GOOGLE SHOPPING CAMPAIGN TRENDS IN 2014 AND THE FUTURE OF GOOGLE SHOPPING

Transcription

1 GOOGLE SHOPPING 2014 WHITE PAPER PART 2: GOOGLE SHOPPING CAMPAIGN TRENDS IN 2014 AND THE FUTURE OF GOOGLE SHOPPING GOOGLE SHOPPING CAMPAIGNS are a very large part of any e-commerce brand s strategy, as well as budget, for advertisers using Google Adwords. But what exactly is the latest trend with Google Shopping campaigns: are they getting bigger, is competition getting more fierce, are users engaging with shopping campaigns the same way regardless of the device they re using? It s important to understand and make sense of these trends to ensure your brand can make the appropriate decisions to maximize your ROI and stay ahead of the curve, and the competition. At the end of August 2014 Google retired Product Listing Ad campaigns for all advertisers and now their new and improved product-level search campaigns are known as Google Shopping campaigns. This switch to the new Google Shopping brings with it many new features for advertisers and search engine marketers. It also creates new issues, work flows, and processes that are different from the previous version of these campaigns known as Product Listing Ads. In part two of the 2014 Google Shopping White Papers we dive right into the latest trends and provide an advanced look at the current state of Google Shopping campaigns, as well as a look to the future of product-level shopping with Google. PRODUCT LISTING ADS PLA GOOGLE SHOPPING

2 GOOGLE SHOPPING TRENDS IN Device Type Totals A look at 2014 Year to Date trends in costs per click, click-through rates, clicks by device, costs, and conversions vs 2014 Performance Trends (All Devices Q1 & Q2) Compared to 2013 trends, how has Google Shopping campaign traffic been trending in 2014? With a large part of the year in place we have the full Q1 and Q2 metrics for a comparison. 1.16% 1.45% 1.03% 1.23% 2014 Click-Through Rate by Device Type traffic has shown the best CTR across devices for shopping campaigns in traffic has the lowest CTR across all devices for shopping campaigns in % 32.12% 10.46% 2014 Click Traffic by Device Type Clicks have driven almost 60% of Google Shopping campaigns, but still 1 in every 3 clicks is driven from a mobile device. +91% IMPRESSIONS +22% TOTAL CLICKS -36% CLICK RATE +93% TOTAL COST +58% COST PER CLICK +24% CONVERSIONS +2% CONVERSION RATE Data shows that Shopping cam- Click traffic is only up 22%, CPC With conversions and clicks paigns for clients of Elite SEM up 58%, and CTR down 36%. It increasing essentially at the have seen a huge spike in traffic seems evident that competi- same rate, Google Shopping for 2014 compared to 2013: tion on Google Shopping ads campaigns show a steady con- $0.21 $0.12 $0.22 $ Cost Per Click by Device Type Overall CPC traffic for Google shopping campaigns is relatively cheap costing $0.18 so far across all devices for CPC traffic has shown to be the cheapest of all devices with clicks costing $0.12 on average % 21.35% 12.48% 2014 Total Spend Percentages by Device Type Due to lower CPCs on mobile devices, although they represent 1/3 clicks for shopping campaigns, mobile traffic only makes up 1/5 of the total cost. 90%+ increases for both impressions and costs. Such a large increase in both impressions and costs indicates: a) Google is showing more shop- continues to increase with a noticeable decrease in CTR, a noticeable increase in CPCs, and a noticeable decrease in CTR. version rate despite growth in volume and greater competition. ping ads on the search engine results page, and b) an increase in budgets and focus on shopping ads for e-commerce brands. 8.72% 2.56% 6.32% 6.49% 2014 Conversion Rate by Device Type is the shopping device leader with the highest CTR and lowest CPCs, but has by far the lowest conversion rate. traffic converts at an extremely positive 8.72% % 12.67% 10.19% 2014 Conversions by Device Type still makes up the majority of conversions for shopping campaigns. More than 3 out of every 4 users who convert from shopping campaigns on Google do so on their desktop. (All data is pulled in aggregate from the Elite SEM MCC) 2 elitesem.com Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing elitesem.com 3

