In a world where we're increasingly reliant on our phones to navigate the world, online reviews can make or break local businesses. Lawsuits regarding negative reviews show up in the news at least a couple times every year, and these review pages are increasingly becoming the battleground where individuals protest against businesses partaking in practices they disagree with. On the other hand, however, a good rating online can entrench and create a moat around a business for years to come. That's why Google now allows advertisers to include their Google reviews in their AdWords ads.
"People increasingly rely on the opinions and experiences of others to help make decisions like which pizza parlor to visit, where to get your tires rotated or which dentist to make an appointment with," Google says in its post announcing the change. "Local ratings make your ads more useful to consumers searching for local information, and can improve your ad performance."
All that advertisers need to do to add ratings to their AdWords places advertisements is link their Google My Business and AdWords accounts together. Google has a post up from last year outlining how to do just that. Google My Places is the platform where businesses can verify their ownership of a location and ensure it shows up in Google results with the correct information.
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