What Is Google+?

Google+ is the social network launched by Google over a year ago in June 2011.

At the time of writing it has around 170 million users and there are around 1 million brand pages globally!

Some great key features allow users to share information within subsets of their social groups called ‘Circles’ and have group video chats with their friends in ‘Hangouts’.

Why Is It Useful For Businesses?

How can it help my business? I hear you say.

• Your Google+ page is your brands identity – therefore it is another opportunity to create a deeper and more personal engagement with your customers.
• You can display relevant content about your business that followers will want to see and share with their circles.
• Post news often and keep the content fresh so that your followers stay tuned in to your brand, but don’t overdo it by posting too many things at once. A well structured approach fits best here.
• As this is a social network, take the opportunity to give your followers something exclusive. Whether it is exclusive news, content, reviews, offers or competitions, giving them something that can’t be found anywhere else will create a buzz around your Google+ page that will encourage more followers to +1 (plus one) you.

How Can My Business Get Set Up?

Getting your business set up is easy. You can do so here.

• What you then need to do is link the Google+ page to your own website. You can read how to do this here.
• A main reason for this is to enable users to be more likely to find your Google+ page within Google searches. They can then be taken to your Google+ page in order to add your page to their circles.

AdWords Social Extensions

What we are trying to achieve is this, below. We want AdWords to display your Google+ information within your PPC ads. This is how it looks when a user is logged into Google:

This is how it looks when a user is not logged into Google:

Why You Should Set This Up

The research done by Google suggests a very strong contribution to CTR (Click Through Rate) with a general +1 contributing to between 5% and 10% uplift and a personal +1 (from someone in your circles) leading to an average CTR improvement of 17%.

As this is now becoming standard practice for advertisers, it is important to stay in line with current advertising trends.

When a user clicks the +1 icon within your PPC ads they get redirected to your Google+ page effectively increasing the number of followers that you have.

How You Can Set Up Social Extensions

Now that your Google+ page is set up and linked with our website, the final piece of the puzzle is to link with AdWords;

• Social extensions are applied at campaign level in AdWords
• Log in and go to ad extensions, choose social extensions and then create a new extension.
• You will be met with a screen like below.
• You will need to enter the URL of your Google+ page in order to activate the social extension.
• Once that is done you can then assign the extension to whichever campaigns you choose.

• In the social extensions tab AdWords enables you to view performance of the social extensions at campaign level

Useful Case Studies

Cadbury - See how Google+ helped Cadbury connect with over 1.2 million people, making them the European brand with the largest number of followers on Google+ here.

H&M - See how Swedish fashion brand H&M connected with over 940,000 followers making them the Retail company with more Google+ followers than any other brand here.

LateRooms.com - See how LateRooms.com, the leading UK online accommodation specialist, uses Google+ to increase customer engagement with their brand here.

What To Do Next

If you have not yet got a Google+ page set up for your business make sure you do so today. Once you have created a page a good place to start is to link it to your website and add the badge to your website. Next create social extensions in AdWords. Take the opportunity to segment followers into circles based upon their interests and provide them create interesting and relevant content and encourage group discussions through hangouts. This will then open the door to many other possibilities that can be achieved.