Google s Shopping Campaigns 101.......................................................................................... 1 Google s Shopping Campaigns 101 Everything Retailers Need to Know About Google s Latest Update As you re probably aware by now, Google is asking all retailers to transition their existing and future Product Listing Ad (PLA) campaigns over to Shopping campaigns by late August. Naturally, a shift this significant brings forth a whole range of questions. What are Shopping campaigns? Will PLAs no longer exist? How will this affect your digital marketing sales and strategies? The transition to Shopping campaigns is a fundamental restructuring of how you build your PLA campaigns, but you ll likely learn that it s a welcome update. The new campaigns allow you to segment your ad groups, optimize your bidding and get more granular with your campaigns than ever before. In this ebook, we ll give you an introduction to Google s Shopping campaigns and the new structure for your inventory. Then, we ll walk you through: Key benefits of the switch to Shopping campaigns How to get started ChannelAdvisor tools that will help you build and manage your new campaigns Tips for a smooth transition We encourage you to educate yourself and act immediately to control how your feed is set up. After the deadline, Google will automatically upgrade all old campaigns to Shopping campaigns without any optimization or input from the retailer.
Google s Shopping Campaigns 101.......................................................................................... 2 Why Is Google Making This Transition to Shopping Campaigns? The launch of Shopping campaigns is a logical progression for any retailer looking to have greater control over how they sell their products through PLAs. Although PLAs have been a lucrative advertising option for retailers since the launch of Google Shopping in 2012, the product groupings in AdWords were limiting and didn t allow retailers to optimize the full scope of their product catalog. Shopping campaigns allow retailers to dive deeper, organize their products into more precise groups and make educated decisions about their ad bidding. A New Advertiser Experience Despite the popularity of the PLA format among both retailers and consumers, Google found that retailers wanted more control over how their products were displayed. Retailers wanted more detail in their product groupings, more data on how their campaigns were performing and, ultimately, the ability to make more informed decisions that increased their return on ad spend (ROAS). PLAs are displayed on the Google results page based on matching information from shoppers search terms and a retailer s product data feed. Just as brickand-mortar retailers are able to organize their products based on specific characteristics, PLAs allow online retailers the opportunity to do the same on the search results page with product information such as title, description, color, size and more. And just as brick-and-mortar retailers often physically change and regroup the way their products are displayed in store marking groups of items that are on sale, moving popular items at the front of the store or displaying seasonal products together on the shelf online retailers are now able to do the same. Shopping campaigns give retailers that agility and specificity with their products, putting the focus on inventory and further advancing how and where their products are displayed on the Google results page.
Google s Shopping Campaigns 101.......................................................................................... 3 Advantages of Shopping Campaigns There are numerous benefits to the new Shopping campaigns upgrade, such as a more efficient campaign structure, advanced reporting and competitive landscape data. Retail-Centric Campaign Management Structure In the old PLA format, your data feed and your PLA campaign were both stand-alone entities. Mapping the two together manually was time-consuming and inefficient. Now, they re intertwined, and retailers can browse their data feeds directly in AdWords. This structure allows you to see and understand which products are in which categories, as well as divide products into more granular subcategories. Advanced Reporting The new Shopping campaigns format has also incorporated this segmented approach into its campaign reporting. You can now view campaign performance by product attribute. So, depending on your business needs, you can break down and isolate data by brand, product type or even product ID. Competitive Landscape Data Three primary metrics now allow you to optimize your performance within Shopping campaigns: Benchmark Max CPC (cost per click) Benchmark CTR (click-through rate) Search Impression Share The benchmark data allows you to compare your bidding strategies and performance to your competitors. Are you bidding too high? Are your ads underperforming? These benchmarks give you a good indication of how you stack up in the field. Additionally, being able to see what share of impressions your products are receiving helps you identify areas where you can potentially gain traffic. Lastly, Shopping campaigns provide you with a bid simulator, which is a valuable tool that estimates campaign results at different bid levels. This simulator should save you time by establishing performance expectations and taking much of the uncertainty out of bidding.
Google s Shopping Campaigns 101.......................................................................................... 4 ChannelAdvisor Tools The new ChannelAdvisor Product Group Generator can save you valuable time when setting up your Shopping campaigns. Once setup is complete, the campaign stays in sync with your product data feed, eliminating the need for manual updates when changes are made. Any optimization you make will automatically apply across your Shopping campaigns. Key Benefits of the Product Group Generator 1. You ll save time. The automation process saves you an incredible amount of time. In fact, in a ChannelAdvisor in-house test, the Product Group Generator structured an entire campaign 37 times faster than it took to build manually. Additionally, any changes, optimization or segmentation you make in your feed with the Product Group Generator will be automatically reflected in Google within the product group. 2. You can dive deeper into your campaign structure. The Product Group Generator allows you to set a template for the structure you want for your product groups, based on product attributes. These product groups such as Brands, Categories, Item Types and Custom Labels are then easily segmented into more granular levels. You figure out the structure that works for you and allow that structure to replicate across your entire product feed. Easy, efficient and smart. If you want to build a campaign structure that falls outside of what you re able to build in the template, you can always manually create new product groups. 3. Your products won t be left in the abyss of All Products. With the Product Group Generator, each product will be automatically grouped. No products will ever fall into the vague umbrella bucket of All Products, which would then require you to manually determine the bidding for each product. As soon as an item is added to your feed, it will automatically be funneled into the right group and reflected in Google AdWords.
