Doing PPC reporting right often involves some trade-offs between time and money. The perfect report takes a lot of time to build — time that could have been spent improving the performance of an account. A quick and repeatable report, on the other hand, is usually generated through a tool that costs money. So the arrival of Data Studio, which offers very customizable reporting, and now does so at a cost of $0, warrants an investigation to determine how it can help account managers. Because the tool suite of my company, Optmyzr, also includes PPC reporting, spending the time to evaluate Data Studio made sense to me. So if you’re overworked and can’t really spare a few hours to look at Data Studio yourself, get my take on it here in a quick 10-minute read. I’ll even share a handful of cool reports you can make. Why trust my opinion? Because my personal credibility in this industry hinges on being helpful to advertisers. So while I’ve got skin in the game, for this post I put on my agency hat and tried out Data Studio to see where it shines and where it might fall short for search marketers. What is Data Studio?While Data Studio is not new (it was announced in March of 2016), it wasn’t a tool for most of us because there was a five-report limit per user — hardly enough for the average consultant or agency. Anyone who needed more reports had to buy a license for Google Data Studio 360. With the recent announcement that this limit no longer applies to the free version, Data Studio is worth a new look for anyone who balked at the high price before. Free PPC reporting options from GoogleBut if you’re looking for a free reporting tool, Data Studio is hardly the only offering from Google. So I’ll also share some pros and cons of the free solutions that have been around a bit longer: Google Analytics and AdWords. Google AnalyticsGoogle Analytics (GA) is primarily a tool for analyzing what users do on a website. So if you want to look beyond cost and conversions from PPC, GA is a great solution. It can help explain why clicks convert. It’s also very good at showing acquisition data from other channels so you’re not limited to reporting only what happens in AdWords. But while it automatically knows what traffic comes from Twitter, Facebook and more, it knows nothing about campaign details or costs unless you do some serious work setting up UTM tracking tags and importing cost data. In this case, you’re paying for a free solution with your time. GA is not a purpose-built reporting or dashboarding tool, so it may not be as sophisticated as you’d like. It does have some capabilities like custom dashboards that can be emailed on a schedule. Pros
Cons
AdWords campaign management reportsThe vast majority of AdWords advertisers use nothing more than AdWords itself to analyze the results and get reports. As a result, the reporting capabilities in the campaign management interface is primarily geared to meeting the needs of the account manager, rather than the executive team. This means reports are fairly bland, comprised mostly of tables and simple charts. While the new interface will improve on this, for now, most of us are still stuck with the old version that doesn’t lend itself well to creating pretty reports for stakeholders. Because reports in this part of AdWords also happen to be in the same place where changes are made, an insight can instantaneously be turned into action. The bigger trends and insights may not be as obvious to see — but that’s where the Report Editor comes in handy, and I’ll cover that further below. Pros
Cons
AdWords Report EditorFor a truer form of reporting, AdWords has the reporting tab. Their Report Editor provides a more robust, drag-and-drop environment for exploring, manipulating and visualizing data. The reports you find here can be used to create more robust variations of the tables found in the Campaign management section, or to create interesting aggregations through pivot tables. You can also make great-looking visualizations, like charts that highlight key findings. In a way, it’s like they brought some of the most useful functionality from Excel or Google Sheets right into AdWords. AdWords Product Management lead Jon Diorio recently told me, “one of our Report Editor goals was to eliminate the time wasted constructing pivots and charts from downloaded data.” The benefit is that the tedious step of fetching fresh data from AdWords is no longer needed. When reports become much easier to repeat, account managers are more likely to gain the right insights to improve performance. While the tool is definitely a time-saver compared to doing the same analysis in a spreadsheet, it only allows one analysis at a time to be shared, so it still leaves the work associated with building a great multi-page report to be done manually every time. That said I’ve heard whispers that AdWords has begun beta testing just such a dashboarding solution. Pros
