Your customers are looking for you, whether they’re familiar with your brand or not. That’s because most consumers begin their online shopping journey in a quest for a particular product or category. Investing in a Google product listing ad (Google PLA) makes that journey a lot faster and easier.
What Is a Google PLA and How It Works?
What is a product listing ad, you ask? Picture this: when shoppers pull up a search engine they may want to find the finest leather boots, the highest quality athleisure or the most stylish jackets and suits. Google product listing ads bring the most relevant results to the top of the page, saving them from scrolling further.
A product listing ad provides brands a highly effective marketing tool that heightens their visibility within Google searches. You might already be using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to draw in organic traffic, but a Google PLA – which the company calls Google Shopping ad – complements that strategy by using paid placements.
Google Shopping ads appear with the word “Sponsored” on results pages. They go beyond traditional text results to give consumers more details about the products they want. This includes not only the brand name but images, pricing and even the number of starred reviews from existing customers.
Getting Started with Google Shopping Product Listing Ads
It doesn’t take long to set up a campaign using a Google PLA. You will, however, need to have an existing Google Business Profile with your name and contact details, as well as a Google Merchant Center (GMC) account.
Make sure your brand’s online store is already connected to your GMC account. From there:
- Link your GMC account to Google Ads.
- Review Google’s product data specifications regarding image sizes, number of characters, etc.
- Select “Create a new campaign” and choose “Performance Max” as the campaign type.
- Choose which products from your inventory should appear in Google PLA ads.
- Set a bid price – this is how much you’ll spend for every click you get through Google Shopping ads.
Once your campaign begins, allow Google’s algorithm some time to optimize where your listings will show up in results.
The Benefits of Google Product Listing Ads for Retailers
Whether you’re a long-established brand or launching your products to the market for the first time, there are several competitive advantages from using Google product listing ads:
Increased Visibility and CTRs
Google is arguably a more popular shopping destination than any mall or boutique store on Earth. Google Shopping attracts more than 1.2 billion monthly searches, which is why Google Shopping product listing ads accounted for more than three-quarters of all eCommerce ad spend.
Your ads will not only appear on Google’s regular search results. They will also show up in Google Image searches, on YouTube and even Google Search Partner websites. That’s a huge audience to maximize your reach.
Perhaps most importantly, Google Shopping ads have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 0.86%. That means you’re allocating your marketing budget that will likely deliver high return on investment (ROI).
Higher Quality Traffic for Retailers
Consumers may come to your website via SEO, but they may only be casually interested in your products or are at an earlier stage of the shopping journey. When people click on Google PLA ads, they tend to have an active intent to purchase. This means you’re not only driving engagement but are in a better position to convert their activity directly into eCommerce revenue.
Enhanced Shopping Experience
When you welcome consumers into a physical store, they usually have everything they need to make a purchasing decision because they can touch and feel the product. A Google PLA offers a digital equivalent because it’s not limited to simply a sentence or two.
With all the details around pricing and pictures, you’re showcasing your product at its best and making it easy for consumers to get at what they want with a single click.
Google PLA Best Practices
Once you’ve decided to run a Google PLA campaign, take the time and effort to make your listings as compelling as possible. Some of the fundamentals include:
Optimize Product Titles and Descriptions
Online shoppers want brands to get to the point. They should be able to quickly read product titles and descriptions and decide in seconds whether your items reflect what they had in mind when they entered terms in a search engine.
Product title optimization involves thinking about your ideal customer’s likely needs and interests, making careful word choices that balance brevity with conveying the necessary details.
Synchronize the Inventory with Google Shopping
You’re not going to be able to effectively manage a Google PLA ads campaign using a spreadsheet. You need to stay on top of what you have in stock and what you’re marketing via Google Shopping to avoid disappointing customers.
This means establishing a product feed that runs seamlessly between your brand’s product catalog and Google Shopping. Rather than tackle this manually, which can take hours and create the risk of errors, a partner like Highstreet.io can automate the process on your behalf (more details in the section below).
Use High-Quality Images
Treat your products like your artwork and Google as your gallery. In other words, all product photographs should be high-resolution, with the product taking up the majority of the space.
Besides making sure images aren’t blurry or washed out, you may want to feature apparel items on a human model. Look at any existing purchase data on hand to determine the most popular colors and styles, and include the top choice in your Google PLA.
Lead with In-Demand Products
You don’t necessarily have to market your entire inventory through Google Shopping. Think about the items consumers are most likely looking up online, or which are most likely to sell out during peak periods like the holidays.
PLAs can also be a great way to help more online shoppers discover items you’ve put on sale or that are included in special promotions.
Use Social Proof
There’s nothing like a four or five-star rating to convince consumers they’re making the right purchasing decision. Hopefully you’re already encouraging customers to review what they’ve bought on Google, which makes it easy to include the average overall rating in your PLA.
Simplify Next Steps
Attracting shoppers through a Google PLA is really just the first step. Think through everything that will happen once they click through to your site. Have your product pages reflect what you’re been marketing online, with simple navigation to choose sizes, colors or other attributes. Make it clear what kind of shipping costs are involved, and any volume purchases that could lower their fees. Consider deploying “buy” buttons that streamline eCommerce purchases to a single click.
How Highstreet.io Can Optimize Your Google PLA Strategy
The core element of any Google PLA is the product data behind it. You need to not only generate an initial product feed that will provide the necessary information for your campaigns, but consistently maintain the feed as your inventory, pricing and other details change. The last thing you want is to direct customers from Google’s search engine to a broken link on your web site.
Highstreet.io has a proven track record in assisting brands in sectors like luxury fashion and beyond to create and manage product feeds that will help them achieve their sales and marketing goals. We can work with you to:
- Create a project plan to accelerate the setup and execution of a Google PLA campaign.
- Offer PLAs in multiple languages as you sell to international markets.
- Support PLAs featuring multiple currencies to display accurate pricing information.
- Integrate with top eCommerce platforms such as Magento and Algolia.
- Timely service and support to address technical challenges and concerns.
- Provide the same capabilities for PLA campaigns running on Bing.
Every Google PLA can bring you one step closer to connecting with your future customers. Talk to us about our product listing ads expertise and how we can get you started.