Google on Thursday released three reporting and optimization tools for retailers using the DoubleClick Search Commerce Suite aimed at supporting Shopping Campaigns. The tools satisfy a trend in
search engine marketing aimed at serving up fewer ads yet increasing conversion rates and average order values.
Higher click-through metrics no longer prove better conversion rates or a
campaign's success. It really comes down to finding ways to use data to improve results while spending less of the overall budget. The Adaptive Shopping campaigns creates product groups based on
similar conversion rates. To create focused product groups with similar conversion rates, DoubleClick Search (DS) can monitor the Merchant Center feed and automatically subdivide existing product
groups by product ID based on the performance of the products in each group, per Google. The company believes subdividing product groups provides the best bid optimization results.
Google has
found that 90% of the cost for median-size advertisers comes from only 9.5% of its products. Advertisers often lump these high-spend products into bid groups with other, low-converting products that
lead to un-optimized bid values based on relative performance. This feature aims to give the most popular products or stock keeping unit (SKU) the correct bid by creating product groups for each item
earning high traffic.
Bid optimization for Shopping allows marketers to apply a bid strategy to an entire campaign or to individual product groups, and to set bids using near real-time
conversion information. The bid strategy works with any goal except Position.
Having the ability to access the correct data can make the difference between losing the entire budget and
achieving the highest possible return on investment. So Google designed a feature that gives marketers information on purchase details. The
tool digs deeper into the data to provide insights into the items purchased in each transactions. The reporting feature will let marketers see the total revenue gained and units sold of each product
in the company's inventory, along with the campaigns, product targets, and keywords that contributed to the sales of those products, per Google.
Knowing what consumers spend their money on has
become just as important as what people look for and how they make their decisions. It all contributes to optimizing campaigns and serving up the correct information.