Google Experimenting with Email Subscription Option in Search Ads

Posted 12/31/2011 at 11:20pm | by Pulkit Chandna

3

Comments

Print

As you would expect from a company that operates the world’s most popular search engine, search ads constitute an important source of revenue for Google. Launched in 2000, Google Adwords has always stuck to the text-based, cost-per-click ad model it debuted with. However,  the search engine giant is always searching for “innovative ways for advertisers to engage users on Google.com.” To this end, it’s now experimenting with a new ad format.

This new ad format (pictured below) lets advertisers include an email subscription option in their ads. The first report of this new ad format surfaced a few weeks ago when the Emailblog reported about an experimental email subscription feature being tested by Google in partnership with Honda

This is what Google had to say when asked about the new format by Techcrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis: “We’re currently running a small experiment of a new ad format that helps users sign up more easily for email subscriptions or other free newsletters. This new ad format contains a box within the ad that displays a user’s Google email address (if logged in). If a user chooses to click ‘Subscribe to newsletter’ then the email address is sent to the advertiser directly, which is clearly disclosed within the ad itself.”