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A guide to seller ratings, including how they appear, what the minimum requirements are and what to do if yours aren’t showing.
Seller ratings make your ads more visible in Google Search and show a review score for users to help them pick a reputable company. They also give you an opportunity to make your brand stand out with high review scores.
Used correctly, seller ratings increase CTRs and reduce consumer anxiety, making users more likely to convert before they’ve even landed on your website. So, yes, you want seller ratings showing on your ads. This article explains precisely how to get them.
Seller ratings are an ad extension in Google Ads available for text ads and Shopping ads in Google Search. This is an automated extension type that you can opt-in to use and then Google will generate your seller ratings if you meet the right criteria.
We’ll cover the criteria you need to meet in the next section but first, let’s clarify what seller ratings look like in Google Ads.
Above, you can see the official Google illustration of what seller ratings look like in a text ad. The extension places a rating out of five stars with the number of reviews this score is comprised of in brackets. Finally, a qualifier is shown to the right of your rating to highlight the key reason you achieve your rating (e.g. average delivery time) if such data is available.
In the wild, this is what seller ratings can look like in text ads.
If you’re running Shopping ads, you may also see your seller rating referenced in green, as below. This is not to be confused with Product Ratings that show as a score out of five stars and a label stating the number of “product reviews” this score is sourced from.
Seller ratings are designed to help users choose quality retailers to buy from while Product Ratings are there to help them choose the best individual product. You can find a more in-depth explanation in our Google Shopping: Seller vs product ratings article.
Seller ratings only show in Search Network campaigns on a country-by-country basis. So, if you’re running ads across the EU, for example, your seller ratings will be different for each country and they might not show at all for certain nations.
It all comes down to the reviews you’ve received as a retailer in each country.
With that in mind, the requirements for seller ratings start to make a lot more sense:
So the key to getting seller ratings in Google Ads is to have more than 100+ reviews within the past 12 months and an average score of 3.5 stars or more – for each country, at any given time.
You can also check to see if you have a seller rating for any specific country by typing the following URL into any browser:
https://www.google.com/shopping/ratings/account/lookup?q={yourwebsite}
Simply replace {yourwebsite} with your homepage URL and you’ll be able to view information about your store, including your seller rating if your website meets Google’s requirements. There’s also a country selector that allows you to view this information on a per-country basis.
Google has changed its requirements for seller ratings multiple times in recent years and some businesses have seen their ratings disappear as a result. Some have even seen them reappear again in 2018 after Google reduced the number of reviews required down to 100 from 150 in the past 12 months.
If you’re not seeing seller ratings, you need to determine how many reviews you’re currently getting on a yearly basis from Google Customer Reviews and third-party partners like Trustpilot.
In 2016, Reviews.io calculated that a small business would need to complete 2,000+ transactions per year, in a given country, to achieve the 150 annual review requirement at the time. So this gives you an idea of what to aim for given the threshold has now dropped down to 100+ reviews over a 12-month period.
If you’re not getting enough reviews, there are three key steps to follow:
Start by checking third-party review sites to see if you have any unclaimed profiles that are generating consistent feedback. If you find any unclaimed profiles that could boost your annual totals, you might want to consider claiming them (keep in mind, you often have to pay for the privilege).
After a sale, ask customers to leave reviews after transactions are complete. And make sure that you respond to customer reviews on the same platforms on which they originally leave them. Don’t automate generic responses or ask reviewers to contact support. Be conversational and try to resolve any issues transparently because this is what future potential customers are going to see when they check out your profile of reviews.
Related reading: How to get more Google reviews?
Finally, you need to make sure your average score is hitting that 3.5-star minimum average and this one all comes down to keeping those customers happy. Remember, it’s not the product that seller ratings are there to score, it’s the quality of your service as a business/retailer. The customer experience counts for a lot. How does your business operate after people have handed over their money compared to anything you do before the purchase was made?
Improving average review scores can take time, but the improvements you need to make in order to achieve this will benefit your business across the board.
Seller ratings are a powerful tool for retailers but they can be a little elusive for smaller businesses that can’t always generate the required number of reviews on an annual basis. Thankfully, Google reduced the threshold in 2018, which makes seller ratings accessible to a much larger range of business, but many companies that only needed 30+ reviews pre-2016 have never recovered.
The good news is there are steps you can take to increase the number of reviews your business generates and the review scores you end up with too.
Find out more about our eCommerce PPC services or call us on 02392 830281 if you’d like to chat to one of our experts.
James has led Vertical Leap’s PPC team since early 2012, and is responsible for ensuring the effective and efficient delivery that our customers relish. He has a wealth of experience, having managed PPC campaigns across all markets and platforms for more than 15 years, and manages a thriving team of experts. An ecommerce specialist, he loves the data driven nature of PPC. After achieving a BEng degree in Mechanical Engineering at university, he applied his strong problem-solving and mathematical skillset to paid advertising, where he can optimise and analyse the complexities of click and conversion data. James can very quickly identify and solve any hurdles surrounding a PPC campaign to ensure quick wins, successful results and ongoing ROI. James loves his motorbike, brewing, and camping in all weathers; but spends virtually all his weekends sailing his sea fishing boat around the Isle of Wight not managing to catch anything to feed his family.
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