What the ads will look like

The ads will look exactly the same as before, but with the addition of a bar along the bottom of the image ad which will give users the option to +1 that ad.  Alongside this button users will then see who in their network has also '+1'd' this ad.

The bar at the bottom of the ad will fade out as the user hovers over the ad on desktops and will disappear after several seconds on mobile.

The +1 button can also be added to rich media ads running on the Doubleclick network which can run on or off the display network.  So this new feature is not just for AdWords users.

What does this mean for you?

According to Google, Google+ is the fastest expanding website ever! It gained 10 million users in just 18 days.  It's more than likely now that your customers are building up their social circles on the site.

If users start to +1 your advert then when other people in their circles/contact list see the ads they'll see that their connection recommended it, therefore giving them more of a reason to click on the ad and check it out.  Users are more likely to interact with your ad if a friend has recommended you and this may lead to higher chances for conversions.

This will be especially important for advertisers in the travel & retail sectors where recommendations are often highly used.

Users are already used to clicking the +1 button on search ads so we feel this will be a popular option for display ads too.

If a user has previously clicked a +1 button on your website or a search ad this will also show in the display ads, they are all connected.

Google stated that 'Because a recommendation from a friend is such a strong signal of relevance, the Google Display Network gives ads that have been recommended an extra boost by including them in the auction for any page a friend visits', so this will now be counted as a factor in the auction system for display ads.

If you're an advertiser that doesn't want to show the +1 button on your ads then there is an option to opt out within your campaign settings tab in AdWords.

Interpreting Results

As with Google search we're not able to see the impact of the +1 button appearing in our ads in any of the campaign metrics.  However when these ads launch we'll be looking for any abnormal increases in metrics such as clickthrough rate to assess the impact.

Once we have some findings we'll get back to you.