How to calculate the impact of Google Seller Ratings on your click-through-rate

If you’ve ever typed into Google’s search bar, you’ve seen Google Seller Ratings in action.

But how can you calculate the value of Google Seller Ratings?

The Google extension can boost your text ads’ click-through rate by up to 10%, which can make a big difference to any company battling with their competitors on Google ads.

For an optimized Google Ads campaign running with a decent budget, just increasing the CTR by 1% can generate a lot of money in additional revenue, and can also lead to significant savings when Google’s bill comes around.

In this article, Søren Sieg Jensen, Partner and CTO at Cykelpartner, will explain how to calculate the effect of Google Seller Ratings on Gooogle ads click-through rates. Additionally, if you'd like to learn more about how Cykelpartner used Trustpilot to reduce their CPA in Google ads, check out their success story here.

So, what are Google Seller Ratings?

Google Seller Ratings (GSRs) is an automated Google Ads extension that was created to demonstrate that other people trust your business and have had a positive experience with you. It’s an essential component to any business that values an online search presence and has been known to improve performance.

Google Seller Ratings are displayed in text ads in Google ads, Search Network campaigns, and on Shopping Ads in Google Shopping.

How effective can Google Seller Ratings be for your company?

A 10% increase in CTR is quite the increase, so the question is: can you achieve a whopping 10% CTR increase too? And how can you track it? What results can you expect to get?

We worked with Søren from Danish Cykelpartner.dk to calculate and track the impact of GSRs on Google ads.

In this practical how-to-guide, we'll show you how to calculate the impact of Google Seller Ratings on your Google ads' performance.

1. Ensure you have Google Seller Ratings

If you acquire Google Seller Ratings, reviews will show when you insert your domain address (no www.) below:

https://www.google.com/shopping/seller?q=YOURDOMAIN.COM

Please note: This page will be blank until you qualify for Seller Ratings.

If you're don't currently have Google Seller Ratings, learn more about how reviews can help you easily qualify for them.

2. Select a campaign in Google ads

3. Click the “Ad Extensions” tab

4. Click on “Automated extensions” and look for “Seller Ratings”

Not all campaigns will have Seller Ratings. If you can’t find it in a campaign, please try and check another.

5. Data clean up: Separate ads with and without Seller Ratings

The overall campaign data contains a mix of data from ads with and without Seller Ratings, so you should use a spreadsheet to calculate any difference there might be between the two types of ads.

We provided a free template for you to use to calculate your GSR performance:

• Excel file (download)

Place the data from your “Total – all ad groups” into the top row:

Insert the “Seller Ratings” data into the Seller Ratings row.

Once these steps are completed, your spreadsheet will automatically calculate the performance of ads without Google Seller Ratings, the difference between the ads with and without Seller Ratings, and ultimately, the impact of Google Seller Ratings on your ads.

Please note: Our spreadsheet and how Google ads calculates CTR, CPC, Conversion Rate and CPA can differ slightly as the tools use different amounts of decimals when making the calculations. So please expect minor discrepancies when comparing your spreadsheet's results to the Google ads numbers.

6. First results

This Cykelpartner.dk campaign saw their click-through rate decrease by 4.45%, and their CPC increase by 7.04%.

However, more importantly, their conversion rate jumped a massive 34.66%, resulting in a substantial overall 20.51% decrease in cost per conversion/acquisition (CPA) on the ads with Google Seller Ratings.

Ultimately Google Seller Ratings provided Cykelpartner.dk an average 11.42% decrease in CPA, which saved them more than €40.000/yearly. However, please note that every company's experience will be different.

7. Calculate your Google Ads performance

We strongly recommend entering data from five different campaigns to get an average which can be used to calculate the impact of your Google ads based on your yearly spend for that channel.

The spreadsheet should automatically calculate this if you input your yearly Google ads spend in the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Please note: If you see a positive number, it means that Google Seller Ratings are saving you money. If you see a negative number, then it means that the extension is costing you money.

Accounting for differences in campaign results

Cykelpartner.dk saves +€40.000/yearly with Google Seller Ratings. But what if you have different results, or worse, negative results?

Here are a few tips to ensure you’re tracking everything correctly:

• Have you looked across a representative number of campaigns for your account? For some, five campaigns is not enough as results can vary greatly and some might have a negative impact, but overall, it should be positive.

• Know your competitive environment. Do your competitors have better Seller Ratings and/or more reviews than you?

• Did your average ad position drop on ads with Seller Ratings? This can, of course, affect the ad performance.

Making the most of Google Seller Ratings

Consumers have an abundance of choice today and this requires quick decision-making and adapting to a new consumer environment for businesses. If your competitors have better Google Seller Ratings or more reviews than you, they might be beating you to the sale. If that’s the case, the way to get ahead and get more reviews and a better rating is by improving your review collection, as well as your overall service.

Most businesses have an abundance of happy customers, but don’t proactively invite them to leave reviews. Collecting customer feedback through a Google Seller Rating qualified review platform can make a huge difference.

Proactive collection will lead to a higher quantity of reviews. It also offers a better representation of your company. Remember, an unhappy customer will always find a way to make their voice heard, so it’s up to you to make sure you’re giving your happy customers a platform to share their experiences as well.

Reviews aren’t only beneficial for your potential customers – many of our clients have realized that reviews power benefits like Google Seller Ratings, which can accelerate click-through rates, conversions, and revenue.

Reviews can also be used to improve traffic, on-page conversions, and build trust in all of your marketing campaigns. Google Seller Ratings are just the beginning!

To find out more about the power of reviews, check out Trustpilot's Complete Guide below.