Google has added a feature that lets users compare
multiple relevant offers served by its AdWords advertisement
engine.
"Comparison Ads is part of our continuing effort to make ads
more relevant and useful to our users and to help our advertisers
reach the people who are most interested in their products and
services," said Dan Friedman, one of Google's Inside AdWords crew
in a blog posting
introducing adwords comparison ads.
"AdWords uses a host of targeting and relevancy signals to
determine the best ads for each query. However, sometimes a user's
query doesn't provide enough information for us to confidently
predict what they want," he said.
At present, the service covers mortgage and refinance products
and services.
Comparison Ads lets users specify more exactly what they are
looking for by prompting them to select the type of loan from the
served ads, with extra information such as income and home value.
Google then displays relevant ads side by side for comparison.
Once users find an offer that matches their specific needs, they
can call the advertiser direct or ask for a quotation. If a user
asks for a quote, Google automatically anonymises the user's phone
number and sends the advertiser a unique code they can use to
contact the user.
The advertiser pays only if a user calls the phone number on the
offer or asks for a quote.
Dan Friedman said Google had aimed to make the operations fast,
transparent and private.
Comparison Ads is available only in some US states at
present.