• About Us
  • Contributors
  • Guides
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Write for The SEM Post
  • Submit a tip or contact us!
  • Newsletters

The SEM Post

Latest News About SEO, SEM, PPC & Search Engines

  • Google
  • SEO
  • Mobile
  • Local
  • Bing
  • Pay Per Click
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • State of the Industry
You are here: Home / Google / Google Introducing Buy Button in Search Results to Compete With Amazon

Google Introducing Buy Button in Search Results to Compete With Amazon

May 18, 2015 at 4:52 am PST By Jennifer Slegg

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Evernote
  • SMS

google buy button headerGoogle is stepping up their e-commerce offerings for advertisers with a new program that would see “Buy Now” buttons added to search results, with the entire transaction being hosted by Google, rather than the seller.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the buy buttons will launch within the next few weeks in their Google search results.

These “Buy Now” buttons will only appear on mobile results and will often appear under a “Shop with Google” ad header, similar to what we have seen in Google’s current shopping ads that appear on both mobile and desktop.

The fact Google is targeting this ad program for mobile users makes a lot of sense when you consider many company’s purchasing processes for mobile users leaves many mobile users frustrated and end up not completing the sale. On some sites, purchasing from a mobile device is downright impossible.  So it appears Google is looking to fill the gap for online purchasing on a mobile device.

Once user clicks the “Buy Now” button, they will be redirected to Google-hosted product landing page where they can complete the purchase, including customizing options such as sizing, colors and available shipping options.  Then the customer completes the purchase through this page.  But if you think Google is taking a percentage of the revenue, you’d be wrong.

Perhaps the most interesting about these “Buy Now” buttons is that Google does not plan to run them as if it was an affiliate network, which is how it works on many other platforms, where the company promoting the “buy” buttons or links get a cut of the revenue from the purchase.  Instead, Google plans to simply charge sellers on a per click basis, similarly to how they currently run their AdWords program.

Using a pay per click model will also make the program very attractive to many advertisers who might not have the budget or desire to have their own affiliate program to sell their products.

To have products listed, the sellers submit a data feed of their products.  Macys is rumored to be one of the first retailers who are considering joining for the launch.

One bonus for Google is that they are retaining purchase information for the buyers and will keep it for future purchases from any of their sellers.  The companies whose products are being sold do not get a copy of the payment information used, which will give peace of mind to some buyers who might be leery of submitting credit card details combined with address information to unknown sellers.  Sellers do get address information, and it is believed they will also receive email addresses from these customers so they can do follow-up marketing efforts.  However, some sellers worry that the future relationship with the customer could be undermined with Google acting as the “middleman.”

Of course, Google isn’t the only one getting into the “Buy Now” game over the past year.  Twitter began running “Buy Now” buttons within tweets and Pinterest was working on adding their own Buy buttons to pins, which was believed to be the reason why Pinterest declared war on affiliate links on the platform.

Google has also stepped up their shopping listings for advertisers, encouraging many advertisers to try out Google’s shopping ads – officially called Product Listing Ads – for the first time.   This includes adding ratings, new scripts, AdWords Editor support and the addition of reporting in Google Analytics.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • WhatsApp
  • Evernote
  • SMS
The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profile

Jennifer Slegg

Founder & Editor at The SEM Post
Jennifer Slegg is a longtime speaker and expert in search engine marketing, working in the industry for almost 20 years. When she isn't sitting at her desk writing and working, she can be found grabbing a latte at her local Starbucks or planning her next trip to Disneyland. She regularly speaks at Pubcon, SMX, State of Search, Brighton SEO and more, and has been presenting at conferences for over a decade.
My Twitter profileMy Facebook profileMy Google+ profileMy LinkedIn profile

Latest posts by Jennifer Slegg (see all)

  • 2022 Update for Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Big YMYL Updates - August 1, 2022
  • Google Quality Rater Guidelines: The Low Quality 2021 Update - October 19, 2021
  • Rethinking Affiliate Sites With Google’s Product Review Update - April 23, 2021
  • New Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Update Adds Emphasis on Needs Met - October 16, 2020
  • Google Updates Experiment Statistics for Quality Raters - October 6, 2020

Filed Under: Google, Mobile, Pay Per Click

Sign up for our newsletter


Founder & Editor

Jennifer Slegg (2052)

Sign up for our daily news recap & weekly newsletter.


Follow us online

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Linkedin
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Latest News

2022 Update for Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Big YMYL Updates

We finally have the first Google Quality Rater Guidelines update of 2022, and like usual, it is … [Read More...]

Recent Posts

  • 2022 Update for Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Big YMYL Updates
  • Google Quality Rater Guidelines: The Low Quality 2021 Update
  • Rethinking Affiliate Sites With Google’s Product Review Update
  • New Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Update Adds Emphasis on Needs Met
  • Google Updates Experiment Statistics for Quality Raters
  • Analyzing “How Google Search Works” Changes from Google
  • Google Quality Rater Guidelines Update: New Introduction, Rater Bias & Political Affiliations
  • Google Updates Quality Rater Guidelines: Reputation for News Sites; Video Content Updates; Quality for Information Sites
  • Google Makes Major Changes to NoFollow, Adds Sponsored & UGC Tags
  • Google Updates Quality Rater Guidelines Targeting E-A-T, Page Quality & Interstitials

Categories

  • Affiliate Marketing
  • Amazon
  • Apple
  • Bing
  • Branding
  • Browsers
  • Chrome
  • Content Marketing
  • Design
  • Domains
  • DuckDuckGo
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Firefox
  • Foursquare
  • Google
    • Analytics
    • Google RankBrain
    • Quality Rater's Guidelines
  • History of Search
  • Industry Spotlight
  • Instagram
  • Internet Explorer
  • Links
  • Local
  • Mobile
  • Native Advertising
  • Other Search Engines
  • Pay Per Click
  • Pinterest
  • Publishers
  • Security
  • SEO
  • Snapchat
  • Social Media
  • State of the Industry
  • The SEM Post
  • Tools
  • Twitter
  • Uncategorized
  • User Experience
  • Video Marketing
  • Week in Review
  • Whitepapers
  • Wordpress
  • Yahoo
  • Yelp
  • YouTube
August 2022
MTWTFSS
« Oct  
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031 

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org

Copyright © 2022 · News Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in