live broadcast: how to drive google shopping results via product feed optimization

How to Drive Google Shopping Performance Through Product Feed

Optimization

5 Key Strategies to Ensure Your Product Feed Isn’t Hurting Your ROI on Shopping

Logistics

Session Recording Will Be Sent out Tomorrow

Morning

Q&A Throughout the Presentation

Submit Questions In the Chat Box to the Right

Resources In the Handouts Section to the Right

Today’s Resources

OVERVIEW

•Founded in 2007

•Recognized as an Official Google Shopping Partner

•300+ Active Retail Clients

•Top 50 fastest growing company in San Diego 3 years

CLIENTS

SOLUTIONS

• Retail-focused Paid Search (PPC)

• Google Shopping Management

• Shopping Channel Management

• Amazon Sales Acceleration

About CPC Strategy

The CAPx Shopping PlatformProgrammatic Bidding & Management Software

for Google Shopping Advertisers

What is The CAPx Shopping Platform?

• A Programmatic Approach to Google Shopping Management

• Product Feed Optimizer • Efficient Custom Label Management• Granular Programmatic Bidding Rules

cpcstrategy.com/CAPx-Shopping-Platform/

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Site

Event Agenda

Jason BellSenior Retail Search Manager

✓ Experience managing accounts for Riddell, Deluxe, ABT, & Sears✓ Over 6 years of SEM experience✓ Flag football superstar

Event Agenda

• Improving Your Product Titles for Search Intent

• Implementing Keyword Insertions

• Improving & Leveraging Feed Categorization

• Manipulating Custom Labels to Strengthen Bidding

• How Automation can be Applied to Reduce Feed Management Time

• Live Q&A

Poll For The Audience…How often are you making adjustments to your product feed?

A. 5-7 days a week

B. 3-5 days a week

C. 1-3 days a week

D. Not making any adjustments

Product Feed Speed Round

Basic Product Data Quality – The Easy StuffThe essentials for a good quality Google Shopping product feed•(The full list of requirements can be found here.)

The Basics:• Item IDs - Are they unique?• Item IDs - Are they consistent?• MPNs - Are they modified? Do MPNs match what other retailers have?• SKUs - Does the Feed match the ItemIDs in recorded in Google Analytics transactions? • Prices - Accurate? How often are you syncing price? Make sure no $0 values.• Links - Do they work? Check for 404 errors & 302 redirects that strip tracking parameters.• Stock Status - How are we handling out of stock items?• Images - Are we including any Watermarks or Promotional Text?• Product Variations - Are we missing/not sending these? Why or why not?• Product Variations - Are we loading the child variations on the landing page?• Shipping & Tax Data - Accurate? Set it up in the GMC, or the feed.• GTINs - Are we in compliance for the required brands? Full list here.• Custom Labels - Are we taking advantage of these 5 customizable fields?• Complete Data - Do we have fully populated columns? Any empty fields?

Product Feed “Speed Round”

Improving your product titles for search intent

Title / Description Enhancements

BrandThese should almost always be added to the front of the titles however we can also test adding them to the end of the titles if we want to push more weight to other parts of the title. (e.g. ‘J.W. Hulme’ is not searched often or included in most of our search terms)

Example:

Attributes: Color / Size / GenderThe addition of attributes in the title is very important as attributes are often keywords used by customers who are looking for something specific.

Example: J.W. Hulme Leather Brief Bag

J.W. Hulme Mens Brown Leather Brief Bag

Other Options:

• J.W. Hulme Mens Heritage Leather Brief Bag in Brown• J.W. Hulme Heritage Leather Brief Bag for Men - Brown• Mens Leather Brief Bag by J.W. Hulme – Brown

vs.

J.W. Hulme Leather Brief Bag

Leather Brief Bag by J.W. Hulme vs.

I mp ro v i ng Yo u r P ro du c t T i t l e s f o r Se a rc h I n t e n t

I mp ro v i ng Yo u r P ro du c t T i t l e s f o r Se a rc h I n t e n t

Title / Description Enhancements

MPN / Style NumberTypically these are more useful for Electronics or Appliance merchants where customers are looking for a specific model or style number.

• Research into Google Analytics or Search Query Reports to see if MPN or Style Numbers are being used to search for products.

Feed:

Search Query Report:Google Results:

Product TypeDoes the title actually say what the product is?Example: “J.W. Hulme Mens Heritage Leather Brief In Brown” works but it doesn’t have the key word “bag” or “case”

Title / Description Enhancements

Excessive CapitalizationThis is something that can easily slip passed even the most cunning eyes.

Pro Tip: Excessive Capitalization•SB can use the =PROPER() function to change the 1st letter in each word of a cell to uppercase, leaving the rest lower

case.•Be careful with this function if you are dealing with MPNs in the titles which look much better with full capitalization.

HTLM & Other Encoding ArtifactsThis is also very common and can easily be missed. I typically find these during my search for larger issues. The encoding artifacts are common when apostrophes, commas, ampersands, etc. are used in the text but not decoded properly.