3 New Changes to Google Shopping, Known Issues, and the Future of Shopping What do the new Google Shopping Campaigns mean for advertisers? Advertisers can browse product inventory directly in Adwords as Default Bid For any product that overlaps Campaign 1 and 2, this bid will be used. For any product that overlaps Campaign 1, 2, and 3 this bid will be used. well as monitor the specific product level cost, revenue, and other metrics that were unavailable for Product Listing Ads The feed can contain up to five custom labels that are available for customized bidding and grouping, compared to two previously ( adword labels and adwords groupings ) Advertisers can benchmark their shopping campaign performance compared to similar products for CPCs and CTR Advertisers can create multiple ad groups within $0.74 Customer Label 1: Winter $0.33 Customer Label 2: Summer $0.99 shopping campaigns Campaign priority settings simplify product targeting Impression share is available at the product group level A new bid simulator tool generates an estimate of Campaign Priority There is an optional campaign priority setting if you have multiple campaigns that target the Known Issues with 3rd Party Bid Management Technology As with any new update or campaign type there how many more impressions and clicks you can ex- same product and you want to determine which come issues with integration into third party bid pect by raising bids at the product group level specific campaign and CPC bid you want to be management tools and software. Bid Simulator used when your product ads are shown. Currently there s one specific issue that we ve noticed at Elite SEM that s causing a rift between Prior to the switch to Shopping campaigns, peo- new Shopping Campaigns: ple generally had an all-product breakout meant Breaking out or moving product-level SKU from to act as a catch-all for anything that wasn t one group to another transfers historic data in specifically broken out. Then you would set a the Adwords interface but does not in 3rd party lower bid for these campaigns to get it to show technology engine. only for products you weren t going to be break- Competitive metrics for benchmarking performance ing out. For example, let s say for an e-commerce retailer that has a Google Shopping campaign prod- Now you can easily set these catch-all buckets uct target for women s dresses, and specifical- Item level reporting for each product in your feed as a low priority so that everything actually targeted elsewhere will show in the correct campaign. ly day dresses. If there are one or two specific products that are driving the majority of not only clicks, but also revenue and sales for this group and target, the normal next step and best Additionally, now advertisers can list their practice is to separate these products into a tar- top-selling and most profitable products as high geted group. priority targets to try and funnel more traffic and clicks on these important targets. What happens in Google: When you move the specific products into a new group the historic 4 elitesem.com Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing elitesem.com 5

4 click, cost, conversion, and revenue follows the keyword into its new group/home. What happens in a 3rd party platform: When you move the specific products into a new group the historic click, cost, conversion, and revenue data stays in the group or product target where those performance metrics were originally triggered and don t follow the specific products. The Issue: Marketers rely heavily on bid management tools to effectively bid based on ROI and cost per order goals. If the data needed to make the correct bidding decision for specific groups is not available it can lead to poor bidding decisions and performance. Ultimately, if we cannot trust the bidding decisions of 3rd party tools for Google Shopping campaigns with active management, it may become a better option to manually optimize Google Shopping until the technology partners are able to make the proper adjustments. The Attribution Problem and Device Traffic Another thing worth noting is that mobile traffic may be driving more in-store engagement or getting users to a brand s site to browse a product offering but then they eventually convert later on a desktop experience. Until there is 1-1 analytics tracking and attribution across the board, the possibility is strong that mobile is generating more ROI than our Adwords reporting can account for. Currently, technology is limited and unable to track new customer engagement from first touch to last touch if the first interaction happens on one device (mobile) and ends on another (desktop). The Future and Google Shopping Express Google s announcement and modifications to Google Shopping campaigns are not the only recent changes when it comes to how Google is approaching product shopping online. Google Shopping Express same-day delivery On Monday, May Google announced that it would be offering same-day delivery in New York City and Los Angeles. Specific retailers involved include Walgreens, Staples, Costco, Toys R Us, and Target. By navigating to google.com/express you can get same-day delivery from large local retailers for product categories such as grocery, apparel, office supplies, electronics, toys and games, home, health and beauty, and more. Google is working directly with local stores to stay up to date on inventory as well as matching the prices you would find in stores. This expansion is very interesting to say the least and a good indicator that Google is planning for users to continue to look and shop for products online. Remarketing with Shopping Campaigns and Merchant Promotions At the moment, the ability to layer remarketing lists targeting on top of your Google Shopping campaigns is not an available feature for all advertisers. This is something we expect to change and we predict this feature will be very attractive to online advertisers in the future. Currently marketers use Remarketing List for Search ads which allows brands to target users that have been to their website previously. We believe that in the near future brands who advertise with Shopping campaigns will be able to use this same type of targeting to only show products to users who have been on their site before. STEP 1 GOOGLE SHOPPING STEP 2 REMARKETING AUDIENCES STEP 3 PROFIT! 6 elitesem.com Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing elitesem.com 7

5 FIND MORE WHITE PAPERS AT ELITESEM.COM Use Campaign Priority Settings Five Custom Labels to Target Bidding and Grouping Test, Test, TEST! Final Takeaways and Key Best Practices Potentially pairing this type of targeting with PLA merchant promotions will allow advertisers to target specific offers through PLAs to top customers (or possibly to new customers who have never been on the merchant s site previously). Whether you re able to layer on your remarketing list with your new Shopping campaigns, utilizing Merchant Promotions is a great way to boost CTR, which can likely increase your conversion rate, all while costing nothing to use. Expect to see more updates and changes from Google Shopping campaigns in the near future and maybe even the ability to customize the color and look of the drone that will deliver your product purchases right to your doorstep from any of the multiple devices you use to browse and shop the web. As always keep it tuned to elitesem.com for more great white papers, great content on Google Shopping, and all other things digital marketing related. Lifting Google Penguin Penalties for Two Online Retailers Search Marketing Trends by Device Type (2012 vs. 2013) Marc Weisinger Director of Marketing