October 18, 2019
Are You Showing Customer Reviews on Your Google Shopping Ads?
Building up your ‘trust factor’ has a key part to play in eCommerce returns – and showing review ratings is a great way to do it. Hooking up reviews from independent sites like Trustpilot, Feefo, or from Google Reviews is simple – but very powerful.
Managing Customer Reviews
Of course, if you’re going to be using reviews to help promote your business, you need to bring in reviews, and you need to pay attention to them.
A reply to a review always goes down well – but remember your reply will be read by almost as many people as read the review. Make sure your reply is in a professional tone, and make sure you’re actually talking about the same things the customer is.
Thank them for leaving a review, and make sure you highlight anything they praise – it gives potential customers a second chance to notice your strengths. Except for the very worst reviews, end with something positive for a shared future.
In the unfortunate event that you do get a terrible review, it’s even more important for your reply to look professional. Acknowledge any mistakes that were made, but set the record straight clearly if any claims made aren’t true.
You should be keeping an eye on your average rating, too. That statistic, and the number of reviews, are the first things people will see. This is even more true on Google Shopping listings. In fact, they’re the only parts of the review shown on the advert itself.
Return Customers
If you’ve only just started managing your reviews, there’s another hidden benefit just waiting for you to notice. People who leave positive reviews reinforce their positive opinions. So if a first-time buyer leaves a positive review, there’s a good chance they’ll become a return customer. And return customers are any business’ biggest asset.
Improved Customer Reviews
Currently being trialled in the US is an improved mode for customer reviews in Google Shopping. Customers will be allowed to submit their own photos of the product in use.
Google’s sample review? A gorgeous dog wearing an equally striking cloth collar. But a photograph of a beer bottle on the lunch table somewhere sunny could be just as powerful.
As usual, Google is trialling something new just in one location. This fits a standard pattern for expansion, but it’s a pattern we know well at this point. The fact Google is now discussing the trial widely means that we’ll see it expand to other regions before too long. A Product Manager at Google has said they have “plans to expand… over the coming months.”
If you haven’t already started managing a review account you can connect to Google Shopping, this is the perfect time to begin – to be ready ahead of the roll out.