Cons
Google Data StudioData Studio is the newest free reporting tool from Google. It’s great for doing analysis on a variety of data sets, including MySql databases, Google Sheets and several Google products like BigTable, AdWords, YouTube, Analytics and DoubleClick. As with most Google products, direct integrations with the other big players are sorely missing, and for agencies, that means there’s no integration with Bing Ads, Facebook Ads or others that compete with Google for advertising dollars. Unlike GA and the AW solutions for reporting, this product is built specifically for reporting and dashboarding, so the output is better-looking, and if done right, a report created here can help communicate the right story about an account to an executive. But Data Studio was not built primarily for advertisers, and that shows in the lack of a few things a typical agency might want from a reporting tool: the ability to show ad text data, scheduling of reports and the ability to leverage one report template against a large number of clients. Pros
Cons
Five things to try in Data StudioWhile it may not be the Holy Grail of PPC reporting that we’ve been looking for, Data Studio is still an awesome tool with plenty of powerful and useful functionality that you should take advantage of. Here are some useful PPC things I was able to do. 1. Create an executive MCC dashboardThe Google MCC dashboard is the starting place for an account manager’s daily optimization routine and provides a great overview of the performance of several accounts at once. We’ve heard from agencies using our tools that executives want to get access to this type of tabular overview data. But granting an executive access to AdWords may not always make sense, either because they might be drowned in too much data or they might accidentally interfere with the work you’re doing. Data Studio provides a way to create your own version of an MCC dashboard that can easily be shared with anyone you want, even when they don’t have access to AdWords. And thanks to the recently enhanced AdWords MCC integration in Data Studio, it’s very easy to pick just the accounts from an MCC to include (as long as they use the same currency). 2. Create a custom heat map tableTables are great, but they can take some time to read and understand. If you want to combine the level of detail you get from a table with an easy-to-grasp data visualization, try a custom heat map table. You can build the table with up to 10 levels of segmentation to get a very granular view. For example, use lots of segments and color coding to help quickly identify portions of an account that might be ripe for an optimization. 3. Show third-party call-tracking dataEven though Data Studio doesn’t integrate directly with call-tracking vendors, you can still include that type of data if you maintain it on your own SQL servers or in a Google Spreadsheet. The graph above is an example I created using call-tracking data from CallRail, which I added to a Google Sheet with Zapier. This data can then be rendered in a variety of interesting ways. Here, I show both a graph with the number of calls received every day and the overall total for the last 30 days. Since every call is a row on the spreadsheet, to get the count of calls, I used one of my favorite capabilities in Data Studio: custom calculations to sum it all up. Specifically, I used the formula COUNT(Date) to get the total calls by day. 4. Use calculated fields to show how big your account isThere are some nifty functions that can help calculate new metrics from the underlying data in Data Studio. For example, use the function COUNT(Ad Group) to show how many ad groups there are. Then apply a data filter to a dimension like Ad Group Status to show just how many of those are active, paused or deleted. In this example, we’ve calculated the number of active ad groups in one account, as well as the number of keywords that currently have a Quality Score of 6, and what the highest and lowest Quality Score is for any active keyword in the account. 5. Remove complexity from reports by normalizing campaign namesAccount managers use different campaign naming conventions depending on the strategy of their account structure. For example, someone employing an alpha/beta structure may name one campaign “Widgets – Alpha” and another “Widgets – Beta.” The recipient of a report probably only gets confused when they see your naming convention, so why not standardize the names? Renaming things is possible by using a text manipulation function to create a new calculated field. For example, create a field for “Normalized Campaign Name” that removes the alpha/beta notation. The resulting report is automatically reaggregated so that the report becomes much easier to digest for an executive. The specific function I used in this case was REPLACE(REPLACE(Campaign, “alpha”, “”), “beta”, “”) ConclusionThere are several free reporting solutions from Google that can help PPC account managers with the creation of reports for their stakeholders. Unfortunately, there is no reporting solution, whether free or paid, that is going to be the perfect solution for everyone. So be ready to compromise, whether it’s on cost, time savings or features. But ultimately, a powerful tool that is free to use, like Data Studio, should have a place in our toolboxes because it can help streamline some common tasks. The post A review of free PPC reporting solutions from Google appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2lv2EzX
