innovative strategies to thrive in a competitive google shopping...

Innovative Strategies to Thrive

in a Competitive Google Shopping

Landscape

T h e 2 0 1 5 G o o g l e S h o p p in g V i r t u a l S u m m i t : D a y 1

www.CPCStrategy.com | 619.501.6138 | [email protected]

Is a Google Shopping Marketplace Inevitable?


The Stars Are Aligning…


Google Shopping Category Linking


Google Trusted Stores


Google Trusted Stores Requirement Changed In January

Google Trusted Stores no longer need to submit shipment and cancellation feeds

Retailers need to have a minimum of 200 orders per month and respond to all business inquires

within 24 hours

Instead Google will try to use seller ratings + consumer ratings to vet advertisers


Google Shopping Express


Google Shopping Express Delivery Areas


Local Inventory Ad Integration


Google Shopping Buy Now Button


Google Shopping + PayPal?


Remaining Questions

How will Google receive real time inventory updates?

Will Google share customer data with retailers?

How will Google enforce fast shipping and quality customer service?

Will retailers willingly participate in a Google Shopping Marketplace?


• Founded in 2007

• Over +300 active retail clients

• Top 50 fastest growing companies in San Diego

• Recognized as an Official Google Shopping Partner

• Exclusive focus on retail

Solutions

Retail-focused Paid Search (PPC)

Google Shopping Management

Shopping Channel Management

Amazon Sales Acceleration

CPC STRATEGY HAS BEEN FEATURED ON

DELIVERING LASTING RESULTS FOR OUR CLIENTS

VISIT CPCSTRATEGY.COM


Before We Get Started

Session Recordings Will Be Sent Next Week

Q&A Following the Presentation

Submit Questions In the Chat Box to the Right

Logistics Speakers

Rick Backus

CEO

CPC Strategy

Jeff Coleman

Director of Retail Search

CPC Strategy


The 2015 Google Shopping Virtual Summit

Tomorrow (5/13, 11-12pm PST):

Creating a Scalable and Complementary Approach to Text Ads and Shopping

Campaigns – Presented by Kenshoo

Thursday (5/14, 11-12pm PST):

Using Your Competitors’ Data to Drive Performance on Google Shopping –

Presented by SEMrush


Featured Google Shopping Expert

Jeff Coleman Director of Retail Search

Head of Account Management at CPC Strategy

Oversees structured data channel strategy and innovation

Featured speaker at Fashion Digital 2015

Over 8 years of experience managing product advertising

programs


Course Overview

• Building a Foundation with Data Quality Analysis & Optimization

• Implementing Automation for Shopping Campaigns

• Advanced Ad Group & Campaign Structuring Best Practices

• Mobile Segmentation for Shopping

• Leveraging RLSA for Shopping

• Location Targeting by Category

• Q&A


Building a Foundation with Data Quality & Optimization

Assessing Your Product Data Quality

Fully Populated Required Columns

Biggest missed field is Availability

• Unavailable products might be given a generic value in the feed of “in stock”

• Sometimes no value exists at all and they’re still pushed to Google

Don’t overlook things like Shipping Cost or UPC

Image Links – Spot-Check Them

• Ensure you’re sending highest quality image (if you have multiple)

• Make sure they load – sometimes they don’t



Assessing Your Product Data Quality

Product Variations

• All color variants should have their own image

• Ideally, landing pages come pre-loaded with variant selected

Poor-performing SKUs?

• Check for data inaccuracies – maybe product is out of stock, maybe it has a poor image,

maybe shipping isn’t specified, maybe it has the wrong UPC (or different UPC from what

Google has on their page)



Product Feed Optimization – Title Enhancements

Rule of thumb:

A customer should know enough about your product to purchase it just by looking at the title.

Build a title for a robot (the Google search algorithm) so it can be found by as many searches as

possible, and for a human so they know what they’re getting & the title is clear / not spammy.



Product Feed Optimization – Title Enhancements

Attributes That Should Always Be Included:

Brand

Color / Material

Size

Gender

MPN / Style Number

Product Type

Example:

Nike Air Max

• Brand

• Style

Nike Air Max Men’s Running Shoes – Red & White Size 10

• Brand, Style, Gender, Product Type, Color(s), Size



Product Feed Optimization 101

Those data points discussed on previous slide should exist elsewhere in

the feed

Custom Labels

Add product attributes to custom labels to track performance across them

Google already tracks performance on Brand & Product Type, so don’t include those

Gender, Style, Color / Material


Implementing Automation for Shopping Campaigns

Where Automation Fits into PLA Management

What Can A Robot Do?

• Predict the future? No.

• Humans can’t either, but we can forecast

• E.g. Seasonality, location-specific seasonality, flash sales, etc.

Understand How To Structure A Campaign? No

• If your campaign structure is too granular, robots will miss larger trends

• E.g. a brand with 1,000 products that all get 2 clicks & 0 sales. Each individual product might not

have a statistically significant data set.

