WebProNews

Tag: PLAs

  • 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 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

  • Google Releases New Shopping Campaign Features

    Google Releases New Shopping Campaign Features

    Google announced the launch of some new features for its Shopping Campaigns. These include an auction insights report, a revamped search impression share, device/time segmentation, bid simulator columns, and a flattened view of product groups.

    The auction insights report lets advertisers compare Product Listing Ad performance to other advertisers participating in the same auctions.

    “With impression share, overlap rate and outranking share, you’re able to see trends amongst your peers and strategic opportunities to improve your bidding strategies,” says product manager Dimitris Meretakis.

    Google says search impression share has been revamped to be more useful and aligned with text ads.

    “You can now analyze your share of voice at the granularity you want with Search impression share in the Dimensions tab,” said Meretakis. “You’ll know which campaigns are limited by a low budget with Lost IS (budget) and which ones need further optimization with Lost IS (rank). Note that we now calculate Search impression share at account level so you may notice a change in impression share between October and November.”

    With device and time segmentation, advertisers can see if competitors received more mobile impressions than they did over the weekend. Bid simulator columns show what results could have been like if the advertiser had set different bids.

    Finally, the flattened view of product groups presents another way to analyze performance, letting you sort product groups within an ad group based on performance data.

    More on all of this here.

    Images 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 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 Launches Shopping Campaign Upgrade Tool

    Google Launches Shopping Campaign Upgrade Tool

    Google just announced a new Shopping Campaigns upgrade tool for advertisers preparing to switch their campaign to the new format. Regular Product Listing Ads will be retired and replaced by Shopping Campaigns at the end of the month anyway.

    The tool lets advertisers create a Shopping Campaign from their regular PLA campaign, with a structure and bids based on that along with historical performance data.

    “If you haven’t started your upgrade, we encourage you to use this tool as a jumping off point for your Shopping campaigns,” says Eric Tholomé, Director of Product Management for Google Shopping. “Be sure to check your campaign budgets, settings and bids so they’re customized to your business needs.”

    “Note that not all campaigns are compatible with this upgrade tool,” notes Tholomé. “If, for example, you use AdWords labels or groupings in your product targeting or inventory filters, you must update your data feed with custom labels before you use the upgrade tool, unless you’re happy to use another attribute to subdivide your inventory in AdWords directly.”

    The tool can be found in the Settings tab of Product Listing Ads campaigns.

    Here’s an overview of Shopping Campaign features:

    Image via Google

  • Google Adds Ratings To Product Listing Ads

    Google Adds Ratings To Product Listing Ads

    Google announced that it’s adding product ratings to product listing ads (PLAs). Starting in the U.S., users will see star ratings and review counts on PLAs across Google.com and Google.com/shopping.

    The five-star rating system is based on aggregated rating and review data for the product compiled from various sources, which include merchants, third-party aggregators, editorial sites and users.

    “We believe these ratings will help differentiate products across google.com and google.com/shopping and will help merchants drive more qualified traffic through Product Listing Ads,” says product manager Mike Capsambelis. “In initial tests, product ratings also helped increase click-through-rates of Product Listing Ads.”

    The ratings are available to merchants targeting the U.S., who share product review content with Google. The company is giving merchants a grace period through October to share their review content (which can come directly from the merchant or from an approved third party aggregator). During the grace period, Google will allow product ratings to be shown across all PLAs where it has product review data available. Afterwards, it will only show ratings for products from merchants who choose to share the data.

    “Product ratings are one of several extensions we may show with Product Listing Ads, so please note that just because a product has reviews does not mean that we’ll always show rating,” says Capsambelis.

    You can submit review content here.

    More countries will be launched in the coming months.

    Image via Google

  • Google Launches Management Tools For Shopping Campaigns

    Google announced a couple new tools to help advertisers scale their Google Shopping campaigns: bulk uploads and a new version of AdWords Editor.

    With the former, advertisers can download a product group report, edit bids and destination URLs, and important their changes using bulk uploads. The new AdWords Editor lets you edit your bids and destinations URLs for individual product groups at scale, as Google explains.

