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Why Google Shopping Should Be Your Weapon In The Fight For Better ROI

July 13, 2017

We pride ourselves on mastering the ins and outs of emerging industry trends and tools so that we can pass on the benefits to existing and future clients. A hot example of late is Google Shopping, a highly cost-effective form of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising that shows the web shopper a product listing with a photo, price and title, at the very top of the results page. Google Shopping has quickly become the go-to for online retailers with benefits over traditional text ads including more screen space, higher average return on ad spend (ROAS) and more sales.

Google Shopping gives product images more screen space than traditional text ads. Desktop (L) and Mobile (R) search results.

Because Google Shopping is fairly new to Aotearoa, competition (and hence click costs) are still relatively low. However, competition is quickly ramping up so it’s a case of first in, best dressed. In this post, we show you how we are already helping Kiwi companies boost their sales, and talk about some of the benefits of harnessing the power of Google Shopping for your company.

An ROI to be Proud of and More Website Visitors

We recently teamed up with a large nationwide e-commerce retailer to implement a Google Shopping campaign.

Healthy e-commerce conversion rates and ROI are vital to this company’s growth as their online store is their primary sales platform. Our digital marketer Antony, who is responsible for this campaign, explains “Google Shopping is PPC, so our clients only pay when the shopper actually clicks on their ads, making it very cost effective. Conversion rates are higher too as the shopper clicks on the ad because they like the image they see – half of the shopping experience is taken care of for them and they are more likely to complete the sale than they would seeing only text ads”.

The table below illustrates how in their campaign’s first fortnight the company spent $214.21 on 558 clicks – or $0.38 per click, around $2 less per click than many text ads – resulting in revenue of $1965.74, an e-commerce conversion rate of 4.50%, and a ROI of close to 820%!

 

Google Shopping is all about high ROI 

New website visitors are an added benefit, making up 81.4% of the traffic the ads have driven to the site. The chart below shows us campaign (their only paid search campaign) counts for the highest rate of new user acquisition across all of their channels.

The Google Shopping campaign has led to a sizable increase in new visitors

What Are The Key Benefits

The current underlying theme of Google Shopping is high returns at low costs, making it somewhat of a no-brainer for suitable e-commerce companies. Here are four key benefits of using the tool: 

  1. Lower Rates and Less Competition in NZ... For Now.
    An upshot for New Zealand businesses is the opportunity to seize the day, get in early and take advantage of a less saturated market before everyone catches on to this ‘good thing’.
  2. Higher Visibility
    Because Google Shopping ads feature images and appear at the top or right column of a search results page, they take up more screen space and are more eye-catching than text ads. Which would you prefer?
  3. Mobile Friendly
    Over half of Google searches are now performed on mobile devices and tablets. The Google Shopping search result images display well on these platforms where an image is favourable over text, encouraging higher conversion rates.
  4. High Conversion Rate and ROI
    Showing an image of a product along with its price and the name of the stockist goes a long way in eliminating the potential for the shopper to shop around or worse yet, abandon their search. They don’t have to read through a bunch of text listings rendering mental images of what the product may look like.  With Google Shopping, it’s more likely they will simply see an image of the product they want, click on it, and buy it.  

What You’ll Need To Get Set-Up

Getting set-up with a Google Shopping campaign is straightforward and we’re more than happy to assist. The process can be boiled down to three main requirements: 

  1. Merchant Center Account and Product Feed
    Merchant Center is a tool where e-commerce companies upload their store, brand and product data in a format that Google Shopping can understand. This is where our web development team can step in and work with your e-commerce site to create a product ‘feed’ which links up with Merchant Center to send your products to your Google Shopping Campaign. The ease and cost of this depends on what platform your site has been built on; e.g. WordPress (ideal) or a bespoke CMS (more complex).
  2. A Google AdWords Account 
    An AdWords account is required to create and implement a Google Shopping campaign. It helps you target specific customers based on variables like their location. If you’ve already dipped a toe into PPC advertising you’ll likely already have an account. If not, we’re happy to help get this set up for you.
  3. A Google Analytics Account
    This one is almost a given for e-commerce sites, and is of course integral to all of our digital marketing campaigns. It helps package the results of your Google Shopping Campaigns, gathering and reporting important metrics like those in the example above. It helps highlight what’s happened with your campaign so far and helps illuminate the path forward.  

Pied Pipers of Google Shopping

It’s plain to see that Google Shopping can do wonders for your e-commerce business. What’s not so obvious is how long it will be before it really takes off in New Zealand. The horse has already bolted in other parts of the world, but we’re just saddling up closer to home. If you’d like to get your company’s feet in the stirrups and go along for the ride, get in touch with us to hear more. 

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Filed under Digital Marketing

Written by

Mark is the Manager of Digital Marketing at Apex and has worked in the digital marketing industry since 2004. Prior to joining Apex he worked in a variety of traditional marketing roles in both the corporate and SME environment in NZ and abroad, but these days much prefers the tangible measurability and transparency of digital marketing.

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