Written by María Santoja
Índice
It has been a few months since Google Plus announced its new foray into the very lucrative online advertising sector: +Posts Ads, Google Plus sponsored ads. It was inevitable that the Internet behemoth would start monetizing its social network, the one that everyone is on, but few actually use. Although Google Plus is one of the company’s projects with the least impact, it is clear that the people at Mountain View do not lose sight of its potential, and are still looking for ways to get the most out of it.
In this article we are going to see how +Post Ads work, their formats and the requirements to be able to promote posts on Google Plus. What are the advantages for advertisers of the new format? And above all, what does Google gain from all this? (because, boys and girls, we know that Google is like banking, it always wins).
How ads work on Google+
The +Post Ads, as the name suggests, are sponsored posts, so companies will be able to turn their updates into ads. +Post Ads is based on the sponsored ads that we have been seeing for some time now in other social networks such as Facebook. However, Google Plus ads have some particularities that make them a very interesting format for companies, and that make them substantially different from what we have seen so far.
+Posts Ads in the Display network
First of all, it seems that +Post Ads’ approach differs a little from what we had seen so far in terms of advertising on social networks: instead of inserting ads in the social network, what it proposes is to that social network posts become advertisements, and not only within Google+ itself, but also as advertising modules on other websites.. This is where we start from the first singularity, and in my opinion the great advantage of +Post Ads:
The +Post Ads publications can be disseminated through the Google Display network. In other words, we can turn a post on our Google+ page into a kind of banner that appears published on the immensity of websites where Google manages the insertion of advertising.
Automatic publications
In addition, +Posts Ads allows you toautomate the promotion of publications . This functionality can be a double-edged sword, because if we have not worked well on these publications, we may be paying for promoting content that is not ideal for achieving our objectives.
Audience segmentation
In addition to the new features mentioned above, +Post Ads also offers the possibility of segmenting campaigns to reach the part of the audience that constitutes our target audience. +Posts Ads will reward a segmentation by demographic, contextual and device criteria, similar to the way the Display network works.
How +Post Ads affects SEO
I know what you’re all wondering dear SEOs,
“that’s all well and good, but is this going to affect our rankings?”
Well right off the bat the folks at Google haven’t said anything about it. What is clear, however, is that ads on Google Plus can help advertisers gain those coveted +1s on their business pages, which according to reports
Searchmetrics
reports, do represent an advantageous factor for natural positioning.
On the other hand, we must remember that Google Plus comments and posts do appear in Google’s organic search results, so it is foreseeable that these sponsored posts, in which there will be greater interaction, will gain weight in the search results. In addition, we also found examples of Google Plus posts in the brand’s Knowledge Graph.
Requirements to use +Post Ads
For all of you who are about to pull out your wallets gladly and pay for a +Post Ads campaign, I must tell you that access to ads on Google Plus will be conditioned to the fulfillment of a series of requirements:
- Google+ pages must have more than 1,000 followers.
- Page posts should be relevant to the page’s audience.
- Pages must have “Shared Recommendations” active. In this way we give Google permission to display the reviews, recommendations and other content in other contexts in addition to the social network, for example in Google search results, Google Maps, and so on.
How much does a +Posts Ads campaign cost?
As for the payment of the campaigns, Google has established a payment based on a Cost-Per-Lead system, i.e., the advertiser will pay only when the user interacts with the publication, either by +1ing, commenting or sharing it.
Seeing what this new format offers us, it is logical to think that these campaigns will be more expensive than what we are used to seeing in Google Adwords. In any case, what is clear is that Google+ ads are much more focused on engagement, so the advertiser will have to evaluate whether or not it is worth investing in +Posts Ads depending on their objectives.
4 Advantages of +Posts Ads for Advertisers
These innovations in terms of format are not mere curiosities, but actually add value for the advertiser:
- Firstly, by increasing the reach of the brand, which thanks to the Display network will be able to access a new audience, beyond that of the social network itself.
- On the other hand, it is a much more contextual type of advertising. The user is usually used to advertising in the web environment, but on the contrary usually perceives the same advertising as invasive in the social network environment, so the big bet of +Posts Ads is to take the publications outside of Google + where it will be precibirá more friendly.
- Also, related to the previous point, the Google Plus posting format used as a banner is a way to stand out and fight against users’ advertising blindness. At this point it is worth highlighting the potential of under-exploited formats such as video.
- Finally, the format turns advertising into a conversation and leverages the full social potential of Google Plus to increase engagement and form a much more human brand image.
This is a format that integrates social networks and online advertising in a way that we had not seen before. The use of +Posts Ads is a challenge for online marketers, who will have to find a way to get the most out of the new format.
And what does Google gain from all this?
As for Google, this step undoubtedly means giving a new twist to its social network. Perhaps this is the push it needs to stand out, since after all, online advertising is the area in which the company is best at. What is certain is that if it works out well +Posts Ads will become a really good business for the company since:
- They will monetize the social network.
- They will attract companies to it.
- Without us users even realizing it, Google+ will gain presence.
- If Google+ increases its notoriety, all those sleepy users will, in all likelihood, start to become active users.
