Google Ads: Google Shopping Campaigns – what’s working now? (episode 092)
by April Buencamino-dyBecky runs my favourite Google Ads agency – Digital Gearbox. As well as doing great work for a number of eCommerce brands they also run our ads across Google, Facebook, and Reddit.
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Making Your Google Shopping Campaigns Work
People get confused when setting up Google Shopping and getting it up and running.
But Becky says there are strategies you can put in place to make your Shopping campaigns work for your business.
Segmentation
Having a single campaign with all products in one ad group will not work because you won’t know what products are performing well and which ones aren’t.
When you segment your campaigns, you’ll have a clear picture of what’s performing better than the others, and this will give you a chance to optimise it.
Becky’s ninja recommendation is to segment by margin brackets or KPI targets to find out what’s profitable for you.
Feed Set Up
Your feed set up is important because this can influence how you do your segmentation.
Make sure your titles are optimised for Google to find them, and also ensure that your brand is in your title.
Also, have your GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) ready because if you don’t have this, Google is less likely to show your products. Lastly, make sure that your pricing plus product availability are accurate.
For more information on GTINs, listen to Episode 057
Optimise Your Campaigns
When people get their campaigns up and running, they tend to forget about them and forget to optimise.
For optimisation, first look at your search terms and make sure they’re relevant to your feed. Second, add negative keywords to block anything that’s not a good descriptive of your product.
Biddings
When you already have an idea of how your campaign is working and as long as you have your conversion tracking, try out automated bidding and see how it can work for your campaign.
There are three ways to go about this:
- Enhanced cost per click
- Target return on ad spend
- Maximize clicks
Changes To Google Shopping Campaigns
For Becky, the biggest change is the launch of the performance max campaign, to which Google is upgrading all smart shopping campaigns.
Performance Max is intended to widen the reach of your smart shopping campaign, which can put your ads in front of more potential customers.
Insider Tips
If we’ve inspired someone to take their first step with Google Ads – what do they need to know to give themselves the best chance of success?
Identify what you’re looking to achieve or what your goals are.
Additionally for shopping, you need to understand that the marketplace looks like on the platform. Make your product image and description clear, to make consumers choose you over your competitors.
Once you’ve started of course you’ve got to ‘keep optimising’! So what’s your favourite way to improve Google Ads performance?
Aside from looking at your search terms, Becky says you have to do data-driven analysis.
Let the data tell you what’s working and optimise accordingly, and turn things off if needed. This will allow you to spend your budget on things that are performing.
If someone listening wants to learn more about Google Ads is there one cheap/free resource you’d recommend?
Becky mentions Google’s own help resources which provides a detailed guide on how to optimize your feed.
She also recommends her podcast, the PPC Burrito, which gives general Google tips.
Crystal ball time – what’s coming up in the next 6-12 months that we should be getting ready for in Google Ads?
Google is still working on new features to deal with the cookie-pocalypse, and so much is happening and everyone needs to keep learning the new things that are coming up.
Becky says this can be a frustrating journey for marketers who love data, but it’s something everyone will get through.
Interview Links
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