2014 WHITEPAPER PART 1: CAMPAIGNS AN OVERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION BY NOW MOST OF the online marketing community is very familiar with what Google Product Listing Ads (also known as Google Shopping Ads) are and what they look like. Plainly stated, Google Shopping Ads are online ad units for specific products that include a picture, price, seller, and title for that featured object or merchandise. Google Shopping Ads show as one large ad unit with multiple product pictures and products. Clicking on a specific Product Listing Ad unit will take you directly to the page where you can purchase the product. While product-level specific SEM campaigns run by Google have gone through many transitions and overhauls, this is how they look in their present day format. Many users online are searching for specific products or product-level categories when entering queries. Online brands and advertisers are looking to sell specific products from their online stores. Google Shopping Ads provide a seamless experience that connects e-commerce advertisers looking to sell specific products with the people looking for those products through pictures and the Product Listing Ad units on the search engine results page. Part one of this two-part Elite SEM Google Shopping Whitepaper will introduce you to all of the basic principles and background information needed to fully understand Google Shopping campaigns. The Google Shopping experience on desktop and mobile devices.
ADS ON SEARCH RESULTS PAGE The Product Feed The heart and soul of any Google Shopping campaign is the product feed. Your product feed is a text spreadsheet (tab delimited) or XML file that contains the necessary and specific product information required by Google. Certain pieces of information in your feed are required for all types of items. Additional elements may be needed for specific items, depending on what products you sell. Visiting the merchant center for the most up to date recommendations and requirements is highly encouraged but a brief summary of the most common can be found here: A Product Listing Ad (PLA) from a Google Shopping ad unit. PLA displays product image, title, price, and seller. https://support.google.com/ merchants/?hl=en#topic=3404777 The Basic Product Information ID: A unique identifier of each item. Title: The title of each item. Include both brand and color in your titles to differentiate similar products. Description: An area to include visual and additional attributes of each specific product. Sizing, technical aspects, material, age, and/ or gender are recommended attributes to be listed here. Google Product Category: This field pertains to the specific category of product as per Google s product taxonomy. Google has predefined all the different types of products, thus you will have to classify your products and items by their specific categories and subcategories. Product Type: Provide your own category of your items submitted if you have specific categorization of your products that is different from the Google taxonomy. EXPERT TIP Title is one of the most important columns within your feed! It needs to include more specific information than just the name of the product. Consider adding the following: Brand name Product Type Color Other informative general characteristics about the product The Google Merchant Center The foundation of Google Shopping ads includes a company s product feed that lists their products, and accompanying key details and information about said products. This all lives in the Google Merchant Center. In merchant center accounts, advertisers upload their store information and product data so that Google can index and access it. It is only after the advertiser has set up a product feed, loaded that data into a Google Merchant center, and then linked their Merchant Center with their Adwords account that users can advertise their product ads in product listing ads or shopping ad unit spaces. For those without an account, you can sign up at google.com/merchants 2 elitesem.com Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing elitesem.com 3
Link: A link that sends a user specifically to the product. EXPERT TIP Mobile Link: A mobile link specified for mobile-friendly landing pages for your products if different from your desktop experience. Image Links: A link that points to the main image for a specific product. If you have multiple product images you can add in a column for additional image links. All items require an image link and there are many best practices and recommendations listed on the Google Merchant Center support page. Condition: Identify whether your product is new, refurbished, or used. Inventory Status, Pricing, Tax, and Shipping Availability: Identify whether the product is in stock, out of stock, or available for preorder. Price: The price of the item. Tax: Adding the country, region, rate, or tax on shipping is required when necessary. DECEMBER 2002 FROOGLE LAUNCHES Google uses web crawlers to catalog and list product data from vendors. Froogle clicks are free! You can use specific tracking on your links, or implement a redirect in order to measure users coming to your site from shopping campaigns. Shipping: Price of shipping, as well as additional optional charges for area of delivery or delivery speed/service. Unique Product Identifiers Brand: The brand that manufactured the product. It s worth the extra legwork some advantages include product-specific measurement and cross campaign attribution. GTIN or MPN: The Global Trade Item Number or Manufacturer Part Number where applicable. OCTOBER 2012 PRODUCT LISTING ADS LAUNCH Google Shopping ads completely transition to a paid ad format. Google offers a new way to optimize campaigns at a more granular level: optimizing bids for individual products (while it was possible to create specific groupings for more granular products or product categories, tracking cost and revenue to specific products was not available in the Google Adwords interface) Adwords Attributes and Other Variables on the Product Feed There are five custom label columns available the only business specific attributes you can to further group your products and promote, budget, and bid on your e-commerce products more specifically and intelligently. These custom labels can be used how you see fit to divide a product catalog based on performance. The most advanced advertisers use custom labels to their advantage to separate out their product feed into more manageable segments for budgeting, bidding, reporting, and monitoring. Some common examples include organizing product feeds by the ones that are the top-performing, best-selling, or have the highest profit margin. Keep in mind these are not MAY 2013 GOOGLE PRODUCT SEARCH TRANSITIONS TO