Top Google Shopping Optimisation Tips For Christmas
Can you hear the jingling of bells and the sounds of Mariah Carey defrosting after 11 months in hibernation? That’s right, Christmas is right around the corner, and the team at Get More Traffic are here to make sure your business is ready to boost your traffic and maximise your sales over the most wonderful time of the year. One of the easiest ways to do that is by optimising your Google Shopping feed. However, if you’re sitting there thinking, ‘I don’t know how to optimise my Google Shopping feed! I don’t even know if I have one!’; that’s okay. That’s what we’re here for! So, let’s get your Google shopping strategy sorted out, so you have one less thing to worry about this holiday season.
Simply put, Google Shopping is a service provided by Google that lets customers search for, view, and compare products easily. When you search for a term, say ‘rollerskates’, you’ll be shown sponsored ads at the top of the search;
If a customer clicks on the shopping tab, it’ll take them to the Google Shopping feed. It looks a little like this;
To work on your Google Shopping feed optimisation, you’ll need access to two platforms; Google Ads and Google Merchant Centre. You might already be familiar with Google Ads, where you run your campaigns and control things like budgets, bidding strategy, location, ad schedule, and access insights. The Google Merchant Centre is the place you’ll keep your product feed and upload details about your products. This might include things such as an EAN, prices, colours, ISBNs, etc.
Your shopping campaign will work a little differently from the search campaign you might be familiar with in Google Ads. In a search campaign, your budget will be used to bid on pre-selected keywords that help get your products and services in front of the people searching for them. On the other hand, you won’t have direct control over which search queries trigger the ads when you launch a shopping campaign. Google crawls shopping advertisers’ sites and feeds to find ads relevant to a given search query. The relevance of your ads depends on the depth and detail of your Google Shopping feed. That’s why it’s crucial you know how to optimise your Google Shopping feed.
If you don’t have your Google Shopping feed set up, don’t worry; the team at Get More Traffic can work with you to create a campaign that shows off the very best of your products. If you already have a feed up and going but you’re looking for some advice and help with Google Shopping optimisation in time for Christmas, our team can help you with that too. We have some great tips and tricks to help you make the most of your Google Shopping feed this Christmas.
Did you know that 90% of Australians across all age groups research their Christmas shopping online? These potential customers are all at different stages of their consumer journey. Some will be researching ideas for gifts, some will be comparing prices for specific items. Others will be in the ‘buying’ phase of their journey, ready to spend their money there and then. No matter what stage of the journey your customers are in, you’re going to want a solid Google Shopping campaign to leverage the increased holiday traffic. Lucky for you, the Get More Traffic team have a few tips to help you do just that.
Use Christmas-related keywords. When planning your Christmas campaign, target keywords such as ‘present ideas’, ‘gifts for teenagers’ or ‘christmas present for mum’. These are the things people tend to search for in their panicked ‘buy’ phase of the consumer journey. This means they’re far more likely to purchase the products that make it straightforward and easy for them. Another audience who tend to search this term are people in their ‘research’ phase of the consumer journey. While they may not necessarily add your product to the cart in a spree of frenzied pre-Christmas panic, your brand and products will be front of mind as they think about what to buy their loved ones.
Use your old data to optimise best-selling products. You probably have a good idea of which products will sell well over Christmas, so make sure you do everything you can to promote those items. Don’t waste your budget on poorer-performing or low-value items when you could be investing in higher-value products.
Use product ratings. Reviews and ratings help your product stand out. They drive quality scores, which means you’ll get higher visibility and lower CPC. Additionally, when customers see items with product ratings or reviews, they receive positive reinforcement for their purchase decision.
Offer a special deal. If you’re selling an item in a competitive market, you might need to do something to sweeten the deal and entice them to choose your product over your competitor’s. For example, make a special offer promotion, a sale, or a free shipping offer to promote traffic to your site.
Provide plenty of information. There’s no such thing as too much information. The more detail you provide when describing your products, the more precisely Google can match your Ads with queries. Make sure you include crucial information like the brand, colour, size, style, model, gender, measurements, and any other relevant attributes. This will give your product the best chance of being seen by holiday shoppers.
Choose your category wisely. The Google product category tells Google what your product is, and if you leave it blank, Google will automatically assign it the most appropriate category. If you’re selling embroidery kits as stocking stuffers, don’t just use the tag ‘Arts & Entertainment > Hobbies & Creative Arts’. Instead, make the category as detailed as possible and write ‘Arts & Entertainment > Hobbies & Creative Arts > Arts & Crafts > Craft Organisation > Needlecraft Patterns’.
Update your product availability. When a customer sees online that you have something in stock, naturally, they expect to be able to buy that item. If they can’t buy the product online or, heaven forbid, they go into your brick and mortar store to find it unavailable; you’ll lose a customer. 1 in 3 Australian consumers will pick their second-choice brand over their first-choice brand just because it is present when they are ready to buy, so don’t think that your customers will hold out for you to restock!
