1. Leveraging Customer Reviews
to Boost Performance & Efficiency in PPC Channels

2. Jordan Garner
Director of Marketing

3. Agenda
About Trustpilot
Influence of Customer Reviews
Company Reviews
Product Reviews
Paid Search
Other Ways to Leverage Reviews
Q & A

4. ABOUT TRUSTPILOT

5. Trustpilot by the Numbers

6. Social Proof for Future
Shoppers
Consistent and Genuine
Feedback
For Consumers
• Free for all – consumer review site
• Discovery and recommendation platform
• Social sharing and community experience
For Businesses
• Automated review collection system
• Customer engagement and interaction
• Insights and analytics engine
The Trustpilot Community

7. Retail Services Money

8. Common Client Challenges
Manage Online
Reputation
• Managing online
reputation &
brand
development
• Standing out from
competition
• Developing &
expanding social
media presence
& community
Drive Traffic
• Improving PPC
performance &
efficiency
• Driving SEO
traffic via
branded search
• Optimizing
performance of
other paid digital
channels
Increase
Conversions
• Increasing
website
conversion rates
& growing online
sales
• Creating repeat
customers &
sales through
advocacy
• Increasing AOV
Improve
Business
• Collecting
customer
feedback &
identifying
insights & trends
• Identifying
unhappy
customers &
resolving issues
• Understanding
value pro in
customers words

9. INFLUENCE OF CUSTOMER REVIEWS

10. 50% of Americans who are aware of advertising don’t trust
what they see, read or hear in advertisements.
44% think advertisements are dishonest.
-YouGov.com
“

11. 72% of people trust consumer opinions posted online
(2nd only to “Recommendations from people I know”)

12. The Age of the Consumer
Companies must become customer obsessed and the only sustainable
competitive advantage is knowledge and engagement with customers.
“
-Forrester Research

13. 90% of consumers say
buying decisions are
influenced by online reviews
72% of consumers will take
action after reading a
positive review
Customers are likely to spend
31% more on a business with
“excellent” reviews
The Impact of Reviews on the Consumers Buying Journey

14. Impact of Asking for Reviews Proactively
NOT asking for reviews:
50/50 split positive/negative at best
(often many more negative reviews)
Proactively asking for reviews:
83% positive reviews
More balanced representation of a business

15. The Need for Social Engagement: Ask & Convert
Of the 4.3M reviews we’ve
helped customers aggregate
since May of 2015, 86% have
been 4 stars or higher

16. 92% read online reviews in 2015, compared to just 88% in 2014
44% consider an online review relevant only if it has been written in the past month
87% look at e-commerce reviews for both brick-and-mortar and online purchases
91% consider an online review more important than input from a salesperson
8% of a site’s search visibility on Google search is attributed to online reviews
A few more key stats…
…what about ?

17. Why is Google taking online reviews more seriously? Simply
put, it’s because the user is.
A recent study has shown that more customers are taking
the time to read online reviews than ever before.
“
-Jonathan Boyle

18. Trust Signals are EVERYWHERE in the Search Engines

19. Speak to a seller’s
trustworthiness,
reputation, &
customer service
Who to buy from
Speak to vital
information on a
specific product
What to buy
COMPANY
Reviews
PRODUCT
Reviewsvs

20. Where Are They Displayed in Paid Search?#1:
What is the Potential Impact in Paid Search?#2:
How Do You Qualify for Reviews in Paid Search?#3:
What Are Tips & Tricks for Getting the Most From Reviews in Paid
Search?
#4:
COMPANY
Reviews
PRODUCT
Reviews&

21. COMPANY REVIEWS

22. Where Do Company Reviews Display in Paid Search?#1:
PPC ads in SERPs
Google Seller Profile Pages

23. Where Do Company Reviews Display in Paid Search?#1:
Product pages in Seller Comparison Charts
Google Shopping SERPs

24. What is the Impact of Company Reviews in Paid Search?#2:Google says Seller Ratings increase CTR “on average 17%”
Actual CTR increase ranges a LOT
 vertical, CPCs, max bids, ad positions, competition, other ads with Seller Ratings, etc.
Increased CTR means…
1. More traffic
2. Better Quality Score  CPC goes down  ROI increases
Other qualitative benefits…
- Stand out from competition
- Reputation management (positive trust signals attached to your brand)
Recent limitations around ad real estate  Seller Ratings are more important than ever
Increased traffic + Efficiency = Better Performance

25. How Do You Qualify for Company Reviews in Paid Search?#3:
Other Notes:
Current country domains included  google.com, google.co.uk, google.co.nz, google.com.au, google.de,
google.co.jp, google.fr, google.nl, or google.com.br
Minimum Criteria to Qualify:
1. 30 reviews from the last 12 months
2. Average rating of 3.5 stars or higher
3. At least 10 reviews must be in the user’s Google
interface language
4. Domain of reviews must match the display URL
Campaign type:
Search Network with Display Select
Search & Display Networks
Search Network only
Options to Qualify for Seller Ratings:
- Google Trusted Stores
- Stella Service
- Google Consumer Surveys
- A licensed Google review website
Find the right fit for your business…
 goals, customer journey, opps to improve your score

