Boost Your Ecommerce Strategy With Google Shopping Campaign
Spec Work: Blog
Have you been considering adding Google to your ecommerce strategy? The search giant has recently waived product listing fees on their Google Shopping platform and commission fees for the checkouts on its “Buy on Google” feature.
It is no coincidence that these incentives for sellers are happening now. Since April 2020, there has been 146% growth in all online retail orders in the US and Canada. Amid ongoing pandemic, many retailers are looking to find new ways to connect with consumers online and keep their business moving. Companies like Google, Facebook and eBay are rolling out programs to attract these new clients, creating new opportunities for online retailers.
As the battle for ecommerce dominance heats up, we need to revisit Google Shopping as a sometimes-over-looked contender, and go over some perks of using this platform so you don’t miss out on these opportunities.
For those unfamiliar with Google Shopping, it’s a platform that allows customers to search for, view and compare products. To set up a sponsored Google shopping campaign, one needs to link their online store to Google Merchant Center and Google Ads account. Free listings require only Google Merchant Center account set-up with “Google Across Surfaces” feature selected.
Here are some benefits and strategies for both paid ads and free listings:
More qualified traffic
Google Shopping Ads are designed for customers who are ready to make a purchase. Before they begin their search on Google, these potential buyers already have an idea of the product they are looking to buy. Once they type their query, Google Shopping Ads appear as visually appealing thumbnails with detailed description of the product. If done right, both ads and organic listing present a great opportunity to increase conversion rates and revenue. Here are some strategies to optimize both paid ads and organic listings and increase your chances they show up at the top of the search:
Paid ads:
Google ads are based on the cost-per-click (CPC) system, where the seller pays whenever someone clicks on their ad. The higher the ad relevancy and quality are, the higher click-through-rate (CTR) tends to be. One great thing about Google Shopping ads is that CPC cost decreases as more people click on your ad, giving you an opportunity to optimize the advertising budget and maximize return-on-investment (ROI). Some strategies for success with paid ads include:
Promoting your most popular items to increase CTR and decrease CPC. You can use advanced reporting to analyze what are your most profitable products. More on this later.
Taking advantage of negative keywords to get rid of generic terms that are irrelevant to your campaign focus. Use longtail keywords instead to make your ads relevant to a potential buyer’s search.
Ad scheduling. With some research you can find out when your customers are most active online and run the ads during that timeframe. This will allow you to save considerably on your advertising expenses.
Free listings:
Google uses keywords to determine what products are relevant to a search. You can optimize your shopping feed by using long tailed keywords in the product title and product description. Including as many relevant details as possible without coming across as spammy is the key here. High quality images are also very important to attract new buyers.
Excellent Reporting
So how do you know which of your products are most profitable? A good key performance indicator (KPI) to use is return-on-ad-spend (ROAS). ROAS will show you the amount of revenue your business earns for each dollar it spends on advertising. Knowing which ads are most effective in connecting with potential buyers can help optimize your CPC budget and help you make a decision as to which ads to promote.
Reporting in Google Analytics also enables you to evaluate your Google Shopping ad campaign by providing you with conversion tracking and customer engagement data. You can filter data in many different categories as per the attributes of the product like custom labels, brand ID, item ID etc.
Currently, tracking organic traffic isn’t very easy to do and requires some tweaking to your product feeds. Organic Shopping placements are currently lumped in with regular Google search traffic into “Organic Search” in Google Analytics. Untangling those to track organic Shopping placements would involve some URL tagging in Google Merchant Center.
Visibility for mobile users
Although most of us still do the majority of online shopping on our desktops and laptops, trends show that most customers search for products on their smartphones and tablets. A study from Business Insider shows that mobile commerce will comprise 45% of the total US ecommerce market by the end of 2020. Google Shopping increases mobile visibility and as such improves the click-through-rate of your ads. This is even more so after Google announced that the ads are free to display in the search results after making them free to display in the Shopping tab.
Although Google still has a long way to go to catch up to Amazon in the ecommerce arena, it offers many opportunities and advantages for online sellers, such as advanced analytical capabilities and greater potential to increase brand recognition. Whether you choose to deploy sponsored Google Shopping ad campaign, organic listings campaign or a mix of both, using Google Shopping platform will provide you with an arsenal to create a smart advertising strategy and increase your sales and brand awareness.
