Google appears to be testing a Product Listing Ad unit, that instead of listing particular products from a search, it is listing products from a specific brand, broken down into multiple categories.
As you can see, the products are all PowerLine products, but instead of the usual individual products we normally see in the Product Listing Ad, we instead are seeing 4 different categories that the company sells: thread & floss, fishing lines & leaders, networking, and power.
It does allow for more generic advertising in shopping ads than has been previously allowed. Currently, advertisers using PLAs must advertise a specific product with pricing, while these ones allow much more flexibility in advertising product lines or categories, rather than only a specific product.
This new format would open up options for companies that tend to sell a lot of similar items but with slightly different model numbers to also advertise using PLAs. Think of companies selling things like printer cartridges, computer memory/motherboards/etc and vehicle parts.
Dr. Pete Meyers from Moz was the first to notice this test.
Paid shopping by category spotted on Google (possible test) — pic.twitter.com/HNmWe5P7a9
— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) July 8, 2015
Jennifer Slegg
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