Mountain View, California — Spreading the power of its recently popularized ‘plus-one’, and now Google has begun incorporating +1 button to AdWords, the search engine giant’s main advertising product, so users can recommend adverts to their friends and contacts, the company informed its AdWords customers this week.
As marketeers know, word of mouth is a powerful thing; On the web, word of mouth has become “word of click.” And Google is doing just that, turning its attention to its vast community on the web–friends and colleagues because people trust whom they know!
Much the same as Facebooks’ “like” button, Google, with its +1 button, simplified it for people to get recommendations in the SERPs from friends and colleagues online in the form of +1s in the SERPs while they are actually searching.
Earlier this month, the +1 button was made available to news sites and has been adopted by some web publishers. And now, Google +1 will also be seen on Google AdWords ads as well.
Google’s button was appended to AdWords on Google.com at the end of March and is now coming to Google.co.uk and few other countries as well, according to an announcement on the AdWords blog.
“Today, +1’s will start appearing on Google search pages globally,” Google Product Manager Nick Radicevic announced on Google’s AdSense blog. “We will be starting off with sites like google.co.uk, google.de, google.jp and google.fr, then expanding quickly to most other Google search sites soon after.”
The tool empower viewers to recommend ads to others they are connected with through various Google products, likely including its newly launched Google+ social network.
According to Google, the addition of +1 recommendations will help enhance the effectiveness of its customers’ AdWords campaigns by helping deliver more qualified traffic. “Think of the +1 button as a way for fans of your business to recommend what you offer, for all their friends and contacts to see,” Google’s email to advertisers read.
Users who are signed into their Google account can click the button and their friends and contacts will see that news story or page promoted in their search. The buttons will automatically begin appearing across ads over the next few weeks, as they will in organic search results pages.
In addition, Google has intelligently forged alliances with several large publications (see image above) such as The Telegraph, El Pais, The Independent, SnapDeal, and Last.fm.
According to Mashable, the search engine leader launched the +1 button last month as an attempt to further its presence on the web. The button functions much like the Facebook Like or Twitter Tweet button. The company says it may use +1 data as a signal for improving search results in the future.
“If +1 does not succeed, Bing, Yahoo, Blekko, and anyone else who can form partnerships with Facebook — the established social media network – will get a huge boon on social search, a vital part of how information will be found in the coming years,” states Rob D. Young of Search Engine Watch.
Here Is How The +1 Button Works On Ads:
In its US announcement, Google explains how the button works for Google AdWords, demonstrates the following example for a hypothetical Brian and a hotel in Madrid.
The example explains that Brian had an enjoyable stay at this hotel and then started researching accommodations for his next trip to Spain. Now when Brian signs into his Google account and sees one of your ads or organic search results on Google, he presumably click the +1 button on the ad to recommend it to his contacts to the world.
The AdWords blog further says, when next time Brian’s friend Mary is logged in and searching on Google and your page appears, she might notice a personalized comment letting her know that Brian +1’d it. So Brian’s +1 helps Mary decide that your site is worth checking out.
But making a recommendation is not instant and there are several hurdles to overcome. As almost a month on from news outlets adding the +1 button next to Twitter’s tweet button and Facebook’s like button (including on news stories on Journalism.co.uk), the button is very much third in line in terms of generating clicks.
Moreover, for a contact to notice a recommendation it relies on them searching for a keyword that the +1 user has shown interest in and the contact must also be logged into their Google account.
Besides, the button’s less than half-hearted adoption also suggests people do not want their searches sorted by the choices made by their friends and contacts, but organized by relevance to what the wider online community is reading.