Wouldn’t it be awesome if leads and potential customers could text you right from their Google search result? When consumers can contact your business right from a Google ad, it cuts out the middle step of having to visit your website, click around, and find what they’re looking for. By simplifying this process, you’d be able to get leads into your sales funnel more quickly, leading to higher conversions.

And according to an article recently published by Search Engine Land, it could happen.

Google’s New Test

According to Google themselves, they’re always looking for new and better ways to connect businesses and consumers. As part of that goal, they’re currently testing a “tap to SMS” button on mobile ads.

If you do any searching on your smartphone, you’ve probably seen a “click to call” option before — this is the same concept. Here’s what it looks like from the Google Search app on iPhone:

When you tap on the “text” button, your messaging app will open with a new text and the advertiser’s information will be prefilled.

For the record, I couldn’t get the text option to show up by searching through a mobile browser like Google Chrome or Safari. So if you wanna take a look for yourself, I’d recommend trying in the Google Search app first.

Will it pass Google’s test?

There’s no way to know for sure whether the new extension will be successful and widely implemented in searches. But imagine the customer service and local search possibilities if it is!

Rise of Business Texting

It’s no secret that texting is in its hey-day, and as the more tech savvy generations grow up and enter the market, business texting is increasing in popularity, too. It’s becoming more and more common for companies to send promotions and order updates, and even offer customer support, via SMS messages.

Sidenote: If you’re a customer and you want to get in on the business texting trend, you can add Business SMS to your Grasshopper account.