1. Utilize Google Shopping to Grow Your
Business
January 23, 2013
Matthew Umbro, Exclusive Concepts, Director of Paid Search
Chris Morgan, Google, Strategic Partner Manager
Petra Weiss, Google, Account Manager
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2. Today’s Presenters
Matthew Umbro Chris Morgan Petra Weiss
Director of Paid Search, Strategic Partner Manager, Account Manager,
Exclusive Concepts Google Google
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3. Exclusive Concepts
• Helping online businesses since 1997
• INC 5000 since 2008
• Helping online stores achieve IR 500 status
• AdWords Certified Partner
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5. Google/Exclusive Concepts Partnership
We’ve come together today to help educate the online
retail space about how they can best use Product
Listing Ads to generate sales for their business!
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7. Traditionally, We Followed a 3-step Mental
Model of Marketing
Stimulus First Moment Second Moment
of Truth of Truth
purchase in-store post-
motivator experience purchase
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8. However, the Mental Model of Marketing has
Shifted
Stimulus First Moment Second Moment
of Truth of Truth
purchase pre-purchase in-store post-
motivator research experience purchase
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9. Everyone and Everything is Online
There are over 2B web users worldwide, with another billion coming
online by the end of 2015
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10. And, Consumers are Hyper-informed
78%
of U.S. Internet
users go online to
search for
information about
products and
services
Source: "Online Product Research," Pew Research Center, 9/2010, Google Shopper Sciences, Zero Moment of
10 Google confidential Truth Study, 4/2011
11. Google Drives Many of these Searches
France Russia
US UK 34M+ 20M+
(43.3% Reach)
32M+ (70.1% Reach)
185M+ (81% Reach)
Italy
Japan
(83% Reach) 23M+ 32M+
(85% Reach) (50 % Reach)
Spain
19M+
(87% Reach)
Mexico Germany India
40M+
(90% Reach) 36M+ 63M+
(78% Reach) (90% Reach)
Brazil
40M+
(89% Reach)
Source: Nielsen, August 2011 except for Russia: ComScore April 2011 % Reach = Number of Country Uniques / Total
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Online Audience in Country.
12. Connect people to the products and
brands they love at the moment that
they’re searching with Google Shopping
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14. Zoro Tools launches large product website, efficiently
reaches customers, and lowers cost-per-acquisition with
Product Listing Ads
“Most of us have experience with traditional keyword campaigns and
the expectations, and PLA has outperformed all of those”
- Chase Twomey, Director of E-Commerce, Zoro Tools
• During the fourth quarter of 2011, PLAs were 14% more efficient
than text ads
• During December alone, CPA was 29% lower than the monthly
average for the year
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15. Diapers.com uses AdWords Product Ads to boost search
clicks by 30%
“Product Ads make perfect sense for us. We wanted an easy, scalable
way to show people that we had exactly what they were searching for
at a price they can’t beat.”
—Michael Manta, Marketing Manager, Diapers.com
• Product listings ads saw a 270% higher CTR than standard text
ads, and a 30% increase in total clicks from AdWords ads to
Diapers.com
• What’s more, those clicks converted at higher rate, leading to a 48%
lower CPA (average cost per acquisition)
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17. Product Listing Ads Display a Product
Title, Price, Image, and Merchant Name
Top Ads (5) - Google.com & Google
Shopping
- Desktop, mobile & tablet
Right Ads (8)
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18. Product Listing Ads
Since launching to all US advertisers in Nov 2010, Product Listing
Ads have seen significant growth with advertiser adoption and
product improvements
+600% traffic growth YoY globally
PLA Traffic
2X CTR vs. text ads
Nov 2010 to Dec 2011
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19. Why Use PLAs?
1. Better Clickthrough Rates (CTRs)
Because Product Ads are more attractive and engaging
than standard text ads, they offer better CTRs
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20. Why Use PLAs?
2. Better Lead Quality and Conversion Rates
Product Ads give users information (merchant, price
and picture) before they click through, so they are
better informed and more likely to complete a sale
when they arrive on your site
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21. Why Use PLAs?
3. Easy Targeting
Google automatically selects the most relevant
products to show from your Merchant Center account
when a user enters a related query
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22. Why Use PLAs?
4. Increased Exposure
Because both Product Ads formats can show at the
same time, your exposure on given query can increase
2x or more
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23. How Do You Set Them Up?
