by Google Shopping is an advertising feature offered by Google AdWords which is specially designed for e-commerce owners
Since, it helps them to promote their products online and thereby generate more conversions.
Moreover, it helps a lot of e-commerce owners to reach the right customers at the right time with the most relevant products.
[bctt tweet=”Google Shopping is the best possible advertising platform for e-commerce retailers.” username=”adstriangle”]
However, with Google Shopping, you can put your product image, price and business right in front of the people who are searching on Google, irrespective of the device that they are using.
Google Shopping is thus a suitable platform for those e-commerce owners who sell a lot of products and have loads of product data as well.
How does Google Shopping work?
Google Shopping works on the basis of 2 platforms: Google AdWords and Google Merchant Center.
While Google Merchant Center is the place where you are going to keep your data feed. Consequently, Google AdWords is a place where you will set your budget, manage bids and optimize your campaigns according to the performance.
The Shopping Campaigns uses your Product Feed from the Google Merchant Center and then decides how and when to show your ads.
The Product Feed in the Merchant Center contains all the details of the products you sell and then Google uses these details to match a user’s search query to your ads.
[bctt tweet=”Google makes sure that the most relevant product ad is shown with respect to the search query.” username=”adstriangle”]
To get started with Google Shopping, you need to upload the product data into Google Merchant Center and then connect it to Google AdWords.
However, there is just one drawback with Google. To find the most relevant keywords and match them to their ads, the advertisers are highly dependent on Google. This is because there is no keyword targeting in Google Shopping. Hence, the advertisers don’t bid on keywords in Google Shopping.
Instead, they bid on products and Google takes care of the keywords for them. So, in this case, the building blocks are the product groups.
The other thing of importance in Google Shopping is the negative keywords. For example, you sell Formal Dresses and would not like to show your shopping ads for “Cheap Formal Dresses”. Moreover, you can go ahead and use “Cheap” as a negative keyword to block this kind of irrelevant search queries.
Where can you see your Google Shopping Ads?
You can see your ads in Google Shopping, Google Search which is next to the search results and separate from the text ads and also in Google Search Partner Websites like YouTube.
The Google Shopping Ads can also appear at the same time as the text ads. So, if your text, as well as shopping ads, are super relevant to the search query of the user, then both of them will get displayed.
In a nutshell, you need to upload your product feed data in Google Merchant Center and then link Google Merchant Center to Google AdWords. Structure your product groups, set bids and use negative keywords.
Google Shopping Query Based Bidding
In Google Shopping, the advertisers usually bid on products and not on search queries. However, it is always recommended to understand the shopping queries to get much better insights of what the users are typing into Google to look for your products. And then focusing your bidding strategies on search queries might be a good strategy to get most out of your Google Shopping campaigns.
In one of his blog posts, Martin Roettgerding talked about “Taking Google Shopping to the Next Level” in the form of a video. Furthermore, this inspired me to write a blog post on Query Based Bidding Strategies of Google Shopping.
Shorter Queries v/s Longer Queries
In due course of time, it has been observed that the longer the Search Query, the more valuable it is. It has a higher probability of getting more conversions.
However, the scenario for the Cost per Click is totally different.
[bctt tweet=”The shorter queries, are more general and have high Cost per Click due to high competition.” username=”adstriangle”]
While the longer queries are more specific and have low competition, so they have comparatively low Cost per Click.
Let us take an example of a product which is Printer. Now, this product is way too common. To make it specific, let us attach a brand name to it, say HP Printer.
To further make it more granular, we’ll attach a product specification with it. Now it becomes HP Printer M1005.
As a result, We can describe the products in three ways:
- Printer: Highly General
- HP Printer: Brand Specific
- HP Printer M1005: Product Specific
“Printer” is a short as well as a general query. If anyone types “Printer” and sees “HP Printer M1005″, doesn’t mean that he/she is ready to buy HP Printer M1005.
The probability of buying HP Printer M1005 becomes relatively less.
At the same time, there are a lot of printers in the market and a lot of retailers are bidding on the keyword “Printer”. This means that there is a lot of competition for “Printer”. This high competition increases the Cost per Click, making it relatively high.
On the contrary, we have a long query “HP Printer M1005”. This is so specific that is suits only one model of a product.
So, whoever type this long query is most probably looking for this particular model of the HP Printer. Hence, the probability that the user is going to buy this particular product is much higher.
Furthermore, not everyone has this product, so there is less competition and the Cost per Click is comparatively less.
However, owing to a lot of exceptions to this rule, it is not always important that longer queries will always overtake the shorter ones.
There are still many queries which are short but still valuable and others are long but worthless.
Therefore, to overcome this dilemma, it is recommended to use Brand Preference in the Search Query.
Brand Preference in Google Shopping Search Query
Brand Searches tend to perform differently from the general searches. They are purely navigational in nature and are focussed towards a single brand.
Apart from producing incremental revenue, brand searches are also helpful in assessing its performance of the Shopping Campaigns.
[bctt tweet=”Usually, queries that contain a brand name are more valuable.” username=”adstriangle”]
Taking the above example, if a user searches for HP Printer rather than Printer, he has shown his preference towards a specific brand i.e. HP.
