What the +1 Button Means For AdWords PPC Ads

Anne Garcia - July 27, 2011

By now I am sure you’ve noticed the new +1 button right after the headline of PPC ads in Google. There is a lot of speculation of how this will impact PPC advertising and how an advertiser can take advantage of this new feature to enhance PPC ad performance.

The +1 button may affect the click-through rate (CTR) and therefore, quality score of an ad, because theoretically, an ad with more +1’s will be clicked on more likely than an ad without any. This would lead to the ad receiving more clicks, a higher CTR and thus, a higher quality score. The advertiser may also benefit from a lower cost-per-click (CPC) due to the high quality score and CTR.

All AdWords ads are automatically opted in to have the +1 displayed, but you can opt out, although, I do not recommend it, as we are still learning about the capabilities of the new Google+ platform and its benefits for paid advertising. What I would recommend is adding the Google +1 button to your website.

Advertisers do not incur any fees when a user +1’s an ad, and it does not count as a click. Google has said that search marketers will have access to information on +1 counts in reporting, but access to reports have not yet been released.