3 Advanced Google Shopping Management Strategies You Need This Golden Quarter
As the calendar inches toward the final quarter of the year – aptly named the Golden Quarter – you’ve got a pivotal window to amplify your bottom line and supercharge your Google Shopping management strategies. Encompassing vital sales events like Black Friday and Boxing Day, this stretch from October to December can be nothing short of transformative, accounting for up to 40% of annual sales for some online retailers.
The linchpin to capitalising on this lucrative period? Optimising your Google Shopping channel. With a staggering 1.2 billion monthly searches and contributing to a mammoth 76.4% of retail ad spend, Google Shopping is not a channel to be left without the right management.
To truly get ahead in this market, you’ll need to leverage Google Shopping to its fullest. In the following sections, we’ll delve into three pivotal strategies:
- The importance of embracing automation
- Evaluating Standard Shopping vs Performance Max (pMax)
- Decoding Google’s algorithm
Ready to make this Golden Quarter your most profitable yet? Read on.
Why You Need Advanced Google Shopping Management Strategies
The biggest problem with Google Shopping is that every retailer uses it. So just by doing the basics, you’re barely scratching the surface when it comes to cinching that number one position.
And doing the basics is not easy, it’s a huge investment in your resources – especially when you have thousands of products to promote.
With most retailers using Google Shopping ads as a sales channel, the only way to win is with more advanced strategies to get ahead of the competition.
Google’s latest AI-powered offering, Performance Max, has become the go-to format over the last year or so. Initially launched as Smart Shopping, Google has been pushing all clients to roll out Performance Max for the past 18 months. This new format is geared towards leveraging AI and machine learning to elevate your Google Shopping game.
If Google is saying it, then you know it’s right. Now is the time to start embracing the power of AI and machine learning – from real-time bidding strategies, to optimising the performance of each SKU. Implementing new AI technologies like Performance Max in your plan this Golden Quarter is the only way you’re going to level up.
Here are three powerful Google Shopping management strategies that you can use to boost your sales and market position this Golden Quarter.
1. The Importance of Embracing Automation
Automation is no longer a luxury in the digital marketing world; it’s a necessity, especially for businesses with a focus on Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS).
But even with Google’s latest ad format, Performance Max (PMax), you may find limitations.
Google can’t mind-read your business; it doesn’t know your internal sales or marketing metrics, and the only available metrics for bid adjustment on Google Shopping are impression share or absolute top impression share.
In such a scenario, Upp.AI can be a game-changer for retailers looking to maximise ROAS.
Why Combine Upp.AI with Performance Max for Boosted ROAS?
PMax is an effective tool, but, like any machine learning tech, it requires insightful data input to function optimally. Armed with a wealth of information, from sales velocity to ROAS data, Upp.AI takes a radically different approach to setting up, managing, and optimising Google Shopping campaigns.
It categorises each product into Performance Max campaigns based on potential performance rather than the conventional practice of grouping by product categories.
By doing so, Upp.AI can set the ideal budget for each individual product and calculate an intelligently calculated ROAS – known as iROAS™.
This tech-led approach allows Google’s algorithms to work more effectively, enabling real-time bidding adjustments and smarter budget allocation down to SKU level.
Imagine Google automatically boosting your bids when there’s a surge in demand for a niche product or lowering ad spend on items that are running low on stock.
Upp.AI makes this a reality, taking the pressure off budget management and providing a reliable ROAS that won’t let you down.
Essential Inputs for Improved ROAS with Upp.AI
To get the most out of your automated efforts, make sure you consult Google’s section on ‘AI Essentials‘. This content provides valuable insights into leveraging PMax features like Value-Based Bid Strategy, New Customer Acquisition Goals, leveraging First-Party Data, enabling Final URL Expansion, and using Seasonality Bid Adjustments.
Integrating these inputs with Upp.AI’s dynamic product grouping, budget allocation, and iROAS™ target-setting can create a Google Shopping management system that adapts in real time to market demands.
2. Optimising Campaigns: Standard Shopping vs Performance Max
Structuring your Google Shopping campaigns effectively, be it through the Standard format or the newer Performance Max (PMax), is crucial for achieving an optimal ROAS.
But what if you had a secret weapon for success that goes beyond the basic configurations and labelling?
Start with Custom Labels and the Merchant Centre
If you don’t have a tool like Upp.AI doing the real-time categorisation for you, then the first port of call for campaign optimisation is applying custom labels to your product feed.
Categories such as best-sellers, trending items or those delineated by profit margins can help you better allocate your budget.
The Merchant Centre serves as the nerve centre where all these strategies come together. Here, you can set up promotions, manage your feed and much more. It also provides features like Value-Based Bid Strategy and Seasonality Bid Adjustments, helping to further optimise your ad spend.
Google Shopping Insights: Your Trusty Pair of Binoculars
Looking at the competition is vital, and this is where Google Shopping Insights proves invaluable.
Think of it as your reconnaissance tool in the competitive landscape of online retail.
It offers insights into trending products and preferences within your target audience, thereby enabling you to tailor your product offerings accordingly.
Standard Shopping vs. Performance Max: A Comparative Insight
When it comes to Google Ads, the introduction of Performance Max campaigns has been a significant development in recent years.
But how does it compare to the traditional Standard Shopping campaigns?
Performance Max: The All-in-One Solution
Performance Max is a versatile feature within Google Ads. Unlike specific campaigns targeting a single ad format, Performance Max targets all ad formats with just one campaign.
