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Tag: Google shopping

  • Google Adds Feed Rules Tool To Merchant Center

    Google Adds Feed Rules Tool To Merchant Center

    Google announced the launch of a new tool for Merchant Center called Feed Rules, which lets you convert your existing data from inventory management systems to the format Google Shopping uses.

    The tool enables merchants to to export and submit product data in their own format, and use different rules to turn the data into product attributes and values that meet Google’s feed specification. Google says:

    Map your column headers to the attribute names supported by Google Shopping. For example, if you have an existing feed with the unsupported column header “main title”, you can set up a rule in Merchant Center to have it recognized as the supported attribute name, “title”.

    Transform the values in your feed to values supported by Google Shopping. For example, to submit gender specifications for your products, you can transform the unsupported value “for women” in your existing feed to the supported value “female”.

    Populate missing attribute values with a fixed value, or with different values based on conditional criteria. For example, if the “condition” attribute is missing and you’re only selling new products, you can set up a rule to have this attribute automatically set to “new”.

    After you specify rules, all uploads in the future will be processed accordingly. Feed Rules can also be used to organize data by implementing rules for custom labels or tagging products with shipping labels.

    Google makes it clear that this is just an early version of Feed Rules, and that it will make improvements based on user feedback.

    Image via Google

  • Google Warns Merchants About Global Trade Item Numbers

    Google Warns Merchants About Global Trade Item Numbers

    Last Fall, Google Shopping began requiring feeds targeting Australia, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or the United States to submit valid GTIN and brand information for over 50 brands.

    The company recently announced the expansion of GTIN requirements beyond those 50 brands to include all products with a GTIN assigned by the manufacturer.

    Earlier this week, Google began giving merchants item-level warnings in the Diagnostics tab for products that don’t meet the requirements. Enforcement will begin on May 16 (h/t: Search Engine Land).

    At this point, merchants will begin seeing item-level disapprovals in the Diagnostics tab, and will have to meet the GTIN requirements to continue serving ads for products.

    “GTINs help us understand exactly what you’re selling,” Google says. “When we understand what you’re selling, we can help boost your ad performance by adding valuable details about the product and serving the ad in a more relevant way to users. This also means that your ads can serve in more places on Google, YouTube, and our partner sites. Merchants who’ve added correct GTINs to their product data have seen conversion rates increase up to 20%.”

    “If you sell brand-name products that are sold by multiple merchants, you should take a close look at the new requirements and double check that your product data is correct and up to date, ” it says. “If you sell used, custom, handmade, or vintage products, this change probably won’t impact you. You can still improve your ad performance by adding unique product identifiers to your product data where they’re available.”

    More details about the GTIN requirements and unique product identifiers are available here.

    Image via Google

  • Google Shopping Gets Redesign For The Holidays

    Google announced that it has redesigned Google Shopping as the holiday season approaches. The new design is geared toward mobile users as mobile shopping related searches have outpaced desktop.

    “Shoppers often don’t know the exact product they’re interested in — forty-percent of shopping searches are on broad terms — so they turn to search to discover and explore,” says Google Shopping senior product manager Karen Corby. “With the new mobile redesign, if a shopper searches for droids, we’ll show the most commonly searched categories to help her narrow down her search. Similarly, if she searches on Google Shopping for tricycles for kids, we’ll show tricycles grouped by attributes that people commonly shop by: features, brand, and price. This gives her the freedom to discover what she might want in a more organized way, while helping drive more qualified traffic to your site.”

    “Once a shopper’s narrowed down her options, she can now easily browse through lots and lots of products without having to load entirely new pages to see more,” says Corby. “She can get a feel for a specific product, such as a Lego Starwars Turbo Tank, that she’s interested in by tapping on the product, flipping through images, skimming reviews and scanning product info. She can easily swipe to the next product or dig deeper into specs, features, and even videos to learn more about what you offer. When she knows exactly what she wants, and searches for a chromecast, for example, we’ll surface more information upfront. She can see which merchants carry the product, which stores have it in-stock, and also get a quick glance at reviews and manufacturer details.”