    “With less than eight weeks left until regular Product Listing Ad (PLA) campaigns retire, we’re excited that the majority of PLA advertisers have already started taking advantage of Shopping campaigns, and 85% of these have already fully upgraded,” says Eric Tholomé, Director of Product Management for Google Shopping. “Advertisers who’ve upgraded like Farfetch, US Mattress, LiBoutique and ValuePetSupplies are seeing great success thanks to the retail-centric interface, item-level reporting and competitive benchmark data.”

    The new AdWords Editor doesn’t support Shopping campaign creation or product groups. Google says to plan time to create campaigns and subdivide product groups directly in AdWords.

    All regular product listings ad campaigns will retire at the end of August as advertisers are told to upgrade to Shopping campaigns.

    Image via Google

  • Google Shopping Results Now Rank Products On Some Queries

    It appears that Google is now ranking products by their ratings in some Google Shopping results – the sponsored results that appear either at the top or on the right of the search results page.

    Jon Gregoire at CPC Strategy Blog (via Search Engine Land) points this out, looking at queries for “coffee grinders” and “best coffee grinders”. If you include the word “best” you get the rankings.

    Here’s “best samsung phones”:

    Here’s “best sony tvs”:

    Curiously, there doesn’t appear to be consistency if you use the word “best” or “top”.

    Here’s “top sony tvs”:

    Why does it change?

    According to Ginny Marvin at Search Engine Land, the feature is just a test. Give it a try, and see if you get the rankings on any queries.

    Images via Google

  • Here’s A Closer Look At How To Use Google’s New Shopping Campaigns

    Google is really pushing the Shopping Campaigns. The company just announced AdWords API support as well as beta support in DoubleClick Search (part of the Commerce Suite).

    Now, they’ve uploaded an hour-long hangout discussing the campaign type for those looking to get started.

    Shopping Campaigns were first announced last fall, and then launched to everybody last month.

    There’s also a video series about Shopping Campaigns available here, if you haven’t checked that out yet.

    Image via Google

  • Google Adds Shopping Campaign Support To Doubleclick Search

    As reported earlier, Google has added support for Shopping Campaigns to the AdWords API.

    The company has also now announced that DoubleClick Search is getting beta support for Shopping Campaigns as well. This is part of the Doubleclick Search Commerce Suite.

    Google says clients should reach out to their account managers for access.

    Google first announced Shopping Campaigns, a new PLA campaign type, last fall. Last month, they opened up the format for everybody.

    “With this release, we’ve integrated AdWords’ streamlined, flexible workflows and powerful reporting tools for Shopping campaigns seamlessly with the DoubleClick Search platform,” Google says in a blog post.

    It goes on to say that this will help advertisers “efficiently create and manage Shopping campaigns with faster workflow and automation tools” and “surface insights quickly with real-time, product-centric reporting.”

    Last week, the Doubleclick Search Commerce Suite also got new Channel Intelligence data feed integration.

  • AdWords API Gets Support For Shopping Campaigns

    AdWords API Gets Support For Shopping Campaigns

    Google announced that the AdWords API is now available for all Shopping Campaigns to help you create and manage them at scale.

    The company says it is currently working with external agencies and search management platforms to add Shopping Campaign support.

    Google first announced Shopping Campaigns, a new PLA campaign type, last fall. Last month, they opened up the format for everybody.

    “Shopping campaigns offer a streamlined, retail-centric advertising experience with robust reporting and insightful competitive metrics like benchmark data and impression share,” says Eric Tholomé, Director of Product Management for Google Shopping, in a blog post.

    They enable advertisers to browse their product inventory in AdWords and create product groups for bidding.

    “For example, if you’re a fashion retailer, you’ll see what types of shoes are in your data feed and how many boots you can promote,” explained Google VP of Product Management Sameer Samat. “You use the product attributes derived from your data feed such as Google product category, product type, brand, condition, item id and custom labels to organize your inventory into product groups. Custom labels are a new, structured way to tag your products in your data feed with attributes that matter to you, such as ‘margin’ to separate your high- and low-margin products.”

    A video tutorial series for Shopping Campaigns is available here. Google will also be hosting a webinar on the topic today.

