Google's "People Also Consider" Brand Ads: What to Know

Oh, Google…always dropping little surprises into the SERP. The latest (example below) on the paid ad side is a little “People also consider” section that might just show up under a brand keyword near you:

Spotting this kind of ad in the wild has certainly sparked some questions at JDM, so let’s run through a few of them!

How do you get in on this ad type?

This is not something Google’s been blasting out as an official release (I haven’t seen any of my clients’ accounts directly impacted yet), so if you’re curious, work with your rep (or your agency reps) to ask about getting into a beta.

We’ve seen plenty of instances of early-mover wins for clients for betas in the past, so this is at least worth a test.

How should you plan to approach this ad type?

If and when “People also consider” ads get rolled out across more search spaces, there are some things you’ll need to consider:

• What is Google suggesting that people also consider?
• When Google suggests alternatives, what are they showcasing? Competitor ads? What do those ads look like? 
• If Google shows our competitors with our brand searches, how can we leverage more social proof, differentiators, and statistics in our ad copy to draw the user in right away?
• If you’re able to test the ad type, will you get control over where it appears, or will Google choose the placements for you?
  
  

Even if you’re not interested in testing the feature if/when it rolls out, you’ll want to keep an eye on how it performs and whether it starts to show up on your brand terms (and steal some eyeballs). We’ll post more on the JDM blog when we have more to share, so stay tuned!