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24. Products Come from the Google Merchant
Center
Attributes in the feed
Products
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25. Create Your Product Ads Campaign in
AdWords
Step 1: Create a new Campaign by selecting “Search Network Only”
and then select “Product Listing Ads” as the Campaign type
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26. Create Your Product Ads Campaign in
AdWords
Step 2: Specify your bidding strategy and set a budget
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27. Create Your Product Ads Campaign in
AdWords
Step 3: Associate your Merchant Center account w/ the campaign
Note: This option will only appear
after you connect your Merchant
Center Account to AdWords
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28. Create Your Product Ads Campaign in
AdWords
Step 4: Indicate a Promotional Message for your PLAs (i.e. Free
Shipping)
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30. Optimize Your Data Quality
The better your data quality, the better you can match your
products to shoppers’ search queries
Better data quality
Adhere
Update Submit Submit all Mind your
to our
your high quality required descriptions
and titles
editorial
feed daily images attributes
guidelines
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31. Optimize Your Data Quality
Better data quality
Adhere
Update Submit Submit all Mind your
to our
your high quality required descriptions
and titles
editorial
feed daily images attributes
guidelines
Minimum: 250 x 250 pixels
Recommended: 400 x 400 pixels
Accepted Formats: GIF, JPG, PNG, BMP & TIF
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32. Optimize Your Data Quality
Better data quality
Adhere
Update Submit Submit all Mind your
to our
your high quality required descriptions
and titles
editorial
feed daily images attributes
guidelines
No promo text such as "Free shipping” in descriptions
Do not use BLOCK CAPITALS
Do not include a description of your store
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33. Optimize Your Data Quality
Better data quality
Adhere
Update Submit Submit all Mind your
to our
your high quality required descriptions
and titles
editorial
feed daily images attributes
guidelines
63 character limit for titles and 140 limit for descriptions
Include important information upfront
Mirror product information on the website
Don’t use up characters with your brand name
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34. Create an Ideal Campaign Structure
Create a separate
Create a separate Plan your ideal Set up an “All Products”
campaign(s) for PLAs
campaign for PLAs campaign structure products target
This allows different settings, budgets and performance
1 tracking for your PLAs
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35. Create an Ideal Campaign Structure
Create a separate Plan your ideal
Plan your ideal Set up an “All Products”
campaign(s) for PLAs campaign structure
campaign structure products target
1 Are there groups of products on which you'd like to bid different?
Do you have different promos for different products?
2 An Ad Group per product target allows for a unique promotion
per product target
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36. Create an Ideal Campaign Structure
Create a separate Plan your ideal Set up an “All Products”
campaign(s) for PLAs campaign structure products target
Set this bid lower than the other targets to create a catch-all for
1 your entire inventory
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37. Create Product Targets for Groups of
Products
Map your product targets to items with exactly matching
attributes
Product targets Product data feed
Product Adwords
product_type = mountain bikes Title Brand
type labels
brand = mcquinn mountain
Spokes Fast Pacer low margin
bikes
condition = refurbished Augustyn high
Mcquinn cruisers
Rider margin
adwords_grouping = summer
mountain
Vodoun Zanzi XL low margin
adwords_labels = high margin bikes
high
all products Velo Prime Zion hybrids
margin
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38. Create Product Targets for Groups of
Products
Map your product targets to items with exactly matching
attributes
Product targets Product data feed
Product Adwords
product_type = mountain bikes Title Brand
type labels
brand = mcquinn mountain
Spokes Fast Pacer low margin
bikes
condition = refurbished
Augustyn high
Mcquinn cruisers
adwords_grouping = summer Rider margin
mountain
adwords_labels = high margin Vodoun Zanzi XL low margin
bikes
all products high
Velo Prime Zion hybrids
margin
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39. Create Product Targets for Groups of
Products
Add an “All Products” product target to ensure that all your products are covered.
Bid with the lowest price you're willing to pay for a click on any product. If a product
matches more than one product target, it will run in the one with the highest bid.
Product targets Product data feed
Product Adwords
product_type = mountain bikes Title Brand
type labels
brand = mcquinn mountain
Spokes Fast Pacer low margin
bikes
condition = refurbished
Augustyn high
Mcquinn cruisers
adwords_grouping = summer Rider margin
mountain
adwords_labels = high margin Vodoun Zanzi XL low margin
bikes
all products high
Velo Prime Zion hybrids
margin
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40. Assign a Bid to Each Product Target
Sample ad groups Product targets Max CPC bids
mountain bikes product_type = mountain bikes $1.00
Mcquinn brand brand = mcquinn $2.00
all products all products $0.50
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41. Improve Query Relevance with Data
Perform a search query report to identify queries triggering your
1 product targets at the campaign level
Set negative keywords to avoid your products showing for non
2 performing queries, at the campaign or ad group level
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43. The Exclusive Concepts Difference – Cut
the Fat, Build the Muscle
• "AOV Balancer": efficiently suppress items based on proprietary
methods (via AdWords_Publish attribute)
• Optimized Titles and Descriptions
• Labels – Our Proprietary Technology
o Top Revenue
o Top Visits
o Top Revenue/Visit
• Labels – Working with You
o High Margin
o New Products
o Promo Items
o Blacklist
• Use of grouping to combine your categories more effectively
• Dominating what we know will make a positive impact
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44. Healthcare retailer launches optimized product feed,
targeting specific segments, and greatly increases revenue
and return on ad spend.
