ChannelAdvisor

Bidding in an Enhanced World

As online marketers begin to understand the  potential impact of Google’s Enhanced Campaigns, undoubtedly bidding will surface as one of the areas most affected. Historically, segmenting by device allowed for optimization by device and any other combination of levers that showed statistical correlation. This often included day of week, time of day and product category. Bid systems were created based on having granular data and being able to control keyword level bids by device. 

As bid tools grew in popularity, Google joined the party with Conversion Optimizer bidding and Enhanced CPC (eCPC) bidding at the campaign level. Both tools used historical data as well as real-time data to tweak bids at time of auction based on the likelihood of conversion. Things like time of day, day of week, user location and device were taken into account and ads were bid to the position most likely to convert, according to Google documentation.

Now, mobile bid multipliers will exist only at the Campaign level and insight into device at time of auction is information held only by Google. It feels very much like we’re being asked to turn CPC bids over to Google, in addition to device targeting. It stands to reason that if tablets and mobile performed terribly, Google would lower the bids on those devices according to how their bid tools work. However, we’re left wondering why we wouldn’t be given the control to make that decision ourselves with a keyword level bid multiplier for mobile, or the ability to opt out of tablet syndication.

Ultimately I know eCPC and Conversion Optimizer bidding are something we’ll be watching closely after the June transitions, given that bidding by device will become very laborious for any other bid tool.

Blog post by Jackie Jenkins, Product Manager, Paid Search

Sign up to be the first to know about news and updates on Google's Enhanced Campaigns.

 

The Impact of Google’s Enhanced Campaigns on Retailers

By now you’ve probably seen Google’s new announcement that it will be changing the way that AdWords campaigns are structured to marry searchers’ intent with context, and serve ads accordingly.  This change will affect all AdWords campaigns, including PLAs.  We’ve put together our initial reactions as to how this will impact retailers, complete with recommendations as to retailer’s next steps.  We’ll delve further into details below, but our initial reaction: wait to turn on Enhanced Campaigns until you fully understand the details.  Once you have transitioned a campaign, you cannot revert back.

For Enhanced Campaigns, context will be based on:

• Location
• Device
• Time of day

One of the big changes with this announcement is that tablet campaigns will now roll up under desktop campaigns, and mobile campaigns will be considered a variation of the desktop/tablet campaign.  This decision is based on Google’s research that suggests that some 82% of tablet owners use them at home.

This means that if someone conducts a search for “cell phone chargers” from their mobile device during normal business hours, they could be served a location-based ad for nearby brick and mortar stores that sell cell phone chargers.  Later, if they search on their mobile device outside of normal business hours, they may be served a different ad, sending them to a website instead of the now closed brick and mortar store. In contrast, if that same person searches from their desktop or a tablet, they may be served an entirely different ad, possibly based upon time of day.

Google also says Enhanced Campaigns will include the ability to change sitelinks at specific times.  

Timing
According to Google, the transition period will begin in February, with all campaigns to be transferred over by mid-2013 (likely June).

Primary Impact
The main changes for retailers will occur in the way AdWords campaigns are set up and mobile bids are placed.  Whereas before you may have had a campaign for each different device, now you’ll have one main Enhanced Campaign for desktop/tablet, with a campaign-level bid “adjustment” for mobile.  New campaigns will be automatically set up as desktop/tablet, and then you’ll create a mobile adjustment for the campaign with different ad copy and a different bid.

Generally, bidding will stay the same; however, bidding for mobile devices will be an adjustment of your desktop/tablet bid, meaning you’ll either increase or decrease it by a certain percentage or leave it the same. Regardless of the specific bid you have the keyword level, your only mobile option will be to bid at a multiplier of the campaign level.

For example, if you bid $1.00 on a keyword, and you determined your mobile adjustment was a 50% decrease, you would end up with a $0.50 mobile bid on that keyword.    


Recommendations
First and foremost, for ChannelAdvisor customers we advise that you not convert any campaigns yet since they cannot be reverted once transitioned. In fact, at the moment you have greater control over your campaigns given that you can still bid on mobile keywords and segment revenue per device.  

