Seller Ratings

You can switch on almost every asset in a Google Search campaign. Seller ratings are the exception.

You enable them and then wait to learn two things: whether Google agrees you have earned the stars, and whether it will render them on any given auction. Neither is yours to decide.

Two RYZE ads, two review counts

RYZE runs the asset live. Its Google account carries seller ratings in two search ads — 4.9 stars (8,015 reviews) on a Mushroom Coffee ad and 5.0 stars (7,861 reviews) on the “Heal Your Body And Mind” ad, both pulled from ad transparency data in March 2026.

The second ad is the older of the two, running across 28 countries since June 2023. The rating sits in the copy as social proof, beside urgency lines like “40% Off,” with the review count doubling as a headline.

That is the whole job of the asset. The number is Google’s, verified against reviews it trusts, so it reads differently from a claim a brand writes about itself.

The asset you qualify for, not the one you switch on

Eligibility needs at least 100 verified reviews and a composite rating of at least 3.5 stars, per Google’s own documentation. The 3.5 floor applies specifically to ads. Organic listings can show a lower average; the paid asset cannot, as 2026 practitioner guides note.

The reviews also have to live in the right place. Google counts Google Customer Reviews and roughly 30 approved partners — Trustpilot, Feefo, Yotpo, and Bazaarvoice among them — and ignores reviews sitting in Google Business Profile, Yelp, or Facebook, as review-platform comparisons document.

A brand can hold thousands of reviews and still not qualify, because they are in a system Google does not read.

Why the stars go dark even when you qualify

Clearing the threshold does not guarantee the stars appear. Qualified advertisers see seller ratings render on only about 30% of eligible impressions, with Google layering its own timing, relevance, and filtering rules on top of eligibility, per 2026 practitioner guides.

There is no manual trigger. Once the review threshold is met, ratings typically begin showing within two to six weeks, and nothing speeds that up.

This is the part the setup docs bury. Most brands hit it as a qualified account that still shows no stars. Google is filtering, not misconfigured.

How much CTR it adds is contested

The size of the lift is where credible sources diverge. Google’s own published figure is modest; independent agency measurement runs well above it.

Seller ratings drove a 24% higher click-through rate and 26% higher conversion rate across nine ecommerce accounts, per an analysis from agency Metric Theory. A star rating lifted CTR by 28.72% against the same ad without one, in a separate Thoughtshift study.

I think that gap reflects selection as much as measurement. The accounts that clear the 100-review, 3.5-star bar are already the ones with strong post-purchase operations, so some of the measured lift is the kind of brand that earns seller ratings in the first place.