• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 13, 2012

IgnitionOne and DataPop moved forward on a deal to support Google product listing ads (PLAs) as the engine converts Google Product Search into Google Shopping. The companies follow Adlucent, Didit and Kenshoo into supporting paid-listing ads.

DataPop offers expertise in semantic language optimization, according to IgnitionOne President Roger Barnette. "About 15% of the conversions we track come from Google Product Listing Ads," he said which has the potential to increase as brands pay more attention to optimizing them. 

IgnitionOne added a feature in its Digital Marketing Suite (DMS) to integrate Google Shopping Product Listing Ads side by side with search, display and Facebook. The integration also allows marketers to combine attribution capabilities to track and optimize bidding across all media channels.

The deal with DataPop brings in feeds for semantic and bid optimization for cross-channel attribution, allowing marketers to allocate media budget to gain the most from dollars spent. Marketers also have an option to view custom attribution profiles.

Brian Green, VP of marketing at Adorama, works with Adlucent and in mid 2011 signed on to use PLAs. The bidding and optimization work similar to traditional paid-search ads, but offer more opportunities to include consumer recommendations, images and other content.

Adorama sees a higher conversion rate with PLAs compared with paid search, but it depends on the product. "We have had success in terms of revenue," he said. "The industry has a lot to learn now that Google Product Search is becoming a paid-for service. Brands don't necessarily need a company to manage product feeds, similar to comparison shopping engines."

PLAs are more about managing search ads with images, rather than submitting product fees with cost and pricing, Green said. He said marketers need to look at the ads as valuable real estate with the ability to manage the text, the description, and the image, as well as target different things with messaging in the feed.