You have probably been using Google Shopping Campaigns for a while now and feel at ease with Google Merchant Center, but are you taking advantage of everything on offer?
Should you have a small or large inventory or be a beginner or an expert on the platform, there is at least one other thing you should be doing or a missed opportunity for optimizing your Google Shopping campaign.
- Maintain your product feed
Have you ever heard yourself saying, “that is so last year”? Apply this to your product feed, and you are already following a best practice for Google Shopping feeds!
No one likes to click on a product only to find it is now out of stock. As well as improving the shopping experience for your users, this will also help to avoid wasting clicks and unnecessary expenditure.
If you do this manually using Google spreadsheets, third-party services, or even dedicated software, please update your feed as frequently as possible.
Also, even if using Google spreadsheets gives you the most control over your product feed, it may not be the most realistic option if you have thousands of products to manage. Large online stores all use real-time automated solutions.
- Make titles and descriptions rich in keywords
Even though Shopping Campaigns does not use keyword-specific bidding, ensuring that your titles and descriptions are keyword-rich for search queries is essential.
Selecting the right keywords is more important than ever because only 70 characters will be displayed in most cases, meaning that your title can be cut mid-word or mid-sentence.
Avoid using overly descriptive keywords (such as ‘lovely,’ ‘gorgeous,’ and ‘luxury’) and keep to a product-focused language your customers are looking for: color, brand, style, etc.
It is also essential to avoid ‘keyword stuffing’ or, in simple terms, using too many keywords to sound unnatural.
Top tip: You can still add negative keywords to cut unwanted matching within Shopping Campaigns.
- Accuracy is everything
Accuracy is essential for the customer, but in terms of Shopping Campaigns, it is even more critical to be accurate; otherwise, Google will not show your products.
Please pay attention to prices (primarily if you use international currencies) and make sure that all destination URLs are direct to live pages, not 404.
- Optimise your images
Have you ever looked at a heat map and noticed how consumers’ eyes focus on images? There is no doubt that product images can make or break an ad!
Please ensure your photos are high-quality, unedited, and do not have any watermarks.
Images on a white background are preferred because the eyes are not distracted from the product and always aim for ‘family-friendly’ options less likely to be rejected by Google.
- Use geographic bid modifiers
Geographic bid modifiers are essential to make the most out of your advertising spend.
It is an absolute no-brainer for businesses that only deliver to certain countries to limit who gets to see your ads. Doing this will save clicks on an audience that can't purchase from you.
This can also be an effective method to bid up on high-potential regions or bid lower in areas where you already know there is little traffic to your website.
- Do you need mobile clicks?
While m-commerce is a vast topic, evaluating if mobile-enabled PPC campaigns are profitable can save you a bit of money in the long term.
Mobile clicks have very different conversion rates depending on the type of products your store is selling. Driving successful mobile campaigns also requires a fully mobile-optimized website.
You can start with mobile-enabled, then look at its results and regularly modify your mobile bids.
- Add promotions
You should consider adding promotional text to your shopping ads to distinguish yourself from the crowd. You can display any promotion you currently run, such as ‘Free delivery’ or ‘20% off’. As always, you must ensure that the rise matches your website.
- Move beyond last-click attribution
Shopping ads can take advantage of data-driven attribution in Google Ads. Do it now if you’re still waiting for the non-last-click attribution plunge in Google Ads. Across your search and Shopping ads, you can see which clicks make a real difference in conversions.
And if you don’t have enough traffic for data-driven attribution, we recommend choosing a rules-based model that values all touchpoints.
- Consider campaign priority
When preparing seasonal campaigns for holidays such as Easter, Halloween, or Christmas, you may have several products you want to push. Consider creating a product campaign and marking it as a ‘high priority’ in your advanced shopping settings when this is the case.
This will make sure that Google gives the proper priority to the right campaign at the right time. However, it is worth emphasizing that campaign priority does not impact relevancy because Google considers all products equally when determining relevance for a given query.
Consider creating an ‘all products’ campaign and setting it low. Then almost all of your other campaigns can be a medium priority, reserving high priority for significant seasonal events or promotions.
Conclusion
So there you have it, 9 top tips for successfully running Google Shopping Campaigns and experiencing the results you are looking for.
Now it's your turn. Do you have any other Google Shopping campaign tips you'd like to share with our readership? Let us know in the comments.
If you need help with your Google Shopping Ads campaigns, contact a digital marketing agency that will put you on the right track and help you enjoy the benefits.