Hence, you should divide your search queries into campaigns that contain brand preference and queries that do not contain a brand preference.
Product Reference in Google Shopping Search Query
Product reference means when the user includes a proper product specification while searching on Google.
Here, the users know the exact product that they are looking for. So queries that have a product reference or specification tend to perform better.
However, the queries that have a particular product specification are the ones that have a better performance ratio. Because in this type of query, the user already knows which model of the product he wants to purchase.
Moreover, this query is highly specific and therefore have more conversions and low Cost per Click.
Therefore, again taking the example of a printer, the user is not only interested in a certain brand but also a particular product of that brand.
Like here, the user searches for HP Printer M1005, which is one of the various models of printers that HP manufactures.
So, by now we have we have three type of campaigns on the basis of Queries:
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General Campaigns (including the Non-Brand Preferred Campaigns and Non-Product Specific Campaigns)
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Brand Preferred Campaigns
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Product Specific Campaigns
The Goal of Query based Bidding in Google Shopping
(i) If the query includes a general term (General Campaigns), then bid it low.
(ii) If the query includes a brand name (Brand Preferred Campaigns), then bid it higher.
(iii) If the query includes a product specification (Product Specific Campaigns, then bid it the highest.
The Strategy of Query based Bidding in Google Shopping
These campaigns have certain key components which are:
(i) Priority Setting: It tells which of the campaign should be used first for a query.
(ii) Negative Keywords: Filters the queries in the correct campaign.
(iii) Product Bids: It sets the place in the auction for a query.
(iv) Shared Budget: Shared Budget ensures that the working of a campaign is not hampered when that particular campaign runs out of the budget.
Here, is a clarified interpretation of how the three above-mentioned campaigns will look like.
(A) General Campaigns (Non-Brand & Non-Product)
(i) Priority Setting: They acquire low converting and general search queries.
(ii) Negative Keywords: All brand and product specific keywords.
(iii) Product Bids: Low Bids
(iv) Shared Budget: One shared budget between each campaign.
(B) Brand Preferred Campaigns
(i) Priority Setting: They acquire more specific search queries which include the brand name.
(ii) Negative Keywords: All product specific keywords.
(iii) Product Bids: Higher Bids
(iv) Shared Budget: One shared budget between each campaign.
(C) Product Specific Campaigns
(i) Priority Setting: They acquire super specific queries that include the product specification.
(ii) Negative Keywords: Only those product specific keywords that have high cost and low conversion.
(iii) Product Bids: Highest Bids
(iv) Shared Budget: One shared budget between each campaign.
Usually, there is a shared budget for all the campaigns because if one campaign runs out of the budget, then the traffic for that campaign will move to the other campaigns. So, it breaks down the working of the campaigns.
Hence, to prevent this breakdown, it is recommended to use a shared budget.
The Outcome of Query-Based Bidding Strategy in Google Shopping
Furthermore, every strategy needs sufficient time and effort to prove its worth. Moreover, only after allocating sufficient time you can move on to the conclusion regarding its optimal working.
For a lot of reasons, this strategy can have better results for some accounts than the other.
Some of the outcomes of this strategy are:
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An increase in Conversion Rate:
Since in this strategy, you will decrease your budget from more general campaigns to more specific campaigns. As the general campaigns lead to clicks that were less conversion likely and specific campaigns are more conversion oriented. So, there would be an increase in conversion oriented traffic which would initiate more conversions.
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An increase in Traffic Volume and Cost:
Due to using this strategy, you are making some of your campaigns highly specific by including the brand and the product specification and leaving some of your campaigns very general. Moreover, this will enable you to enter into higher CPC auctions, thereby, increasing the cost.
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Successful Long-Term Strategy:
“Rome was not built in a day.” Therefore, the same theorem is applied here as well. Hence, the more time the strategy gets to run, the more it gets access to the data required to make the brand and product specific campaigns. However, to make these new campaigns, it really does take the time to gather data and make optimization decisions. Hence, this the reason why this strategy is a long-term strategy. Hence, the Query based strategy does take the time to take off. But once settled properly, it guarantees long-term and profitable results.
How to set up Query Based Bidding in your Google Shopping Account
There are 3 types of campaigns you need to set up for this strategy:
- General Campaign(Non-Brand and No-Product Campaign)
- Brand Campaigns
- Product Specific Campaigns
1. General Campaign(Non-Brand and No-Product Campaign)
You can set up this strategy in your existing shopping campaigns as well as in your new shopping campaign.
(i) Existing Shopping Campaign
To set up this strategy in your existing strategy, you need to follow these steps.
(i) Open your existing shopping campaign.
(ii) Go through your Search Query Report.
(iii) Filter the most common brand term.
(iv) Compare the data that contains brand and that does not contain brand.
(v)Furthermore, If this campaign is generating more conversions, you need not take the risk of losing that data. Moreover, you can convert that campaign directly into a Non-brand or General Campaign.
