Case Study: Leveraging Google Shopping Ads (Google PLAs)
Client: B2B retailer selling medical devices and accessories
Overview: Our client’s success is built upon converting qualified visitors into sales from their online marketing efforts, including comparison shopping engines. One of the larger networks, Google Shopping (formerly Google PLAs and Product Search before that), transitioned from a free model to a commercial model that requires merchants to pay for traffic on a cost-per-click (or cost-per-acquisition) basis, and to migrate to Google Shopping, which show search ads that contain product-rich information and are managed in AdWords.
Knowing that this transition to a paid model could have an impact on our client’s ability to capture sales on the Google Network, we worked closely with them on the set-up, implementation and optimization of this AdWords program to ensure their continued visibility and profitability on Google Shopping, in advance of the program’s transition.
Our strategy included:
- Adding custom fields to product feed based on important product attributes necessary for tracking and monitoring product performance
- Defining and breaking out potential audience segments at the product-level for granular targeting, bid optimization and messaging in AdWords
- Expanding the campaign in a tiered fashion, focusing first on high profit- producing products and categories
Results: The campaign reached profitability after the first full month of deploying this strategy. Initial results showed that Google Shopping ads provided a 10% and 4% increase in total paid Google online sales and revenue, respectively. These results, backed by the weight of our success with other e-commerce clients, have shown that ads in Google Shopping can be a great cost-effective and efficient way to grow e-commerce business in both the B2b and B2C space.
