Google’s New Shared Endorsements

Google to follow Facebook by adding more 'Social Proof" into its ads

Value/Importance: [rating=5] (For Marketer's investing in Google AdWords]

Recommended link:  Google's Shared Endorsements

You may have seen the new privacy agreement in Google recently?

It's the precursor of a big change to Google's Sponsored Ads, the intention is revealed in Google's Terms of Conditions for the ads above that state that

'We want to give you, and your friends and connections, the most useful information. Recommendations from people that you know can really help. So your friends, family and others may see your Profile name and photo, and content like the reviews that you share or the ads that you +1’d.

This only happens when you take an action (things like +1’ing, commenting or following) – and the only people who see it are the people that you’ve chosen to share that content with.

On Google, you’re in control of what you share. This update to our Terms of Service doesn't change in any way who you’ve shared things with in the past or your ability to control who you want to share things with in the future.'

Read Google's new Shared Endorsement's support page to find out how it works.

So this feature looks similar to Facebook's Sponsored stories which has been available since 2011, where Advertisers can share with Facebook users those who have 'Liked' their company page.

Google Shared endorsements aren't showing for us yet since Google's presumably wants sufficient people to agree to it first or the conditions above aren't met in our networks.

Let us know when you first see examples "in the wild" - do post a grab to a network and let us know - we're interested to take a look!