    It will also show when items are in stock at places near you.

    Earlier this week, Google announced a new click share metric for Google Shopping. Meanwhile, YouTube Shopping ads are now available in AdWords.

    For more on getting the most out of Google Shopping for the holidays, check out these videos.

    Image via Google

  • Google Shopping Gets New Click Share Metric

    Google Shopping Gets New Click Share Metric

    Google announced the launch of click share to help Google Shopping advertisers better figure out when they’re missing out on traffic. It’s a new metric that shows percentage of total possible clicks received by the advertiser’s shopping ads.

    “Let’s walk through an example of how to use click share to identify product groups with potential for more traffic to ensure your ads show prominently enough to maximize traffic to your site on Black Friday,” says Google Shopping product manager Dimitris Meretakis. “First, add the click share column on the Product groups tab. In this example, you see ‘winter coats’ with a click share of 30%. This means that you only got 30 out of every 100 possible clicks on your ‘winter coats’ ads. Second, take this opportunity to adjust your bids for ‘winter coats’ to make them more prominent. Third, make sure to check back frequently, especially for your most popular products, to closely monitor click share and continue to optimize bids.”

    “There is more you can do to ensure holiday success. In addition to driving traffic, you’ll want to fine-tune your campaigns to reach new shoppers and drive sales,” Meretakis adds.

    Google has created a Holiday Readiness Checklist and a Holiday Survival Checklist to help advertisers manage campaigns throughout the holiday season. The former is to get Shopping campaigns Black Friday-ready while the latter is to make changes to campaigns while they’re going and learn how to adjust bids.

    Image via Google

  • Google Shopping Guide To The Holidays In 3 Videos

    Well, it’s almost November, so if you haven’t started getting your holiday shopping campaigns ready, you better get your butt in gear. If you’re looking to reach shoppers through Google Shopping this holiday season, it’s a good time to take a look at some best practices.

    With that in mind, Google just released a trio of videos to give you a better handle on the best ways to manage your Shopping campaigns, get more of your products online, and optimize your campaigns.

    The first video walks you through “setting up realistic budgets and targets to maximize your reach on Google,” as the company puts it.

    The second discusses how to get your data feed into shape to show more products online so it’s easier for shoppers to find you.

    The third video goes over optimization fundamentals including how to drive traffic to your site and then optimize the traffic so you can improve your ROI.

    Google is advising advertisers to head to the Google Best Practices Help Center for more.

  • Google Launches Automated Extension For Shopping Ads

    Google Launches Automated Extension For Shopping Ads

    Google announced the launch of new automated extensions for shopping ads (PLAs). This is in reaction to advertisers promoting text to highlight special offers and free shipping.

    The extensions automatically show up with the ads without any extra cost to the advertiser, using existing info provided in the Merchant Center settings and data feeds. They show free shipping and price drop info as shoppers come across the ads.

    “Based on initial results, we’re seeing shoppers prefer these new automated extensions over promotional text and advertisers are getting better click through rates with it too,” says product manager Tom Beyer. “Thus, we’ll be retiring promotional text at the end of September 2015 and start surfacing automated extensions more frequently instead.”

    “For those who use promotional text, no additional action is needed,” he adds. “Your ads won’t be otherwise affected and will continue to reach shoppers searching on Google. If you want to highlight other offers aside from free shipping and sale prices, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of our other shopping extensions.”

    These include Merchant promotions for sharing discounts/promo codes, product ratings for displaying aggregated star ratings/links to customer reviews, and Trusted Stores certification.

    The extension’s availability varies by country.

    Image via AdWords

  • Google Shopping Gets New Bidding Solutions

    Google Shopping Gets New Bidding Solutions

    Google announced that its giving advertisers new bidding strategies for Shopping Campaigns, which will help them “go go beyond manual max CPC bidding to deliver specific bids for each auction, tailored to people’s context.”