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via ShoeMoney http://ift.tt/2l3BnRG OK, confession time — when I was a kid, I was a complete Nancy Drew junkie. “Sleuth” sounded like just about the best way ever to spend one’s time. (Of course, that’s before I knew what a Chief Content Officer was …) This week, rather than figuring out Irene Adler’s cell phone password or who stole the missing emeralds, we’re working on “Why isn’t this content working? and “How can I get a whole lot better at what I do?” On Monday, Brian gave us three rhetorical tools that can help build trust with your audience — then asks if you should consider putting all of them aside for another option. And on the podcast, I snagged the very nice Bryce Bladon from Clients from Hell to get his ideas on how to stay out of some less-than-heavenly situations. On Tuesday, Kelly Exeter found a couple of critical elements missing from a lot of content — hooks and big ideas. Now, you and I both know that the reason we often lack a hook and a big idea is that … good hooks and ideas are really hard to come up with. Luckily, Kelly has some actual specific advice that can help. Brian also has a nice interview on Unemployable with Emily Thompson of Indie Shopography and the Being Boss project. She shares one of those great, twisty-turny stories that show you how varied the entrepreneurial path can sometimes be. And on Wednesday, Robert Bruce channeled the greatest consulting detective of all time to help us make the decision to move toward mastery. That’s this week’s mysterious (or just plain useful) content … catch you next week! Chief Content Officer, Rainmaker Digital Catch up on this week’s contentHow to Build Trust and Enhance Your Influence with Content Marketingby Brian Clark Two Vital Elements that Might Be Missing from Your Content (and Precisely Where to Add Them)by Kelly Exeter Sherlock Holmes and Mastery of the Craft of Writingby Robert Bruce 6 Business Insights that Could Radically Increase Your Online Engagement in 2017by Sean Jackson and Jessica Frick Thriving Freelancers and Clients from Hellby Sonia Simone Succeed by Serving an Audience, with Emily Thompsonby Brian Clark How Journalist and Author of ‘The Power of Meaning’ Emily Esfahani Smith Writes: Part Oneby Kelton Reid Podcasting: The Stand-Up Comedy of Content Creationby Jerod Morris & Jon Nastor The post 3 Content Marketing Mysteries Solved appeared first on Copyblogger. via Copyblogger http://ift.tt/2mggxQM The latest edition of MarTech Today’s “B2B Marketing Automation Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide” examines the market for B2B marketing automation software platforms and the considerations involved in implementing this software into your business. This 44-page report is your source for the latest trends, opportunities and challenges facing the market for B2B marketing automation software tools as seen by industry leaders, vendors and their customers. Included in the report are profiles of 13 leading B2B marketing automation vendors, pricing charts, capabilities comparisons and recommended steps for evaluating and purchasing. If you are a B2B marketer looking to adopt a marketing automation software platform, this report will help you through the decision-making process. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download your copy. The post All new! B2B Marketing Automation Platforms Marketer’s Guide updated for 2017 appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2l9BlZk Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land:
Recent Headlines From Marketing Land, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:
Search News From Around The Web:Local & Maps
Link Building
Searching SEO
The post SearchCap: AdWords ad label, Google site search & local guidelines appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2l0VC2q Over the past few weeks, users have spotted a new ad label on Google search ads. Instead of a solid green background, the new label has a green outline and white background. Sightings have increased rapidly over the past several days and Search Engine Land has received confirmation from Google that the new look is now rolling out globally.
