I am sure you have heard of Google +, Google’s answer to the ever growing social media market. It was first released back in June, to people in the industry on an ‘invite only’ basis, however was released to the general public in September. It obviously is entering a hugely competitive market, however Google has its hard-core fans and it managed to be the fastest growing social network of all time, gathering 40 million users in just four weeks. This is all very well but at this point the network was just for consumers, people to people, no brand or company pages were allowed. That all changed at the beginning of November, businesses can now create their own brand page, much like the Facebook brand page.
This update produced a rejuvenated interest in Google + and its potential for businesses to engage in the social media landscape. Business pages can now appear in the natural listings on SERP’s where you can add them directly to your circles, assuming you are logged in to your Google account. Our very own Lucy Ingram would be delighted to show you the benefits of this for SEO, but why does this matter at all for paid search?
Well, as of last week Google announced the full release of Social Extensions in your Adwords account. Diving head first into the social media market and showing how much power it thinks the industry has on user behaviour. How will this work I hear you ask? Once you have set up your very own, shiny new brand page on Google + you will able to link it directly to your Adwords account, at a campaign level. This means that your paid search ads and Google + page now share +1’s, how lovely. The impact for your Google + page itself will not, in my opinion be that impressive. From my point of view the real winner in this relationship is your PPC ads. They will now not only benefit from the added authority of +1’s, but will also show a small selection of people who have +1’d your brand page. Your friends, your peers and all the other social media types will now be influencing your decisions on whether you click through paid search ads. The official Google AdWords blog claims that 71% of shoppers say that recommendations / reviews from friends and family have an influence on their purchasing decisions.
This is all rather good I would say and well worth doing, provided a number of things. One, your Google + page is managed well, produces original content and engages well with your consumer market and two, Google + isn’t another flop like its previous social ventures. Only time will tell. Oh and make sure you do a good job with your PPC activity too, that helps.
