Google Testing Card Style Product Listing Ads

Google is testing out the card style format on their Product Listing Ads now on desktop.  This format stands out quite a bit against the regular formatted search results.  Google is testing the card style PLAs at both the position at the top of the search results and the ones that appear in the right hand sidebar.

Here is what it looks like.

And a closer look at the PLAs:

And another example – this one looks much busier since the images are full images rather than a product on a white background like the laptop example:

Google doesn’t always show three rows of products, they can also show only two:

They do show fewer products in most cases, since the boxes and shading take up additional screen space, compared to the usual table format we see.  But they do stand out much more for searchers.  In the above screenshots, there are only three products across instead of the usual four.

Here is how the PLAs look at the top of the search results:

And another version showing the carousel format of PLAs.

It is worth noting that these were being tested on pages that did not show the mobile card style search results on desktop.  The main organic search results were formatted normally, it was only the Product Listing Ads in the card style.

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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.

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