    Under Bid Strategies, you’ll now find Maximize Clicks, Enhanced CPC, and Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).

    bidding

    Maximize Clicks is for those looking to get as much traffic as possible within their budget, as it automatically adjusts bids. The company says it’s a great way to promote doorbusters on your website or in-store with loal inventory ads.

    “If you want to manage your own bids or use a third-party bidding platform, enhanced CPC is your best bet,” says Google Shopping product management Dimitris Meretakis. “It dynamically optimizes on top of your bid in real-time so you get more conversions or sales at a similar cost. We’re seeing advertisers get as many as 7% more conversions at the same cost with eCPC!”

    “If you don’t have time to manage your bids manually and are revenue-driven, let target return on ad spend (ROAS) do the heavy bidding lifting,” Meretakis adds. “With target ROAS, you choose your desired ROAS and it’ll dynamically bid so products that’ll drive more revenue will get higher bids.”

    That option is actually in beta, and is only available to a small group of retailers, but those interested in using it can apply to be an early adopter. There’s a form here.

    Google says it will be looking for and investing in more ways to make campaign management and bidding more effective, so look out for more on that front.

    Images via Google

  • LinkedIn Publishing Platform Makes Global Push

    LinkedIn Publishing Platform Makes Global Push

    LinkedIn just announced that its publishing platform is going global with localized languages. It’s only been available in English until now, but today it’s becoming available in Portuguese. In the coming months, it will add more and more languages. German and French are next up on the list.

    As it expands into more languages, it will also feature Influencers in each one. That starts with nearly two dozen in Portuguese right away.

    “Over the past few weeks we’ve given early access to some of our members in Brazil, and we’re already seeing thousands of high-quality posts making their way onto LinkedIn,” says LinkedIn’s Angela Yang. “With nearly 22 million members in Brazil, the potential to reach a new audience, be discovered by like-minded professionals and expand the professional reach is tremendous. From building relationships and establishing themselves as experts, to landing new opportunities and growing their businesses — the benefits that LinkedIn members are experiencing make us even more excited to bring these tools to all of our members, around the globe.”

    “As professionals, we all have our own perspective on the world around us, but until recently, we didn’t always have the right platform to share it on,” she says. “That’s why it came as no surprise that when we made it possible for all English speaking members to publish long-form posts on LinkedIn, it quickly became one of the fastest growing features on the site. Today, LinkedIn has become known as the definitive professional publishing platform around the world.”

    Last month, LinkedIn announced that over a million people had published a post using the platform. They first opened it up to everyone in February of last year. The company says over a million unique publishers publish over 130,000 posts a week, and about 45% of readers are in the upper ranks of their industries, such as managers, VPs, and CEOs. The average post now reaches professionals in 21 industries and 9 countries, it says.

    In June, LinkedIn launched a new version of its Pulse news reader app, which makes use of the user’s LinkedIn network when determining what content to show them.

    Meanwhile, marketers are increasing their focus on LinkedIn. A recent study from Social Media Examiner asked marketers to select one social platform as the most important. 21% selected LinkedIn, second only to Facebook. For B2B businesses, LinkedIn beats out Facebook based on other studies.

    Image via LinkedIn

  • Google Merchant Center Gets New Feed Enhancements

    Google Merchant Center Gets New Feed Enhancements

    Google announced a pair of data feed enhancements for Google Merchant Center in an effort to help merchants better update their ads. One of them is geared toward large retailers while the other is for small ones.

    For large retailers, Google has added a new feed type called Online product inventory feeds, which let you quickly update price, availability, and sale price on key products. The reason why it’s geared toward big retailers is that they’re more likely to have to change such attributes more frequently.

    The feed allows you to submit new info throughout the day to update the attributes and/or submit updates for just a small subset of products. Google notes that if there’s an error in processing your feed, it won’t affect the full product feed. It allows allows fresher info to appear to consumers on Google Shopping.