Google has a long history of testing new labeling for ads in the search results. The solid green label lived a relatively short life, however. It rolled out globally in June of 2016. At the time, Google said the switch from a bright yellow background to green was intended to streamline the number of colors on the page, particularly for mobile. Google had also stressed that its testing indicated the color change had no bearing on consumers’ ability to distinguish ads from organic listings on the page. We’ve asked Google if the impact was looked at with this change and will update here when we hear back. The new green outlined version was first reported on January 24 in the UK and has been steadily been showing in more countries since that time. The transition will likely take several days complete, so don’t be surprised if you are still seeing the green background label. Expect an update of our visual history of Google’s ad labeling soon. The post Official: Google’s green outlined “Ad” label replacing solid green version appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2l0DXrl Search engines are advancing at the fastest rate we’ve seen in many years thanks to machine learning. These advances have allowed the search engines to focus on providing the most relevant results, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of user experience (UX). At the end of the day, what is good for the consumer is good for organic search performance — especially if we consider how machine learning is becoming ever more central to search algorithms and incorporating areas such as search sequence, as well as content quality, structure and sentiment. To keep pace, agencies and marketers must broaden their SEO approach by placing a much greater focus on UX across the full range of owned assets. The following explores the two areas central to making this a reality. 1. The SEO skill set needs to broaden into UXPart of Google’s philosophy has always been focused on delivering the best user experience. With recent technological advances, Google and other search engines are now better placed than ever to deliver this vision. This focus will only intensify over the coming months and years. Yet for many teams and agencies, UX has not consistently been a part of the SEO toolkit. Whether or not an SEO practitioner can discuss UX or make meaningful UX recommendations very much depends on personal experience, background and professional development programs. As an industry, we need to reimagine SEO and the skill sets required to succeed as we move rapidly into an era of search engine ranking technology that is becoming more opaque, dominated by machine learning, and better than ever at interpreting consumer behavior. If SEO can’t influence (or be a central part of) brands’ UX approach, then one of the central, future-facing SEO performance levers will be outside of our control. If it isn’t already, UX should be a high priority in your learning and development program. 2. UX must evolve beyond a linear approachIn working with a wide range of client and agency UX teams over the last 10 years, a challenge I have routinely faced is this: often, UX teams only want to consider a linear journey that starts at the home page. The reality is that for many brands, less than 50 percent of consumers start their journey on the home page, and taking a linear approach to UX provides a suboptimal experience for the majority of consumers. As the use of machine learning increases, user signals will factor more prominently into search engine rankings. UX issues could therefore prevent brands from reaching their potential in the organic search results — and, thinking more broadly, could stifle conversion performance. A lack of consideration for the user experience at different entry points can cause consumers to leave the site and look elsewhere. Here are two great examples:
By definition, UX is about providing the best possible experience to the consumer, and it shouldn’t be confined to a specific journey commencing at the home page. Instead, it should be data-driven, taking account of the vast range of entry points into a website. By adapting the UX process to consider multiple entry points, a site’s user experience will be far better suited to organic search success, thus paving the way for greatly increased integration between UX and SEO teams. This shift is not only essential, it benefits everyoneWith SEO teams incorporating UX skills into their arsenal and UX teams adopting a broader approach by considering multiple entry points, it allows us to reimagine the ways of working to deliver better results. Productive collaboration can take place throughout projects, and by acting as one team, expertise can be pooled together to understand challenges and provide optimal solutions across website entry points. This will ultimately lead to a far better search-to-landing-page-to-conversion experience. If we adapt and adopt the UX skill set, we will remain in control of the levers influencing organic search performance. This will be beneficial to brands and consumers alike, as we’ll be better placed to deliver the best experience throughout the purchase journey for each search a consumer makes. The post Why UX is pivotal to the future of SEO appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2l8RMoz The way Google ranks pages in its search results today is much different from the way it ranked them two years ago. Why? In early 2015, Google began its slow rollout of RankBrain, a machine-learning artificial intelligence system that helps process search results as part of Google’s ranking algorithm. As of June 2016, RankBrain is being used for all Google queries. But how does machine learning impact rankings exactly? That’s the big question. SEO used to be all about building links and using the right keywords. Links and keywords still matter, but machine learning has transformed the traditional SEO ranking