How To Get Google Store Ratings On Google Ads – June 2024

Google Store Ratings

(Formerly Google Seller Ratings)

What Are Google Store Ratings?

Google Store Ratings are an aggregated star rating between 1-5 stars that show on Google Ads. You’ll normally see them on CPC text ads, Google Shopping ads, and the free shopping listings. Get them for free or get help from one of the Google-approved companies below.

Free vs. Paid Google Store Ratings (Short Version)

[Long Version Here – jump ahead]

Company# of Review RequestsCost for Store RatingsWebsite
Shopper Approved (Recommended)Unlimited$119/moShopper Approved
Verified Reviews400$99/moVerified Reviews
Yotpo500$169/moYotpo
Trustpilot200$259/moTrustpilot
Feefo200$119/moFeefo
Google Customer Reviews*Unlimited$0Google Customer Reviews
*WARNING – Google Customer Reviews program is “Free”, but you’ll need a team of experienced & trusted programmers for the technical integration, and then to maintain it. Above is a pricing table of the top Google Store Rating companies.

Examples of Google Store Ratings

Google Store Ratings are the star ratings that show on Google CPC text ads and on Google Shopping. Service-based businesses, ecommerce sites, and local retail businesses can all gather store ratings. Below are 3 images illustrating what Google Store Ratings look like. Store ratings show as an aggregated 1-5 star rating along with the number of ratings. Sometimes you may see a qualifier like “Average Delivery Time” or “Order Accuracy”, etc.  For ecommerce sites, Google Shopping ads & the free shopping listings show the ratings and a percentage. 

Store Ratings on Google CPC Text Ads

Store Ratings vs. Product Ratings

Store Ratings on Google Shopping

That can be you collecting Store Ratings

Benefits of Google Store Ratings

  • Increases your CTR (click-through-rate)
  • Decreases your Cost-per-Conversions
  • Increases your Quality Score and Ad Rank
  • Increases your Number of Conversions
  • Decreases Your Cost-per-Click because your CTR is higher. Google uses CTR as a signal that people find your ad useful.

You may be wondering why should you pay extra money every month to get the stars? Well, the real answer is you may be making more money and your average CPC (cost-per-click) should drop. This would be highly likely if you are in an industry where none of the competition is doing this.

In addition, you should “Add Note” within Google Ads on the day you have started getting the stars on your CPC text ads or Google Shopping and check to see if conversion rates have increased starting that day. Also, you can embed your Store Reviews onto your website and build trustworthiness. Most store rating aggregators include that feature.

Google Store Rating Criteria

  • Average, composite, rating of 3.5 or more stars for text ads
  • For most merchants, ratings will display after collecting 100 or more eligible reviews within the last 24 months from Google Customer Reviews or 3rd party review partners.
  • The ad’s visible URL domain must match the domain for which we have the ratings

Each country you advertise in gets its own Store Ratings. For instance, if you have 1000 ratings in USA, but only 150 in UK, 1000 will show on Google.com while 150 will show on Google.co.uk. Also, each rating must have its own comment from within the country you’re searching in.

[SIDE NOTE: 100 reviews is a lot for a mom & pop company, so if you need help, contact me on live chat. Alternatively, you can send a special URL to all your past customers to get a jump start to reach the 100 mark].

Learn more about the store rating criteria here.

How to Get Google Store Ratings

(formerly Google Store Ratings)

Need to learn how to add store ratings to Google Ads? We will be talking about Free vs. Paid store ratings, how to get them, and show examples. Google gathers store ratings from the 29 approved 3rd party review partners, Google Customer Reviews, Google Consumer Surveys, and Google-led shopping research. All ratings are syndicated into your Google Ads account and show on your CPC text ads and Google Shopping (if you run an ecommerce site).

List of Best Google 3rd Party Review Partners (aka Store Ratings Companies)

$179/mo

  • Google Store Ratings
  • Google Product Reviews
  • Q&A Software
  • Reputation Management
  • Video Reviews
  • Website Security
  • Social Evidence

Unlimited Reviews!!!

Shopper Approved offers a comprehensive suite of tools designed to increase trust, traffic, and conversions for your business. By leveraging their integrated solutions, you can enhance your online presence and credibility.

Shopper Approved’s partnership with Google and Bing ensures that your review stars appear in search results, driving up to 107% more clicks and 44% more sales. Their easy-to-use platform and proven results make it an essential tool for any business looking to boost its online performance.

For every 100 emails review requests, you can expect 27-33 reviews.  With Shopper Approved had the lowest cost-per-review.

