Example :-

(click for full size image)

The easiest way to get these little yellow stars if you have an e-commerce site is to allow the use of Google Checkout as a payment option – once you get 30 reviews, your seller ratings will start showing on your AdWords ads. (Also – having Google Checkout badges on your ads can also increase your CTR by 10%.)

Have a look on the internet and you’ll probably be able to find a lot of articles about how important good customer reviews are. But there do not seem to be any articles on what sort of increase in sales you might expect if you were to get those little yellow stars (seller rating extensions) attached to the majority of your AdWords adverts. So,  to leave no-one in any doubt that customer reviews are important here are some real world figures:-

The following increase in conversion rates for one client were observed after 5 star ratings started appearing on their AdWords ads :-

27.5% ! ??

Whao!

Notes

• This was not a split test.
• Many other factors can affect conversion rate.
• This figure may go down when more data comes in (though there is a pretty big sample of data already).
• *** Update – 31st May 2011 – This is the most important note – having taken the figures for a longer period before and after the ratings starting appearing on the AdWords ads, the original figure of 27.5% looks very much like a fluke. I’ll come back and update this figure when I have a bit more data in. Hopefully there will still be an increase – though it is definitely looking like a *lot* less than 27.5%.  (This is an important lesson to everyone with regards to believing everything you read.. :-) ***
  

But even while taking this figure with a (very large)  pinch of salt – I have never seen such a big improvement in conversion rate for AdWords traffic before.  Put it this way – if I had my own online shop, then getting glowing customer reviews would currently be my number one priority!

(Even if the increase in conversion rate is not amazing, I would still put getting good customer reviews near the top of my list of priorities… :-)

If anyone else has had any similar experiences, please let me know!

PS – Here is the link for more detailed information on how to get Seller Ratings appearing on your Google Adwords ads:-

http://adwords.blogspot.com/2010/06/introducing-seller-rating-extensions-on.html

PPS – If you have really bad customer service you can ignore this article.