Summary
- Google is testing a new highly visual ad format in Gmail’s Promotions tab, turning it into an e-commerce shopping hub.
- The new ad format showcases single product images that expand into a mini-catalog, enticing users with key purchasing info.
- This more disruptive ad format is a departure from the subtle ads seen in Gmail before, potentially prompting more clicks for Google.
You might not notice Gmail ads a lot—the few ads we do get are made to blend in like emails, so they tend to be a non-issue for many. But now, you’re about to. Google is playing around with a brand new ad format for Gmail, and it might grind some people’s gears.
Google is apparently trying out a new, highly visual advertising format within Gmail that, once it rolls out, might convert the Promotions tab into an integrated, miniature shopping hub of sorts. This new ad format embeds an interactive, e-commerce-style experience directly into the user’s inbox, highlighting real-life products you might want to buy.
The new ad unit first appears in the Promotions tab as a visually prominent feature, showcasing a single product with an image. Once you click on it, though, it expands to reveal a horizontal carousel of multiple product tiles. This expanded view functions like a mini-catalog, with each tile displaying key purchasing information, including the product’s image, name, price, and average user star rating. Additionally, you might also see labels such as “Free shipping” to try and get you to buy it. You can’t buy products right from that ad—instead, you’ll be redirected to an external website to buy those products.
This shows up in the Promotions tab in your inbox, which already lumps in everything Gmail deems “promotional” or otherwise commercial, non-important emails—emails from online storefronts you’ve signed up at, coupons, and all that stuff. Not quite spam, but probably not something you want to look at every day, because some stores can get really annoying with the emails they send out. So, presumably, this is not something that you would typically see in your regular inbox. If you’re looking through the Promotions tab, you’re probably looking for a deal, and that’s what Google wants to exploit with this new ad format—no one is sending you these deals but Google, but if you find something good enough, you might be tempted to click on it.
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Ads everywhere.
Still, this is a notable step up from what we used to have as far as ads go within Gmail. Some people might see the occasional ad, but they tend to be ads that blend into your email list and are otherwise clearly highlighted as ads. This, however, is an ad format more akin to the ad banners you might see on this website or in other websites, and that can be disruptive for people that are not used to seeing ads there.
Like literally every other company, though, if there’s free space available to be monetized, Google can and probably will make money from it at some point or other. This is, right now, just a test, but it might roll out more widely over the next few weeks.
Source: Search Engine Land