We are improving the performance of product ads and refining their statistics

Due to the development of our product ad listings, starting Monday 15 February 2021 we are changing the way we count their impressions and derived metrics. Now, impressions will only be counted when the ad zone is actually rendered to the user. What impact will this have on the statistics and what should be taken into account?

Since last autumn we have been testing and gradually deploying the so-called ‘carousel’. In it, the user has the possibility of viewing other offers next to the product ad listings, and choosing from a larger number of offers.

In addition, we display an extra message next to the offers (if the offer is included in the feed) and information regarding whether the offer is in stock, provided the delivery date value is 0 (in stock).

From our tests so far, we know that product listings displayed in the carousel achieve higher click-through rates and conversion rates.

As the number of impressions increases from 5 to 24 when multiple offers are clicked, the number of impressions increases in a campaign with product ads. For the time being, it is still possible to display a maximum of 2 offers from one advertiser.

From 15 February 2021, the maximum share of carousel impressions will increase from the current 40% of searches to 100% on desktop and mobile. At the same time, for campaigns with Product Ads, we will start counting only the impressions where the user could actually see the ad. The combination of these changes can impact both the number of impressions and CTR of your product ad campaigns.

What do these changes imply for you?

  • If you use alerts or automatic rules that respond to a drop in views, it is possible that they will be executed even though there is no real change in performance. Consider switching to alerts or rules based on click-through rates.
  • As the number of impressions decreases, the click-through rate (CTR) will increase.
  • Likewise, it’s possible that you’ll get reports of a change in the number of impressions in other reporting systems that you use.
  • You will observe a decrease in the average position in the statistics for the product ad. However, this will logically not affect the volume of traffic.
  • Marginally, there may be a situation where the system evaluates impressions more strictly and does not count them, and you may see a click-through for a product group that has no impressions.

We are planning to move to viewable impressions for text ads and in the content network.