Google Shopping: Preparing for the shake-up

It seems to have gone largely unnoticed in the UK, but Google recently announced that it is pulling the plug on its free Google Product Search in the coming months. In its place will be Google Shopping, a paid product advert service.

By Seamus Whittingham, Managing Director EMEA, ChannelAdvisor

By announcing the end of Google Product Search, and with it the end of free listings, Google has begun what is probably going to be the biggest shake-up of the way retailers use search since the launch of Google Adwords.

The new service promises to return higher quality results for users and increase traffic for retailers by giving merchants greater control. However, the transition and additional cost is likely to cause significant disruption for retailers. Those who are unprepared risk their ads slipping down the rankings and losing traffic, and therefore revenue, to competitors.

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Google Shopping was introduced in the US in March, and from the lessons learnt in that market, we have developed some top tips for UK retailers to help them manage the transition:

•    Manage your Product Listing Ads (PLAs) – PLAs, which in the past were only important for Pay Per Click campaigns, will now be driving search results for Google Shopping, so retailers need to ensure they are properly creating PLAs and optimising them appropriately.

PLAs are visually compelling product advertisements that include product information including title, price, merchant name and images, so have a lot of potential. Develop and update your promotional messages to help communicate the value proposition of your offers, urging users to take a closer look.

•    It’s all about the data – You’ll only be as good as your data, so keep Google updated with accurate information and ensure you have a consistently fresh, error-free data feed.

Tracking Google Shopping is trickier than many other programmes, so make sure you get your tracking right by ensuring your feed contains the tracking parameters needed to collect accurate performance data.

•    Watch for errors – It’s important to maximise the eligibility of your products by addressing errors and warnings in your Merchant Centre Account. If errors go unnoticed your ads will drop down the rankings.

•    Know your keywords – Identify target questions and integrate them into the titles and description of your product feed. Remember that not all keywords will drive positive results so add negative keywords too. Include and update promotional messaging to help your ads stand out and encourage users to click.

•    Optimise your targets – Don’t limit yourself to a single target; structure your targets as a reflection of how you measure your business and regularly create new targets as you introduce items.

•    Look after the pennies… Keep in mind available budget and make the most of incremental opportunities by setting budgets very low and adjusting based on performance. Use minimum bids to your advantage by taking action on poorly performing products and assigning them lower pay per click bids to make room for better selling products.

Google makes it easy to keep all products active by allowing advertisers to bid as low as one cent
As the online evolution continues, and as this search giant looks to monetise its importance to retailers, there are bound to be tweaks to the programme. Those retailers that can best adapt to these changes have a great chance to get ahead of the competition.