• But a human can take a step back and look a level higher

Understand Temporary Market Fluctuations? No

• Sales / promos that cause sales spikes should not influence your long-term bidding strategy

• Market fluctuations that cause temporary sales dips might not be indicative of long-term

performance for a brand / product

• Both can cause positive or negative feedback loops that can spiral bids out of control or far too

low.


Implementing Automation for Shopping Campaigns

Practical Applications for Shopping Campaign Automation

What Are Humans Terrible At?

Repetitive tasks – when you have the right structure & bid levels and all you’re doing is

making tweaks to bids on an ongoing basis, then a robot can take over

That’s when our analysts implement automated components of our CAPx platform

All Campaigns Require Check-ins

If your campaign is structured on the product level – take a step back to look at larger

trends

Take a look at your campaign structure in general and see if there are different ways you

can break out your product groups to isolate groups of top performers or poor performers

in a meaningful way that allows to still identify trends

• E.g. brand > product type > style / color

If you’re running sales, adjust your bids


Advanced Ad Group & Campaign Structuring Best Practices

Example of a Traditional Shopping Campaign Architecture

1 Shopping Campaign

1 Primary Ad Group

• Product Group 1

• Product Group 2

• Product Group 3

• Etc.

The Traditional 1 Campaign : 1 Ad Group Structure

Pros

• Full catalog management in 1 place

• Easy-to-manage

• Full product feed reporting in 1 campaign

• Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Maintain 1 campaign, 1 ad group, unless you have specific reasons

to break up your feed into multiple campaigns

Cons

• Less flexibility with advanced features – some only apply at the Ad Group or Campaign level

• Less flexible budget management

Bigger Isn’t Always Better: Maintain 1 campaign, 1 ad group, unless you have specific reasons to break up

your feed into multiple campaigns


Mobile Segmentation for Shopping

Mobile-Only Campaigns / Ad Groups

Google says you can’t differentiate bids between Mobile and Desktop/Tablet traffic, I’ll tell you

how

1. Set Up Mobile Ad Group

2. Set Mobile Modifier In Desktop Ad Group to -100%

Make sure to set this on the Ad Group level for the Desktop ad group, NOT at the

Campaign level



3. Copy product group structure and bids – use the AdWords Editor to speed up the process

4. Cut all bids in the Mobile Ad Group by 50%

5. Set the Mobile Modifier for the Mobile Ad Group to +100%

Note: This means a $0.01 change in Max CPC will result in a $0.02 change in effective bid



Mobile Traffic Sculpting

-100% Mobile modifier in Desktop ad group forces Mobile traffic away from Desktop ad group

Lower bids in Mobile campaign push Computer / Tablet traffic to Desktop ad group

Note: Keep Mobile ad group Max CPCs lower to keep Mobile traffic separate.

Use Mobile modifier to increase effective bid on Mobile traffic


Leveraging RLSA for Shopping

What are RLSAs?

Remarketing Lists for Search Ads

Recently opened up to Google Shopping

All AdWords support reps can enroll you in the program

Remarketing tag (or GDR tag) required

New Audiences tab will appear once you’re enrolled

Default Audiences Google Will Create For You

All Visitors – Anyone who comes to your site

Product Viewers – Anyone who goes to a product detail page

Cart Abandoners – Anyone who abandons their shopping cart

Past Buyers – Anyone who has completed a purchase on your site


Leveraging RLSA for Shopping

How Can RLSAs Be Applied to Shopping Campaigns?

Allow you to set bid modifiers on customers that have been to your site

Bid modifiers are set at the ad group level

Segment product groups

Sample starting bid modifiers


Location Targeting by Category

Category-Specific Geo-Targeting

Segment Campaigns By Common Seasonality

Patio furniture & wakeboards go in a Summer campaign

Space heaters & snowboards go in a Winter campaign

Bid Separately On Different Geos Depending On Season

Summer Campaign:

• Southern California & Texas might get strong bids year round for

the Summer campaign

• Northeast & Midwest get down-bid aggressively in Winter

Winter Campaign:

• Northeast & Midwest get strong bids in Winter months

• Aggressive increases when storms hit


Closing Thoughts

What to implement now to set up a smooth transition into Q4

Mobile traffic will continue to increase – start a Mobile bid strategy now

Competition on Shopping increases every year which makes you vulnerable to

losing your customers – RLSAs can help you retain them

Product Data Requirements – Recommended attributes & larger, higher quality

images will become requirements

Refine Your Approach to Google Shopping

Questions for Jeff or Rick?

Submit your questions in the chat box on the right

CPCStrategy.com



The 2015 Google Shopping Virtual Summit

Tomorrow (5/13, 11-12pm PST):

Creating a Scalable and Complementary Approach to Text Ads and Shopping

Campaigns – Presented by Kenshoo

Thursday (5/14, 11-12pm PST):

Using Your Competitors’ Data to Drive Performance on Google Shopping –

Presented by SEMrush

innovative strategies to thrive in a competitive google shopping...

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