  • Google Adds Trusted Stores To Ratings In AdWords Ads

    Google announced that its Trusted Stores program is now helping to power seller ratings on AdWords text ads, and in Product Listing Ads for Google Shopping.

    “This integration provides shoppers with valuable information, while giving participating retailers a free and easy way to earn the ratings they deserve,” says Google Shopping group product manager Brian Marquardt. “Advertisers who display seller ratings on their ads typically see a boost in AdWords click-through rates, with higher ratings generally resulting in higher click-through rates.”

    Google Trusted Stores

    “Millions of people now see the Google Trusted Stores badge on retailer sites and in Google ads every day,” says Marquardt. “In fact, we’ve more than tripled US store participation in the last year. Because shoppers value the badge, many of these stores are seeing sales growth. For instance, OnlineShoes measured a 4.2% sales increase from the Google Trusted Stores badge, and AutoAnything saw an increase of 5.2%.”

    Google Trusted Stores

    Google first launched Trusted Stores back in 2011, but began testing the badges on search ads last spring with certain qualified merchants and advertisers.

    Earlier this month, Google announced the further expansion of Google Shopping into 8 more countries, as well as the expansion of Google Trusted Stores into 3 more.

    Images: Google

  • Etsy Starts Taking Translation Seriously [Updated]

    Etsy Starts Taking Translation Seriously [Updated]

    Update: If comments from Etsy users are any indication, Etsy is perhaps not taking translation as seriously as it ought to be (See comments at end of article).

    Etsy announced on Tuesday that it has added millions of local language listings in French, German, Italian, and Spanish-speaking countries. This is a major effort in the company’s international expansion.

    While Etsy is already selling merchandise in 200 countries, and has had the site translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian, until now, most of the listings still only appeared in English. You can see why this might have been a problem for users speaking these other languages trying to search for items to buy.

    Etsy is rolling out automatic translation of all sellers’ listings into English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian, and is making them available in local language searches. Obviously this means a great deal more potential for selling items as well.

    Etsy translation

    “The result is a dramatic increase in the listings that appear in these local languages — in some cases, up from thousands to millions of listings,” says Etsy’s Brittany Williams. “This is a huge opportunity for increased sales to buyers around the world looking for the unique, one-of-a-kind items found on Etsy, who may have been stumped previously by English-only listings. Note: You need to support shipping to these markets in order for your listings to show up in local search results.”

    Etsy says that if you’re already doing your own translations, you should continue to do so, but for those who aren’t, the company’s efforts should help a great deal.

    The new translations also apply to listings on Google Shopping and its product listing ads (which Etsy sayshas been a huge source of traffic).

    “Since we launched GPLA, they’ve generated over 73 million visits and have become an increasingly important source of site traffic, including many new visitors to Etsy,” says Williams. “We’ll begin with GPLA in French and German and will be launching them soon in Spanish and Italian. We hope this will drive additional holiday traffic to your shops, especially from new customers!”

    Finally, the company is launching a tool for sellers that lets them translate on-site messages to and from buyers and a world map view and ship-to suggestions in Shop Stats.

    Image: Etsy

  • Google Shopping & Google Trusted Stores Expand To More Of The World

    Google Shopping & Google Trusted Stores Expand To More Of The World

    In two separate announcements, Google revealed that it is expanding Google Shopping into 8 more countries and Google Trusted Stores into 3.

    Google launched Trusted Stores in the U.S. two years ago, but they have not gone international until now. Google started testing pilot programs in the UK and France last week, and is also introducing one in Australia.

    “Our goal with Google Trusted Stores is to give shoppers the reassurance they need to shop confidently online at a broad set of stores,” says Google Shopping group product manager Brian Marquardt. “And we also aim to help excellent merchants expand their e-commerce businesses. Based on the success stories that we’ve seen in the US, we expect that participating in Google Trusted Stores will drive meaningful increases in online sales in other countries as well.”

    In France, Google is working with Spartoo, Shoes.fr, Maisons du Monde, Wanimo and Tati. In the UK, it’s schuh, gorgeousshop, ghd, Trueshopping.co.uk, BestBathrooms.com, PhysioRoom.com, Wayfair.co.uk, Spartoo UK and Rubbersole. In Australia, retailers include: Kogan, DealsDirect, MilanDirect and Surfstich.

