Online marketplace Ebay.com is the most visible website in Google Shopping PLAs (Product Listing Ads) displayed in Google.com searches while amazon.com is the most visible in Google AdWords pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, according to a new US study.
The study from Searchmetrics analysed the search results for millions of keywords throughout 2014 to rank the top ten websites displayed in the two Google ad formats.
The rankings were drawn up according to a PLA Visibility score and a PPC Visibility score which are a measure of how frequently and prominently the sites’ ads appear within search results.
Ebay.com took the top spot in the ranking of top sites in Google Shopping PLAs with a PLA visibility score of 7,591,817 (see table below). Walmart.com and rakuten.com came second and third in the list, which was dominated by retail and e-commerce bands.
In the list of top sites displayed through AdWords, Amazon.com’s PPC visibility score of 9,381,597 made it the clear leader. The list was made up of a mix of retail brands and search engines such as wow.com and ask.com.
AdWords PPC ads, Google’s largest source of revenue, are primarily text-based ads targeted at specific keywords. PLAs are the photo-based ads that are displayed in a Google Shopping box at the top and to the side of the search results when consumers run product related searches.
PLAs, which include a product image, name and price together along with a link to the reseller, became the default way for appearing in Google Shopping in 2013.