    The other thing is a Google Sheets add-on, which lets you connect spreadsheets to Merchant Center for quicker uploads. This is geared toward small retailers because it makes it easier to get up and running with shopping ads.

    “Whether you use Google Sheets or text file formats to upload your products, these new data feed enhancements make it faster and easier to upload your most up-to-date product information to Google Shopping and find more customers online,” says Sven Herschel, Product Manager for Google Merchant Center.

    You can validate and/or upload products directly from Sheets. There sidebar in the add-on lets you validate individual rows ore the entire sheet so you can see potential errors and warnings before you upload the data feed. Also from the side-bar, you can upload your whole sheet into Merchant Center without leaving Sheets.

    If you have any trouble, you can take a look at this help article.

    Image via Google

  • Google Gives Manufacturers More Control Over Their Product Listings

    Google announced the launch of Google Manufacturer Center, which it describes as a tool for brand manufacturers to help them accurately represent their products to shoppers across Google.com, Google Shopping, and other Google services.

    Manufacturers can upload product data to the tool to make their product listings better. Data right from the manufacturer will be seen as authoritative.

    “With more than 100 billion searches per month, Google answers a significant number of the world’s product and shopping-related queries,” says Google’s Matt Henderson. “And online shoppers expect product information, such as images, descriptions and variants, to be accurate, rich and consistent. Manufacturer product data is critical to deliver this experience.”

    “In addition to ensuring their product data is accurate, manufacturers can also gain product level insights into the data they provide,” says Henderson. “For example, they’ll learn how many times their products appear on Google within a given timeframe and how many times shoppers click on their products versus competing products in their category.”

    manufacturer

    Manufacturers can upload their product data to Manufacturer Center itself or do so through an approved Google Shopping Partner like Salsify or Shotfarm.

    Google says interested manufacturers should fill out this interest form, and then the company will be in touch about the next steps. There’s also a help center article about it here.

    Images via Google

  • Google Just Revealed A Bunch Of New Shopping Features

    Google announced a bunch of new features for advertisers to encourage more sales from shoppers.

    For one, a new enhancement to product listing ads on mobile devices expands the ads as the user swipes to show more information such as product ratings and availability at nearby stores. Google says this will result in more qualified traffic driven directly to retailers.

    swipe

    The feature will hit Chrome for Android this month and iOS in the coming months.

    There are also new efforts in conversational search aimed at helping shoppers and advertisers.

    Vice President of product management Jonathan Alferness explains, “On searches for the top-rated products, such as ‘Best women’s Nike running shoes,’ we’re starting to show newly-designed shopping ads with authoritative rankings and product ratings. The new design is so helpful to those specific users that we’ve seen click-through-rate increases of up to 11% for retailers for these queries.3 Product queries that include ‘reviews’ or ‘recommendations’ are also increasingly common, so we’re showing new product review cards with product ratings and snippets from the most useful reviews from around the web. Finally, shoppers who want to learn more about a product’s features, like the resolution of the camera they’re considering purchasing, may now see a product attribute card with the most relevant information.”

    conversational

    Google is also going to start showing more local inventory ads than before, prioritizing them over over shopping ads on local intent shopping queries, such as “coffee maker near me”. Google says this increased clicks on shopping ads by 85% for such queries.

    coffee

    Google is also releasing two new shopping cards for Google Now – the in-store card, which appears when a shopper is near a store and the price drop card, which highlights price reductions.

    google-now-cards

    Google is working with select shopping apps like eBay, Flipkart, and Zalando to add dee plinks to their apps in the shopping ads.

    deep

    Finally, the new feature that is getting the most buzz is the ability to purchase right on Google.

    Alferness explains, “To help smartphone shoppers buy with ease from their favorite retailers, we’ll be testing Purchases on Google. When a shopper searches on mobile for a product such as “women’s hoodies”, she may see a shopping ad with ‘Buy on Google’ text. After clicking the ad, she’s taken to a retailer-branded product page hosted by Google. Checkout is seamless, simple, and secure, thanks to saved payment credentials in her Google Account.”