model into something new. Let me explain. The new SEO ranking modelWhat is this new model? No one knows for sure, but here’s my theory: A searcher enters their query. Google returns a set of relevant organic search results that are largely based on conventional ranking factors. Machine learning then becomes a “layer” on top of this. It becomes the final arbiter of rank — quality control, if you will. It’s like Google is saying, “Great, I’ve successfully crawled and indexed this page. The page exists on a strong domain (it has a high level of expertise, authoritativeness and trust). The content is optimized, understandable, relevant and matches the searcher intent. BUT do any humans click on the result and engage with it?” This last sentence is the key. “Perfect SEO” is pretty imperfect if you’ve created content that ranks on search engines but doesn’t get any clicks. It doesn’t matter how many links you have pointing at your page or if it’s optimized with all the right keywords — if the engagement is too low, then you’re out. Of course, you won’t be out immediately. Google will continue auditioning your page for relevant queries… for a time. But if it fails to attract engagement, it will continue to die a slow death. It could lose 3 percent of traffic per month — so small you don’t even notice it until it’s too late. Eventually, your page will simply fall out of ranking contention. Dwell time will be the death of your low-quality pagesThe relationship between time on page and organic search traffic is changing. Something algorithmic is happening. Can we see it? Yes! Let’s walk through some data. In “Does Dwell Time Really Matter for SEO? [Data],” I explained how to find your most vulnerable content — pages that are likely to lose organic traffic because they have low engagement. We did this by looking at time on page because it is proportional to dwell time, a metric only Google can measure. To quickly review, before RankBrain rolled out, you may have had pages that ranked well but really didn’t deserve to. Even though they had low engagement, it didn’t hurt your organic traffic in a noticeable way. Here’s an example. Look at the average time on page for some of these high ranking pages: But after RankBrain, that all changed. Now look at the top pages. They all have excellent engagement metrics: A lot of people think the relationship between dwell time and SEO is tenuous. However, after seeing this data, it clearly seems like there is some sort of natural correlation. Now let’s go further. Breaking down a donkeyThis is one of the “donkey” pages — i.e., pages that don’t really deserve to rank well — that got killed by RankBrain: Wow, this is crazy! Look what has happened. Organic traffic has declined by 65.5 percent in the past 16 months! Holy moley. This is how machine learning works. It doesn’t take all your traffic at once. It takes it a small percent at a time! That makes it hard to track — unless you know what you’re looking for. This page used to rank for probably 1,000 different queries. Google has likely been auditioning this for lots of different long-tail variations — and it hasn’t been producing well in terms of engagement. What I think is happening is that this page is getting knocked out of contention for ranking on different types of queries every month, bit by bit. Could other factors be at play? Of course — Google’s algorithm is a complex beast, plus new content is being created all the time (by you and your competitors). But traffic is consistently dying just a little every month. Simplifying the new SEO ranking model with a sports analogyThe National Football League has 17 weeks of regular season games to separate the unicorns (winners) from the donkeys (losers). That is followed by a series of playoff games, culminating with the Super Bowl — the winner of which is declared the top team. This year, 12 teams made it to the NFL playoffs. The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons both dominated this season, but only one team (the Patriots) won the Super Bowl. In Google’s ranking model, Google uses hundreds of conventional SEO ranking factors and signals to determine which pages are most relevant for different queries. After this initial ranking, Google does its own version of playoffs, picking winners based on user engagement. Out of 10 organic results, only one can win the top position in Google’s SERPs. Conventional SEO ranking factors (e.g., relevant content, keyword alignment, links to your domain, domain strength) determine how the SEO “regular season” plays out. If your traditional SEO isn’t good enough, you won’t make the playoffs. Your stuff will rank on Page 5 or 10 (or worse!) of Google — not that it really matters because few people bother to visit those pages. Pages that score the most SEO touchdowns will perform well. Only a few pages will get into the “postseason.” In the NFL playoffs, defense wins championships. But in the SEO playoffs, it’s all about the user engagement metrics: click-through rate and dwell time. This is where machine learning really separates the unicorns from the donkeys. All your efforts are wasted if you lose. ConclusionClearly, you want to have as many pages as possible with excellent, unicorn-level engagement metrics. These will be your most valuable pages — and should pass Google’s machine test. You also want to find your most at-risk content because if you don’t meet the minimum engagement, you’ll be out. Again, this is just my theory at this point, based on some pretty compelling examples — but nothing involving Google’s algorithms can be 100 percent conclusive. Try it out yourself. Run the reports, and let me know what you’re seeing! The post Has machine learning created a new model for SEO ranking? appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2lLCXff
Create the ultimate personal brand and following online by following my list of actionable tips that I use in my business today.
