This week, the Productcaster team will be attending and speaking at the ad:tech London 2018 event.
ad:tech is one of the largest marketing and advertising technology conferences in the UK and boasts over 250 expert speakers. These speakers will bring you insights from across the industry, and with dedicated theatres filled with like-minded professionals, you can soak up the knowledge around the latest marketing and advertising technology that is changing the way retailers work.
John Readman, Commercial Director of Productcaster, will be speaking at the Headline Theatre at ad:tech on Thursday 27th September about how to optimise Google Shopping campaigns at peak.
It is essential to understand how to target your customers and how to time your spend correctly with Google Shopping. But due to misinformation and poor understanding of performance-driven factors, the majority of retailers are not equipped to gain the best return on investment during peak.
Our team have helped established online retailers benefit from our comparison shopping service. From the likes of Argos, Durex, Joules and more, Productcaster helps save retailers time and money on their shopping campaigns. At John’s talk, you’ll learn about technologies that can help you or your clients improve the strategy behind peak campaigns.
Do you want to learn more about how you can maximise sales and drive better comparison shopping performance by gaining insights from John and the team? If you’re attending ad:tech and you’d like to meet for a coffee and a chat with our team about how Productcaster can help your business, pre-book an appointment by calling John on 07912214901 or emailing john.readman@productcaster.com.
There are different strategies to get the most from Google’s new Comparison Shopping Service (CSS), so if you’re a retailer it is important to carefully select the right partner for you.
To get you up to speed, following Google’s EU fine last year, an effort is being made by the multinational technology company to improve the current competition of the shopping auction. This has been implemented through training and certification process in order to identify key comparison shopping partners. And as one of Google’s CSS partners, we get asked a lot of questions from clients who have been given incorrect information. So, we’re here to put the record straight.
By speaking with clients interested in adopting CSS we’ve discovered there’s a lot of information out there that is conflicting and often inaccurate. This, partnered with the urgency of getting live, means we wanted to provide everything you need to know in one helpful place.
Why is CSS beneficial for retailers?
Jumping onboard with the CSS initiative means you can save up to 20% on your Google Shopping costs. Retailers are also able to get more traffic to their site for the same amount of money and enter categories into the auction that were previously too competitive or expensive. There’s no guarantee how long this will last so if retailers are wanting to see the benefits, those who act the quickest will ultimately be the biggest winners.
The CSS opportunity applies to the following countries:
Any retailer within the Europe Economic Area, countries including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Official CSS partners should be able to offer their clients the in-depth knowledge of technical setups and streamlined campaign management to help businesses make the most of Google Shopping ads, reaching millions of potential customers each day.
Where will my CSS ads show on Google?
There is no change. Your Shopping ads placed through your CSS partner will appear on both Google shopping search and the shopping tab.
All CSS, including Google Shopping, have the same opportunities to place ads on your behalf on Google general search results pages. No ad space is reserved for any particular Comparison Shopping Site.
The customer journey remains unchanged
Customers will go straight through to the product page of the retailer if they click anywhere on the Shopping ad. The only change is the link in Shopping ad, for example where it says ‘By Google’ this will change to ‘By Productcaster’ – (our comparison site brand name), if people click on this link as happens now they will be directed through to the Comparison Shopping Site in these examples either to the Google Shopping page or the Productcaster CSS website.
If customers click on the 'By Productcaster' link you are not charged for this.
Client CSS concerns answered
- There’s no need to duplicate or create new Merchant Centre accounts, feeds or AdWords campaign.
- There’s no need for retailers to give up control of their accounts or transfer their activity to the CSS partner.
- Activity is tracked as normal, using your existing tracking implementation.
- Launch times aren’t as long as you might expect - campaigns can be migrated and live within 48 hours and roll out cycles with Google ensure your ads are showing as soon as possible.
How do I get started?
Once you’ve chosen your CSS partner, your Google merchant centre is associated with your CSS partner’s merchant centre. Your products are then published to your partners CSS using your feed. You are guided by your CSS partners expert team in opting your campaigns into the CSS ad format. Your adverts now appear in Google Shopping with the amended message e.g. ads ‘By Productcaster.’
