Google PLAs show 118% rise in search results, finds study

The appearance of Google Shopping Product Listing Ad (PLA) integrations within Google’s search results increased by 118% during 2014, according to Searchmetrics’ latest study.

The Universal Search Integrations 2015 study also found that video results are blended into 55% of keyword searches ‒ with videos from YouTube accounting for the lion’s share. Images were blended into 40% of keyword searches, shopping/PLAs (16%), news (13%) and maps (7%).

Overall the study found that four out of five keyword searches produced at least one Universal Search integration within search results.

Three key findings of Google’s Universal Search results from the study:

1. Google Shopping ads show biggest growth

The share of Google Shopping PLA integrations more than doubled over the year, with the proportion of keywords for which at least one Google Shopping integration was displayed rising from 7.5% to 16% between January and December 2014. In total, Google Shopping PLA integrations account for 44% of all integrations.

2. Video integrations appear for most keywords – and YouTube dominates

Video remains the most common integration in Universal Search, even though the share of keywords for which video integrations were displayed fell during 2014. 66% of all keywords returned at least one video integration in January, falling to 55% by December.

By December 2014, 80% of videos displayed in Universal Search results were hosted on Google’s subsidiary, YouTube (rising from 50% in January).

3. Google Map integrations

The proportion of keywords with Google Map integrations has tripled during the course of 2014.  In January only 2% of search terms delivered map integrations, rising to over 7% by December.