PRODUCT LISTING ADS Announcement that Google Shopping will change from a free offering to a pay-per-click commercial model. Google offers all merchants who create Product Listing Ad campaigns by August 15, 2012 10% of their total Product Listing Ad spend through the end of 2012. Google touts making Product Listing Ads paid will lead to better customer service on the product end and a better experience. Google also mentions consolidating where product ads show up on the Google.com SERP from multiple spots to one format clearly labeled sponsored. use. Additionally, you are limited to 1,000 values per unique label. There are plenty of additional variables specific to certain product types, especially for apparel. Consult the Google Merchant Center to be 100% clear on the most up to date required and optional feeds for your specific product offering. This is the biggest area of opportunity for advertisers to test different classifications and categorization to not only improves on their placement, but their ROI. AUGUST 2014 GOOGLE FULLY RETIRES PLAs AND SWITCHES TO CAMPAIGNS New Shopping campaigns allow advertisers to browse product inventory directly in Adwords, as well as monitor the specific product level cost, revenue, and other metrics that were unavailable for Product Listing Ads. Up to five custom labels are now available in the product feed for customized bidding and grouping (as compared to two previously: Adword labels and Adwords groupings ). Benchmarking your shopping campaign performance against similar products for CPCs and CTR becomes available. Creating multiple ad groups within shopping campaigns are now supported. APRIL 2007 FROOGLE CHANGES TO GOOGLE PRODUCT SEARCH Mostly interface changes as well as a name change. Still free, product search ads were not served on Google.com but located in more options in the search page along with video, maps, news, etc. Fun fact: Marissa Meyer was the VP of Search Products and User Experience at Google at the time. OCTOBER 2013 GOOGLE INTRODUCES CAMPAIGNS Google announces a new campaign type for Product Listing Ads to streamline the management and reporting of product specific shopping campaigns. Only available to a limited group of advertisers. APRIL 2, 2014 RETIREMENT OF PLAs, FULL TRANSITION TO ANNOUNCED Google gives advertisers a specific date when PLA campaigns will be discontinued and all advertisers must transition to Google Shopping campaigns. 4 elitesem.com Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing elitesem.com 5
The Differences Between Search Ads and Shopping Ads The Similarities Between Search Ads and Shopping Ads Product Listing Ads show on the same search engine results page as SEM keyword campaigns, but there are many differences between search ads and shopping ads. MOBILE DEVICE VIEW DESKTOP DEVICE VIEW While there are many differences between search and shopping campaigns, there are a few key synergies. Search Query Reporting and Negative Keywords Targeting criteria for ads showing While you cannot choose what keywords trig- While both SEM ads and shopping ads are ger your Shopping Campaigns ads, you can triggered by keywords, you don t actively se- still review search query reports for terms that lect the keyword that triggers shopping ads have triggered your ads. From that point you like you do for search ads. Because of this there can: are no positive keywords and/or match types to Include negative keywords for both search be selected for Product Listing Ads. and shopping campaigns that are too general or irrelevant to your products but trig- Product Listing Ads are targeted by the prod- gered your ads nonetheless. uct details, title, and description of your prod- Monitor keywords that trigger your ads with ucts in your product feed that lives in your high spend and impressions, but poor to no Google Merchant Center account. ROI. Landing pages and destination URLs You can additionally see what specific queries For shopping campaigns your product-level triggered your ads and converted. This can ads need to go directly to your product pages. give you good insight on specific keywords and themes to focus your product titles and descrip- For search campaigns you have full control tions around. over where you direct the users on your site. Want to send them to the product page, the home Google Shopping ads unit (PLAs) Double vision page, a different product to be purchased, or an People searching for products you carry email sign up page? The choice is yours! SEM paid search ad have the same intention, so showing on the same SERP for both shopping campaigns The look of your ads and extensions SEO search results and search campaigns is a sound strategy to For shopping campaigns you can change: maximize placement and visibility for your top Images Google Shopping ads unit (PLAs) products and product categories. Title of your product SEM paid search ad Lay out a strategy, test, modify, measure, repeat For search campaigns you can change: Search and shopping campaigns both require Headline, description, display urls SEO search results a similar due diligence. Always test to get the Any of the numerous extensions available maximum ROI for your program. on search Bid modifiers Remarketing list for search ads works for search Search and shopping campaigns can be ad- but not yet for Shopping campaigns justed for mobile traffic and other bid modifiers. 6 elitesem.com Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing Elite SEM: Performance Driven Digital Marketing elitesem.com 7
Let s Recap So now at this point you know a lot about Google Shopping campaigns. We know: What Google Shopping Campaigns look like across different devices How the key elements of Shopping Campaigns are set and how they operate and function FIND MORE WHITE PAPERS AT ELITESEM.COM Google Merchant Center Product Feed The history of Google Shopping Campaigns Things have changed a lot since 2002! Key differences, similarities, and synergies between search and shopping campaigns Now that we know all of these things, what else can we learn? What is the current growth trajectory of Google Shopping Campaigns? Lifting Google Penguin Penalties for Two Online Retailers How has 2014 compared to the trends we saw with Shopping clicks and spend in 2013? Has Google Shopping competition gotten fiercer, less competitive, or stayed the same in 2014? What portion of Google Shopping traffic comes from mobile compared to desktop and tablet use? We re so glad you asked and are interested! To get the answers to these questions and more, please download part two of this Elite SEM Google Shopping Whitepaper series: Google Shopping Campaign Trends (2014) and the Future of Google Shopping. Search Marketing Trends by Device Type (2012 vs. 2013) Marc Weisinger Director of Marketing