Social Proof
Turns Plain Text Reviews Into Visually Impactful, Shareable Graphics
January 27, 2020
•
5 min read
.jpeg)
These trusted star ratings help build instant credibility, improve ad performance, and lower your customer acquisition costs - all by showing your business reputation exactly where people are ready to buy.
In this guide, we’ll break down what Google Seller Ratings are, how they work, how to qualify, and how REVIEWS.io can help you make the most of them.
Google Seller Ratings are the gold stars you see underneath paid ads (Search and Shopping campaigns) in Google Ads. They reflect your company’s overall reputation, built from verified customer reviews collected through trusted sources.
These ratings are automatically displayed by Google once you meet eligibility criteria and serve as a trust signal in paid search results. Only reviews collected from Google Customer Reviews or Google Licensed Review Partners, like REVIEWS.io, are counted. Reviews from other platforms (e.g. Facebook) are excluded from this rating.
The result: You gain visibility, credibility, and trust at the exact moment a customer is deciding whether to click.
If you're investing in paid search, Google Seller Ratings aren’t optional - they're essential. Here’s what they bring to your campaigns:
Ads with Seller Ratings visually stand out with gold stars and an average score. This increases user trust and makes your listing more enticing.
Google Seller Ratings will help you to stand out in Google. In fact, on average, Seller Ratings lead to a 17% increase in CTR.
Google gives businesses a 'Quality Score' to work out the Cost Per Click you pay for your ads. A Quality Score is made up of three contributing factors:keywords, landing pages and the Ad itself.
Where do Seller Ratings come into this? Well, Google uses your CTR to help it establish the quality of your Ads.
Higher CTR = Higher Quality Score.
If you feel like Google Ads is costing you more than it's worth, Google Seller Ratings can really turn that around.
A higher Quality Score directly impacts how much you pay per click. Customers using REVIEWS.io have reported significant reductions in CPC after activating Seller Ratings.
By the time shoppers land on your site, they’ve already seen proof that your business is trusted. That social proof builds confidence and moves users further down the funnel.
This is great news for on-site conversions too - reviews produce an average of 18% uplift in sales.
To be eligible for Google Seller Ratings, you must meet specific requirements:
Meeting these criteria enables Google to automatically apply Seller Ratings to your paid search ads.
Enable Google Customer Reviews in your Merchant Center and integrate the opt-in module to collect post-purchase feedback.
By enrolling in the Google Customer Reviews program, you can set up and customize survey invitations and post-purchase communications, helping to collect and display customer feedback.
These platforms offer more robust review collection and display options. With REVIEWS.io, you get:
Many brands using REVIEWS.io activate Seller Ratings within weeks by using automated review requests post-purchase.
Once eligible, follow these steps to enable Seller Ratings in your Google Ads campaigns:
You can also monitor performance under Predefined Reports (Dimensions) by filtering for Click Type > Seller Ratings.
Use this Google tool to check eligibility:
https://www.google.com/shopping/ratings/account/lookup?q={yourwebsite}
Replace {yourwebsite} with your homepage URL.
For businesses operating in multiple countries, repeat with relevant domain or region codes (e.g. c=US, c=AU).
If your Seller Ratings aren’t showing on your ads, it could be due to:
Sometimes Seller Ratings can come and go. Google is continuously testing and optimizing how it displays trust signals.
If your Google Seller Rating score is teetering around the 3.8 mark and you want to improve it, or, perhaps you have loads of verified reviews, but your score is too low to qualify, we have a few things to help you out.
In general, customers that are asked to leave a review are not only willing but will return with positive comments about your business.
Use tools like Review Booster to reach out to recent and past customers.
This should be more than enough to get some high-quality, verified reviews rolling in and up your Seller Rating by at least a few points.
If you're consistently getting poor reviews from your customers, it's probably a sign that something needs to change.
Poor reviews highlight gaps in customer experience. Use them to improve operations and long-term satisfaction.
Whilst this isn't a solution that will help you turn your Seller Ratings around overnight, in the long run, it will definitely pay off.
Google has intensified its efforts to ensure the authenticity of reviews. In response to regulatory pressure, the company has agreed to implement stricter measures against fake reviews, including:
These measures aim to protect consumers and maintain the integrity of online ratings.
You'll also need to adhere to the latest guidelines around Google Seller Ratings, which prohibit the use of incentives for company reviews and require full transparency from both merchants and review collection providers.
Google Seller Ratings not working out for you? Don't fret. Although they're an automatic extension, you do have some power over them.
Here's what you can do.
To disable Seller Ratings in Google Ads:
Don't want to stop your Google Seller Ratings from showing completely? Understandable - as we've seen they have so many benefits. Unfortunately deleting individual reviews on Google is tricky, as they are verified reviews, and as a rule, Google does not delete verified reviews.
Verified reviews can only be removed if they breach Google’s content policies (e.g. profanity, personal names, factual inaccuracy).
If you believe a review is unfair, contact support@reviews.io to request a formal investigation. If the review violates guidelines, it will be removed and discounted from your rating.
Absolutely. Google Seller Ratings are one of the most cost-effective ways to improve ad performance, build trust, and boost sales.
And with a platform like REVIEWS.io, qualifying becomes faster and easier - backed by tools, automation, and expert support to help your stars shine in search.
Book a demo with REVIEWS.io today and start collecting Google Seller Ratings.
The quickest route is to partner with a Google Licensed Review Partner like REVIEWS.io. With tools like automated review requests and Review Booster, many brands hit the 100-review threshold in just weeks.
You may not meet the volume or rating threshold yet. They can also take several weeks to appear after qualifying.
No. Seller Ratings reflect your company’s service. Product Ratings are for individual products and show in Shopping listings.
Yes. You can disable them in Google Ads under Automated Extensions settings.
