Google Launches New ‘Promoted’ Pins To Boost SMB Visibility

Google will be trying to help businesses hawk their wares with new square-shaped “Promoted” pins on Google Maps, denoting small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to the tech giant’s annual Google Marketing Live conference.

The point of the square-shaped colorful pin is to be eye-catching and help a business possibly get more clicks as users are browsing the map.

The icons will also denote whether the business represented is a restaurant, hotel or other type of business. And the boxy, square shape of the icons will be set apart from the other ones normally offered. Through September, the new icons will be free for a business to install.

The tech giant’s “Smart” campaigns are currently available in 150 countries and can be signed up for using the Google Ads mobile app. The “Promoted” pins are only available in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Japan, although more countries will follow soon, according to Google.

The tech giant is also letting Smart campaign users check the performance of their ads. Users can search My Ads or Google Ads to see how their advertisements are doing financially.

“We’ve made our reporting features more accessible — with a quick search, you can instantly see the status of your ads, how they’re performing, and how your ads look to potential customers,” the company said.

Google, enjoying near ubiquity in the online advertising world by now, has also faced backlash for its advertising practices, as reported by PYMNTS. In fact, 50 attorneys general in the U.S. are currently investigating Google’s parent company, Alphabet, for violations of antitrust law. They are looking into allegations that Google’s practices lent too much power to its own ad tool bundles in ways rivals can’t hope to compete with. By combining its own search results with Youtube, Gmail and other such services, competition is stifled, they say.

Google defends itself by saying it’s got plenty of competition in the field, including Telaria, the Rubicon Project and others.