How do I get the most from my CSS partner?
Understand how long they suggest it will take to get you up and running on their CSS platform. Every day spent not accessing the benefits is money, traffic and customers you’re missing out on. The winning formula here is to work out who can offer you a fast, smooth and seamless migration allowing you to measure the positive effects on performance.
The Google ad space is competitive and dynamic and those that take a back-seat risk falling behind. Choosing a partner that has experience and offers transparency will give you the confidence to act quickly, and with a smooth setup, you’ll be reaping the rewards of the CSS initiative in no time.
Internet Retailing has negotiated an exclusive deal for the IR membership with Productcaster. Productcaster is a trusted Google CSS European partner, and we will get your campaigns up and running in just a few days to take maximum advantage of the lower advertising costs offered by Google CSS. You don’t need to move your Google PPC account from your current in-house team or agency, so your current set-up would remain unaltered.
As well as the 20% CPC saving from Google and 30% AdCredit rebate (up to €32,0000).
IR Members get 2 additional exclusive benefits for IR members
- A 10% discount on Productcaster monthly fees
- An in-depth bespoke Google Shopping Feed optimisation and revenue performance report – worth over £1,500.
*NB - Your Google shopping monthly media spend needs to be greater than £5,000.
Many retailers with digital channels recognise the value in Google Shopping as a cost effective way of getting products in front of consumers and driving growth. However, the platform has become a victim of its own success by incurring a heavy antitrust fine from the EU last year over the lack of competition on the site.
In order to rectify the situation, Google has introduced favourable CPC rates to advertisers who use the updated Comparison Shopping Service (CSS) format to display their Google Shopping adverts.
Productcaster, a Google Comparison Shopping Partner, has already seen positive results for retail clients around Europe with CPC saving ranging from 15-25% of Google media spend. Advertisers are also able to take advantage of an additional ad credit offered by Google of up to €32,000 every 30 days based on a spend match against ad spend. While some retailers are using the saving to cut costs while maintaining click-throughs, others are kept spend levels consistent while generating further growth.
Migration to the new ad format is straightforward, requiring no changes to existing Adwords campaigns with advertisers maintaining full control of their Google accounts.
From speaking with Managing Director of IMRG, Justin Opie, it is clear that the savings to be had through this new retail offering from Google are significant given that IMRG data shows that on a last-click attribution basis, paid media on average accounts for around 20% of the online retail revenue that is derived from all marketing channels. Justin told us that “with the current uncertainty facing retail, we anticipate retailers to be interested in any opportunity to increase their ROI from their marketing channels.”
Additionally, Productcaster is offering one month free for IMRG members that sign up before 30.09.18. To qualify for this offer, please confirm your IMRG membership when you first contact us to discuss how we can reduce your Google spend.
Following the EU antitrust ruling last year, Google created a programme for comparison shopping sites such as Kelkoo to appear in the general search results page from September 2017. The objective of this initiative is to increase the competition in Google’s shopping ad space so that users don’t just experience ads just ‘by Google’.
Google have confirmed that they are offering favourable CPC rates to advertisers who use the new Comparison Shopping format. Advertisers are expected to see between a 15-20% reduction in their CPCs from the same position in the Shopping results. To encourage advertisers Google are also offering an ad credit of up to 32k Euros every 30 days based on a spend match against an advertisers spend each month using the new Comparison Site format.
Clearly, Google are under pressure by the EU Commission to make positive traction in improving the impression share of alternative shopping comparison sites in the general search results page. This initiative should be highly attractive to advertisers who for once are seeing a potential reduction in their media costs on Google. A growing number of EU retailers are now waking up to this lucrative opportunity including Sainsburys Argos in the UK.
Despite ongoing complaints from Google’s European shopping rivals, the European Commission chief said the changes Google has made appear to be working. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager is quoted by Reuters explaining that rivals now have greater visibility in search results and there are more clicks being driven to their sites.
