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Today, Google announced it is extending its popular product listing ads (PLAs) to retail and e-commerce sites across the Google Search Network. The ads are served via a new Google product called AdSense for Shopping, which offers retail and e-commerce sites another way to monetize site traffic while expanding the reach of advertisers’ PLAs. It […]
There are many benefits of the new Shopping Campaigns structure that Google ushered in on September 1st, however, the setup process can be cumbersome and iterative, particularly if you have the same type of campaign structure across multiple campaigns. To help advertisers set up their Shopping Campaigns faster, Optmyzr has launched a tool called the […]
Google has been running several experiments on the way it displays product listing ads (PLAs) in the search results. We’ve seen ads grouped in pricing buckets, PLAs showing in knowledge panels, and now, PLAs segmented by brand. While researching Chromebooks, Samuel Edwards at Tenthwave Digital saw the result below which groups product listing ads by […]
The ability to advertise locally-available products on Google via local product listing ads on mobile and desktop devices has been available since last fall. However, only on mobile devices could retailers promote items that were just available in-store. Now, Google has unofficially announced that this functionality is being extended to desktop to allow advertisers to […]
Tick tock, we’re in the final countdown before the big transition from traditional product listing ad (PLA) campaigns to Shopping Campaigns in Google AdWords at the end of the month. Considering PLAs now can account for 40 percent or more of a merchant’s paid search traffic, getting the switch done right and the new campaigns […]
With Product Listing Ad campaigns coming to an end this month, Adwords has launched a new tool to help users upgrade their PLA campaigns to Shopping campaigns in what it claims is just a, “…matter of clicks.” According to the announcement: [blockquote cite=”Google AdWords”]This tool creates a Shopping campaign from your regular PLA campaign, with […]
Google launched new features today to help merchants customize the shipping rates that display in Google Shopping. The shipping configuration tool is now available in Google Merchant Center, and a new shipping label attribute can be used in product feeds to group products with similar shipping requirements. The updates are meant to help eliminate situations […]
Spotted in a test back in May, product ratings and reviews are officially rolling out on Google Product Listing Ads as of today — just weeks ahead of the full transition to Shopping Campaigns. Available in the U.S. only for now, consumers will begin to see the 5-star rating system appear on PLAs on Google […]
Marin Software has added support for Google Shopping Campaigns, which will become the only way to manage Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in AdWords beginning in late August. The dynamic campaigns tool in the Marin platform automates Shopping Campaign creation and optimization. Advertisers can automate bid strategies, based a number of targets such as product-specific revenue […]
Over the last couple of years, the prioritization of e-commerce PPC campaign builds has shifted dramatically.With the rise of Google Shopping and with dynamic solutions now available to advertisers, standard Search Network text-ad campaign builds fall down the priority list. In today’s world of e-commerce PPC, I prioritize my campaigns as follows: Google Shopping (Product […]
This could get interesting. Last month, we saw Google running a test that ranked product listing ads (PLAs) by ratings and reviews in search results. Now, a new test groups and ranks products by price. In the screenshot below, provided by CPC Strategy, PLAs are grouped in two pricing stacks — one for “Up to […]
Roughly a month ahead of the rollover to Shopping Campaigns, Google has released a new version of AdWords Editor that supports the new campaign type. Google announced the old style of PLA campaigns will be shut down at some point in late August. Note that support is limited to editing Shopping Campaigns that are already […]
It’s been a big year so far for product listing ads on both Google and Bing. Google started putting more ads in the Knowledge Graph. Bing followed Google’s lead on combining tablet and desktop traffic. And Google said it would begin stripping paid search queries from referrer strings. Now that we’re halfway through the year, […]
For those who are not necessarily familiar with Google Shopping campaigns — let’s clarify things straight away. Product listing ads (PLAs) are remaining the same as an ad format for end users, whether search marketers are using “old PLAs” or new Shopping campaigns. The novelty lies only on the campaign management side of things, including […]
By claiming that paid search is largely ineffective, eBay has attracted a lot of attention and buzz with media outlets repeating the findings. Anyone who isn’t familiar with eBay’s history of throw-it-at-the-wall-and-watch-what-happens paid search advertising strategy may be able to take the company’s final release of a report that first made the rounds last year […]
With Shopping Campaigns becoming the default campaign type for running Product Listing Ads on Google by the end of August, the search giant has issued a best practices whitepaper to help marketers make the transition. The main points the paper dives into are product feed optimization and updates, Shopping campaign structure, bidding and mobile recommendations. […]
If you’re running Google Product Listing Ads, it’s time to revisit your feed. Google has updated the feed requirements for Google Shopping with several new attributes as well as some changes to existing content requirements. A new ‘mobile link’ attribute has been added to ensure users are taken to mobile landing pages from their smartphones. […]
Google’s new Shopping Campaigns offer many benefits over traditional PLA campaigns, including granular performance benchmarks, but bid optimization can still be cumbersome. Optmyzr, the company that provides automation tools for Google AdWords management, has launched a new tool to help streamline and speed-up bid management on Google Shopping Campaigns. Shopping Bidder is designed particularly for […]
Last month, I covered the basics of how Shopping campaigns in AdWords differ from Search campaigns. The key finding I had was that, with Search, you have to add keywords to target more queries. In Shopping, all queries that match your products are targeted by default, and one of the main reasons to divide products […]
Today, Google introduced a new version of the API that allows retailers to manage product feed content programmatically, as opposed to through manual updates to Google Merchant Center. It’s the first version update of the API since Google first launched it in 2010, before Google Shopping became a paid platform. Version 2 of the Content […]