via ShoeMoney http://ift.tt/2kZMx9K To a small niche retailer, it can seem daunting (almost pointless) to invest too heavily in Google Shopping. After all, how could you ever compete with the major players who have far more money, products and people than you do? Well, the good news is, it is possible to be competitive in Google Shopping as a small business. In fact, done right, Google Shopping can actually be the most effective digital advertising platform in terms of Return on Ad Spend (ROAS). Here are the top strategies for success as a small to medium-sized retailer in Google Shopping. 1. Focus on your nicheAs a small retailer, you likely sell a very limited selection of niche products. Whether these are your own personal brand or from independent designers, this exclusivity is your strength. Selling products that aren’t sold by Amazon or a hundred other retailers means there’s less competition to appear in Google Shopping for relevant searches. Even better, if you create and sell your own label, you won’t have any direct competition in terms of brand queries. Private labels have the added benefit of commanding higher margins, making them a smart investment for any business. Focus your campaigns on niche, new or unknown brands, and try to get these products exclusively. 2. Segment your campaigns effectivelyThe key to creating Google Shopping ads with great ROAS is making sure they reach the people who are most likely to buy. In the example below, you can see that query A is much more specific — and therefore more likely to convert — than query B, yet the bid is the same. Your strategy should be to leave the generic traffic to your competitors and get more of the high-converting traffic to your business. To generate the maximum amount of sales from Google Shopping, you want to make sure your ads appear for these types of “high-conversion” queries. As with any form of paid media, that generally means bidding slightly more. But reverse engineering of Google Shopping has revealed that simply bidding higher on your PLAs makes your ads attract more low-quality traffic. Instead, you want to focus on displaying your ads for specific queries, which tend to convert much better. This is why segmenting your campaigns correctly is essential. By segmenting your campaigns into the type of queries that receive high, medium and low conversion rates (this will likely differ from business to business) you can set bid amounts that correlate to the user’s intent. That way, you bid more for “high-converting” queries and less for “low-converting” queries. Here’s a more detailed description of how campaign segmentation works. 3. Use natural language in product titlesAs a retailer selling new or small, unknown brands, it’s unlikely that you will get a high volume of search traffic looking for that brand specifically. Instead, you want to focus your attention on popular natural language queries that describe your products. You can use Google’s Keyword Planner to identify the queries that most closely match your product offerings — remember to focus on products that are unique to you. Once you’ve identified these queries, append them to the beginning of the relevant Product Titles in your Product Feed. This method will help Google be better at finding and surfacing your products when they match the query. It will also make your products look more relevant to shoppers. In many cases, updating your product titles with natural language queries can double, if not triple, your impressions without the need to increase your bids, making it a cost-effective way for smaller retailers to compete. Here’s a handy guide for writing more compelling product titles. 4. Use geotargetingAnother way to make sure your ads are reaching those shoppers most likely to purchase your products is through geotargeting. Obviously, you first want to make sure you are only advertising your products to people in the areas where you deliver. But, you can also use geotargeting in a more granular way by bidding higher for your ads to show in very specific areas. For example, if you are a high-end fashion retailer, you may want to bid more for ads shown in high-income areas where the people searching are more likely to be able to afford your products. Use something like this buying power map to help determine where your ads would have the most impact and invest heavily in those areas. 