Google s Shopping Campaigns 101.......................................................................................... 5 Getting Started with Shopping Campaigns It s easy to start leveraging the advantages of Shopping campaigns. Making the transition effectively will take some initial effort, but once you re off and running, you ll be glad you spent the time. It s a simple, three-step process. 1. Create a Shopping campaign 2. Customize your Shopping campaign 3. Pause your old PLA campaign Using ChannelAdvisor s Product Group Generator, create a Shopping campaign and follow the basic steps in defining an official segment category. From there, subdivide your products for that segment into the most strategic product groups for your business. You ll then be able to set different bids for specific product groups. Use the new custom labels attribute to even further optimize your campaigns. Custom labels allow you to set unique bids for your sale items, best sellers or items with different margins. You can create up to five custom labels per product, and each label can have multiple values assigned to it. Once you ve customized and tested each of your new Shopping campaigns, pause your corresponding campaigns in the old structure to complete the transition. Finally, revisit your feed regularly and use the actionable data to analyze and optimize your product groups and bidding strategies.
Google s Shopping Campaigns 101.......................................................................................... 6 7 Tips for a Smooth Transition As mentioned, the transition from your existing campaigns to the new Shopping campaigns is a tremendous step forward for your digital marketing strategies. But that doesn t mean it won t be without some challenges. Here are some tips to both ease the switch and help maximize the performance of your new campaigns. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Start from scratch. How often do you say that you re going to take the time to really dive into your data and run tests to see how you can optimize the performance of your bids and keywords? Use this opportunity to finally do it. What s been working? What hasn t? It s a great time to dissect your inventory and build out a consistent structure for your ad groups that makes the most of your new PLAs. Avoid transitioning during your peak season. This is common sense. Manage your transition time to avoid any conflict with peak periods of selling, such as back to school. While we don t foresee any major performance changes during the transition, try to finish testing your new campaigns before any increased traffic comes just to be on the safe side. Avoid transitioning at the last minute. You don t want to get caught up against the August deadline. You have the opportunity to test each new campaign as you get your ad groups structured along the way. Just throwing them together at the last minute in August is inefficient and a wasted opportunity. Start small. Give yourself time to get comfortable with the new format. Then build out larger campaigns before finally pausing the old ones. Run campaigns in parallel until approved. While you won t want your old and new campaigns running side by side in the long term, you should wait to pause your old campaigns until the new ones have been tested and are approved. Sometimes creating something new in Google triggers a review process. If this happens, you ll still want your old campaign running as normal while the new campaign is under review. Copy negative keyword lists. If you ve been actively managing negative keywords in your PLA campaigns for the last two years, don t throw that data away. In all likelihood, they ll work similarly in the new campaigns. These negative keywords will be helpful to have in place from the start in order to optimize the keywords that usually trigger your ads. Bid aggressively. To get some traction right out of the gate, be aggressive with your bidding. Benchmark data will allow you to understand where you should be bidding for different ad groups. You can always pull back if you find these bids are not working as well. Consider mobile bids. Some retailers assume that they should have the exact same bids on desktops as mobile, but this isn t usually the case. We recommend analyzing your data before you complete the setup so you understand how you perform across different devices. Then, optimize your mobile bids at either the campaign or ad group level.
Google s Shopping Campaigns 101.......................................................................................... 7 Start the Transition. The Clock Is Ticking. We recommend beginning your transition to Shopping campaigns as soon as possible. Not only is it important that you make the switch before Google s August deadline, but also that you ve fully tested your new Shopping campaigns. They should be up and running smoothly, so the final transition occurs without any hiccup to your bottom line. Every business is different, so get started today. The ChannelAdvisor platform especially the Product Group Generator ensures a quick and easy transition. The Product Group Generator will allow you to spend less time manually building your campaigns and more time testing and optimizing them. Like any change to the status quo, this transition is bound to make some retailers nervous. But in the end, Google has given you greater insight into how you organize your products, how you read data and how you control your digital marketing future. If you have any questions about Google s Shopping campaigns and how ChannelAdvisor can assist you in building efficient, lucrative campaigns for your PLAs, call us at 866-264-8594 or email info@channeladvisor.com. Trust us. Be Seen. To learn more: Call 866.264.8594 UK 0203 014 2700 AU 1300 887 239 Visit www.channeladvisor.com Email info@channeladvisor.com The global standard for e-commerce leaders. Copyright 2014 ChannelAdvisor Corporation. All rights reserved.