Selling More This Holiday Season
Whether they’re looking for ideas or price matching, millions of consumers will use Google to gift shop this holiday season.
Sure, Amazon is considered the top dog and you should absolutely list your products on Amazon MarketPlace, but don’t forget Google is still the world’s #1 search engine.
Can you guess what kind of links pop up for product-related search queries?
An extensive shopping feed!
Google Shopping has been considered one of the largest growth opportunities for online retailers, accounting for 76% of Retail Search Ads in 2018.
You’d be crazy not to take advantage of this opportunity!
So what can you do?
Launch a Google Shopping Campaign.
Getting Setup
Start by creating a Google Ads account if you haven’t already. Once created, start a new campaign, select sales as your primary objective, then choose the shopping option.
You’ll then want to connect your Shopping Campaign to your Google Merchant Center. Once connected, you’ll have to add product deliverables to your Merchant Feed such as:
- IDs
- Titles
- Images
- Description Copy
- Types + Categories
- Pricing
- Stock
Getting Organized
Next, organize your product data feeds so you can stay on top of everything. We suggest sorting ad groups by brand or category.
Bidding
Rather than bidding on keywords like you would for search campaigns, shopping campaigns have advertisers bid on specific products or groups of products.
This helps you prioritize your budgets for your best sellers.
Get Help Setting Up Your Shopping Feeds
Ensuring Success
Now that you’re set up, you’ll have to ensure your campaigns are running effectively.
Before we go into specific practices, be sure to consistently maintain your product feed!
Why?
Life happens! Products run out of stock, prices change, items are added/discontinued.
It’s important to keep your Google Merchant Center spreadsheet updated at all times!
Any discrepancies between your website and product feed will lead to your ads getting disapproved and marked as inactive.
Best Practices For Shopping Campaigns
Shopping Campaigns can be very competitive, so it’s important to stay ahead with the latest strategies.
Monitor Your Feed Positions
Where your products rank will heavily impact your traffic and sales. Regularly monitor rankings and analyze your ads performance to ensure you’re not missing any opportunities! When done right, you can improve your feed positions over time
Check for Feed Errors or Disapprovals
Like we said earlier, any discrepancies on your product sheet or issues with your ads will prevent your ads from showing. The sooner you’re notified of the problem(s), the sooner you can resolve them.
Strengthen Low-Performing Products
Not every product is going to thrive all the time, but it’s important to look for ways to improve your positions. Optimize your weaker products by updating the information lists to make sure it’s not missing any important keywords of features that might impact consumers’ decisions.
Enhance Your Pricing Strategy
Consumers are always looking for the lowest prices.
Use Price Benchmarks to check your prices vs competitors and enhance your pricing strategy. By experimenting with product pricing strategies, you can increase the visibility of your products and boost sales.
Apply Custom Labels
Custom labels give you additional insight into your product and keywords performance, which can later be used for optimization purposes. The data can help you segment your bids, thus having more control of your spending.
Leverage Product Reviews
The online reputation of a brand or product can easily be the difference between gaining or losing a sale. Generate positive reviews to boost consumer confidence and increase conversion rates.
Increase Sales With Remarketing
It’s not uncommon for consumers to get distracted and abandon their shopping carts. Remarketing ads are great for reminding consumers about your brand or products and tend to yield higher ROAS.
Use High Converting Landing Pages
A quick loading landing page with simple, direct designs are proven to increase conversion rates. Use your best performing landing pages to ensure the best results.
Looking Ahead
We’re emphasizing the importance of Google Shopping Campaigns during the holiday season, but you should know they’re profitable year-long! You can employ these strategies to increase your sales all year!
Need help?
Try contacting the experts at Active Web Group. In our 20 years of Digital Marketing experience, we’ve helped brands of all sizes and industries thrive. Can’t wait? Give us a call at 800-978-3417.