Is your website a highway at peak hour? Because boy, you’ll be getting a lot of traffic with the help of our digital marketing experts. We’re passionate about helping businesses all over Australia harness the power of SEO and SEM to take their sales to the next level. If you’re ready to give traffic to your website the green light and learn how to optimise your Google Shopping feed, contact the team at Get More Traffic today!
5 Ways to Set Yourself Up for Google Shopping Success
Over the past year, consumer behaviour has transformed. In 2020, online shopping in Aussie households grew by 57%. In fact, out of 2.3 million low-frequency online shoppers, 52% were spending more time shopping online in 2020. These shoppers were said to have purchased items online at least 10 times between March and December of that year.
The big question is, are you making the most out of your digital marketing to reach these customers, or do you think you could do more? For businesses running Google Shopping ads, what are some ways that you can ensure that you’re making the most out of this opportunity?
We’ve listed below 5 easy steps to help you make sure that you’re doing the right things in optimising your Google Shopping ads. Let’s take a look.
What is the Google Shopping feed? At its core, this is basically the spreadsheet that contains a list of all your product SKUs (stock-keeping units). It’s from this spreadsheet that Google sources the data and information it needs to determine whether your products are relevant to a user’s search query.
Just because it’s your product database, however, doesn’t mean that you should simply upload the spreadsheet directly onto the Google Merchant Centre. Doing this can cause problems such as duplicate listings, products not being listed at all, or even the suspension of your account.
To make sure that your database doesn’t run into any compatibility issues, go over it again and make sure that it contains information such as:
For a quick and easy reference, you can always check out Google’s Product Data Specification page to make sure that you have all the necessary information to ensure that your spreadsheet is optimised and ready.
One thing that you have to note is that Google Shopping campaigns are a little bit different compared to Google search campaigns. With search campaigns, you’re bidding on keywords. Whereas with Google Shopping ads, you’re bidding on Product Groups.
But even though the bidding process is different, keywords still play an important role in making sure that your ads convert into clicks.
When writing out your product titles and descriptions, then, keep the customer in mind. Think about what keywords they would type trying to search for your products. It’s best to be specific, especially in the title, as you want to be able to grab your audience’s attention right away and have them say, “This is what I’m looking for.”
What are Google Seller Ratings? Your Google Seller Ratings are actually your Google customer reviews. These reviews are the best way for you to fortify trust and authority with the audience you’re targeting, especially if they’re a cold audience. The higher your seller rating, the better your clicks and click-through rate will be.
To make your account eligible to display your Google Seller Rating, however, you first have to build up your customer reviews. Google requires that you be able to collect around 100 or more reviews within the last 12 months for them to be able to calculate and showcase your seller rating score.
That means it’s important to be consistent in asking customers for reviews. Create a system within your business wherein you always ask a customer if they could leave a review and you should be well on your way to collecting 100.
When it comes to Google Shopping success, bidding is definitely something that you have to keep an eye out for. If you’re also currently running Google Ads, it’s important to note that there’s a difference in the bidding process for Google Shopping. For Google shopping, you’re bidding for visibility and not just placement.
Unlike search ads, your bidding strategy with Google Shopping ads will determine whether your ad will show up or not. Here, testing is important. Keep testing to see which bids are working for you. Don’t overbid, as doing so can have your ads appear for more generalised queries, hurting your results in the long run. Bidding high, in this case, isn’t always the best solution.
Last, but not least, make sure that your campaign structure is optimised and segmented properly. This can make or break your campaign.
Shopping behaviours are different, whether the user is shopping on their mobile devices, or on their laptops and desktops. In 2020, 91% of online shoppers use their mobile phones to make purchases, while 76% did so through a laptop computer, and 61% on their tablets.
Segmenting your campaigns based on the device is one way to structure your campaign, as shoppers on a mobile phone will behave differently than one doing so on a computer. And although a computer is the preferred purchasing device during the holidays, the mobile phone is the winner overall.
Another way you would want to structure your campaign is to segregate your products into different ad groups. Group them according to price. Give your high-priced items more exposure, as they can give you the highest margins, and lower your bidding for your low-priority products. Aim to achieve a sense of balance with your bidding so that you can get the most out of your ad spend.
Of course, all of this can be time-consuming, especially during the holiday season. But that’s why paid ads agencies like Get More Traffic exist. If you’re looking to start or optimise a Google Shopping campaign, feel free to get on a call with one of our agents so that we can discuss how we can best serve you and set you up for success.
Google Shopping: Features & Benefits
Chances are, if you’re a small to medium (SME) sized business owner, you will be aware of, and probably have, Google Ads up and running. You might even have an SEO campaign. Couple these with a reliable, easy-to-navigate website and I actually want to shake your hand – well done! However, I’m here to tell you that there is still more you could be doing to optimise your ROI. It’s called Google Shopping.