Shopping Insights Adds Yet Another Tool to Google’s Marketing and Advertising Suite

Google’s dedication to local when it comes to shopping is comparable to none. Earlier in 2015, their mobile-local algorithm update gave prominence to brands with mobile-optimized sites, showcasing “Near You” results every time a user typed in a query. This update made it ever more important for brick-and-mortar stores to launch an online presence — specifically one that caters to mobile.

Now, Google has released a Shopping Insights beta that will further enable brands to increase their revenue via locally driven merchandising. Here is how it works:

• Shopping Insights tracks search data on Google and highlights popular products and major retail trends happening in specific regions.
• Brands can then localize their own Google Shopping product ads for the same or similar items to focus on one specific geographic location with high demand.
• Doing so will likely drive up brand awareness and sales based on its popularity.

For brands utilizing Google Shopping campaigns and local inventory ads, this beta feature can help to drive data-driven decision making to increase ROI from these programs. Below is everything you need to know regarding Google’s entire marketing and advertising suite for both online-only and omnichannel retailers.

Turn Browsing into Buying

Google Shopping campaigns put your product images, price and business name right in front of consumers exactly when they are searching for similar items. If you are selling yellow dresses, for instance, a search query on that term will produce an image of your product — and all impressions are free. You only pay if and when someone clicks on your product photo — which will bring them back to your site to checkout.

These ads will show up across all devices and can be optimized for click through utilizing Local Inventory Ads, Google Trusted Stores, Merchant Promotions, Product Ratings and Dynamic Remarketing.

Local Inventory Ads

Used by big box brands including Macy’s and Sephora, Google’s Local Inventory advertising offering works to bridge the gap between digital and physical storefronts. Utilizing these ads, your products will appear to people searching nearby for the things you offer. When those shoppers click on your product, they will be redirected to a Google-hosted store page where they can view your store information including inventory, store hours and directions from exactly where they currently are.

For brands already utilizing this offering, in-store teams are on standby for customers coming in, phone in hand, asking for a specific item, in a specific color and size — all of which they saw was available in store based on the ad.

Here’s a quick rundown of exactly how one such company, Macy’s, is utilizing Local Inventory Ads as well as proving ROI for their digital marketing efforts.

If customers prefer to shop online, rather than coming in-store, Local Inventory Ads allow them to do that as well. In all, for brands with both brick-and-mortar and online storefronts, Local Inventory Ads push traffic to both locations, allowing you to close the sale on the customer’s preferred terms.

Just be sure to turn Product Ratings on to further encourage purchases. High ratings will increase shopper trust for your product and brand. For low ratings, be sure to reach out to customers who were dissatisfied and solve the issue. Studies show that resolving a complaint is the customer’s favor will result in their doing business with you again 70% of the time. It’s a worthwhile investment — and a core aspect of running a customer-centric operation.

Promotions

Beyond local ads and product ratings, Google also allows merchants to offer promotions on products featured within the Google Shopping feed to further entice customers to their site.

Remember, you pay per click — not per purchase — and including a promotion will likely produce a higher clickthrough rate. This means your campaign will be more expensive than usual with a promotion, but you’ll also gain brand awareness and a higher chance that one of those clicks will produce a sale. Weigh your options here to determine if running a promotion for a product or products in your Google Shopping feed is a worthwhile return on investment.

Google Trusted Stores

Google Trusted Stores is a trustmark that improves shopper confidence and increases sales. Certified stores must meet excellent customer service standards and performance requirements, including processing at least 600 orders on a rolling 90-day basis. This badge will also appear on Google Shopping, alerting customers that your site is a safe and reliable place to shop.

Meeting these requirements also qualifies your business for seller ratings, which appear on Google ads and in search queries. Google also offers purchase protection through Trusted Stores for customers up to $1,000. In all, this badge is a trust seal and, as we know, trust is a major determining factor in if a customer checks out or abandons cart.

For Bigcommerce merchants, we power an automated Google Trusted Store experience to help you get certified.

Dynamic Remarketing

And what about those customers who do click on your product but then bounce off or abandon cart? Google has a solution for that as well: dynamic remarketing. This allows you to show previous visitors ads based on products or services they viewed on your site, ideally bringing previous visitors back to your site to complete what they started.

In all, Google offers retailers a full suite of marketing capabilities suited for both online-only and omnichannel brands. Their newest beta offering, Shopping Insights, is yet an additional tool for retailers to use in order to better target product offerings, educate location-based merchandising and overall produce increased ROI both on and offline.

For more information on how to use Google Shopping to boost holiday sales, sign up for our webinar on Thursday, Nov. 12.

This post was first published on Bigcommerce’s Blog.