Google Product Listing Ads (PLA): definition, operation and role in your Shopping strategy

Performance Marketing

Google Product Listing Ads (PLA): definition, operation and role in your Shopping strategy

Product Listing Ads (PLA) have become one of Google's key formats for capturing purchase intent. They appear in Google Search and Google Shopping, often before the traditional results. For e-commerce and brands, they represent a powerful lever for generating qualified clicks, provided they have a solid, optimized and constantly updated product flow.

In this article, we go back in depth to what a PLA is, how it works, how it differs from standard Google Shopping ads and why it remains essential, even in the era of automated campaigns such as Performance Max.

‍

What are Product Listing Ads?

A Product Listing Ad (PLA) is a visual advertisement displaying a specific product with its image, price, name, merchant name, and sometimes additional information such as reviews or store availability.

Unlike text ads, a PLA highlights the product itself. It is a format that is natively oriented towards e-commerce.

It is mainly found in:

The Google Shopping tab
The top of the Google Search results
The Shopping carousel on mobile
some partner surfaces of the Google network

PLAs combine image, price and product title, which makes it possible to attract users who are already in the evaluation phase or intent to buy.

‍

How do Product Listing Ads work?

PLAs don't use manually declared keywords like regular Search ads. They are based entirely on two elements:

Your product flow in Google Merchant Center (GMC)
Intent signals detected by Google

In other words, the quality of the information you provide in your feed directly influences:

The printing rate
the relevance of the queries on which you appear
competitiveness in auctions
Cost per click
The conversion rate after click

The most important attributes

For a PLA to be well distributed, Google relies in particular on:

Title : main keyword, brand, model
description : context of use, benefits
price/sale_price
Availability
Product_type : detailed category hierarchy
GTIN/MPN/BRAND
Image_link : quality, angle, conformity
specific attributes : size, color, material, etc.

The more complete and consistent this data is, the more Google understands the product and positions it correctly in response to user queries.

‍

PLA vs Google Shopping: what's the difference?

The two are related but do not refer to exactly the same thing.

Google Shopping = platform

It is the ecosystem where your products appear:

Shopping engine
Search carousels
Display Retail surfaces

PLA = advertising format

A PLA is an announcement unit.
It depends on a unique product flow, associated attributes, and bid signals defined in Google Ads.

In summary:
Google Shopping is the environment.
PLA is the advertising displayed in this environment.

Why are PLAs still essential despite Performance Max?

The arrival of Google Performance Max has automated a large part of the control. Many advertisers thought that PLAs would become secondary. It is the other way around.

In PMax, PLAs remain the heart of e-commerce inventory.

They represent a large part of:

Clicks
Conversions
Intent signals
of overall profitability

Creative assets, videos, and banners add a high funnel dimension.
But the final conversion is still very often played out on a PLA.

‍

The advantages of PLAs for e-commerce

1. A very visual format

The image + the price generate a higher click rate than text ads, especially on mobile.

2. A strong intention

The user sees the product and its price directly. He clicks knowingly → higher conversion rate.

3. A better qualification of traffic

Fewer irrelevant clicks: users know what they are buying.

4. A premium inventory

They appear before the natural results, often at the top of the SERP.

5. Sustainable performance

On the majority of catalogs, PLAs remain one of the most stable and efficient levers.

The importance of product flow in PLA performance

The quality of the flow is the number one factor.
A poorly qualified PLA can:

appear on requests that are too broad
generate irrelevant clicks
be broadcast less often
losing competitiveness in the face of competitors

On the other hand, an enriched flow increases:

The CTR
The relevance of the impressions
The Shopping Quality Score
The volume of qualified clicks
post-click conversion

At Dataïads, analyses conducted on thousands of products show that the granularity of flow attributes is directly correlated to CPC, CTR, and ROAS.

Examples of critical attributes that are often overlooked:

specific color (ex: “beige sable” vs “beige”)
detailed material
occasion/style
image cropped for better readability
product_type hierarchy on 3—5 levels

An enriched product is better understood → better disseminated → better valued.

👉 Read also: Advertising performance and user experience: towards reconciliation?

How to optimize your PLAs: the priority areas

1. Improve product images

Avoid overloaded funds
Have a reframe centered on the product
Use sharp images, >1000px
Test different angles

Google assesses visual readability.

2. Rewrite product titles

A good PLA title =
Brand + Product + Key Attribute + Specificity

Example:
❌ “Men's running shoes”
✔️ “Nike Pegasus 40 men — cushioned running shoes”

3. Improve the description

Add:

usage
context
profits
materials
specifics
→ Google uses this data to match intent.

4. Structure the product_type neatly

A clear hierarchy such as:

Shoes > Running > Men > Performance

→ Better categorization → lower CPC.

5. Test prices and promotions

The attribute Sale_price is one of the most impacting signals on CTR.

👉 For more information: What is AB Testing?

‍

6. Check for GMC errors daily

The most common mistakes:

inconsistent prices
availability not updated
non-compliant images
missing attributes

Even a small mistake can block hundreds of products.

Concrete example: the impact of an enriched flow on PLA

(Anonymized data — taken from Dataïads analyses)

On a catalog of 30,000 products:

+12% CTR after asset enrichment
—9% CPC after optimizing the product_type
+18% impressions thanks to missing attributes completed
ROAS +11% in the optimized segment

These trends are found in the majority of Shopping verticals.

What happens after the click? (the step that is often forgotten)

Many advertisers think that PLA optimization stops at the flow.
But the experience after the click directly influences:

The conversion rate
The Shopping Quality Score
The weighted CPC
final profitability

If the landing page is:

Slow
Not mobile-first
not aligned with the user's search
Too general

→ Google detects it → the broadcast is impacted.

That's what advanced advertisers are working for now flow + post-click.

Example:
Landing pages dedicated to the product or category, contextualized according to the ad.

This is precisely the approach that Dataïads is following with Smart Landing Pages :
→ a page consistent with the intent of the PLA
→ a fast, visual, personalized environment
→ better conversion without affecting the bidding strategy

PLA and Local Inventory Ads: complementarity

For omnichannel retailers, PLAs fit perfectly with Local Inventory Ads (LIAs).
PLAs cover e-commerce intent.
LIAs capture local intent (“available near me”).

In a unified strategy, both formats allow:

to appear on very similar requests
To capture multiple intentions
to amplify product visibility
to improve geographic coverage

PLAs in a Performance Max strategy

In Performance Max campaigns, PLAs generally represent:

50 to 80% of conversions
60 to 90% of clicks
The majority of intent shopping signals

Even if the algorithm distributes the budget over several inventories (Search, Display, YouTube...), PLAs remain the basis of performance.

Optimizing your PLAs is therefore equivalent to optimizing your PMax.

******

Product Listing Ads (PLA) remain a central lever for any Shopping strategy. They combine strong intent, premium visibility, product granularity and sustainable performance. But their effectiveness depends entirely on the quality of the product flow and the consistency between the ad and the post-click experience.

In a landscape where Performance Max is increasingly automating delivery, the best way to stay in control is to optimize what you still control:
your product data, visuals, and post-click experience.

To go further, you can also explore: