Inside Adwords has announced today that Google rolled out a new feature to its Adwords paid search platform called product extensions.  Currently available to U.S. customers only, product extensions will be a way to enhance your existing ads by showing searchers your product images, titles and prices in a plusbox located beneath the ad.  The products will be most relevant to the searcher’s query and the advertiser is charged on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis.  If a searcher clicks on the ad text, or a product within the product extensions plusbox, the advertiser will be charged for the click.  The advertiser will not be charged if the searcher clicks on the plusbox, but does not click through to the advertiser’s site.  The use of product extensions will enhance a searcher’s experience by increasing the relevance for shopping-related queries by allowing advertisers to include relevant product information directly within the ad.  Even further, the product extensions feature give advertisers the option to select which products they prefer to display for specific search queries in addition to the ability to use automatic targeting.  According to the Inside Adwords blog post, a specific advertiser who implemented product extensions feature during Google’s beta test reported seeing over a 10% increase in click-through-rate (CTR) for their ads.

To get started with product extensions, simply go to the Google Merchant Center and add your Adwords customer ID to your account.