    POG - Under Armour

    Google says this leads to better mobile conversions because of a simplified checkout process, and those using it only pay for clicks on the shopping ads to the product page. Clicks and interactions on the product page (which Google hosts) are free. Google provides purchase protection for customers, but retailers “own the customer communication” and can offer the option to receive marketing and promotional messages.

    According to Google, mobile devices used before or during shopping trips influenced nearly a trillion dollars in the U.S. (about 28% of in-store sales).

    Images via Google

  • Google Updates Shopping Feed Specification, Product Taxonomy

    Google Updates Shopping Feed Specification, Product Taxonomy

    Google announced that it has updated its Google Shopping Feed Specification and its Google Product Taxonomy in order to create a “richer” experience for those searching for products online as well as to simplify the process for merchants.

    Updates require merchants to change their current product data, and they’ll have until September 15 to do so. Here’s a list of all the specific updates via the AdWords blog:

    Google Shopping Feed Specification

    – Units & Quantity attributes are now available for the US

    – We tightened guiding principles around the ID Attribute and GTINs

    – We disentangled Apparel and Variants attributes and expanded the requirements to Brazil. This revamped section is called: ‘Detailed Product Attributes and Item Groupings’

    – We are releasing stable numeric Google Product Category IDs that can also be provided as values for the Google Product Category attribute

    – We expanded the Shipping requirements to Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Japan to enable total price displays to users in these countries

    Google Shopping Product Taxonomy

    – We simplified many Google Product Taxonomy paths by rolling up a number of categories to their parent nodes

    – Most of the categories under Activewear are now included with their non-active counterparts, for example, ‘Active Skirts’ will now be found under ‘Skirts’

    – We added more categories to the verticals ‘Food, Beverages & Tobacco’ and ‘Mature’

    – Some verticals have undergone significant rework, and you may wish to revisit your provided Google Product Categories

    Starting on the date mentioned above, Google will start enforcing the feed specification update other than for shipping. Enforcement of that won’t begin until February 1.

    The Product Taxonomy changes aren’t required. They’re just recommended. More on the updates here.

  • Google Universal Search Trends You Should Be Paying Attention To

    Google Universal Search Trends You Should Be Paying Attention To

    The appearance of Google’s Product Listing Ads (PLAs) in search results grew by 118% throughout last year, according to a new study by Searchmetrics. The study also found that video results are blended into 55% of keyword search results ‒ with four in five of the videos coming from YouTube.

    Have you been seeing more results from Google services lately? Let us know in the comments.

    “Overall a key takeaway is that Google’s own products (Google PLAs, YouTube videos and Google Maps) are becoming more prominent in Universal Search,” a spokesperson for Searchmetrics tells WebProNews.

    The company looked at search results for “millions” of keywords and analyzed the appearance of Shopping, Video, Image, News and Map integrations. Overall, they found that four out of five keywords produced at least one Universal Search integration. Video was the most frequent, appearing in search results for 55% of keywords analyzed. Images appeared in 40%, while PLAs appeared in 16%. News results appeared in 13% and Maps results appeared in 7%.

    Searchmetrics put out this infographic illustrating its findings:

    The Growing Presence of PLAs

    The biggest story here is the increase PLAs have seen, particularly as this has been a hot topic with Google’s European antitrust investigation situation.

    “In the case of Google I am concerned that the company has given an unfair advantage to its own comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust rules,” said EU Commissioner in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager last month. “Google now has the opportunity to convince the Commission to the contrary. However, if the investigation confirmed our concerns, Google would have to face the legal consequences and change the way it does business in Europe.”

    According to Searchmetrics, “The share of Google Shopping PLA integrations more than doubled over the year, with the proportion of keywords for which at least one Google Shopping integration was displayed rising from 7.5% to 16% between January and December 2014 (there was a dip in the summer months, possibly because of the seasonal retail market slowdown). In total, Google Shopping PLA integrations account for 44% of all integrations shown across the millions of keywords analyzed – more than any other integration.”