Our primary concern is to empower our customers with the ability to implement these required changes in June, without sacrificing transparency into reporting or diminishing Paid Search ROI. There is no need to change the campaigns in the near term, especially as the details of Enhanced Campaigns are still being ironed out.  

Sign up here to be notified of all the news on Enhanced Campaigns and ChannelAdvisor updates, and to be the first to know when we’d recommend that you transition your campaigns.

What does this mean for retailers?
All of this “contextual” serving will need to be set up properly in your AdWords account, which is going to be laborious. There will be a lot of cleaning up of campaigns necessary since Google is requiring that you utilize additional facets of your primary campaigns as opposed to the current practice of replicating campaigns to target specific device types.  This also means that you’ll be losing control from a granular perspective, though in the long run you’ll have fewer campaigns to keep organized.

For retailers with brick and mortar locations this represents advancement in Google’s geo-targeting, and the ability to bid up mobile searches within close proximity of your locations.  However, it’s worth mentioning that the attribution piece isn’t fully baked. Offers extensions have been around for a long time and haven’t tracked online to store attribution very well.

How is ChannelAdvisor addressing this change?
ChannelAdvisor and Google work closely together on changes like this, and ChannelAdvisor will guide its retailers through this change to make transitioning as seamless as possible. Sign up here to be informed of news and updates regarding Google Enhanced Campaigns:

Blog post by Jackie Jenkins, Product Manager, Paid Search

The 2012 Autumn Release featuring new Google Shopping offering

It's Autumn Release time!  Learn all about our new Google Shopping offering and the rest of the 2012 Autumn Release at our sister blog, CSE Strategies and on the 2012 Autumn Release page. 

Upcoming information on Google Product Search / Product Listing Ad changes.

We have had a flood of questions from retailers of all sizes in regards to the big changes at Google Product Search.  To help everyone get their heads around the changes and plan accordingly, we have a variety of information coming out shortly (webinars, blog posts and in-person at IRCE.  Here are the details:

Webinars

We have two complimentary webinars planned, anyone is invited:

1. Assessing the Impact of the Recent Google Product Search Changes - Thiswebinar is Friday, June 1 at 1pm ET.  You can register here.  Google will not be on thiswebinar.  Click here to register.
2. Introducing Google Shopping - co-presented by Google - This webinar will be Monday, June 4 at 4pm ET.  Google will be co-present and be available for Q+A - this webinar will focus mostly on Q+A with Google. Click here to register.

Blog

Going forwad, we will be posting all information related to Google Product Search and Google Shopping at our comparison shopping engine blog - CSEStrategies.com

IRCE

As usual, ChannelAdvisor will have a large presence at the annual Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE) in Chicago next week June 5-7.  Our booth is 1401.

As you come in the exhibit hall through the right entrance, it's a ginormous booth right there.  Here's a handy map in case you can't find us.

Our booth will be staffed with experts that are able to talk to you in detail about these changes and any of your other burning e-commerce questions/needs.

Finally, I will be speaking at IRCE about Pinterest and it's impact on e-commerce.  The session is Thursday at 4:15-5pm in the social commerce track.

If you have any questions you want answered, feel free to post in comments as well.

Scot Wingo

CEO and Co-founder

ChannelAdvisor

 

 

 

 

RIP Google Product Search (Froogle) - What it means for the Google and the e-commerce Industry

• Part I - Details on the death of Google Product Search. (you are here)
• Part II - What does this mean for Google and the industry?
• Part III - What should retailers do? Mitigation strategies

RIP Google Product Search / Froogle - What it means for Google and the E-commerce ecosystem

Part I - Details on the death of Google Product Search.

Today,  Google has made an announcement that will have the biggest impact on retailers since they launched Google Adwords - the end of life of the Google Product Search (Also known as Google Shopping or Froogle - for this series of blogs we will call it GPS for brevity).

The details are available in this blog post on the Google Commerce blog, but here's our quick summary: Everything you need to know about the death of GPS:

• The new name will be Google Shopping
• Free goes away
• Free is replaced with Product Listing Ads - aka PLA - PLA is a program that has been around for a while that puts the image and price on the right gutter of normal search results.
• There will be an incentive for retailers that sign up for PLA early and move everything early.