To make your existing campaign convert into a Non-Brand or General Campaign, you need to:
(i) Go to the Settings tab.
(ii) Change the name of the campaign.
(iii) Change campaign priority to High.
To set up Shared Budget for this campaign, you need to:
(i) Click on the Shared Library tab on the bottom left of the AdWords UI.
(ii) Name your budget, select the correct campaign, set your budget and save it.
To set up Negative Keywords for this campaign, you need to:
(i) Go to the Keywords tab in your campaign.
(ii) Add all the possible Brand and Product Specific keywords as negatives.
To adjust Bids for this campaign, you need to:
(i) Select the Ad Group and go to the Product Group tab.
(ii) Select all the products and bid them low accordingly
So, now the No-Brand campaign is set up according to this strategy.
(ii) New Shopping Campaign
To set up this strategy in your new Shopping campaign, you need to follow these steps.
(i) Log in to your AdWords Account.
(ii) Click on Create a New Campaign.
(iii) Then select Search.
(iv) Choose Shopping from the drop down menu.
To make your New shopping campaign convert into a Non-Brand or General Campaign, you need to:
(i) Name your new shopping campaign.
(ii) Set the campaign priority to High.
(iii) Set the Merchant Identifier to the correct Merchant Center Account.
(iv) Create a custom filter to find the specific brand products in this campaign.
(v) Set all other campaign settings the way it is done.
(vi) Save your New Non-Brand Campaign.
To set up Shared Budget for this campaign, you need to:
(i) Click on the Shared Library tab on the bottom left of the AdWords UI.
(ii) Name your budget, select the correct campaign, set your budget and save it.
To set up Negative Keywords for this campaign, you need to:
(i) Go to the Keywords tab in your campaign.
(ii) Add all the possible Brand and Product Specific keywords as negatives.
So, now the New Non-Brand campaign is set up according to this strategy.
2. Brand Campaigns
To create Brand Campaigns, you need to follow these steps.
(i) Just copy and paste the Non-Brand campaign in the AdWords UI.
(ii) Open the campaign setting tab.
(iii) Change the name of the campaign.
(iv) Change the campaign priority to Medium.
To set up Shared Budget for this campaign, you need to:
(i) Click on the Shared Library tab on the bottom left of the AdWords UI.
(ii) Name your budget, select the correct campaign, set your budget and save it.
To set up Negative Keywords for this campaign, you need to:
(i) Delete the brand keywords that were in this campaign when you copied it from the Non-Brand Campaign.
(ii) Go to the Keywords tab in your campaign.
(iii) Add all the possible Product Specific keywords as negatives.
To add Product Specific keywords into these campaigns as negatives:
(i) Go to the Products tab in your campaign.
(ii) Highlight all the products that are listed there.
(iii) Paste all the data into Excel.
(iv) Copy the Item ID column from the Excel sheet and add it directly as campaign level negatives.
To adjust Bids for this campaign, you need to:
Your Non-Brand campaigns had low bids to prevent you from wasting your time on general queries.
Hence, for Brand Campaigns, you should increase your bids slightly.
As a result, your Brand Campaign in this strategy is ready by now.
3. Product Specific Campaigns
The process to create Product Specific Campaigns is similar to that of creating the Brand Campaigns.
To create Brand Campaigns, you need to follow these steps.
(i) Just copy and paste the Non-Brand campaign in the AdWords UI.
(ii) Open the Campaigns Setting Tab.
(iii) Change the name of the campaign.
(iv) Change the campaign priority to Low.
To set up Shared Budget for this campaign, you need to:
(i) Click on the Shared Library tab on the bottom left of the AdWords UI.
(ii) Name your budget, select the correct campaign, set your budget and save it.
Remove Negative Keywords
As this campaign is all about Product Specific search queries, therefore in this campaign there will be no addition of negative keywords.
Rather, in this campaign, you will have to remove all the Brand and Product Specific keywords.
In addition, include only those product specific keywords which have high cost and very low conversion rate.
To adjust Bids for this campaign, you need to:
While this is the campaign that will show up for highly targeted product specific queries.
Furthermore, the people who have product specification in their search queries are way down the conversion funnel and know exactly what they want. Moreover, the conversion rate for these queries is relatively high.
Hence, for Product Specific Campaigns, you should increase your bids significantly.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, Google Shopping is, therefore, an emerging platform for e-commerce merchants to build brand awareness and to promote their products online, so as to maximize their conversions.
Therefore, it is an important component of the overall shopping experience. It also provides the e-commerce retailers an opportunity to showcase their products in front of their customers.
Since there is no keyword targeting in Google Shopping, the advertisers are highly dependent on Google to match their ads with the relevant search queries.
[bctt tweet=”E-commerce owners bid on products rather than keywords in Google Shopping.” username=”adstriangle”]
However, sometimes totally depending on Google to find the right search query for their ads can be a little disappointing because of lack of control.
Therefore, creating your campaigns according to the query and then bidding accordingly gives you more control over your campaigns.
Moreover, in this blog, we have sorted this problem for you and have given you insights of how can you have better control over your shopping campaigns by segmenting them on the basis of queries.