    “The growth in the proportion of keywords for which Google Shopping Integrations are displayed represent increasing opportunities for retailers to buy Product Listing Ads and for Google to generate income from the now paid for Google Shopping service,” said Marcus Tober, CTO and founder of Searchmetrics.

    Video

    The firm’s video findings continue to to validate an increased focus on the medium on the part of businesses and marketers. While the percentage of search results pages showing video results actually fell over the course of 2014, videos appear more often than anything else by far.

    80% of videos displayed in Universal Search results came from YouTube. This certainly illustrates how important YouTube still is to marketing as Facebook has become a huge rival to the service.

    We recently looked at a study from Visible Measures, which found that for brands posting video campaigns to both channels, Facebook dominates viewership in the short term, but YouTube continues do so over the course of the video lifecycle. Search is obviously a big part of that.

    “If something is hot and of the moment, such as a newly released campaign, the Super Bowl, or even a cultural phenomenon like Fifty Shades of Grey, Facebook and similar social media sites are incredibly effective for driving the spread of timely content due to the trending nature of the News Feed,” said Visible Measures CEO Brian Shin. “But the strength of Facebook to promote trending content also highlights how powerful YouTube remains as a platform for continued viewership.”

    “Content discovery on Facebook is very much dependent on the Facebook News Feed, which is a function of what a user’s friends are sharing, as well as recommendations based on trends and a user’s interests. Because discovery is so dependent on sharing, viewership soon after content gets hot’ is strongest on Facebook,” Visible Measures added. “Conversely, YouTube acts as a depository for video and millions of users go there first, or arrive via Google search, to find video content. This user paradigm enables videos to have a much longer shelf-life on YouTube.”

    Meanwhile, a study from Advertiser Perceptions and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) found that 68% of marketers and agency execs expect their digital video ad budgets to increase over the course of the next year.

    Maps

    While the number of results returning maps content in Universal Search integrations is still much smaller than the numbers for videos, images, and PLAs, it’s worth noting that there’s significant growth here. In January 2014 only 2% of search terms delivered map integrations, but it was at 7% by December.

    “The more frequent appearance of map integrations in search results may be due to the fact that Google is skewing search engine results pages in favor of localized results which are becoming more important as search results become increasingly individual and more searches are conducted on mobile devices,” said Tober.

    Indeed, Google said in a blog post on Tuesday that more Google searches now take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan.

    What do you think about the direction Google’s search results pages are heading in? Discuss.

    Image via Searchmetrics

  • It’s Now Easier To Become A Google Trusted Store

    It’s Now Easier To Become A Google Trusted Store

    Google has made some changes to its Google Trusted Stores certification program that should make it easier for merchants to earn the badge, which can help earn the trust of people shopping from Google.

    About Google Trusted Stores

    Google first launched Trusted Stores back in the fall of 2011. Merchants were required to share data about shipments with Google to participate in the program, and they got a badge to display.

    Since then, Google has made a number of improvements to the program. In 2012, Google added the badge to search ads. Later that year, Google acquired KikScore, which offered its own online trust score system, to improve the program. In 2013, Google added the badges to the now defunct Google Affiliate Network. Later, it expanded Trusted Stores to more parts of the world after only offering it in the U.S. It also started using the program to help power seller ratings on AdWords ads. Last fall, Google added HTTPs support to the program.

    Qualified stores can display the badge on their sites, and on Google Shopping. Customers will be offered free purchase protection by Google after making a purchase (on orders up to $1,000).

    What’s New with Trusted Stores?

    Google has simplified the application process for the program. Now, merchants need only to create an account and add a couple snippets of code to their site. They’re no longer required to submit shipment and cancellation feeds, and can now specify a custom position for the Trusted Stores badge on their site.