26. What Are Tips & Tricks for Getting the Most From
Company Reviews in Paid Search?#4:
• Don’t stress about the timing of Seller Ratings showing up – reference your Google Seller Profile Page
(http://www.google.com/shopping/seller?q=YOURWEBSITE.COM)
• Implement a proactive review collection strategy
- Make it EASY for customers to leave reviews
- Focus reviewers on one location
- Ensure reviewers can update reviews & encourage them to do so
• Work on response rate optimization  more positive reviews!
• Don’t stress if you don’t ALWAYS see your ratings
• Work with your AdWords rep on ads with subdomains or brand/domain changes
• Don’t forget the landing pages!! Use trust signals & reviews  test & optimize

27. What Are Tips & Tricks for Getting the Most From
Company Reviews in Paid Search?#4:
PRO TIP:

28. PRODUCT REVIEWS

29. Where Do Product Reviews Display in Paid Search?#1:
Product Listing Ads in SERPs

30. Where Do Product Reviews Display in Paid Search?#1:
Product pages in Seller Comparison Charts
Google Shopping SERPs

31. What is the Impact of Product Reviews in Paid Search?#2:No Google-released numbers on Product Reviews specifically
Actual CTR increase ranges a LOT
 vertical, ad positions, competition, other ads with ratings, # of reviews, etc.
Increased CTR means…
1. More traffic
2. Better Quality Score  CPC goes down  ROI increases
Other qualitative benefits…
- Stand out from competition
- Reputation management (positive trust signals attached to your brand)
- Product reviews can be a minimum qualifier for consumers to convert
Recent limitations around ad real estate  PLA real estate is critical!
Increased traffic + Efficiency = Better Performance

32. How Do You Qualify for Product Reviews in Paid Search?#3:
Other Notes:
Make sure to fill out the Google form to tell Google they will be receiving a review feed of your product
reviews from one of the licensed review websites (Product Ratings Interest Form)
Current countries included  United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and Australia
***No minimum score applied! Important to monitor & work to improve score (use opt-out if needed)
Minimum Criteria to Qualify:
1. 50 product reviews total across all products
2. At least 3 reviews for a specific product
3. Reviews must “match” to product review ads
Options to Qualify for Ratings in Product Ads:
- A licensed Google review website
- Feeding the reviews yourself to Google
in the approved format
Find the right fit for your business…
 goals, customer journey, internal resources

33. What Are Tips & Tricks for Getting the Most From
Product Reviews in Paid Search?#4:
• Implement a proactive review collection strategy
- Make it EASY for customers to leave reviews
- Ensure logical timing & positioning of invites for seller & product reviews if doing both
• Work on response rate optimization  QUANTITY
• Provide as many matching pieces of info as possible with the reviews  SKU, product URL (watch out for
parameters!), etc. to increase the chance of a successful match
• Don’t forget the landing pages! Use trust signals & reviews  test & optimize
• Google will not apply the same discretion of “will these ratings improve click through” before displaying –
be careful to monitor performance, continually grow quantity & improve ratings, and use opt-out if needed

34. PAID SEARCH ACTION ITEMS

35. Actions Items to Optimize Paid Search with Trust:
1. Identify your review collection goals & needs  product & seller reviews? Rep mgt? PPC?
2. Choose a focus review website/platform/destination from the Google approved list
3. Start by inviting recent customers (last 90 days or so) to jumpstart review collection
4. Set up an automated way of collecting reviews on an on-going basis
5. Optimize review collection  more reviews = more trust (& often more positive reviews)
6. Track progress in AdWords & Google Shopping  traffic + efficiency = performance
7. Don’t forget your landing pages & other key conversion points!

36. o Collection vehicle(s) – embedded review form vs. email
o Timing of invitation(s) to review
o Subject lines of invitation emails
o Content & CTAs in invitation emails
o Offering incentives
o Reminder invitations
o Where to send the reviewers to review
Opportunities for Review Collection Optimization

37.  Open & discoverable reviews
 Licensing agreements with all the major search engines
 Verified reviews & recourse to report if suspicious
 Opportunity to invite past customers to leave verified reviews & automate review collection
 Opportunity to respond & consumers to update
 Easy, non-invasive experience for the customer
 Review format  CONTENT + trust signals (names, date/time stamp, etc.)
 Third-party validation
 Social sharing
What to Look for in a Review Platform

38. Implementing a Proactive Collection Strategy
1
Design a collection
flow in your existing
customer journey to
align with your goals
2
Measure the results,
optimize the collection
rate, & iterate3
Identify your org’s
goals for a proactive
review strategy
NEVER STOP ASKING!

39. OTHER WAYS TO LEVERAGE REVIEWS

40. Put Trust Signals EVERYWHERE…

41. WEBSITE

42. SOCIAL

43. SEARCH
Paid Search
(via Seller Ratings Ad Extension)
Organic Search
(via 3rd party sites & rich snippets)

44. DISPLAY
Banner, Re-Targeting, Social Media Ads…

45. EMAILS

46. A More TRUSTED Brand Leads to More $...

47. Driving Conversion Results: Dashlane

48. Driving Conversion Results: Dashlane

49. Want to find out more about how to use
reviews to grow your business?

50. Q&A
Jordan Garner
@jordanroseg
@TrustpilotUS
jga@trustpilot.com