It was recently announced that Google will deprecate Showcase Shopping ads and remove all ad groups with these types of ads starting on 1st of April. After this date, you will still be able to access performance data for the removed ads and ad groups, however, any previous Shopping ad layouts will now become part of Product Shopping ad groups. Google assures that there is no action needed to be taken by advertisers at this point.
What are Showcase Shopping ads?
Showcase Shopping ads were introduced by Google in 2016 as a multi-image Shopping format to provide a curated group of products. They were created with the intention to appear for broad and non-branded searches since approximately 40% of all searches were broad terms.
Showcase Shopping ads in Google Search
In 2018, Google added a video to Showcase Shopping ads in search and a year after the format was extended to Google Images, Discover feed and YouTube feed. As of March 2020, Showcase Shopping ads became an available option in Gmail campaigns.
Tips for using new Showcase ads
If you’re planning to continue using Showcase Shopping after 1st April, we suggest closely monitoring these ads for the first few weeks while the change is being made. Just remember that going forward they will be included in Product Shopping ad groups. Also, be aware that you might see more top-of-funnel placements since that’s what Showcase ads tended to be used for in most paid media strategies.
Another thing to keep in mind is that Showcase Shopping has already been integrated into Smart Shopping campaigns as an ad type option which is another way to utilise Showcase Shopping after 1st April.
Conclusion
Hopefully the changes Google introduced to Showcase Shopping will be beneficial for advertisers, however, if you notice a difference in the number of sales your business is obtaining, consider re-evaluating your strategy and be ready to find sales in other avenues.
