Google’s AdSense for Shopping serving up relevant third-party ads for e-commerce sites

Today, Google announced a new product search tool for its AdSense for Shopping platform that helps retailers monetize their websites. Walmart.com is among the early participants in the fairly new program, which displays sponsored ads across the discount mega-chain’s site that are relevant to a visitor’s product search results.

Pictured above is an example of a prospective customer browsing Walmart’s website hoping of find a BBQ grill. The company’s AdSense for Shopping participation now serves PLAs (Product Listing Ads) from third-party merchants offering similar products. Just like Mountain View’s traditional AdSense business model, participating retailers pocket a percentage of the revenue earned from the ads hosted on their respective site. Currently only available to a small group of partners, Google is collecting information from retailers that are interested in trying AdSense for Shopping.