It utilises machine learning to determine the type of ad to display to a user. This means your ads can appear across all of Google’s advertising channels, including Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
It’s engineered to provide advertisers with a broader reach using a single campaign setup.
Standard Shopping: The Traditional Approach
Standard Shopping campaigns, on the other hand, are more focused. They primarily target the Search Network.
The level of control with Standard Shopping is higher, offering advertisers a clearer insight into where their budget is being spent.
This campaign type is for those who want a more hands-on approach to their advertising strategy.
Comparative Analysis
Placements: Whilst Performance Max offers placements across multiple channels, Standard Shopping is limited to the Search Network.
Reach: Performance Max boasts a very wide reach, whereas Standard Shopping has a limited scope.
Control: Advertisers have low control in Performance Max due to its automated nature, but high control in Standard Shopping.
Transparency: Performance Max offers low campaign transparency, making it challenging to understand where the budget is spent. In contrast, Standard Shopping provides high transparency.
The Verdict
Performance Max is ideal for those looking for broader reach and a tech-led approach.
In contrast, Standard Shopping is suitable for advertisers who aren’t ready to take the leap towards AI and machine learning and want more control in their campaigns.
The choice between the two depends on how far along you are in your adoption of AI and automation.
3. Decoding Google’s Algorithm: Insights for Optimal Google Shopping Campaign Performance
Understanding the what and the why of your campaign’s performance is paramount for optimising ROAS. Google provides a suite of tools, from the Google Keyword Planner to Merchant Centre reports.
However, with the introduction of Performance Max and the inherent complexities of Google’s algorithms, advertisers often find themselves grappling with the “black box” nature of these tools.
The challenge intensifies as the big tech giants, namely Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon, become increasingly guarded about the data they share with marketers, as highlighted in this Fast Company article.
This opacity can lead to uncertainty. Advertisers might witness fluctuations in their campaign performance without a clear understanding of the underlying causes or actionable insights on how to adjust their strategies. It’s in this challenging environment that software solutions like Upp.AI are an essential part of any retail marketers’ toolkit.
Upp.AI’s platform is engineered to completely automate and manage Google Shopping campaigns – so you don’t have to. By feeding it with abundant data, Upp.AI intelligently categorises products not by traditional means, but by their projected performance.
It then dynamically channels your budget towards these high-potential campaigns, ensuring adherence to your target ROAS (tROAS).
This approach not only does the heavy lifting of Google Shopping campaign management by leveraging AI and automation, it also offers unrivalled precision.
No human team can make real-time adjustments to bids, placements, and targeting in the way that Upp.AI’s machine learning engine can, because machines are so much better at dealing with the complexity of today’s bidding competition and dynamic change.
If you want to scale and evolve your paid search ads strategy on Google, you need to let AI and machine learning do the heavy lifting.
With the basics taken care of, you can leverage Upp.AI’s insights that are unique to your business to achieve clarity and clear strategic direction in an otherwise obscured digital advertising landscape.
Beyond Google’s Standard Reporting: The Precision of Upp.Insights’ Category Reporting
Upp.AI’s Category Reporting emerges as a solution offering insights that are often obscured or hard to access in Google’s standard category reporting.
Detailed Category-Level Insights
Google’s Approach: Google’s category reporting is often tucked away, making it challenging to navigate and derive meaningful insights.
Upp.AI’s Solution: Upp.AI provides a clear breakdown of how products within each category align with the account-level ROAS targets. It showcases how many products within each category meet, exceed, or fall below these targets, offering clarity that Google’s reporting often lacks.
Performance vs. Target: A Visual Guide
Google’s Approach: Google’s reporting tools might provide general performance metrics, but they often lack the granularity and visual representation that advertisers seek.
Upp.AI’s Solution: Upp.AI’s ‘Performance Vs Target’ graphic offers a visual snapshot over a rolling 30-day period. This feature allows advertisers to quickly identify sub-categories with potential revenue opportunities, facilitating informed budget allocation decisions.
In-Depth Categorisation
Google’s Approach: Google’s categorisation is often broad, lacking the depth required for precise campaign adjustments.
Upp.AI’s Solution: Upp.AI stands out with its ability to drill down from broad categories to the most specific tiers, such as from ‘Home and Garden’ to detailed segments like ‘Home & Garden > Decor > Clocks > Floor & Grandfather Clocks > Spare Parts’. This granularity ensures advertisers can pinpoint their performance with unmatched precision.
By blending Google’s analytics tools with Upp.AI’s Category Reporting, you’re equipping yourself with a powerful arsenal for maximising your ROAS. This dual approach offers you an unparalleled advantage, particularly as we move into the most competitive time of the year.
Watch the walk-through here.
Curb the Competition with Advanced Google Shopping Management Strategies
As we edge closer to the fast-approaching Golden Quarter, now is the time to implement advanced Google Shopping strategies.
Utilising AI is instrumental in navigating this period successfully; adopting new technologies remains crucial for outpacing your competitors.
By employing this multifaceted approach, you’re positioning yourself to seize the enormous potential that Google Shopping – supercharged by AI – offers, amplifying sales during the year’s busiest stretch and laying a strong foundation for continued business growth.
Looking for that extra edge to elevate your Google Shopping strategy? Get more insights from our latest guide, The Path To Profitable Online Sales: Unlocking Profitability With Google Shopping or speak to an expert today.