    “Reviews collected through Google Trusted Stores help you qualify for seller ratings, which show on your AdWords text ads and Google Shopping,” says Google Shopping product manager Michaela Feller. “This integration provides shoppers with helpful information, while giving you a free way to earn the rating you deserve.”

    “You can also enrich your AdWords ads by displaying your Google Trusted Stores status through a review extension,” Feller adds. “Review extensions are displayed on a separate line in your AdWords ads and may increase their clickthrough rates.”

    The changes were made in the UK, Germany, France, Australia, and Japan a few months ago. Google says it has already led to hundreds of merchants becoming Trusted Stores in those countries.

    You can apply here.

    Images via Google

  • Google Partners Gets Google Shopping Certification

    Google recently announced the addition of a Google Shopping exam and certification to Google Partners. This is only available in the U.S. for now.

    Google said in a Google+ post:

    If you are an agency specializing in Merchant Center and Shopping campaign management, you can now get certified in AdWords by completing both the Shopping and AdWords Fundamentals exams. A certification shows to potential business partners that Google recognizes you as an online advertising professional that can successfully manage Shopping campaigns.

    The Shopping exam will test your proficiency in Merchant Center account creation, product data, Shopping campaigns management and optimization best practices. To take the test, start by creating a profile [http://goo.gl/Tzodw7] on Google Partners today. All exams will be listed under the “Certifications” section.

    There’s a study guide for the exam here. There’s also a refresher course here.

    Image via Google

  • Google Adds Impression Share By Device To Campaign, Ad Group Tabs In Shopping Campaigns

    Google announced that it has impression share by device on the Campaign and Ad Group tabs in Shopping campaigns.

    “More than ever, people are shopping on mobile devices,” says Google. “As marketers it is important to reach these mobile shoppers and address missed opportunities, especially throughout the holidays.”

    Google recently announced the launch of impression share by device in the Auction Insights report. That was the first time this info was available for Shopping Campaigns.

    “To make this information more accessible and give you more flexibility in reporting, you can now view impression share for computers, mobile devices and tablets at the Campaign and Ad group level,” Google explains. “Look at your Lost IS (rank) segmented by device to see your mobile share of voice and use Auction insights to understand how you stack up against your competition. Use this information to determine which Ad groups or Campaigns have the most mobile opportunity and increase your mobile bid modifier to achieve your desired goals. In addition to an increase in impression share, increasing your mobile bid modifier makes your ads more likely to appear in the first portion of the mobile ad unit, where CTR can increase by up to 3X.”

    That little stat comes from Global Google internal data in November.

    Image via Google

  • Google Search Adds Mobile Black Friday Feature

    Google announced the addition of a new Black Friday feature to Google Search on mobile devices. The company notes that a lot of people will be standing in line at stores using their phones this weekend, so this will cater to them.

    Users will be able to search for specific products on their phones (or tablets) and get more detailed information, including where to buy it, which stores have it available, and product reviews from customers. This includes rotating images that let you get a 360-degree view.

    “It used to be that heading out to stores on Black Friday — one of the biggest holiday shopping days of the season — was the best way to find great deals,” says product manager Jennifer Liu. “Now, we may be carrying the best tool for finding deals in our pockets.”

    “This coming weekend, expect to see many of your fellow shoppers checking for deals on their smartphones while braving the lines and crowds at the mall,’ Liu adds. “Nearly 50% of 25-34 year-olds use their phone to shop online while standing in line at a store. And because we want to help you research products more easily this holiday weekend, we’re rolling out new mobile features to Google Shopping.”

    According to Google, 27% of shoppers have already begun looking for Black Friday deals online. The top questions Google is seeing include: What time do stores open on Black Friday?; What time does Black Friday start?; When does Black Friday end?; and What to buy on black friday.

    Google shares more related trends here.