Pro Tip:• Usually a quick FIND (CTRL + F) within Excel for the following characters will help me spot theses earlier. < , Â ,

€ , { , %

Does The Title Make Sense?Does it read well? Does it look out of the ordinary? Make sure its not just keyword soup.

I mp ro v i ng Yo u r P ro du c t T i t l e s f o r Se a rc h I n t e n t

Implementing keyword Insertions

I mp l e m e n t i ng Ke y w o rd I n s e r t i o n s

Questions to Explore• Do PLAs show up for these keywords when running a manual search?• Does at least one of your products show up when running this search?• How much does your Shopping campaigns currently spend on these keywords?• Do your product titles or descriptions include this keyword?

Leveraging Current PPC Campaigns/Keywords

Great place to start when trying to ensure you dominate the PLAs within your top performing SERPs

• Shopping typically has a higher conversion rate, having your text ads and PLA ads visible on the same

search result can help strengthen the credibility to potential customers.

Finding Search Term ReportsYou can run this on all your campaigns as well if you want to know your account wide top performing search queries

*Note: These are typically not the keywords you are bidding on (PPC). Instead this shows you metrics on the auctions you are winning based upon what the user is actually typing in the search bar.

I mp l e m e n t i ng Ke y w o rd I n s e r t i o n s

Finding Your Site Search DataThis is where you pull the data through Google Analytics

Improving & Leveraging Feed Categorization

I mp ro v i ng & Le v e r a g i n g C a t e g o r i z a t i o n

Product Types / GPCs

Product Types are index by Google for searchThis was confirmed by Google and steps should be taken to improve the accuracy and granularity of your product types.

• Should be more accurate and specific than the GPCs which can make them useful as part of your campaign structure.

ProTip:• Product Type is the in-house categorization• GPCs / Google Product Categories are the closest Google equivalent

I mp ro v i ng & Le v e r a g i n g C a t e g o r i z a t i o n

Does The Retailer Have Multiple Delimited Categories?These could be separate by commas, dashes, backslashes, or carrots (ideal) for example.

ProTip:• If you separate your Product Types using > then we can drill down into each within our Product

Groupings of our Shopping campaign

Do Product Types Match On-Site Categorization?This isn’t necessary however it is recommended so you have a clear picture of which products will be included when building or optimizing based on product types.

C a t e go r y S p e c i fi c E n h a n c e m e nt s

Important Considerations

Important Features Or Data Points Of The Products You Sell• These should be highlighted within the titles & descriptions• Different depending on product types – e.g. Electronics vs Apparel

Audience & Typical Searches Done By Your Customers• Are MPNs or Part Numbers used often? e.g. Electronics & Appliances• Are there several sizes to distinguish? e.g. Apparel & Hardware

Your Current Data Quality• Are you receiving this data from the manufacturers?• Are you supplying this data to Google / on your site / within your feed?

What Your Data Points Tells You• Running the reports previously outlined, where are your highest conversion rates or orders

coming from?

Electronics & AppliancesTitle / Description Additions or Manipulations

• MPNs•Targets users who know the specific model #

•Specifications•Size, Features, Additions, Color, etc..

•Brand Name (typically to the front)•Let your data decide if brand should be closer to the front (recommended)

Product Type / Google Product Categories• Down to most granular sub-category (ie: Samsung > Electronics > HDTVs > 50 Inch)• Adding Parent Product MPN (Item Group ID) – Allows full product line bidding/manipulation

Custom Labels (1,000 unique value limit)

•Price Ranges•ROI Margins•Colors•Measurements/Sizes•Product Types•Departments

C a t e go r y S p e c i fi c E n h a n c e m e nt s

C a t e go r y S p e c i fi c E n h a n c e m e nt s

ApparelTitle / Description Additions or Manipulations

•Brand Name (typically in front)•Product Descriptors

•Gender, Size, Color, Material, etc..•Including ‘Style Names’ in Title•Product Types (e.g. Boots or Leather Briefcase)

Product Type / Google Product Categories• Apparel Type (ie: Apparel > Womens > Born Shoes > Boots > McMillan Boots)

•Above allows for product type to be main subdivision within product group

Custom Labels• Price Floor•‘Style Names’•Product Types e.g. ‘boots’ or ‘briefcases’•Colors•Size•Material

C a t e go r y S p e c i fi c E n h a n c e m e nt s

Google Merchant PromotionsTake Advantage Of Black Friday / Cyber Monday / Holiday Promotions

•Improve Visibility, CTR, and Conversion Rates•Created Within the Google Merchant Center

•If the ‘Promotions’ tab is unavailable, please sign-up here•Use the form below to create your promotions or use a separate promotions feed

•Full guide can be found here

Manipulating Custom Labels to Strengthen Bidding Efficiency

H o w t o M a n i p u l a t e C us t o m L a b e l s

Custom Labels

Fill Your LabelsEven if you don’t plan to actually build out the campaign and pull these levers at launch, it is always a good idea to collect data along as many points as possible. What data would be useful for you to collect? Pro Tip:

• Product attributes work great to fill up empty custom label columns. •Collect data on “color”, “material”, “style”, “size”, etc. May not have any immediate benefits

but it does allow you to run some interesting reports.•1,000 unique value limit

Custom LabelsHow to Approach Adding Your Custom Labels

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

Custom LabelsUsing Custom Labels to Manipulate Product Bids at Scale

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

Imagine this is your product catalog in your Google Shopping campaign.

