Your web browser is out of date. Update your browser for the best experience on this site.
Here are some we suggest:

ChromeFirefoxEdge
“Internet Explorer is a compatibility solution. We’re not supporting new web standards for it… [developers] just aren’t testing for Internet Explorer these days. They’re testing on modern browsers.” – Chris Jackson, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft

see what we can achieve as your paid media partner

why one agency should manage your google shopping and feed management

Is Google Shopping part of your PPC strategy? If not, it could be time to consider what it could do for you.

The last 12 months have seen customer shopping journeys experience a rather big shakeup. Due to store closures and travel restrictions, shopping experiences have largely taken place online – from the moment of initial research through to purchase.

Google Shopping can play a key role in your brand being present at extremely important touchpoints of the marketing funnel. But success isn’t guaranteed. If you want to grow conversions through your Google Shopping ads, your feed management must be up to scratch too.

why google shopping?

Google and Amazon product listings both feature heavily in search. In many cases, retailers are wise to have a presence on both where possible. However, Shopping ads have slowly worked their way to the top as the most popular search ad format for retailers. Now driving over 76 percent of retail search ad spend, it offers huge reach and potential for online retailers. Our Shopping guru, Matt Patterson, agrees with the opportunities Google Shopping holds:

"With Google Shopping, you can search for a product and it’s instantly there. If the feed is managed effectively, you should get what you’re looking for within seconds. You’re even given a picture, price and information making it easy to make a fast purchase decision.”

Shopping ads have the ability to unlock conversions and outperform generic search through increased impressions, clicks and conversions. When combined with effective and strategic feed management, your campaign success can be enhanced even further.

what is google shopping feed management?

Your product feed is how you communicate your inventory to Google. Google then cross-references your feed data with search queries and your bids to produce the correct level of ad visibility. The better optimised your data is, the more likely your products will be shown to the right shopper. We often see businesses not recognising the importance of supporting their Google Shopping effort with consistent and effective feed optimisation… “It’s no longer a case of just having a Shopping campaign running - you have to actually consider and maintain the feed too. We see the importance of this more so than ever before, especially if you’re looking to maximise your Shopping efforts on smart Shopping campaigns in particular. We often see businesses being unaware of the importance of a well-optimised feed. Instead, they’re happy to just run with a “plug and play” mentality, supplying the bare essentials to the feed to get campaigns live. This leaves huge gaps and most certainly creates barriers for future growth.” – Matt Patterson, Senior Technical Account Manager, equation Failing to manage your feed can stop campaigns from reaching their full potential which can result in missed conversions. To fulfil Google’s Shopping algorithm, we advise:

  • Organising your product feed in line with Google’s guidelines

  • Using high-quality product photos

  • Optimising your product titles and descriptions with relevant keywords

  • Promoting positive reviews across your feed

  • Highlighting promotional offers

  • Leveraging your website’s categories for more granular targeting

the benefits of one agency managing both

When using Google Shopping ads, many businesses choose to work alongside a paid media marketing agency to get the most out of their budget and campaigns. However, that same business will often choose to manage their feed in-house, unaware of the level of maintenance and specialism needed to make Google Shopping ads a continued success.

More often than not, a business’ website will produce its own feed, or a downloadable plugin will create a feed using the product data from the website. The problem with this is when an issue arises. The issue is usually flagged to the developer for fixing which can lead to delays if the developer doesn’t have the capacity to fix the problem straight away. Having one team responsible for both ads and feed management, you can create a streamlined process to support your campaigns. It also helps to prevent large challenges such as:

  • Lack of time: If you have a large product portfolio, developers can end up spending a lot of their resource keeping the feed up to date which can be a tedious and time-consuming task.

  • Increased costs: With more people involved in updating and maintaining the feed, it’s more likely that information will be missed. This can slow down the whole process resulting in further costs for the client. Using one agency, less time is needed from various teams and, if the campaigns are more successful, a better ROI is generated on your ad spend and agency fees.

  • Disapproved products: If Google disapproves a product, an email notification is usually sent out highlighting the problem. In the case of a business receiving this email, they may have to wait for the developer to fix the issue which means the product won’t be visible during this time and you could be missing out on potential sale opportunities. In these situations, if an agency is managing the product feed as well as the campaigns, they can fix the error as soon as the message is received.

  • Slow response times: If a feed attribute needs changing, the developer responsible for maintaining the product feed will usually add this to a list of fixes and roll them out in a block update. This means the agency needs to plan updates ahead as it can take weeks for the fix to be made which affects not only speed of implementation but also campaign performance.

While Google Shopping is an important channel for growth, Matt also believes that brands need to begin thinking beyond the search engine: “We need to think outside of Google and Google Shopping. It’s important to consider the importance of social media in our day to day lives - maximising our advertising efforts on Facebook and Instagram are just as important. These platforms need to be considered differently to Google and therefore the optimisations on the social feeds need to reflect the audience as it’s not always the same.”

google shopping and your business

Are you happy with the ROI of your Google Shopping Ads? If not, your feed management and optimisation could be a big part of the problem. Having an agency that can effectively cater for both your campaigns and your feed could be key to seeing success.

Even better, if an agency is already managing your Shopping ads, they have access to your paid data which can help to improve targeting. Choosing to work with a paid media agency with experience and specialism in both often generates a rise in clicks, impressions and conversions. Interested to find out more? Get in touch with our team of paid media experts.

read next

a chat with our google shopping guru, matt patterson

google releases 5 new shopping features

google shopping will let you sell for free