now, back to the topic at hand:

How do Google Ads work?

If a Google Ad campaign is done correctly, the ad appears at the top of a related search. Advertisers choose the right keywords to trigger their ads. If the ad is clicked, the advertiser is charged a certain amount depending on several factors (e.g. keywords chosen, bids, budget, etc.).

This system can really boost website traffic to your site without any technical issues. And if your website converts these visitors into customers, Google actually likes that and charges you less for future clicks. These click prices are usually referred to as cost-per-click (CPC).

As we mentioned, there are lots of things you can do to make your Google Ad stand out. That includes loads of different ad extensions, which you can read about in the overview we've created below:

In this article, we'll focus on the extension called "seller ratings":

Seller ratings

In addition to the organic search results, Google Ads also allows various other pieces of information to be displayed.

In the ad displayed below, the stars are part of Google Ads’ ad extensions. With ad extensions, information such as additional pages (site links), location, or telephone numbers can also be added to an ad. These extensions can really draw the user's attention to the ad.

The stars are added by the automatic ad extension “Seller ratings”. Unlike manual extensions, automatic ad extensions cannot be set directly in a Google Ads account. Here, the link works by domain specification. A domain’s collected reviews and ratings are sent to Google. If the domain in a Google Ads ad corresponds to a domain with ratings, the stars can be shown.

The prerequisites are:

• there must be at least 100 reviews and ratings (in most cases) from different users within the past 24 months for each domain/country where the ad is displayed

• the overall rating must be at least a 3.5 out of 5 (currently, lower ratings can be displayed as well)

• Google and/or its partners have completed a research evaluation of your site

All existing reviews and ratings (possibly from various review providers) are aggregated. How many and which reviews and ratings there are can be checked here:

https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/seller?q=yourdomainwithouthttp://www.

Example: https://www.google.co.uk/shopping/seller?q=yourshop.co.uk

Product ratings

Product ratings are very prominent within Google Shopping ads.

Once again, your reviews have to be "given" to Google in order for them to be shown. All existing ratings are calculated to form an average star rating.

The prerequisites for displaying product ratings in Google Shopping are:

• Shops must have collected at least 50 reviews across their entire product feed for these reviews to be displayed.
• Shops must share all their reviews with Google, including low ratings.
• As a minimum, the shop needs to send Google the full reviews feed at least once a month (this can be done automatically with a Google-certified reviews provider like Trusted Shops).

It can be a bit confusing. Keep in mind that you will need 50 product reviews across your entire product offer. However, the stars that appear in the ads may be a compilation from multiple sources (i.e. other sellers who sell the same product). If you are the only retailer that sells a specific product (or at least, you are the only one that has it listed in your Merchant Account), then only your product rating will appear.

If someone clicks on the ad, it is advisable that you display your product reviews on the product page. These product ads can also be shown in the universal search. As you can see below, Shopping Ads appear at the top and standard Google Ads right below them. If Google thinks that a user's search terms are for a product search, there's a good chance Google Shopping Ads will appear at the top of the SERPs.

Stars appear everywhere in the SERPS. It's clear they can definitely be a game-changer when you're fighting for precious Google real estate and of course, those valuable clicks.

Do star ratings appear elsewhere on Google?

Shutterstock/KID_A

Of course, there are plenty of other places where star ratings appear throughout Google. For example, it's possible to display them in the organic results. If you can manage to get that going consistently, that can be a really valuable channel for getting traffic to your site.

Google Maps is another place where Google shows off star ratings. Naturally, this makes the most sense for brick-and-mortar shops.

Google Knowledge Graphs (those windows that pop up on the right side of the screen sometimes) are another place where star ratings appear.

Trusted Shops has created an overview of the different star ratings throughout Google. Download it now: