WebProNews

Back in October, when Google offered some tips for the then-upcoming holiday season, they suggested using Google Checkout badges in your AdWords ads. They said that ads that do this have a 10% higher clickthrough rate than those that don't.

The concept makes sense. As I said back then, it's a classic advertising strategy. It makes the ad look "clicky," and lets potential customers know that they can get whatever is being advertised by clicking that icon.
The 10% higher clickthrough stat is getting some attention now, as well as another stat from the Google Checkout Merchant page, which claims that ads displaying the badge also have a 40% higher conversion rate. That's quite a number.

If using the Google Checkout badge becomes a big trend, it may just increase Google Checkout's market share significantly." Good for Google, perhaps less good for competition like EBay-owned PayPal," says Philipp Lenssen at Google Blogoscoped. It could certainly go a long way in branding the service.

Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Land notes,  "Google first changed to a larger badge set about two years ago and then added a more colorful option in August." They're still toying around with the look too.

Update: Lenssen reports that a Google representative clarifies:  Google isn’t actually saying that there is 10% gain in CTR. It’s saying there is a 10% gain in CTR for “Google Checkout users”