An extra plus for advertisers? Google adds +1 to display ads

While present efforts to bring social media capabilities to banner ads – such as ‘Like’-able banners on the Facebook network and ‘Diggable’ banner ads on Digg – have so far had limited success, Google is forging ahead with its latest initiative, buoyed by soaring adoption of its +1 button.

 

Since its introduction on search results and search ads earlier this year, the button has been installed on over a million sites, attracting over 4bn impressions daily.

 

As such, a new update on the firm’s Inside AdWords blog, announced that its next step will be to incorporate the button into its display network.

 

Outlining how this will work, senior software engineer  Eider Oliveira explains: “For example, take Elaine, who see an ad for discount flights. She +1’s the ad, thinking her friends might value similar deals. Now when Elaine’s friends and contacts are logged into Google and see the discount flight ad on any of the millions of [Google Display Network] partner websites, they’ll see Elaine’s picture across the bottom of the ad with a note saying she =1’d it.”

 

In addition to the power of their friend’s personal recommendation, Elaine’s friends are also more likely to see the ad, according to Google, because these recommendations feature significantly in the company’s search algorithms.

 

The announcement also indicates that the +1 button on display ads will also work together with similar buttons on search results, search ads and websites so that a +1 will apply to the same content across the web, no matter where it appears.