Google Shopping campaigns – the digital showrooms that replaced product listing ads (PLAs) over the summer – were just recently taken out of beta and opened up to advertisers from all over the world.
The campaigns allow advertisers to browse their product inventories directly in AdWords and create product groups for bidding, as well as measure performance by product or product group and check on competitive data for click-through rate (CTR) and cost-per-click (CPC). Because of tester feedback, Shopping will also include bulk-editing product groups at scale, with API support and a bid simulator scheduled to launch in the near future.
“Shopping campaigns allow for a retail-centric experience with advanced reporting and the ability to better understand and analyze the competitive landscape,” explains Paul Bankhead, senior product manager for Google Shopping.
PetSmart is one brand that’s using Google Shopping to improve its omnichannel marketing approach. Using Google’s Estimated Total Conversions in AdWords, the pet supply retailer found that around 15 percent of its search ad clicks result in a store visit within 30 days.