    Image via Google

  • Google Expands Merchant Promotions

    Google Expands Merchant Promotions

    Back in 2012, Google launched Merchant Promotions, which enabled retailers in the United States show promotions alongside their Product Listing Ads on Google’s search results pages and on Google Shopping. Google announced this week that it is now expanding this offering to retailers in more countries.

    Now, retailers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia and India will be able to take advantage of the promotions.

    “Participating US retailers have seen improved performance from their Product Listing Ads,” writes product manager Christina Ilvento in a blog post. “For example, Venus’s PLAs with Merchant Promotions had a seven percent higher clickthrough rate (CTR), a two percent higher conversion rate, and an 11 percent lower cost-per-click (CPC) than their standard PLAs.”

    Google actually has a case study on the Venus campaign available here.

    There’s a “Getting Started” guide for the promotions available here, and those who wish to participate are asked to get in touch with Google via this form.

    Image via Google

  • Google Introduces AdSense For Shopping

    Google Introduces AdSense For Shopping

    Google has extended its shopping ads to third-party sites with AdSense for Shopping, which lets sites serve ads from Shopping Campaigns. The offering is currently only available to a handful of publishers in retail and commerce.

    Here’s what it looks like:

    Google says as it extends the offering to more publishers, it expects advertisers with Product LIsting Ads opted into search partners to see increased traffic to their sites.

    “Extending your Shopping Campaigns to these sites helps you reach qualified users beyond google.com and Google Shopping,” says product manager Jesse Adkins. “Your Product Listing Ads show alongside contextually relevant results, determined by the user’s search, the product category or the product name. For example, if you sell tailgating grills on Google Shopping and a user searches tailgating grill on a retail partner’s site, your Product Listing Ads may be eligible to appear.”

    Google notes that opting PLAs into search partners won’t affect quality score on google.com.

    There’s a form you can fill out here if you’re interested in participating in AdSense for Shopping.

    Image via Google

  • Google Gets Advertisers Ready For Shopping Campaign Upgrade

    If you’re reading this, you’re probably aware that regular Google Product Listing Ad campaigns are getting the axe. They’ll be officially retired at the end of the month. In the meantime, Google is preparing advertisers for the upgrade to Shopping Campaigns.

    You may have a lot of questions about this, which is precisely why Google hosted this hangout to discuss things. If the upgrade applies to you, you probably ought to watch it. The Google Shopping team answers questions from the community.

    Last week, Google launched a new Shopping Campaign upgrade tool. More on that here.

    Here’s an overview of Shopping Campaigns’ new features:

    Image via YouTube

  • Google Merchant Center Gets Shipping Configuration Tool

    Google Merchant Center Gets Shipping Configuration Tool

    Google announced this week that it has launched a new shipping configuration tool in Merchant Center aimed at making it easier to configure shipping rates. The idea is that this will help merchants’ prices remain consistent with what Google shows users.

    “Imagine a shopper has searched for a product on Google Shopping and found the perfect offer at the perfect total price inclusive of shipping,” explain Angelika Rohrer and Sven Herschel of the Google Shopping Team. “They reach checkout on the merchant’s site only to realize that the final price differs from what they’ve seen on Google due to inaccurate shipping costs. Our users consistently tell us this is a primary source of frustration.”

    The tool lets you select from more shipping methods, including customizable methods based on a hierarchical set of rules. You can differentiate between various shipping methods (like ground versus express) for the same country. This lets Google display the lowest possible price to the user.

    It also lets you configure rates based on shipping destination using countries, states, or cities. You can indicate when products don’t shop to certain regions, and create a repository of shipping methods to reuse across configurations.

    The company also added a new shipping attribute to assign a shipping label to specific products.

    “You can configure shipping rates based on this label,” the team says. “For example, you could apply a label like ‘perishable’ or ‘bulky’ to a group of products requiring special shipping rates or a label specific for promotional items. After adding this attribute to a group of items, you may manage or configure the custom rate in shipping settings in Merchant Center.”

    Google says it has already migrated current shipping settings to the new tool, and it doesn’t require any updates.

    Image via Google