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Retailers listen up
This is a peak season warning. On the 17th of September there's a major change
in focus to the feed spec of Google's shopping comparison service.
Now when the service launched in February 2013
the Internet giant advised retailers to populate the feeds,
known as product listing ads, or PLAs, but since the 17th of September
that advice has changed. Now they say focus on the quality of the information
in those PLA's and this is urgent online retail marketing and e-commerce
specialist summit
has reported that some clients have seen forty percent of traffic
and 30 percent of total revenue coming from PLA's.
It's this simple: you can put your cost per click bids as high as you like
but if you're not comprehensively managing your feed your ads simply won't show.
Here are my key points on the subject.
First, retailers need to ensure that the important product information,
so the UPIs, the titles, and product descriptions,
are relevant, accurate and up-to-date regularly. Remember
the more important information you can include in the feed, the better.
Next, ensure all the products in your feed are published and optimized. Front load your titles
and descriptions with the important information.
Remember, these are your ad copy - so nothing spammy.
They should be user-friendly and not just a load of keywords. And, images: these are to be high quality
as these are your glamour shots. And finally, ensure there are sufficient budget allocated
to PLAs
and it's not just about throwing money at it. It's about strategecially managing your bids against your
success metrics,
so your ROI or your cost of sale metrics.