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- Is It Time to Add ‘Google Shopping Campaigns’ to Your Cart?

Is It Time to Add ‘Google Shopping Campaigns’ to Your Cart?

If you’ve read our previous blogs on Google Advertising, you’ll know that we recognise the potential that every kind of Ad presents for businesses. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, generate traffic to your website or boost sales, there is a Campaign type suited to your needs. Since Google Ads launched in 2000, they have expanded the type of Ads available for marketers and business owners alike. The most familiar campaigns on your radar are likely to be paid Search, Display and Video.

Search: Text-based Ads that show up when a user is searching for a specific phrase on Google.

Display: Image and text Ads that display on web pages relating to what you are advertising.

Video: In-stream advertising, such as the Ads you see before YouTube videos (skippable and non-skippable).

However, there’s a new kid on the block when it comes to Google Ads and it’s proving to be very popular. Read on as we dive into Google Shopping Campaigns, and find out whether they could be the right choice for your brand.

WHAT IS A GOOGLE SHOPPING CAMPAIGN?

Do you know when you ‘Google’ a type of product and you see a row of products that link directly to their stores at the top of your search? Yep, you guessed it! Those are Google Shopping Ads.

While other Campaign types are reliant on keywords, Shopping Ads are build using product data that is added to the Merchant Centre within Google. These details include title, price, type of product, material etc that businesses submit with an image of their product. These details are then matched to a user’s search so that relevant products are conveniently displayed.

Additionally, you can create Showcase Shopping Ads by grouping related products together. Local Inventory Ads can also use this feed data to reach users on the Google Display Network.

 

WHERE WILL THESE ADS APPEAR?

As well as the top of the search page, you might find your Shopping Ad and free listings have also secured a spot in:

  • The Shopping tab on Google Search (in select countries)
  • Google Search, next to search results (separate from text ads) and Google Images
  • Google Search Partner websites (if your campaign is set to include search partners), not applicable for free listings.
  • The Google Display Network, which includes YouTube, Gmail and Google Discover, not applicable for free listings.

Shopping ads and free listings can be shown simultaneously with Text Ads. This is because Google aims to give shoppers access to a variety of products that match their search.

 

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Similar to the other Ad formats, Ad auctions form the bases of when/where your Shopping Ad shows up. There are two ways you can be charged for Shopping Ads:

Cost per click (CPC): You are charged when someone clicks on an Ad that leads to the landing page of your website or to the Google-hosted landing page for your local inventory.

Maximum CPE (cost per engagement) Bidding: You set the highest amount that you’re willing to pay for an engagement. Then, you are billed when someone clicks a product in your Showcase ad.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A GOOGLE SHOPPING CAMPAIGN?

As Shopping Campaigns are a newer format, there is not a lot of historic data of how they compare to other Campaign types. According to Storegrowers, the average conversion rate of Google Shopping (1.91%) is lower than the Google Ads average for the ecommerce industry (2.81%).

However, this potentially could be attributed to the biggest benefit of Shopping Ads – it’s ability to create highly qualified leads. By the time a user has clicked on the Ad, they have a strong sense of what the product is and where it comes from. Therefore, it is more likely that the people who click on the product will end up purchasing and/or converting.

To recap, Shopping Ads offer easy, retail-centric campaign management as well as a broader presence. This is because Shopping and Text Ads can be shown together. These Campaigns also offer powerful reporting and competitive data to make sure that the Ads remain optimised and relevant to what users are searching for.

Think you’ve got a product that would work perfectly with a Google Shopping Campaign? Get in touch today to find out more.