Optimizing Google Shopping campaigns is a key part of your sales strategy. In this step-by-step guide, we'll go through some proven techniques for optimal Google Shopping campaigns. From optimizing data to using custom labels, we'll dig deeper into some of the most discussed Google Shopping strategy concepts and introduce ways to effectively optimize your Google Shopping campaigns to improve performance.
All of these tactics have been tested with our own campaigns or those of my clients. The great thing about Shopping ads is that Google does most of the work for you. You create a feed, and Google automatically creates ads and links them to relevant search queries.
1. Limit networks
There's been a lot of talk about Google's sneaky default options. And when you set up a new Google Shopping campaign, you run into them too: Default Networks. By default, Google checks the boxes for Search Partners and YouTube and Discover on the Display Network. Here's why you want to make sure you turn them both off:
Google Search Network Partners:
This allows your Shopping ads to appear on both Search Network partner sites such as Walmart. These can be potentially interesting, but not right off the start. At the start, you need to have an idea of the basic performance of your campaigns.
YouTube and Discover on the Display Network:
This will show your ads on YouTube or third-party websites. The reason this is so damaging is that most people who will see your ads are NOT looking for these products. Hence low conversion rates.
Disabling these features improves the quality of people who see your ads.
2. Adding negative keywords
In Shopping campaigns, you don't need to add keywords. But you can add negative keywords to make sure you don't show up for unwanted queries. You can analyze your search queries for which your ads are appearing in the Search Terms report:
Irrelevant search queries
These searches that don’t have any value at all for your business. This can be for products that you don't sell: children rather than adult size clothing Or the colors or variations of a product that you don't stock. These clicks are the equivalent of throwing money in the trash.
Competitor search queries
Competitor search queries are searches that include the name of a competitor with an interesting keyword. you probably want to add these competitors as negative keywords.
3. Structure of the Google Shopping campaign
Campaign structure means how you organize your various campaigns. How many do you have? What products are included under each campaign? How many ad groups? & more. You can make awesome improvements just by improving the campaign structure.Campaign structure is at the heart of effective Google Shopping campaigns.It allows you to bid on the products & search queries that are trending. Following are some of the most common campaign structures.
Structure 1 - One campaign undivided
A single campaign, with an ad group and a product group containing all of your products. What this actually means is that every product and every search query is of equal value to your business. With this all you can do is increase the maximum CPC for all products.
Structure 2 – One campaign with multiple products groups
The next logical step is to start breaking out different product groups based on some of your products’ attributes. Google Shopping allows you to subdivide your product groups based on Category, Brand, Item ID, condition, product type, channel, channel exclusivity, or one of five custom labels.
Structure 3 – Multiple campaigns with different products
Just like you split the product groups, you can also create a campaign based on the attributes we’ve discussed above. To do that, you need to jump into the settings of your newly created campaign and use an Inventory Filter to only include part of your product offering.
4. Bid Optimization for Shopping Ads
Once you've created the right campaign structure, most of the optimization work will be bringing your max CPCs back. High enough that you get enough clicks, but not too high to hurt your profits.
When to increase your campaign budget?
If your campaigns are profitable and Google says you're on budget or have low impressions, you can increase your budget. These graphics are only a simulation. If you are increasing your budget, watch the results closely every day that follow to make sure you are still earning enough.
Quality Score in Google Shopping
For each Google search, they identify which advertisers want to appear and what ads they want to display (image, title, description, landing page, etc.). With this data, Google calculates a quality score. This score indicates how relevant Google thinks your ad for a product offering is to the search query in question. This is common knowledge for Google search campaigns, where you can see the actual score that Google is giving you.But in Shopping campaigns, you have Lost Impressions Rate (Rank) metric. In Google search, the ad ranking is calculated by multiplying the maximum CPC by the quality score. This means that the products with a high quality score but a small bid can compete with a low quality score product with a high bid.
5. Auction overview
This report, available at the account, campaign, and ad group level, will tell you which other advertisers are advertising on the same keywords as you. Be sure to watch this report for different time frames, it allows you to follow the evolution of your competition or the impact of your optimization work.
6. Create a Remarketing Strategy
Dynamic Remarketing:
Dynamic Remarketing with Analytics allows you to serve remarketing ads for the products that are most likely to interest your users based on the products they have viewed on your site, related products, and top performers, along with their purchase history and demographics. When users exit without converting, you can use dynamic remarketing to make relevant products visible again when they visit other sites on the Google Display Network.
Remarketing lists for search/Shopping Ads:
RLSAs for Shopping campaigns are open to all advertisers. You can target previous site visitors, such as cart abandonments, previous buyers, or even specific readers of products/categories on your website. Remarketing lists can be created in Google Analytics and are available for Shopping campaigns so that merchants can target and/or bid on users of those specific lists.
6. Shopping Feed Optimization
If you've done all of the above, your Shopping campaigns should be in good shape. But even then, you may not be able to reach the numbers you need. So let’s cover the last element of Google Shopping optimization: your product feed. Before you implement any of the things below, all Google Merchant Center errors and warnings should be fixed. Mainly around product identifiers.
- Product titles optimization
- Competitive prices
- Prices & Availability updates
- Product image optimization
- Improve product descriptions
Final Thoughts:
By going through all the optimization tactics described in this article, you will be among the best advertisers on Google Shopping. It doesn't mean the job is done. To stay competitive, constant optimizations are needed, especially when it comes to monitoring & bidding your competition.
Google continues to make changes to the Google Shopping platform. So staying on top of new features or possibilities can help you get an edge over competitors. When you work with our Ecommerce marketing agency, we take over the complete management of your Shopping ads, Ecommerce SEO, Social media channels using our experience and familiarity with the Google system to maximize your results, increase your sales and help you grow your e-commerce business.