    Google Shopping, meanwhile, is launching in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Mexico, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Turkey. Users in these countries will start seeing more Product Listing Ads when searching shopping-related queries.

    Image: Google

  • Google Launches New PLA Campaign Type: Shopping Campaigns

    The entire Google Shopping experience is based on Google’s product listing ads (PLAs), and now Google has introduced a new campaign type for PLAs called “Shopping campaigns”.

    Here’s a look:

    “Shopping campaigns streamline how you manage and bid on your products, report on your performance, and find opportunities to grow your traffic from Google,” says Google VP of Product Management Sameer Samat.

    With this campaign type, advertisers can browse their product inventory in AdWords and create product groups for bidding.

    “For example, if you’re a fashion retailer, you’ll see what types of shoes are in your data feed and how many boots you can promote,” explains Samat. “You use the product attributes derived from your data feed such as Google product category, product type, brand, condition, item id and custom labels to organize your inventory into product groups. Custom labels are a new, structured way to tag your products in your data feed with attributes that matter to you, such as ‘margin’ to separate your high- and low-margin products.”

    The Products tab will show a full list of all approved products and their attributes.

    Shopping campaigns also include the ability to view performance data by product or product attribute. Performance metrics are associated with the item, and not the product group, so data can filtered and segmented by product attributes. It includes Google product category, product type, brand, condition, item id and custom labels.

    Advertisers can add benchmark columns in the Product Groups tab to see the estimated average CTR and CPC for other advertisers with similar products. Impression share columns are on the way.

    Shopping campaigns are only available to a limited number of advertisers for now, but they’ll be rolling out gradually in the U.S., and to the rest of the world by early 2014.

    Google will also launch API support next year.

  • Google Says Its New Mobile PLA Style Will Drive More Traffic To Retailers

    Google Says Its New Mobile PLA Style Will Drive More Traffic To Retailers

    Google announced that it is changing the way the mobile PLA (product listing ads) ad unit looks on Google.com. The update is designed to help shoppers browse and discover merchandise more easily while using their mobile device.

    “People are increasingly turning to their mobile devices as shopping assistants at home, in stores, and on the go, and constant connectivity is helping shoppers find the products they want, whenever they want,” Google Shopping group product manager Jennifer Liu said in a blog post. “Google Shopping connects people looking for products with the best places to buy both online and in local stores, and there are big opportunities for retailers to connect with mobile shoppers using mobile Product Listing Ads (PLA), particularly as we head into the holiday retail season.”

    Here’s what mobile PLAs will look like going forward:

    Mobile PLAs

    With the new style, users can swipe through products without having to leave the search results page. Product images and titles are also larger than before.

    As a result of the new style, more businesses have a chance of hitting the initial search results page. Google says that it is driving more traffic to retailers, based on early tests.

    In the blog post, Google shares a couple examples of retailers who have benefited. REVOLVEclothing.com, Google says, grew mobile PLA campaign clicks by 371%, conversions by 537% and mobile return on ad spend by 77%. There’s a case study here.

    Image: Google

  • Google Adds Local To Google Shopping, Product Listing Ads

    Google Adds Local To Google Shopping, Product Listing Ads

    Google announced on Monday that it has begun rolling out a couple new features for Google Shopping with an emphasis on local merchants. These would be local storefronts and local availability for product listing ads (on desktop and smartphones).

    When a user searches for a product on Google, they may now see a PLA from a local store, and land on a local storefront page when they click click it. From there, the user will be able to browse the local store’s inventory.

    Google Shopping Local Results

    “Both local availability for Product Listing Ads and the local storefront are based on a local product feed managed through Google Merchant Center, which allows retailers to provide users with up-to-date, item-level price and availability information for each physical store,” says Google Shopping senior product manager Paul Bankhead. “Participating retailers pay for clicks on the Product Listing Ad to the local storefront on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. All clicks and interactions on the local storefront are free. Retailers can also see separate local click performance.”

    “These local features help retailers leverage the scale of Google Shopping to market items sold in their physical stores,” he adds. “They’re currently available to a limited set of US retailers, and we look forward to making them more widely available in the coming months.”

