The Google Buy Button Has Arrived
Last week, Google unveiled its buy button on search results for mobile devices. The rollout of “Purchase with Google” on phones and tablets is only being used for about 20 retailers and a few dozen apps, but the program is set to expand throughout the U.S. by years’ end.
The new button works by letting users buy directly from search results. Google contracts with the retailers so that searchers can simply click a button to order. These users will have entered their credit card information into Google Wallet to make payment seamless.
According to Jonathan Alferness, vice president of product management for Google Shopping, purchase rates on desktop computers are still twice as high as rates for mobile users.
Google’s Earnings Report Shows Little Growth
Google released its second quarter search revenue figures last week, and the results were almost flat year over year.
Analysts say that other search engines are doing better and that Google is seeing stiff competition from sites such as Facebook. According to the Adobe Digital Index, as reported by Mark Bergen of recode.net, Google ads do less than a third as well as Facebook ads when it comes to click through rates. Amazon.com is also in the rink, and has become a larger competitor for text ads.
Meanwhile, a new report from Merkle RKG found that spending on cost-per-clickThis refers to online ads that charge per click. They often involve bidding on the clicks based on keywords and keyword phrases. ads grew only 13 percent year over year and clicks dropped by one percent. That’s compared to increases above 20 percent in previous quarters, and analysts say the change has to do with the increasing cost of CPC ads.