Custom LabelsUsing Custom Labels to Manipulate Product Bids at Scale

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

High Margin

Low Margin

Partition your products based on like attributes, such as product margin.

Custom LabelsUsing Custom Labels to Manipulate Product Bids at Scale

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

High Margin

Low Margin

Item A - $100 margin

Item B - $112 margin

Item C - $105 margin

Item D - $10 margin

Item E - $12 margin

Each partition contains a subset of products within it.

Custom LabelsUsing Custom Labels to Manipulate Product Bids at Scale

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

High Margin

Low Margin

Item A - $100 margin

Item B - $112 margin

Item C - $105 margin

Item D - $10 margin

Item E - $12 margin

$1.10 max cpc

$0.25 max cpc

Each margin tier has it’s own default bids that matching the potential margin made from a sale.

Item A - $100 margin

Custom LabelsUsing Custom Labels to Manipulate Product Bids at Scale

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

High Margin

Low Margin

Item B - $112 margin

Item C - $105 margin

Item D - $10 margin

Item E - $12 margin

$1.10 max cpc

$0.25 max cpc

But what happens when an attribute changes?

Say, for example, a supplier raises prices on an item therefore reducing your margin.

Item A - $9 margin

Custom LabelsUsing Custom Labels to Manipulate Product Bids at Scale

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

High Margin

Low Margin

Item B - $112 margin

Item C - $105 margin

Item D - $10 margin

Item E - $12 margin

$1.10 max cpc

$0.25 max cpc

But what happens when an attribute changes?

Say, for example, a supplier raises prices on an item therefore reducing your margin.

We can re-merchandise our catalog so that our items are inheriting the proper bids from their root product grouping.

Item A - $9 margin

Custom LabelsUsing Custom Labels to Manipulate Product Bids at Scale

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

High Margin

Low Margin

Item B - $112 margin

Item C - $105 margin

Item D - $10 margin

Item E - $12 margin

$1.10 max cpc

$0.25 max cpc

But what happens when an attribute changes?

Say, for example, a supplier raises prices on an item therefore reducing your margin.

Item A - $9 margin

Custom LabelsUsing Custom Labels to Manipulate Product Bids at Scale

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

High Margin

Low Margin

Item B - $112 margin

Item C - $105 margin

Item D - $10 margin

Item E - $12 margin

$1.10 max cpc

$0.25 max cpc

We can re-merchandise our catalog so that our items are inheriting the proper bids from their root product grouping.

But what happens when an attribute changes?

Say, for example, a supplier raises prices on an item therefore reducing your margin.

Custom LabelsThe role of technology...

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

Custom LabelsThe role of technology...

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

Manipulating Custom Labels to Reduce CoS & Increase Bidding Efficiency

Custom LabelsThe Custom Labels approach to product-level bidding allows you to:

• Create a customized approach to product-level bidding.• Make product-level decisions at scale.• Re-merchandise your products without changing the product group architecture.• Move high-performance products to campaigns with more budget. • Move low-performance products to campaigns with less budget.• Go beyond top-line cost & revenue, and bid according to a product's’ impact on your bottom-

line..• Adjust for seasonality at the product and category levels.

Build the strategy that works for your business.

Poll For The Audience…Would you like to demo how our CAPx shopping platform can help automate your Google Shopping campaign management?

A. Yes, Please.

B. No, Thank you.

How automation can be applied to reduce feed

management time

P ro d uc t T i t l e s , D e s c r i p t i o ns , P ro d uc t Typ e s

Titles, Descriptions, & Product TypesSystematic Rules To Improve Item Relevancy & Data Quality

•Creating rules which will adjust Titles to include a specific order of data. Example Title (equals) [brand] ‘[style name]‘ [gender] [product type] Size [size] in [color] Using Available Data, This Becomes

Born ‘Lucee’ Womens Sandal Size 6 in Beige & Tan (note: Titles are capped at 150 characters, typically 70 or fewer are visible)

•Product Types are an area that I also use automation set up. I follow similar ideas as I would in titles. Example Product Type (equals) [brand] > [department] > [category1] > [category2] > [product name] Using Available Data, This Becomes

KitchenAid > Small Appliances > Mixers > Stand Mixers > 5 Quart Artisan Stand Mixer

•Descriptions should be adjusted to increase length by adding in fields or bullet points of important features/data.

(note: Descriptions are capped at 5,000 characters)

C u s t o m L a b e l C o l um n s

Automation of Custom Label ColumnsManipulate Product Bids or Targeting Methods at Scale

•As explained earlier, the ability to automate custom labels or products based upon either internal data or performance data saves time and effort. However it is not a ‘set it and forget it’ approach

Client Case Studies

Client Case Studies: www.cpcstrategy.com/clients/

Poll For The Audience…Would you like an evaluation of your current Google Shopping strategy?

A. Yes, Please.

B. No, Thank you.

Questions for Jason?Submit your questions in the chat box on the right

cpcstrategy.com/retail-search-audit/

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