Here's what the new UI will look like->

Timing

This is still a bit fuzzy, but what we are hearing:

• Today - announced (May 31, 2012)
• June - Testing of new UI commences
• July 1 - Shifting traffic to PLA at scale
• Oct 1 - All results will be PLA (I bet this happens faster and this is a worst case - I'd plan on Aug 1 - more on this in the retailer mitigation post)
• This is the US schedule, the other countries will follow through 2013.

What does this mean for Google, E-commerce and online retailers?

We've put together a detailed analysis using our proprietary data on both the GPS and PLA programs.

The headlines are:

• Google Product Search drives ~$650m in annual sales (or Gross Merchandise Value) in the US. 
• Google Product Search drives > $1.3B in global sales
• If you replaced that lost GMV with PLA spend, you would have to spend $130m in the US/yr or > $270m/yr globally.   

The analysis

This table shows how we arrive at the $650m / $1.3b in global GMV using ChannelAdvisor's proprietary data and Comscore's data on Google Product Search:

The second table shows how we arrive at the PLA cost to replace that free GMV:

Conclusion:

This change is going to create a substantial shift in the e-commerce ecosystem.  Google is clearly the winner, generating possibly > $250m in new revenue into the PLA system and dramatically increasing the monetization of every e-commerce query.

That's the surface impact, in the next post, we will explore the secondary and tertiary impact on the industry.  In the third post, we will discuss mediation strategies for retailers.

(Note to ChannelAdvisor customers: we are hosting a series of Webinars and strategy calls to help everyone with remediation strategies around this very impactful Google change).

SeekingAlpha disclosure - I am long Google and Amazon, eBay is an investor in ChannelAdvisor where I am CEO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yahoo Unveils New Browser: Axis--What this means for retailers

We don’t blog much about Yahoo!, but last week they threw us for a loop, and honestly did something that has me scratching my head a bit. Last week, Yahoo! announced Axis, their own browser. On the heels of the announcement that Google’s Chrome had become the world’s most popular web browser, the hoopla around Axis was minimal, but we’ve taken a quick tour and are here to give you the recap.

First, for those of you who, like myself, need to get your bearings before processing the impact of this, let’s start at the basics. Axis is a browser. Like Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari and for you old folks like me, Netscape. Yes, I said it. Google.com and Bing are Search Engines. You can “Google” something from IE and Safari. Chrome’s default search engine is Google and I’m assuming Axis’s default is Yahoo!. OK, now that we have that straight, let’s talk about features and impacts.

Axis is boasting a “seamless” browsing experience across devices. For now it looks like only iOS systems are supported. They do have a cool “continue from” button that allows you to pick up right where you left off, but keep in mind that you have to be signed in on each device. Yahoo! has not found a miracle solution to the “cookie across devices” attribution issue. (Insert sad trombone here.) Axis also incorporates Google’s Instant Results and Google’s Site Preview features. 

Now, hold onto your hats kids, because here comes the somewhat confusing part. Axis does not have ads. It does not have space for ads, it serves no ads and you cannot (at this time) buy ad space. I find this bizarre for two reasons. First, it lacks a revenue stream. Secondly because since Bing started serving ads for the Yahoo! search results page, we’ve seen Bing/Yahoo! combined search query volume decrease significantly compared to the pre-merger combined totals. While some people might prefer an ads-free experience, advertisers are already looking for ways to recover lost BingHoo (that’s a ChannelAdvisor-coined term) traffic. Yahoo! has stated that the search experience will be completely independent from Bing even though the results themselves are Bing powered.

So, what does this mean for you? Unfortunately for Yahoo!, probably not much. Unless adoption of access becomes quite aggressive you probably won’t see much of an impact overall. If it begins to look like Axis is going to be a hit, I predict two things. First, that Google will immediately launch these same unique features of axis into Chrome, plus about 10 more. Second, that Yahoo! will monetize Axis with ads. Voila, problem averted. 

In the meantime, check out Axis here: 

http://axis.yahoo.com/

Cool and useful, or gimmicky? We’d love to know what you think!

Blog post by Jackie Jenkins, Global Manager, Search Services

Google Auction Insights

Google announced yesterday an exciting update to keyword level data. Called auction insights, high volume keywords will now (or in the near future as it rolls out) show data similar to ChannelAdvisor’s competition watch, including who else is showing for that keyword, impression share, top of page % and “above competitors” % numbers.