1-Click Integrations

$99/mo

  • Google Store Ratings
  • Google Product Reviews
  • For Small/Enterprise Businesses
  • For Service-Based Companies
  • For Ecommerce Companies

400 Review Requests Per Month

Pricing is based on # of orders.

Verified Reviews helps businesses collect and manage customer reviews. Their service operates in 44 countries and 17 languages. They automate the process of sending surveys to customers after they make a purchase, and they moderate the reviews to ensure they are genuine and appropriate.

$169/mo

  • Google Store Ratings
  • Google Product Reviews
  • For Enterprise Businesses
  • For Ecommerce Companies

500 Review Requests Per Month

Pricing is mainly based on monthly orders.

Yotpo is a company that helps businesses leverage the power of customer reviews to drive sales and build trust with their customers [Yotpo Reviews]. They offer a suite of tools that include collecting high-quality reviews, managing and analyzing them, and then strategically displaying them across various platforms like a company website or Google Shopping. Yotpo even provides features to analyze customer sentiment and identify trends in the reviews to help businesses gain valuable insights and improve their products and marketing strategies.

$259/mo

  • Google Store Ratings
  • Google Product Reviews
  • For Enterprise Businesses
  • For Ecommerce Companies
  • For Service-Based Companies

200 Review Requests Per Month

Subscriptions must be paid annually

Trustpilot for Business is a robust platform designed to help companies collect, manage, and showcase customer reviews. Trustpilot is AWESOME if you have a high-volume eCommerce website doing 10,000+ transactions per month. It’s built for medium to large-sized businesses.

Businesses can attract new customers by showcasing reviews through widgets, social media tools, and marketing assets. The platform offers features like review invitations, response management, SEO benefits, and detailed analytics to gain insights from customer feedback. Integration with tools like Salesforce, Shopify, and WooCommerce further enhances its utility for businesses.

opencart

$119/mo

  • Google Store Ratings
  • Google Product Reviews
  • For Enterprise Businesses
  • For Ecommerce Companies
  • For Service-Based Companies

200 Review Requests Per Month

Headquartered in UK

Feefo is a leading customer feedback platform that helps businesses collect genuine, verified reviews. With its advanced tools and analytics, Feefo enables companies to enhance their reputation, improve customer relationships, and boost sales.

The platform offers customizable review requests, insightful reporting, and seamless integrations with various e-commerce and marketing systems. Feefo’s focus on authenticity and transparency ensures that customer feedback is reliable and valuable for business growth.

$0/mo

  • Google Store Ratings
  • Google Product Reviews
  • For Small/Enterprise Businesses
  • For Service-Based Companies
  • For Ecommerce Companies

Unlimited Review Requests Per Month

You’ll have to hire your own programmer!

Google Customer Reviews allow merchants to collect valuable feedback from customers. After making a purchase, customers can opt-in to receive a survey about their shopping experience. The reviews collected contribute to a merchant’s overall store rating, which can be displayed on their website and in Google Shopping. This helps build trust and attract more customers.

Choosing a 3rd Party Review Partner

Many of the thirty 3rd-party review partners (store rating companies) are not in English (eg. Japanese, Dutch, French, German, Spanish, etc). Of the 29 Google Approved aggregators, we narrowed the selection to 5 English-speaking companies. Make sure that whoever you choose fits your budget and what you’re looking for. Don’t get upsold into features you’ll never use.  In addition to Store Ratings, there are 25 3rd party reviews aggregators approved by Google to display “Product Ratings” on Google Shopping PLA ads (we’ll talk about this later).

Quick Tip

If you’re using Google Ads, then Google Store Ratings can definitely help increase sales.
If you have no intention of using Google Ads, then you probably don’t need Google Store Ratings.

BEWARE – Read 1st before buying from a 3rd party review partner!

  1. Do NOT pay for features you’ll never use. For instance, if you don’t need the “Loyalty & Referrals” program from Yotpo, don’t pay for it.
  2. Always remember this: Google is the one who runs the Store Ratings program on Google Ads. All the 3rd party review partners need to submit reviews in a pre-formatted Google Store Ratings XML feed into Google Ads.

Your goal is simple: GET STARS ON GOOGLE ADS. Don’t get distracted with all the upsells these companies will use to make themselves look different & get more of your hard-earned money. They are nice features to have if you can afford them and if you use them. All these companies use the same formatted XML feed (see sample feed) as Google requires.

If you need help picking a 3rd party review partner, contact us on live chat. I have worked with all these companies.

