While Google Shopping has only been available in select countries , it is widely considered to be one of the most successful campaign types that ecommerce websites can run to generate sales at a great ROI. One of the main reasons why Google Shopping is so successful for merchants is that the user can easily compare the same product from multiple different stores. This allows them to find a website that provides the best value for what they are looking for.
The basic layout of a Google Shopping ad is an image of the products (with a plain or white background), the title of the product, the price of the product & any bonus information (star seller ratings or free delivery etc.). However to get a shopping campaign running and successfully returning sales, there is more than just providing this basic information to the Google Merchant Center.
Below is a quick checklist that Digital Choice has put together for you to review before running your first Google Shopping campaign. Alternatively, this checklist can also be used if your shopping campaigns aren't performing as you'd hoped.
1. Make sure website is functional & loads quickly
This is always the first place you should look before doing any advertising. If you are trying to sell products on your website, then you need to make sure that customers can easily find what they are looking for and can navigate through your website without getting frustrated. This means focussing on creating a detailed menu structure and an accessible search bar to help users find what they are looking for. In shopping campaigns users go straight to your product page, so we have to make sure that if they want to look for something else (potentially a second or third product to add to their cart), that they can find it.
The other aspect to functionality is making sure that your website load time is as fast as possible. While having images, videos and a whole bunch of apps can make your website look stunning, often this comes at the sacrifice of load time. If you are willing to pay people to click to your website, then make sure that you aren't paying for wasted clicks. When a website load time is too slow, the vast majority of users will bounce off and go to another site. Meaning you could be paying for a click that doesn't actually lead to a user viewing your page.
2. Have great product pages & Product images
Because shopping ads go straight to product pages, you need to make sure that all of your content on the products that you are advertising is in great shape. The most important attribute of a product page is the product images. Generally this is where the user is first looking, so it's important that you make a great first impression. Once your images are sorted, then it's time to move on to the written content on the page. This means writing detailed descriptions about your products. Description text is a great way to provide context over the product that isn't visible in the product images. You can include product material, attributes etc. in your descriptions to help give the customer more information. Other bonuses you can include are shipping information (pricing and duration), and product or website reviews. All of this bonus information helps to improve your conversion rate and can be the difference between a good ROI and a great ROI.
3. Make sure you are price competitive
Google Shopping is a comparative service, meaning that users can easily see prices from other websites. If you are consistently 10%/20% higher than the other websites, then it's going to impact your results. While you don't have to be the lowest price in the market on all your products, you need to be reasonably priced. We also recommend having a handful of products that you are targeting to be very price competitive. These are the ones that you can use purely for customer acquisition. Once you have a customer, it's easier to get the repeat purchase.
If you are on the more expensive side, then you need to justify it. Provide an increased level or service, or express shipping. Whatever it is, give the customer a reason to pay more for the same or a similar product.
Note: Be sure to factor in shipping costs when you are comparing prices.
4. Give customers payment options
Flexible payment options are now a must for ecommerce websites. Customers are speaking with their feet (or this case their wallets) that they are demanding better payment options. No longer can websites rely purely on credit card & paypal. Flexible payment options like LayBuy, ZipPay, afterpay and others are a requirement now for ecommerce websites. While this does mean that you are sacrificing some of your margin on those purchases, we have often found that the increase in sales outweighs the loss. Often these payment options are a great source of referral traffic as well, leading to further new customers.
5. Provide all the information possible in your merchant center feed
Your merchant centre feed is the foundation of your success through Google Shopping. This is the information that you are providing Google and controls where your ads show and to who. The importance of a high quality data feed cannot be underestimated. We've seen instances were the ROI doubled within the first week, just by improving the data feed. That's a huge change, just be sending the right information to Google. Make sure you check out Google's support pages, so you know what you should be including and get every piece of information that you can into your feed.
If you've covered off these 5 points, then you will be well on your way to having a successful Google Shopping campaign.