The August deadline for converting your Google product listing campaigns (PLA) to the new Shopping Campaigns structure — before Google does it for you — is just a few months away. A new study from CPC Strategy suggests it’s worth making the switch sooner rather than later. CPC Strategy expected to see management efficiencies, but […]
FOMO, or “fear of missing out,” is something that is playing an increasingly significant role in today’s digitally connected world. Wikipedia defines it as follows: Fear of missing out or FOMO is a form of social anxiety — a compulsive concern that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, profitable investment […]
Now that Shopping Ads and Product Listing Ads (PLAs) are getting more prominent positions on the SERPs (and taking away traffic from search ads); I’ve started to focus on them more with my clients. I found that working with Google Shopping campaigns is a good deal different from working with traditional keywords and text ads; […]
The team at CPC Strategy spotted a new test in the Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) last night. In a search for coffee grinders that was qualified with “best”, the PLAs were shown in order of a numerical rankings system that appears to be factoring in the quality and quantity of each item’s ratings. In […]
Google’s ongoing efforts to bolster its product search portal, Google Shopping, and take on Amazon and Ebay just got another boost. The company has acquired Rangespan, a London based start-up that developed back-end supply chain management software for online retailers. Founded by Amazon veterans, Rangespan’s predictive software helps surface products that are likely to be […]
RKG is out with its first quarter Digital Marketing Report today, showing US paid search spend increased 17 percent year-over-year. This echoes positive Q1 global growth trends reported by Covario (25 percent) and IgnitionOne (8 percent). Mobile devices and product listing ads (PLAs) both drove growth. Paid search spend growth slowed slightly after the holiday-fueled […]
Google introduced Shopping campaigns to all advertisers running Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in February as a way to simplify PLA set up and management. Today, Google announced some new features that have been rolling out in response to advertiser feedback, and they laid out the succession plan for Shopping campaigns to take over legacy PLA […]
Google continues to experiment with Google Shopping displays beyond the traditional thumbnail box panel of Product Listing Ads. This latest version is larger than the sponsored result spotted earlier this month for the book “Don’t Make Me Think”. Found by Twitter user Britney Muller of Pryde Marketing, the sponsored result for “Nest thermostats” — now […]
Got some slop in your Google product feed? Now’s the time to revisit all those pesky identifiers and tidy things up. Google is upping its enforcement of product feeds in Google Merchant Center again. Google began this process last year by disapproving products without unique product identifiers such as GTIN (which also must be conform […]
Google has launched the API for the new Google Shopping Campaign type for managing product listing ads (PLAs). The API is available to agencies and third-party platforms to facilitate large-scale implementations. Google Shopping Campaigns came out of beta last month and are available globally. The new campaign type is meant to make the process of […]
Is there a long tail in PLAs? Does it pay off for retailers to advertise all of their products in their Google product listing ad (PLA) campaigns? Or should they stay focused on top sellers and high margin items? Sitting on a trove of data from large scale Google Shopping campaigns, a team at PLA […]
Yesterday morning, Google announced the Google Shopping campaign program is now available to all online merchants. Google Shopping campaigns, which have been in beta since October, are a new version of PLAs which change how ads are created. They make creating PLAs more transparent within AdWords and give advertisers more control, allowing them to view more product information with […]
Google began testing Shopping campaigns with a limited set of advertisers last year with the aim of streamlining the often cumbersome task of Product Listing Ad management. Today, after just over a 3-month beta period, Google is rolling out Shopping campaigns to all users globally. Google Shopping campaigns give users access to inventory and product […]
A New York-based “patent troll” called Vringo, through its subsidiary I/P engine, successfully sued Google, Microsoft, AOL and others using two patents related to search advertising. The plaintiff won approximately $30 million at trial in 2012. Google was asked to pay $15.8 million of that amount. Yet plaintiffs were also seeking ongoing royalties, which the court has now awarded. […]
By now it’s clear that retailers made record investments in Google product listing ads (PLAs) in Q4 2013, as reports from Covario, RKG and IgnitionOne have each shown. Today, Marin Software released its own findings which reinforce the general consensus that PLA performance this past holiday season will set the trend for 2014. Marin also […]
Yesterday, we got an early preview of the first case study Google will publish on the use of estimated cross-device conversions in AdWords. It features 1-800-Flowers and also addresses the company’s use of click-to-call. When Google first announced the release of estimated cross-device conversions in October, it seemed to be received with a collective shrug. […]
RKG has released its Q4 2013 Digital Marketing Report, and as other reports have indicated, paid search saw solid year-over-year growth in the holiday quarter. Paid search spend among RKG’s retail-heavy client set rose 23 percent year-over-year. Overall click volume increased 19 percent, and CPCs ticked up just 3 percent. Google Brand CPCs Fall […]
As someone responsible for compiling, analyzing and putting narratives to raw marketing data, I spend a good portion of my time reviewing similar material from other sources in our industry. This is helpful for generating new ideas for analyses and serves as a basic sanity check of the results we are finding at RKG. On […]
IgnitionOne released its fourth quarter Digital Marketing Report today, showing that the paid search market in the US continues to grow. Search ad spend rose 12 percent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2013. In part as a result of the later kick-off to the holiday shopping season this year, December ad spending was up […]
Last year, Google began adding 360 degree product views to Google Shopping ahead of the holiday season. This year, the search giant continued to tout the 360 views and have expanded from toys to other consumer products that consumers typically like to examine closely such as cameras. Users can move the images around to see […]