ARTICLE: "Is It Time to Try Google Advertising?"

ARTICLE: "Is It Time to Try Google Advertising?"

Google announced major changes to its ad programs in July and is trying to make advertising easier and more effective for small businesses. Today, we delve into Google Smart Shopping campaigns for online merchants. For some sellers, it may be time to roll up your sleeves and try Google advertising.

source: https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2018/08/11/is-it-time-to-try-google-advertising/

Google shook up its advertising programs in early summer, including changes that make it easier for small businesses to automate campaigns, and it announced a collaboration with ecommerce platform Shopify as it targets small sellers.

It dumped its Google AdWords brand in favor of “Google Ads,” and now offers Smart Campaigns: “We show your ads to customers who are interested in what your business offers, and are likely to call, visit your store, or make a purchase on your website.”

That’s not to be confused with Google Smart Shopping campaigns, another feature targeted at online merchants: “With Smart Shopping campaigns, your existing product feed and assets are combined with Google’s machine learning to show a variety of ads across networks.”

Those who sell only through online marketplaces may wonder how they would get sales if they open up their own ecommerce website if they don’t know anything about advertising. It can be daunting, but after all, anyone who can navigate selling on marketplaces is probably well equipped to figure out Google’s ad programs, and the ecommerce platform(s) on which you sell will most likely have resources and tools to help you.

Shopify is one platform that’s trying to help its sellers advertise on Google to boost sales. Ellen Dunne, Shopify Senior Product Manager, said merchants today run a variety of apps to build marketing campaigns for their products, which can be time-consuming and unproductive. “We are excited to provide our merchants with the ability to execute, manage and track marketing campaigns all within Shopify with Google Smart Shopping Campaigns,” she told EcommerceBytes.

Google Smart Shopping in Shopify allows merchants to create a campaign just by setting a daily budget, while machine learning optimizes the rest.
“Entrepreneurs no longer have to toggle between Shopify’s store dashboard and Google Shopping apps to run ads. The new function will allow entrepreneurs to easily set up, execute and track marketing campaigns quickly without having to leave Shopify.”

Other sites also offer ad tools – ecommerce platform BigCommerce offers merchants access to a Google Shopping integration through a third-party company called Sales & Orders.

To take a closer look at the new Google Smart Shopping campaigns, we turned to Daniel Sperling-Horowitz, President of Zentail, which helps merchants sell across multiple channels including Google Shopping. Here are his responses to our questions:

First, could you provide background – is Google Smart Shopping campaigns the same as Google Product Listing Ads, and why would a seller use Smart Shopping campaigns?

Daniel Sperling-Horowitz: Smart Shopping campaigns leverage Product Shopping ads (formerly referred to as Product Listing Ads or “PLAs”) and display ads. Google Shopping campaign implementation and bid management can be confusing and time consuming to set up and a bit scary since unprofitable campaigns are a real possibility. Smart Shopping campaigns aims to take a lot of the configuration and bid management out of the equation so sellers can get exposure to Google Ads and drive traffic cost effectively to their own webstore.

Are Google Smart Shopping campaigns good for beginners?

Daniel Sperling-Horowitz: Google Smart Shopping campaigns in theory are good for beginners, but sellers need to have at least 20 conversions over the last 45 days across existing Shopping campaigns before they can set up a Smart campaign. So the seller will still need to implement at least one Google Shopping campaign before qualifying.

Where would you point sellers to who want to promote their own websites?
Daniel Sperling-Horowitz: Sellers that are serious about building their own webstore need to roll up their sleeves and learn Google Ads. We recommend taking a certification course and exam through Google’s Academy for Ads. This will provide the fundamental knowledge to confidently implement Google Ads campaigns or at least understand the work they are relying on other service providers to perform.

Should sellers allocate any marketplace listing fees toward Google Ads instead?

Daniel Sperling-Horowitz: Sellers should look at Google Ads, specifically Google Shopping, the same way they look at marketplace channels. Just like marketplaces, there are fees that must be paid to participate and generate orders. The only difference is that Google Shopping requires sellers to pay up front on a per click basis, while marketplaces charge per sale.

The amount spent on Google Ads (pay-per-click * number of clicks) should track a target “effective commission” rate. Effective commission is the advertising spend as a percentage of revenue generated on the channel (ad spend / google shopping revenue).

We recommend targeting 15% effective commission since this is equivalent to marketplace commissions. For sellers that understand their customer lifetime value and are able to continuously market to their customers, we recommend increasing effective commission to acquire more customers.

Are you seeing any results from sellers using Google Smart Shopping campaigns?

Daniel Sperling-Horowitz: Zentail sellers use our Programmatic Google Shopping service which is similar to Smart Shopping campaigns with the advantage that they don’t need to do any initial campaign implementation or management – Zentail handles all of that for the seller. For sellers that don’t have access to Zentail’s Programmatic Google Shopping service, we recommend setting up a Shopping campaign to qualify and enroll in Smart Shopping campaigns.

What budget do you absolutely need to make Google ads work for you?

Daniel Sperling-Horowitz: Your budget should increase only when a cost-effective, controlled campaign is in place and daily bid budgets are consistently being reached before the end of the day. We advise our sellers to allocate $100 per day to Google Ad spend which translates to a $3,000 monthly budget. Typically a $100 daily budget will not be reached when a campaign is initially launched, since PPC bids should start low and rise for specific SKUs based on impression share, click and conversion rate data.

Of course, keeping complete tracking records will be most helpful if you decide to give these a try.
Translate to English There was a problem fetching the translation.
0 Likes
Reply
You must log in to join this conversation.
Remember that posts are subject to Etsy's Community Policy.