5. Leverage RLSA listsBecause Google Shopping is usually a lower funnel advertising medium (i.e., people generally click on it when they are close to a buying decision), RLSA (remarketing lists for search ads), or retargeting lists, can be extremely useful. These lists allow you to bid more for ads that will be shown to people who have already visited your site — and therefore are more likely to purchase your products. You can even make these lists more specific by targeting customers who have purchased before, or just those with an Average Basket Value above a certain amount. 6. Don’t bid too muchNo one ever wants to bid more than they have to. But it’s especially important to remember, when working with limited budgets, that simply increasing your CPC is not the answer to getting more sales in Google Shopping. Bidding in Google Shopping works very differently from traditional PPC bidding. Instead of decreasing marginal revenue, there is an S curve. Essentially, in Google Shopping, there is a minimum bid amount to be entered into the auction, then for small bid increases, we see a huge jump in conversions. But at a certain point, the bid becomes too high, and the conversion rate plateaus. When the bid is too high, it means Google is showing your products for very generic queries that are unlikely to convert. If you’re not paying attention, it’s easy to overbid on your Google Shopping campaigns. Setting and forgetting your bids is simply not an option. Instead, you need a system of incremental testing, measuring and tweaking. Make small changes in your bids and see what happens to your conversion rate. If it goes up by a lot, try increasing the bid a bit more until you see a very small (or no) change in conversion rate. If you don’t have the time to manually test all of your bids, you should invest in a tool that can automate that process for you. When in doubt, it’s much better to be highly targeted with your bids — through RLSA lists, geotargeting, campaign segmentation and so on — than to try to “outbid” any major players through raising your base CPC. 7. Decrease your pricesIf you do sell some of the same products or brands as your competitors, you’ll often get more out of Google Shopping by decreasing your prices than by just increasing your bids. This may sound somewhat counterintuitive, but it has to do with Google’s algorithm for selecting which products to show. In an effort to make Google Shopping more appealing to online shoppers, Google seems to have what we call a “low-price bias.” That means that given the choice between two products, Google will almost always choose to show the cheaper of the two, even if the more expensive product has a higher bid. In fact, if your products are too expensive, Google may refuse to show them at all. According to Google, their algorithm doesn’t favor cheaper products. Rather, they apply a machine learning algorithm which reacts to what users like or dislike. In this case, users apparently dislike high prices, and therefore, the algorithm chooses lower-priced products. Either way, the bottom line is the same: price matters. In order to compete against bigger online retailers, you may want to consider lowering your prices — at least on the items that you sell in common. In reality, once you get people to your site, they’ll often end up buying something other than what they initially clicked on. Think of these lower-priced products as “gateways” to your site. Once a shopper is on your site, you can try to upsell them to a different or an additional product. You can also add them to your retargeting lists for future promotion. If lowering any of your prices isn’t an option, try focusing your campaigns on the items you sell that are more competitive in price for their category. Over time, you’ll gather data on which products perform best in Google Shopping and can start to focus your energies into those products. Invest smarter, then growYou don’t necessarily have to invest a ton upfront to make Google Shopping successful for your business. Take time to refine your strategy, and make sure you know (or find out through testing) the answers to these questions:
Once you’ve created highly efficient Google Shopping campaigns, you can begin to ramp up your spending and aim for a larger market share. The most important thing to remember as a small to medium-sized retailer is to focus on what makes you unique. This uniqueness is why someone would choose to purchase from you in the first place, and it’s also what will make your ads stand out to both Google and online shoppers. The post 7 ways small retailers can compete with retail giants using Google Shopping appeared first on Search Engine Land. via Search Engine Land http://ift.tt/2loJMCm |
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