    Local merchants who wish to participate in the new features are encouraged to fill out a form here.

    This is at least one piece of good news for local merchants hoping to get more customers from search as Google’s local listings have been heavily criticized lately.

  • Bing About To Get Google-Like Product Listing Ads [Exclusive]

    We spoke with David Pann, GM of Microsoft’s Search Network, and he tells us that we can expect Bing’s version of product listing ads sometime this year. This may raise a few eyebrows, considering Bing’s heavy campaigning against Google’s PLA-based Google Shopping model, but rest assured, Bing’s not about to start a paid-only model for its shopping results.

    Would you test the waters with Bing’s product listing ads? Let us know in the comments.

    Just in time for the holidays, Bing launched a big anti Google Shopping campaign advising people not to get “Scroogled”. This was in response to Google’s transition to a paid inclusion model for shopping results.

    “Merchants must now pay Google to be listed in the shopping results, and how much they pay helps determine how they appear in the rankings, so now every ‘result’ is really just an ad,” a Bing spokesperson told us at the time. “Unfortunately most consumers are unaware of this change because the disclaimers are not easily discoverable.”

    We don’t have much in the way of details about Bing’s coming product listing ads (even their official name), but Pann says it’s not going to result in a pay to play system for Bing Shopping the way Google Shopping is set up. Google Shopping (as of October in the U.S. and since in other countries) is based solely on PLAs, but Bing will retain free listings as well. Pann says there is room for free and paid to co-exist.

    When we talked with Bing’s Stefan Weitz in December, he told us, “The problem with Google’s Shopping results is that they look like search. They act like search. But everything one sees in the ‘search’ experience is bought and paid for.”

    “In stark contrast, we simply don’t take money in exchange for ranking. Period,” he said. “The vast majority of our product listings come either from free feeds given to us by merchants and our crawler. Yes, it’s harder. Yes, it costs us more money to make sure we offer a quality shopping experience. But at least it’s still real search.”

    “One of Danny’s issues is that we accept feeds from third party aggregators like Shopping.com and PriceGrabber,” Weitz continued, referring to a Danny Sullivan article criticizing Bing for engaging in some of the practices it seemed to be calling out Google for. “A merchant may pay to have their products listed in one of those third party sites. We, in turn, get feeds from those sites to make sure we have a complete product offering catalog. And if a customer happens to buy a product from a merchant who has paid one of the third party shopping sites to be listed, we do get a portion of that click revenue. But – and this is important – we DO NOT take into account the fact a merchant paid a third party when we rank our product offers. If we manage to get paid, it’s a happy accident. Unlike Google, it isn’t our business model.”

    Pann expects the product listing ads to come to market sometime this calendar year.

    Bing product listing ads have been spotted in the wild in the past. Last summer, RKG shared some screenshots of what Microsoft was testing at the time.

    Bing PLAs

    It’s unclear at this point if the finished product will look just like these. Pann did say the product would be similar to Google’s PLAs. He also noted that some “alpha testers” have been using them.

    There has pretty much been nothing but positive data coming out about Google’s PLAs lately (positive for Google and for advertisers). In fact, Adobe recently shared some data with us indicating that Google PLA spend alone is nearly that of Yahoo Bing Network spend in the U.S.

    Still, Yahoo Bing Network continues to take away market share from Google piece by piece. Microsoft points to independent data from firms like RKG showing that Microsoft’s Bing Ads and the Yahoo Bing Network have seen positive momentum already this year, and that Bing Ads have gained paid search spend share from Google for the fourth quarter in a row.

    Pann attributes the Bing Ads momentum to a variety of factors. One is new ad formats like its version of sitelinks, which Pann says have seen rapid adoption. According to Pann, advertisers come over with the mentality of “It performs well over there [Google], so it will here too.”

    Another factor, Pann says, has been Microsoft’s efforts in reducing friction for advertisers and making the system easier to use. He says Microsoft has adopted the philosophy of “what takes 45 minutes in AdWords should take 15 minutes with Bing Ads”. He also says the Google Import Feature has been a key factor, in its availability for the desktop tool, the API, and the user interface. Adoption of the feature, he says, has taken off.