Tracking the performance of store ratings

Above, we mentioned that you use this URL to check the number of ratings: https://www.google.com/shopping/ratings/account/lookup?q=example.com

However, if you go to Google Ads > Extensions > Automated Extensions, then you can get to a report similar to the image below. This shows that the actual activity whenever store ratings appear along with the ad. LOOK AT THAT CLICK-THROUGH RATE! Store ratings really do make a difference.

How To Get A High Store Rating Average

This is a question we get all the time via live chat and even from our own clients! Planet Marketing has some clients that have poor ratings because they don’t ask for reviews. Well, guess what? The only people who will leave a review are upset customers. So here’s a quick list of how to get high store ratings, fast!

Send Your Review Link Only To Your Past Happy Customers

Make sure that the company you choose has the capability to generate a URL to survey your past customers. Send it in a blast email if you can. Use this method especially if you have poor ratings.

Reach Out To Unhappy Customers

Sometimes it’s as easy as reaching out to a customer who had left a bad review and ask them if they can change it if you can correct the problem. 

Ask for a Positive 5-Star Rating

Normally any of these software companies will automate the sending of the emails. What you can do is, in the email template, say something like, “Please leave us a positive 5-star rating along with a comment in the review! We would greatly appreciate it. “If” for some reason you cannot leave us a positive 5-star rating, reply to this email and I’ll see what we can do on our end. THANKS!”

Types of Companies That Should or Shouldn’t Use Store Ratings

STORE RATINGS FOR ECOMMERCE COMPANIES

Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Volusion, IBM WebSphere, MIVA, Shopware, DreamCommerce, JTL Shop, Gambio, OXID eSales, 3dCart, Delegator, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, LivePerson, LogicBlock, Squarespace, Opencart, Weebly, SmartFocus, Tealium, Wix.

STORE RATINGS FOR SERVICE-BASED BUSINESSES

Examples of Service-Based Businesses
CPAs & Accountants
Lawyers
Catering Companies
Real Estate Agents & Lenders
Insurance Brokers (Personal, Commercial, Medical)
Health & Wellness (Personal Trainers, Yoga, Chiropractors, Massage)

BUSINESSES THAT NORMALLY DON’T USE STORE RATINGS

Breweries
Bars
Restaurants (both sit-down & fast food)
Cafes
Auto Repair

FAQs About Google Store Ratings

Provide Excellent Service: Ensure a great customer experience to naturally encourage positive feedback.
Ask Directly: Politely ask satisfied customers to leave a rating after a purchase.
Follow Up: Send follow-up emails with a link to leave a rating.
Incentivize Feedback: Offer small incentives like discounts or loyalty points for leaving a review (without requiring a positive rating).
Make It Easy: Simplify the rating process with clear instructions and easy access to the review platform.

Google Store Ratings are aggregated star ratings specifically for businesses that are displayed on Google Ads and Google Shopping listings. These ratings are collected from multiple sources, including Google Customer Reviews and various third-party review aggregators. The primary purpose of Google Store Ratings is to provide potential customers with a quick snapshot of a business’s reputation based on customer feedback, directly within their ad or shopping listing. This can help improve click-through rates and enhance ad performance by building trust at a glance.

Google Reviews, on the other hand, are individual customer reviews and ratings that appear on a business’s Google Business Profile. These reviews are publicly visible in Google Search and Google Maps and are directly submitted by customers who have interacted with the business. Google Reviews provide detailed feedback about a customer’s experience and can include written comments, photos, and a star rating. They are primarily used to inform potential customers about the quality of the business and its services or products, helping them make informed decisions.

In summary, while both Google Store Ratings and Google Reviews serve to provide customer feedback and enhance a business’s online reputation, Google Store Ratings are used specifically for Google Ads and Shopping, showing an aggregated rating from multiple sources, whereas Google Reviews are detailed, individual reviews displayed on Google My Business profiles.

Stay Calm: Approach the situation professionally.
Read and Assess: Understand the customer’s concerns.
Respond Promptly: Apologize and offer a solution publicly.
Resolve the Issue: Fix the problem quickly and fairly.
Learn and Improve: Use the feedback to enhance your products or services.
Encourage Positivity: Ask satisfied customers for positive reviews to balance out negatives.

Yes, you can access detailed analytics and insights on your Google Store Ratings through your Google Ads account. This includes data on the number of ratings, average rating score, and how your ratings impact ad performance. These insights help you understand customer feedback and improve your service.

Want to see how many reviews Google has indexed for you? Change bhphotovideo.com in the URL to your site. Do not put https or www in front of your domain. https://www.google.com/shopping/ratings/account/lookup?q=bhphotovideo.com.