Here at ChannelAdvisor, we’re excited about this report, but urge our customers to use caution and logic, not emotion, when making decisions based on the metrics you see. For years we’ve used our own competition watch to see where we have opportunities for greater visibility on critical keywords. We’ve also used keyword monitor to monitor affiliate activity and review competitor ads on keywords.

Where we think the Auction Insights report gets tricky is in providing visibility and therefore attention on the “% higher than” and “% top position” numbers. The innocent side to it is this, you know that searching on your own keywords is bad, but you can’t help it. So at the advice of Google, you use the AdPreview tool. But you still toss and turn at night wondering “why does my average position say 1.7 and yet I NEVER see my own ad in the top spots.” Well, now you’ll be able to see that you’re only in top position 70% of the time and rest easy with the understanding that 30% of queries are in lower positions. However, you’re a feisty competitive bunch, ecommerce retailers. So, you know that in the back of your mind you’re saying this “Wait, I’m in top spots 70% of the time. Website “X” is there 83%. That’s not OK. I must, no I WILL end up there 84% of the time.” Insert here a ridiculous bidding war and lower ROI all around.

So, should you check out this report? Absolutely. But, before you change bids, even if it’s top sales driving keyword, remember, ROI is king. You’re way too smart to be tricked into paying more just to be on top. With tools like ChannelAdvisor bid rules you can let our software manage a ROI goal for you. Remember, you want to sell more not spend more!

Blog post by Jackie Jenkins, Global Manager, Search Services

AdWords Does A Double-Take?

While we’re all accustomed to seeing new ad format testing on Google, yesterday a Campaign Manager on our Search Services team discovered the ad below.

For those of you not in love with counting characters, there are most definitely 50 characters in the headline. If you’re doing the math at home, you know that’s double the number of characters allowed in a headline. Additionally, this isn’t a “longer headline ad” as you’ll see the full Description Line 1 and Description Line 2 showing below the URL.

So, what gives?  Did Google’s headline counter break? Nope, this is a Dynamic Search Ad, currently in beta.  The headline is pulling the product title from the company’s website. These ads allow Google to fill in gaps in keyword coverage in your account for you. The Google crawler goes through your website and then matches on relevant queries not included in your account. Dynamic Search Ads generate a dynamic ad title, apparently with much longer character limits.

Unlike ChannelAdvisor’s Inventory Driven Search, DSAs will fill in head and torso terms as well as product level keyword coverage.  We’ve seen mixed results so far, essentially depending on how extensive the gaps in keyword coverage are. Sites with high inventory changes would probably benefit significantly more than lead generation, for example. In addition, we recommend setting aside a good bit of time initially to fill in negative keywords where the matches aren’t perfect. Lastly, be sure you understand the somewhat advanced features provided by Google to optimize these ads. For example, you can use negative keywords to restrict searches but also exclude sections of your website from the crawlers.

Look for Dynamic Search Ads coming out of beta in the future.  If you’re interested in testing these out contact your Google team to see if your account would qualify!

For more information on ChannelAdvisor's PPC management software, please visit http://www.channeladvisor.com/solutions/the-platform/paid-search/.

Blog post by Jackie Jenkins, Global Manager, Search Services

Google Takes On...Wikipedia?

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported on some major changes coming to Google’s “Organic” search results in the next few months. Don’t worry, this isn’t a change to the algorithm that ranks search results, but rather an “enhancement” to the information displayed on the search results page. Instead of ads and links to websites containing what Google assumes to be the answer to your query, Google will begin displaying some of those answers right on the search results page. Google will use what it is calling “semantic search” to better understand the intent or meaning behind the words users input into the search query box. Backing up semantic search is years of data amassed in the past few years by Google users’ query behavior.

So, why the change? Given that we’ve heard a lot from Google about Mobile in the past 12+ months, I think the reason is two-fold. First, predicting someone’s needs and providing those responses in a more accessible way on mobile searches is critical to keeping up with the lady we know and love as “Siri” from Apple.