• PLA revenue saw a 995% return on ad spend during Q4 of 2012
• PLA revenue accounted for 68% of total site revenue during Q4 of
2012
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45. Fashion apparel retailer shifts budget from traditional text
ads to PLAs and sees 102% increase in revenue year over
year.
• 74% of total revenue comes from PLAs while only accounting for
26% of total PPC budget
• Overall campaign cost per conversion decreased by 22% year over
year
• Year over year cost per click decreased by 36% due to PLAs
costing much less than text ads
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46. Methodology
Cut The
Fat
Profitable
Google
Shopping
Strategic Build The
Positioning Muscle
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Matthew to leadIn room: Matthew, Chris, Petra & Michael (Director of Marketing) involvedPoints to mention:Questions on hold for the most part until the end of the webinar; some to be answered during the webinarPlease do not use this as a session to vent about issues with Google; it is designed to inform you about PLAs and let you know what Exclusive Concepts is offeringIntroduce speakers: they will introduce themselves on the next slide more specifically
Matthew to leadAll to introduce themselves
Matthew to lead
Matthew to lead
We’ve come together today to help educate the online retail space about how they can best use Product Listing Ads, or PLAs to generate sales for their business! Since PLAs became an ad format, our clients have seen outstanding results, often seeing much lower cost per conversions and cost per clicks while seeing more conversions than general text ad campaigns. Having a strong presence in the Google Shopping results is a must!Chris to add input as well, before transitioning into his slides
Chris to lead
Chris to leadIt used to be that you saw a TV ad, ran out of toothpaste or otherwise had a need or want to purchase. Then you’d go to the store where you’d learn a lot about the product in the store, and that’s why the first moment of truth became this point of inflection, an important moment to win.
Chris to leadThe Internet has changed how we decide what to buy. Today we're all digital explorers, seeking out online ratings, social media-based peer reviews, videos, and in-depth product details as we move down the path to purchase. Marketing has evolved and modern marketing strategies have to evolve with the changing shape of shopping.At Google, we call this online decision-making moment the Zero Moment of Truth -- or simply ZMOT.
Chris to leadThe web has become an essential part of daily life for billions of people around the world with over 2B web users and another billion people coming online by the end of 2015 (more than 40% of the world’s population)People of all ages, incomes, countries, etc. are online (In the US,4 out of 5 adults use the web everyday)People use the web to do practically anything - learn, connect, discover, work, shop, create, entertain, communicate, entertain, invent. In the US:90% of Internet users search70% shop and watch videos (>4B views on YouTube per day)60% bankingThese are moments that matter to people - when they use the Internet to make their lives better, every day.
Chris to leadAll of this online activity is transforming how people learn things and make decisions. They are better informed than ever before in history.Consumers are learning more, from more sources, throughout the entire purchase process:the average consumer today uses about 10 different sources of information before making purchase decisions AND 4 out of 5 people go online for their research (84%)ImpactZMOT - a major shift in consumer behaviorProcter and Gamble first coined the term the “first moment of truth” - about when a customer first sees a product on a store shelfnow, customers are getting to know products and brands online, long before they see them in the the real worldthey are researching not just information about price and where to buy, but also learning about product knowledge, word of mouth, and brandthere is a new purchase funnel, and it’s not a funnel, it’s a continuous cycle. Be there: engage with people at the Zero Moment of Truth. If you wait, it’s too late.web is not just a channel to distribute your products or to engage customers looking for your brand. You need to shape and own the conversation from the “zero moment”. if you wait until someone is performing a price check while in the store, it’s too late. That person probably already knows more about the product than most of your sales associates. Listen: search is essentially like having access to a focus group of the world every dayyou can engage your customers as they are shaping their views on the category and alternatives.you can learn how they are seeking information and what they care about. Find emerging trends earlierAction Own category conversation as well as those already looking for your brand. Set up Google insights data as part of your management dashboard so you are following what consumers are thinking as you set your strategies, plans, products.
