Skip to main content

Google wants to make ads more useful by showing prices for services within them

google removes medical records podcasts play search 0001
Image used with permission by copyright holder
It’s about to get a whole lot easier to find the prices of goods and services through Google. The search giant is launching a change to its ads to show prices for services straight from search — without having to click through to the website in question.

The new feature is called “price extensions,” and it essentially shows a menu of a company’s goods and services, along with how much they cost.

“Whether it’s weekend baseball tickets or temporary storage space, people want to know what their options are and how much they cost before deciding what to buy,” said the company in a blog post.

When price extensions are shown in ads, they’ll appear as rows of information, which will include the name of the service, a short description, and the price of the service, along with a link to the appropriate page for the service on the company’s website.

Of course, the new feature is helpful for users who want to be able to quickly and easily see prices for products and services, but it’s also apparently great for businesses who are doing the advertising. According to the blog post, ads with price extensions reportedly showed 18 percent higher click through rate compared to ads that didn’t show price extensions, at least for a company called Extra Space Storage.

Businesses can also create multiple price extensions with start and end dates — perfect for showing different prices during a promotion and ensuring that price remain accurate during the promotion and after it ends.

Price extensions will be an available option for all AdWords users over the next few days. The feature is only available in English, and currently will only show for mobile text ads being shown in the top ad position.

Editors' Recommendations

Christian de Looper
Christian’s interest in technology began as a child in Australia, when he stumbled upon a computer at a garage sale that he…
Google and Qualcomm are making Android updates faster, supporting them longer
galaxy s20 plus ultra fe buying guide late 2020 range screen

Apple's iPhones have long been lauded for their ability to support updates four or five years down the line, and it looks like Android phones are finally on their way to getting similar support. Google and Qualcomm have announced a new collaboration that will result in enhanced and prolonged chipset-level support for software updates, allowing Snapdragon-based phones to receive up to three updates (four versions of Android in total, including the version they ship with), and making it easier than ever for phone makers to build updates for their phones.

The new collaboration builds on Google's Project Treble system, which Google initiated in 2017 in an effort to make Android more modular, and as a result, easier to update. With Treble, phone makers can update the top-level interface of the phone, including any major changes to Android, without touching the low-level software that talks directly to the hardware. But that doesn't mean phone makers can just make changes irrespective of the low-level code — they still need to work with chipset makers, which means Qualcomm in most cases, on major updates.

Read more
Apple could end antitrust woes by making the iOS App Store more like the Mac’s
iphone xr app store

Apple is having a pretty terrible time right now amid multiple antitrust hearings and a wave of discontent over the fees it charges developers to use its App Store. It all culminated last week with the controversy of Fortnite being removed from the App Store altogether.

But there is one solution that could potentially end Apple’s woes and deal a blow for consumers and developers at the same time: Make the iOS App Store more like the Mac App Store. It is not such a crazy idea. After all, Apple already has looser restrictions on its Macs than on its iPhones. Here’s why it could be exactly what Apple needs to do.
The problem: Apple’s arbitrariness

Read more
Google to ban ads from appearing next to coronavirus conspiracy theories
medical employee holding mask stylized image

Google will reportedly ban advertisements from running alongside debunked coronavirus conspiracy theories, starting in August.

Under the new policy, supervisors will be able to remove entire ads from articles, as well as ban all advertisements for websites that violate the new rule on multiple occasions, according to CNBC. Google had previously banned ads that made harmful claims about prevention and treatment of the coronavirus.

Read more