    Similar capabilities will likely be implemented in other tools in the future. He notes that Google’s agreement with the FTC (the part related to ad campaign data portability) is an important step in that regard.

    Microsoft and Pann appear quite pleased with the level of success Bing Ads have seen in recent months, but Pann says, “We’re not finished by any means.”

    The new product listing ads are just one thing Microsoft has up its sleeve for the year. Also on the horizon are Bing Ad Express (aimed at Small Businesses) and Click-to-Call ads with Skype integration. More on those here.

    Are you looking forward to Bing offering product listing ads? Let us know in the comments.

  • Another Great Report For Google Product Listing Ads

    Google Shopping is turning out to be a hit for Google and for advertisers, it seems. We keep seeing report after report come out with nothing but positive data.

    Earlier this month, we looked at data from Kenshoo indicating that Google’s Product Listing Ads (on which Google Shopping is based) are proving way more effective than text ads. Not long after that, we spoke with Adobe, who shared some similar findings.

    Today, a report from Wired discusses data from Marin Software finding that advertisers managing $4 billion annually in ad campaigns spent 600% more on Google PLAs after Google’s transition to Google Shopping in October, and that the PLAs were generating 210% higher clickthrough rates than the text ads from the previous year.

    Google PLAs - Marin Software

    On a semi-related note, Google recently launched a beta for Google Shopping For Suppliers for B2B-specific searches, though currently, it only includes electrical and electronic results.

    [image via Wired]

  • Adobe: Google PLA Spend Nearly The Size Of Yahoo-Bing Spend (US)

    Kenshoo recently released some research about Google’s Product Listing Ads (PLAs), the ads that power Google Shopping. The report indicated that PLAs are more effective than text ads, with higher return on ad spend, clickthrough rates, and conversion rates and lower cost-per-click.

    Today, Adobe released some new findings on the U.S. search advertising industry, with more ubpeat news for PLAs. We spoke with Sid Shah, Director of Business Analytics at Adobe, who walked us through the findings. According to Shah, Google’s PLA model has had a major impact on overall retail.

    He says Google increased its marketshare of retail spend by 0.6% in a year to 86.5%, and that almost all its growth came from PLAs. In Q4, PLAs accounted for 10.7% of overall spend, he says, indicating that Google’s PLA program is only a little smaller than the Yahoo Bing network, which is 13.8% of total retail ad spend, he says.

    Retail Spend in Q4

    Perhaps this has something to do with why Bing has been campaigning so hard against Google’s switch to the current PLA-based Google Shopping model. Shah would not comment on Bing, but tells us he thinks the marketplace is moving toward this kind of model, noting that Amazon also has a PLA program. Any savvy search engine, he says, will try different formats.

    “The growth of PLA spend was gradual,” says Shah. “As Google transitioned its Google Shopping program to the paid model in early October, PLA spend and impression share increased with the onset of the holiday shopping season. By mid December PLA spend accounted for 17% of all advertiser spend on Google. As the holiday season ramped down, PLA spend dropped too. Thus, it remains to be seen at which final level PLA spend stabilizes.”

    PLA as percentage of total Google

    “Comparing PLA vs. standard text ads provides us with some interesting insights,” says Shah. “First, PLAs have a 34% higher Click Through Rate (CTR) than non-PLA ads, which is not surprising given the ads pictorial format (compared to standard Google text ads). Second, the average order value (AOV) for PLA ads is 12% lower than standard ads. Again, this is not surprising given that prices are shown on PLA ads. We surmise PLAs attract more bargain conscious shoppers who pick retailers offering the lowest price for a product of interest. Third, ROI and CPCs on PLA ads are comparable to standard ads too. Thus, the market has seamlessly rationalized the price of PLA ads so that their performance is comparable to the standard ad ROI.”

    PLA vs Text

    One of the main takeaways, Shah says, is that retailers should consider how PLAs played such a significant role during the past retail season, and think about optimizing coming PLA campaigns for from both the bid and feed management perspectives.

    For more of Shah’s findings, take a look at his blog post, which also looks at some interesting trends in mobile and tablets.