While Vestager cautioned that “It’s still too early to draw conclusions,” she observed:
We know from our monitoring there’s been a steady increase in the numbers over the last few months. The most recent figures show at least one rival appears in about one-third of new shopping boxes as compared to 15 percent of the shopping boxes back in March . . . Similarly the share of clicks of products of rivals in Google shopping boxes also increased from 2.5 percent in February to 6.1 percent now.
The Google Shopping changes came in the wake of a record €2.4 billion ($2.8 billion) penalty, which Google is appealing. Google has also suggested in the past that the performance of its shopping search rivals is partly a product of poor user experiences on some of those sites.
Commissioner Vestager’s remarks to the European Parliament were a rare statement of support for the search engine. She has been persistently critical of Google and its market position since taking office. However, because of Danish internal politics, she may not be reappointed to a second term in 2019. A new Competition chief could change the dynamics of antitrust enforcement in Europe.
Google parent Alphabet faces two more potential antitrust penalties, surrounding Android and AdWords agreements. In addition, Yelp has asked for a new formal Statement of Objections(antitrust charges) against the company in local search. That complaint follows the logic of the earlier shopping search complaint that led to the penalty and remedial measures.
Notwithstanding the qualified support from Vestager, a June 6 report in Financial Times (paywall), says that the European Commission is ready to impose a second major antitrust fine over Android and the issue of OEM requirements that Google apps be pre-installed for those using the Google Play store.
This article was kindly reproduced from Search Engine Land
In response to the European Commission’s antitrust ruling — and record $2.7 billion fine — against Google for favoring its own content, the search giant is making some changes to the way it handles Google Shopping results in the EU.
Starting today, Comparison Shopping Engines/Services (CSEs) such as Kelkoo, Shopzilla and Twenga will be able to run product listing ads in Google Shopping results as retailers do so currently.
The EC’s ruling required Google to deliver a solution to provide “equal treatment” to CSEs within 90 days or face further penalties. That deadline has now arrived. The EC doesn’t have a specific approval process, but Google believes the changes it’s making put it in compliance with the order.
How is the auction changing?
The biggest change isn’t in how the results are displayed but in who competes in the auction.
CSE’s will compete in the auction against each other — and against Google Shopping.
As was previously reported, Google Shopping will operate as a separate business unit with a separate team in the EU that will be responsible for its own operating budget. It must operate profitably and will be reviewed regularly by the Commission to ensure the unit is competing on equal terms.
All of the ad slots will be available to all bidders; no ad slots are reserved for either Google Shopping or CSEs.
This brings up several questions about how this will actually play out for merchants now that Google Shopping and the CSEs are in effect bidding on their behalf.
A good percentage of merchants are likely participating in Google Shopping and at least one or more CSE. The visibility in Google Shopping will now depend, not just on the merchant’s own bid and quality metrics, but on how well it performs for Google Shopping and the CSEs for a given query. Google’s bids will have to make sense for it as a marketer, just as they do for CSEs.
How this new bidding dynamic will affect merchants’ own bidding strategies will be interesting to watch.
We have learned that there are controls in place to keep merchants that are running ads through Google Shopping and through participating CSEs from bidding against themselves for a given query.
How are the shopping ad results changing?
As the example above shows, ads will appear with the name of the service that is serving up the ad — either Google or a CSE.
The ads themselves each link to the product page on the retailer’s site, just as they do now.
Clicking on “By Kelkoo” or “By Google,” for example, takes the user to the product results on the given engine. There is no longer a “Shop for … on Google” link a the top of the shopping results.
What else do you need to know about this update?
- It only affects results in EU countries where Google Shopping is available: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
- A handful of CSEs have been testing the new offering and are queued up to start showing ads now. Other CSEs can get started with the service today.
- CSEs upload their product feeds to Google Merchant Center just as retailers do now.
- CSE feeds are held to the same data requirements as retailer feeds.
Google is continuing its appeal of the EC ruling. That appeal process could take years.
