Google Shopping is exclusively designed for eCommerce websites, serving as a comparison shopping engine where many businesses list their products. It offers an additional platform for selling, extending beyond a company’s own website and popular marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. In this blog post, we’ll explore what Google Shopping Ratings are, where they appear, how to obtain them, and which third-party review aggregators are best suited for the task.
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Google Shopping reviews appear in various locations across Google. We’ve captured snapshots to show where these ratings are displayed in Product Listing Ads (PLA), the Google Shopping organic section, and directly on the search engine results page (SERP).
Google Shopping Reviews. Here’s the Breakdown
Google Shopping shows two types of reviews: Google Product Ratings and Google Shopping Store Ratings (aka Google Store Ratings).
Google Product Ratings
These images illustrate Google Product Ratings displayed directly on Google. Note that these ratings appear in paid ads from Google Ads shopping campaigns. Ratings can be seen at the top and right-hand side of Google search results, as well as in Google Shopping.
Remember, Product Reviews are specific to the individual products on your site, similar to Amazon. Each product has its own unique reviews.
FYI, click on any of the images to enlarge the images. You’ll be able to see the ratings in more detail.
Those are the 3 primary places where you’ll see Google Product ratings for your ads.
Google Shopping Store Ratings
Store Ratings on Google Shopping differ from Product Ratings. Store Ratings appear in the organic section of Google Shopping and reflect the overall experience with your website, rather than specific products. These ratings encompass reviews with comments such as “Great customer service” or “The shipping was really fast.”
As shown in the screenshots, Google refers to these as ‘store reviews’ or displays them with a yellow star rating between 1 and 5.
We have written an in-depth article about Google Store Ratings that extends beyond Google Shopping ads. For example, a search query like “PCs for gaming” showcases Google Store Ratings in CPC text ads.
While Store Ratings assure shoppers of your business’s credibility and good reputation, Product Ratings or Reviews provide crucial information about specific products. Product Ratings help shoppers make quick purchasing decisions, and as an advertiser, they help drive better-qualified traffic to your business website.
How to Get Google Shopping Ratings & The Criteria
There are 3 ways to get your ratings into Google Shopping.
1) Google Merchant Center
This option will require you to do the work yourself. You’ll need to sign in to your Google Merchant Center account. You’ll need a validated product reviews XML file that must be hosted on your server. Basically, you’ll need a competent programmer to submit your XML feed to your Google Merchant Center.
If you want to set this up yourself, read the ‘Product Ratings feeds through Merchant Center‘. It’s free if you can do it yourself.
2) Google Customer Reviews
Google Customer Reviews is a free service that allows a company to collect both seller reviews and product reviews. Here’s what Google has to say about setting up Google Customer Reviews:
Prepare your team for technical integration
3) 3rd-Party Review Aggregators
Google has approved 25 third-party review aggregators to manage the submission of your product review data into Google. It’s done via an XML feed. You can learn more about the 25 Google Product Review aggregators here.
Criteria for Google Shopping Ratings
Product Ratings are supported in every country where Shopping ads and free product listings are available. You can see a long list of supported countries here.
You need to have at least 50 reviews on all your products to qualify for the Product Ratings program.
A product must have a minimum of 3 reviews to have star ratings shown in ads.
It isn’t mandatory for you to have a Google Merchant account for your ads to be entitled to Store Ratings.
Product Review Aggregators
Now that you understand that Google Shopping ratings include both Google Product Ratings and Google Shopping Store Ratings (commonly referred to as Google Store Ratings), it’s time to syndicate your ratings and reviews to Google. You can do this yourself via the Google Merchant Center or Google Customer Reviews. However, the easiest and most cost-effective method (without needing to hire a programmer) is to use a third-party review aggregator.
Among the 25 Product Review Aggregators, many do not operate in English. We have narrowed the list down to five companies that specialize in English and can manage both Store Ratings and Product Ratings. Google Customer Reviews is included as the last option because it is free, but it requires programming knowledge. For those without programming expertise, here are five companies that handle Google Shopping Ratings.
$179/mo
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
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.
Verified Reviews can then publish these reviews on Google My Business, Google Shopping, and other platforms to boost a business’s online presence.
$169/mo
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
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.
$119/mo
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
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.
At Planet Marketing, we believe that opting for a third-party review aggregator is the most cost-effective solution, eliminating the complexities and headaches of technical integrations.
Conclusion About Google Product Ratings
Product Ratings are, unquestionably a critical factor in gaining the trust of people who view your Google Shopping ads. This gives them the confidence that they need to try out your product and services. We have already noted that merchants who share their customer reviews with Google can see an increase in their PLA clicks.
This, in turn, will drive more sales for their businesses. Product Ratings are merely an extension for PLAs. Google Shopping Star Ratings give you the edge that you need to stay ahead of the competition. If you’re going to choose a 3rd party review aggregator, you should look into one that does both Google Product Ratings as well as Google Store Ratings. A great option for eCommerce companies is to look into Shopper Approved and Yotpo.
