In-house challenges with PLAs

Despite minimal information and best practices available on the new world of PLAs, the Need Supply Co. team set up and tested an initial Google Shopping program in-house. They were, however, disappointed to find they were not achieving the anticipated impressions and exposure.

The team was concerned that their feed was not setup correctly, and they were having difficulty ensuring that appropriate products showed up for specific search queries. With the in-house team already stretched thin managing their core digital marketing programs, they turned to Adlucent and its BuyerPath™ for Product Ads solution for help with PLAs.

Building a strong targeting strategy

To improve efficiency and results, the first job was to create a multi-level, intent-based targeting strategy -- one that mapped consumer intent and search queries to Need Supply Co.’s merchandise at cascading product levels.

With Adlucent’s BuyerPath™ for Product Ads, the team was able to gather and analyze consumer intent data and create over three thousand new, relevant product targets, all within a few days.

This enabled Need Supply Co. to show the right products at the right time, and allocate spend appropriately.

About Need Supply Co.Based in Richmond, Virginia, Need Supply Company is a boutique and eCommerce site that sells apparel, shoes and accessories created by contemporary designers and independent labels from the US and abroad. The Need Supply Co. stock includes hard-to-find, high-fashion items that draw a loyal following of buyers who seek out unique brands and products. These buyers want to know about limited runs of merchandise that often sell out fast.

Need Supply Co.’s digital marketing team wanted to reach more buyers who are in search of exclusive products, and felt that the Google Shopping Product Listing Ads program would be a good fit.

C A S E S T U D Y : N E E D S U P P L Y C O .

Need Supply Co. Achieves 213% PLA Revenue Increase with Adlucent’s BuyerPath™

Intent-basedTargetingStructure

REACHING NEWCUSTOMERS WITHEXCLUSIVE ITEMS

CATEGORY

SUBCATEGORY

PRODUCT LINE

MODEL

SKU

Shifting Traffic to Optimize Reach & Return

Building on the intent-based targeting foundation, the team then re-launched their PLA program, yielding tremendous results.

To further optimize the program, Need Supply Co. focused on three core strategies when deciding where to focus traffic:

Highlight top site sellers: mine Need Supply Co.’s website analytics and focus on top site sellers as an indicator for PLA success.

Feature exclusive items: strategically leverage exclusive merchandise to win in a price-competitive marketplace.

Feature new merchandise: reinforce Need Supply Co.’s brand as a fashion-forward, trend-leader and raise their overall visibility.

Showing Up for the Right CustomersThe team also noticed that top performing text ad queries were not driving significant PLA traffic. By analyzing the product feed, the team found that the existing product titles and descriptions tended to represent inventory-based information, and were not optimized for intent.

With BuyerPath™’s capability to combine query and feed management data, the team was able to quickly and easily update product titles and descriptions to include top text ad queries and rich product descriptors. This change resulted in a 261% increase in impressions, as well as a 360% increase in clicks month-over-month.

Extending the Value of Demand IntelligenceNeed Supply Co. could see that this new channel was also a source of timely and useful business information on what was selling in their market.

Combining the power of the Google Shopping PLA channel and BuyerPath™, the team could now easily:

• test price elasticity

• uncover gateway products that bring buyers to their store but may not be the ultimate product purchased

• provide immediate feedback to their buyers on items that were selling in large quantities

Today, Need Supply Co. is set up to fully leverage their PLA program strategically – matching their exclusive product line with buyers seeking hard-to-find items, and getting ahead of their competition by bringing the latest in style and design to their loyal followers and new, potential buyers.

BuyerPath™ for Product AdsBuyerPath™ platform is an advanced shopping analytics platform leveraging query data, in-market data, CRM data and online/offline shopper demographics to help retailers find, value, align and maximize valuable ad moments for optimal return.

Contact UsTo learn more and get a demo of Adlucent’s BuyerPath™ for Product Ads please call us at 1.800.788.9152 or visit www.adlucent.com/buyerpath

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Conversion Rate

Pre-Adlucent Post-Adlucent

Revenue ROAS

105%

213%183%

“Adlucent’s BuyerPath™ has helped us deliver tremendous results to our business. The unique combination of feed-, query- and bid-management enabled us to re-launch our PLA program very quickly, driving traffic to just the right products. It’s been a really great solution for us.”

-Megan Koons, Digital Marketing Manager, Need Supply Co.