Google announced that it’s adding product ratings to product listing ads (PLAs). Starting in the U.S., users will see star ratings and review counts on PLAs across Google.com and Google.com/shopping.

The five-star rating system is based on aggregated rating and review data for the product compiled from various sources, which include merchants, third-party aggregators, editorial sites and users.

“We believe these ratings will help differentiate products across google.com and google.com/shopping and will help merchants drive more qualified traffic through Product Listing Ads,” says product manager Mike Capsambelis. “In initial tests, product ratings also helped increase click-through-rates of Product Listing Ads.”

The ratings are available to merchants targeting the U.S., who share product review content with Google. The company is giving merchants a grace period through October to share their review content (which can come directly from the merchant or from an approved third party aggregator). During the grace period, Google will allow product ratings to be shown across all PLAs where it has product review data available. Afterwards, it will only show ratings for products from merchants who choose to share the data.

“Product ratings are one of several extensions we may show with Product Listing Ads, so please note that just because a product has reviews does not mean that we’ll always show rating,” says Capsambelis.

You can submit review content here.

More countries will be launched in the coming months.

Image via Google