Expert Q&A on Google Product Feed Optimization Before Holiday Sales Rush

Google Shopping will be a primary sales channel for many retailers this Black Friday, but in order to hit ROI targets and increase campaign profitability, retail marketers need an advanced product feed optimization strategy.
Jason Bell, Senior Retail Search Manager at CPC Strategy hosted last week’s webinar to discuss the top enhancements retailers need to make in preparation for Black Friday / Cyber Monday.
There were a lot of questions we didn’t get a chance to answer – so here they are now with answers from Bell.
A. You can definitely do this but it’s going to be a lot more management heavy and intensive for you to manage unless you have an automatic system. It creates a lot of extra campaigns, ad groups. There are some benefits – I’d recommend doing this for your top products.
Even if you just sell it with the top products, there are some benefits such as auction insights, getting search terms data (specific on those products), adding negatives. There are benefits but I wouldn’t recommend it for every ad group and every single product unless you have plan on making a lot of adjustments through Q4.
A. No, this isn’t something that happens automatically (if it was – everyone would be doing it). This is done manually based on data that you find in your search terms, analytics data. Top keywords must be adjusted in the feed directly.
A. Yes.
A. It’s hard to calculate that, but we have seen that titles are going to have a larger impact (the weight shifts left to right). Usually for the top targeted keywords we add them to both title and the description.
A. Usually, we defer to the parent MPN.
A. This is definitely a bad thing. Google will add a warning or disapprove a product. It also just looks ugly.
A. (Assuming they mean the text when you hover over a shopping ad) – this isn’t overriding it, this is its own special offer promotion. (Refer to the link at the bottom of the PLA ad)
A. You can optimize your titles, but at some point you are going to have to bid high enough. What we’ve seen is if – you don’t start bidding enough, you will never really get the traffic you are seeking. But if you bid really aggressively – get that volume, then bring your bids down – it should stick better.
It’s not documented but this is something we have seen happen in our experience. There is no magic title optimization strategy that is going to win over the SERP. Most likely it’s going to take a little bit of both (aggressive bids, optimize titles, and adding negatives).
A. For that you are going to want to have a line item per product in the feed and you’re going to want to make sure the pricing is correct. You shouldn’t have to exclude those.
A. No, you don’t need to have unique URLs, you can send to the same parent page (but make sure color, pricing, everything should match in the feed). (Ideally, you should have it set up so when they land on that page, it auto-selects for you).
A. Go to the Shopping tab, then click on the comparison page, you should see all your competitors. At the very bottom (details section) should have MPN.
A. You could do either, or – a lot of people probably have one page where you select the variations and a page for each.
A. Because, you can have up to 8 listings on the SERP – if you have the budget and want to hold a lot of impression shares – there is a chance you can show up multiple times. If that is your goal then it makes sense to send multiple SKUs.
You spread out your chances of getting a click. If budget is an issue – it might not make sense. Not the same as text (where you only get one listing).You can own all 8 spots (or whatever is available).
A. It really depends on the platform.
A. What’s on the SERP is not the same as whats on the Shopping tab. Improving titles and descriptions is going to help you in both areas . Because we don’t know what Google uses on SERP vs. Shopping tab it can be difficult to optimize for that.
A. If it’s to SKU up – yes, usually. Sometimes you actually bid less – but still gain a good amount of traffic because you SKU up. Maybe you offer a better price or free shopping or no tax and they see the bottom line price – so they pick you instead.
Usually, it is better to SKU up or match your competitors than lone listing. But if you happen to find yourself as a lone listing at the very top of the Shopping tab – (consider yourself lucky!) in this case might not be a good idea to SKU up.