Dive Brief:
- Google is adding “buy” buttons to display ads served via its network for an initial limited number of merchants.
- The buttons will be directly tied to users’ Google account payment information.
- The company is also rolling out an Android pay feature that works for both in-app and in-store purchases.
Dive Insight:
Similar to Pinterest recently adding “buy it” buttons to pinned products, Google is adding “buy” buttons within ads served through its network. The feature, called Purchases, is currently only available for a handful of merchants and will only be served in the U.S. for now. Google is also introducing an Android pay feature that will work with in-app and in-store purchases. Combining these two features could streamline mobile shopping for users who find what they are looking for via search.
In other recent Google news, it also made a purchase addition to YouTube ads with TrueView ads that serve essentially as click-to-buy buttons, taking viewers to outside websites where they can make a purchase. Also, some results from Google’s April algorithm update that favored mobile-friendly pages are in and they aren’t pretty for websites that didn’t adjust – traffic to non-mobile friendly websites fell 12% compared to mobile-friendly sites after the organic search change.
Google reports second-quarter earnings Thursday after the closing bell and eyes will be on the search giant's expenses, mobile growth and ad business.