Chris to lead
Petra to lead
Petra to leadZoro Tools is an online supplier of 250,000+ industrial-supply, plumbing, electrical, cleaning, safety, and storage- equipment products and tools to small businesses nationwide
Petra to lead• www.diapers.com• Jersey City, NJ• Diapers.com is the largest specialty retailer of baby products online
Petra to lead
Petra to leadProduct Listing Ads are search ads that include richer product information – including product image, price, and merchant name – without requiring additional keywords or ad text. Whenever a user enters a search query relevant to an item in your Google Merchant Center account, Google may automatically show the most relevant products alongwith the associated image, price, and product name.
Petra to lead+600% increase in traffic to advertisers YoY2X the CTR of text adsin the same location for these shopping queries
Petra to lead
Petra to lead
Petra to lead
Petra to lead
Matthew to lead- So how do you set product listing ads up?
Matthew to lead Before we can setup PLAs we need access to the product feed and be able to upload to Google Merchant Center. This product feed can be exported into Excel format and contains all of the relevant product attributes, including titles, descriptions, prices and more. The feed also contains auto targets, which AdWords uses to showcase your PLAs. Auto targets are similar to keywords in that they help Google determine which products to show for various queries. In the coming slides, we’ll discuss why it is imperative to have access to the feed and be able to make edits.
Matthew to lead- Wefirst want to create a separate campaign strictly for PLAs. Just like splitting up Search and Display Network campaigns, PLAs need their own campaigns. When creating this new campaign we select the option for Product Listing Ads.
Matthew to lead- We’ll then choose the option to manually bid for clicks. It’s important to note that PLA campaigns don’t contain keywords. In other words, we aren’t bidding on keywords, but rather the auto targets we discussed previously. In essence, you set a bid for specific categories of your feed.
Matthew to lead- You then need to associate your Merchant Center account with your AdWords account via the product extension. You are linking your AdWords account to Merchant Center in order to run these ads.
Matthew to lead- Finally, every auto target can have promotional text. For example, if all necklaces on your site are 20% off, you can add this message to your PLA. The message will not show initially, but if the user hovers over your ad, the promotion will show.
Matthew to lead
Matthew to lead- I tend to compare product feed tactics to SEO tactics. Just like SEO, the better optimized your site, or feed is, the more relevant the traffic.
Matthew to lead- Make sure the image the user sees is high quality and entices him/her to click.
Matthew to lead
Matthew to lead Special characters such as ampersands and quotation marks do not always display properly 63 character limit for titles; 140 for descriptions
Matthew to lead- You should always create a separate campaign for your PLAa, but depending how granular you’d like to get, you can create several themed PLA campaigns. Each campaign allows you to set appropriate bids and set appropriate budgets.
Matthew to lead- For example, each product type should receive a different ad group with the appropriate bid. You can also utilize AdWords specific attributes in your feed and then target directly within AdWords. For example, by tagging high margin products in your feed with the label “High Margin” you can target just these products.
Matthew to lead- Finally, you’ll want to create an “All Products” campaign or ad group as a catch all. You’ll bid significantly lower here so your classified auto targets have the “first crack” at being seen.
Matthew to lead
Matthew to lead
Matthew to lead
Matthew to lead
Matthew to lead- Here’s the fun part of PLAs, the search query reports! You can see exactly which queries triggered your PLAs and exclude as negative keywords just like in a regular text ad campaign. Just like text ad campaigns, you’ll want to exclude queries that are costing a lot and not converting. Interestingly enough, generic terms such as “necklaces” or “shoes” sometimes perform OK. In a text ad campaign these queries would probably be deemed too generic, however, in a PLA campaign, they are more specific as the image, price and description also have the potential to show. Additionally, with our shopping service we elevate your top products so generic queries trigger these higher performing items.
Matthew to lead
Matthew to leadOur AOV Balancer tool highlights products with higher AOVs which will show higher returns. The tool also identifies products that don’t meet a certain AOV and suppresses these items using the AdWords Publish attribute of False, meaning these products won’t be shown as PLAs Based on products showing the best value per visit, we optimize your 20 most important product titles and descriptions each month Utilizing predictive methods, our proprietary technology aligns with products that will show the best AOV and ROI and creates specific AdWords Labels, such as “top revenue” “top visits” and “top revenue/visit” We also work with you to determine high margin products, new products and promotional items. We then refresh your feed as frequently as every other week and submit to Google.
Matthew to lead- Of the nearly $340K in revenue during Q4, 68% came from Product Listing Ads! Without PLAs, the client would have only seen a third of this revenue!
Matthew to lead- Now is the time to start running Product Listing Ad campaigns. Cost per conversion and cost per clicks have shown to be much lower than text ad campaigns.