7 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Google Shopping Campaigns

Google Shopping campaigns are a great opportunity for retail advertisers to review their current PLA campaigns and optimize them for even better results. However, as many retailers are managing sometimes millions of products across thousands of brands and hundreds of feeds, adapting to and mastering the new Shopping campaigns system can seem like a huge undertaking.

Below we’ve provided seven tips to help you succeed during (and well after) the campaign migration process:

1. 1. Proper feed management is key: Make sure that your product data is complete with all crucial product attributes as Shopping campaigns pull data from the product feed for its product group categories. Advertisers should utilize categories and custom labels to help with feed management. A third-party platform like Marin can help you to create and manage your product feed to ensure that it is set up to meet Google’s requirements and is optimized for the best campaign performance.
2. 2. Map out a plan: Advertisers should use analytics and current PLA campaigns as a guide to what campaign structure will work best for their needs. The necessary number of product group sublevels will be specific to each campaign. The better-organized campaigns are, the more likely they’ll be successful and experience high conversion rates.
3. 3. Baby steps: Prior to August, advertisers should work on increasing their comfort level using Shopping campaigns by gradually migrating over their current PLAs. Again, a third party platform with tools like bulk upload and reporting, will help to simplify the process of creating Shopping campaigns. Additionally, a URL builder can help to automatically update URLs so that performance can be accurately tracked. Then, when it’s time to make the switch, turn off the PLA campaign and switch on the new Shopping campaign. Having Shopping campaigns ready to go before the August deadline will help advertisers be better positioned for the transition and the competition.

Going beyond basic campaign management strategy, advertisers can obtain additional control and visibility over Shopping campaigns by following more advanced tips:

1. 4. Leverage your Shopping campaign data to remarket audiences with intent through Facebook. Advertisers should create Facebook Custom Audiences based on search query data from their digital marketing platform then target the same audiences on Facebook with tailored messages based on their search queries. Using this strategy, an advertiser can reach previous website visitors on Facebook who have intentions to purchase as expressed in their search queries.
2. 5. Track revenue/ROI for campaigns based on the metrics that matter for specific business needs. Solutions that provide integrations with the leading analytics, ad serving, call tracking, and CRM systems enable retailers to create a complete view of paid search ROI.
3. 6. Effective cross-channel optimization requires cross-channel business intelligence. Marketers looking to maximize overall campaign ROI require a single source for measurement, insights, and analytics that aggregate search and social marketing campaigns in one interface. Marketers who analyze search and social campaign ROI holistically are able to make better decisions faster than they would by managing each channel in a silo.
4. 7. Automate with flexibility and control. With the help of automated tools, advertisers can be better positioned to meet their business targets. These tools will also allow advertisers to automate bid strategies based on product-specific revenue targets and build forecast models to anticipate changes in performance.

For more best practices to ensure a seamless transition to Google Shopping campaigns, check out our full-length guide here.