There’s a country selector at the top which shows the number of Store Reviews in a given country. Pick “United States”, or your country, to see the difference. Use this to see if Google is indexing your store ratings.

If you don’t see your store ratings on your Google Ads, contact your 3rd-party review partner. Sometimes Google will update its requirements, but the store rating company hasn’t gotten around to updating their own platform.

All of the 29 companies that Google has a partnership with MUST submit an XML feed to get store ratings into Google. Sometimes the XML feed may break. So don’t forget to contact your 3rd-party review partner. Also, remember that Google will not always show your ratings for every search query.

Conclusion About Store Rating Companies

Most people who are reading this blog post only need stars to show on their Google Ads. For small companies with a limited budget, I recommend that you get two demos; one with Shopper Approved and the other with Verified Reviews. Pricing is going to be based on your needs, but their starting prices are between $100-$200/mo. If you have a nice budget and can afford the bells and whistles, get a demo with Yotpo and one with TrustPilot.

I recommended Google Customer Reviews in last place because most likely you’ll be spending way more money by hiring an experienced programmer vs. signing up with any of the 6 companies I recommended. HOWEVER, as mentioned before, if you have a programmer already, you’re in luck. Google Customer Reviews is the way to go.

In addition to Store Ratings, all 6 companies offer Product Ratings. We would recommend the above 6 companies in this order:

  1. Shopper Approved
  2. Verified Reviews
  3. Yotpo
  4. TrustPilot
  5. Feefo
  6. Google Customer Reviews (if you have an in-house programmer, then this is #1)

Here is the breakdown of all the Google-approved 3rd party review partners. I did the research for you so you don’t have to. You’ll notice a lot of them aren’t in English.

Google Review Partners (updated 6/1/2024)

Company Country Language Description
Ausgezeichnet.org Germany German A German review platform providing authentic customer feedback.
Bazaarvoice USA English Offers review and user-generated content solutions to boost online engagement.
Birdeye USA English Helps businesses manage and leverage customer feedback across multiple channels.
Bizrate Insights USA English Provides detailed insights from customer feedback to improve business performance.
eKomi Germany English, German Collects and manages customer reviews to enhance online reputation.
Feedaty Italy Italian Italian review platform specializing in verified customer feedback.
Feedback Company Netherlands Dutch, English Offers review solutions to gather and display customer feedback.
Feefo UK English Provides verified customer reviews and analytics to build trust and sales.
KiyOh Netherlands Dutch, English Specializes in collecting and displaying customer reviews for businesses.
Klantenvertellen Netherlands Dutch Dutch review platform focusing on customer satisfaction and feedback.
Okendo Australia English Helps ecommerce brands collect and showcase customer reviews.
PowerReviews USA English Provides solutions for collecting and leveraging customer reviews and ratings.
ProductReview.com.au Australia English Australia’s largest consumer opinion site.
RA Trustvox Brazil Portuguese Brazilian platform for collecting verified customer reviews.
Reco.se Sweden Swedish Swedish platform for collecting and displaying customer reviews.
Reputation.com USA English Provides reputation management solutions for businesses.
ResellerRatings USA English An online review platform focusing on customer feedback for online retailers.
Reviews.io UK English A review platform that helps businesses collect and display customer feedback.
Reevoo UK English Collects verified customer reviews and feedback to build brand trust.
Shopper Approved USA English Helps businesses collect and display customer reviews to increase trust and conversions.
ShopVote.de Germany German German platform for collecting and displaying customer reviews.
ShopAuskunft Germany German German review platform focusing on ecommerce.
Sitejabber USA English Provides a platform for consumers to review and rate online businesses.
Stamped.io Singapore English Offers review and rating solutions for ecommerce businesses.
Trusted Shops Germany German, English Provides trust-building solutions including reviews, trustmarks, and buyer protection.
TrustPilot Denmark English, Danish A platform for collecting and showcasing customer reviews to enhance online reputation.
TurnTo USA English Provides customer content solutions, including ratings, reviews, and Q&A.
Verified Reviews France English Specializes in collecting and managing authentic customer reviews for businesses.
Yotpo USA English Provides user-generated content solutions to help businesses build brand trust and sales.

Want to learn about the other types of Google Ratings?

Google Product Ratings

Learn about Google Shipping Star Ratings. These show on your Google Shopping product listing ads.

Google Reviews

Get Google reviews. These reviews show on your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business).

Google Rich Snippets

What are Google Review Snippets? A review snippet is usually an aggregate rating of many reviews.

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