Additionally, I’m sure Google would like to keep users on the search results page longer. Why send users elsewhere, and potentially away from paid ads, to read content that Google can provide right on the search page? In addition, many savvy internet users start their queries elsewhere, like Wikipedia, when they just want answers to specific questions. If Google brings those users to the search results page instead, provides them their initial answer as well as paid search links to further detail on these queries, ad revenue is likely to increase. While the use of “semantic search” isn’t being included in paid search initially, a version of it already exists. Check out “Broad Match (session based)” in the Google AdWords help center:

http://support.google.com/adwords/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=68074

This matching feature shows ads based on an individual user’s prior searches. So, let’s say you’re advertising a hotel in New York and a local user queries “New York Rental Car,” followed  by “New York Things To Do.” Your ad may show, based on Google’s inference, that this user is someone looking for travel-related things in New York. In theory, with the change to Google’s natural search results, after your first query you might get weather information, rental car links, hotel links, event links and more, along with relevant ads.

So what do we expect for retailers with this change? I would anticipate minimal impact to paid search initially. Maybe an uplift in Google Product Search as those search results are incorporated. If someone searches “Best Price On Dyson DC39 Animal,” wouldn’t it make sense for Google to go ahead and show the best price based on the products in Google Merchant accounts?

Blog post by Jackie Jenkins, Global Manager, Search Services

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Google's New Display Network Reporting

It’s a monumental day for Display Network loving advertisers everywhere. Well, in the US at least. If you’ve signed into your AdWords account today, you might have noticed this message:

Besides combining the networks and audiences tab into one, you’ll also suddenly see Keyword level reporting for Display Network campaigns. Do I need to repeat that? Yes, Keyword level data!

So, that means that you can now tell which keyword triggered your ads, which keyword(s) drive placement that drives conversions and how to bid more strategically on the Display Network. Call me greedy, but I wish that Google had made it easier to piece the puzzle together. Maybe showing the placements that a keyword matched your ads to by drilling into the keyword by clicking on it in the UI? You can still piece that information together in campaigns that have relatively few conversions, and bid up that keyword, or the placement or both.

It’s my understanding that this reporting won’t be integrated into the AdWords API until summer, so for now, you still need to put in tracking work-arounds for tracking through most 3rd party software platforms. Still, as a former Googler, I literally never thought we’d see the day that this data was shared, so it’s a big step in terms of transparency into the Display Network. More to come on how to use this newfound spring of information to optimize your Display Network efforts!

Blog post by Jackie Jenkins, Global Manager, Search Services

Google Display Network Tools

There are several tips and tools available to make building and optimizing your Display Network campaigns easier.  This article will discuss the general tips for Display Network Optimization as well as the tools we recommend using to build and manage Display Network campaigns. Before you get started using the tools below, be sure to review our article on Display Network Best Practices to learn more about goal setting and targeting options for the Display Network.

1. Contextually Targeting
Once you know how you’d like to target, Google has some tools that will help you build out your campaigns. For contextually targeted campaigns or campaigns that will layer keywords on top of any other targeting method, you’ll need themes and lots of them. This list should include themes related to your business, your products and your target customer. This is the only scenario where I recommend the strategy of running on your competitor’s brand names.

If you’re having trouble coming up with themes, do a little digging with a tool like Quantcast to better understand who the customers coming to your site are and the other sites they visit. Think outside the box too. If you sell exercise equipment, consider advertising on themes like “high blood pressure” or “low fat cooking” to capture consumers interested in other health related issues. 

 

Now that you have a basic list of themes, log into your AdWords account and go under the “Tools and Analysis” tab to find the Contextual Targeting Tool. Drop your themes in the box, up to 10 at a time, and let Google’s tool do the heavy lifting for you. The tool will split out your themes into granular sub-themes complete with keyword lists. Use the tool to generate many ad groups for your contextually targeted Display Network campaign. Expand the themes using the plus box to get more granularity within the tool. Once you’ve accrued three or so weeks of traffic in the campaign, review the ad group themes that are performing the best and drop those back into the tool to get even more granular themes built out for you! The tool will also provide ad group level suggested bids and predicted placements for the keyword groups.

2. Placement Targeting
If you decide to do a combination of targeting that includes managed placements, the best place to start is with Doubleclick Ad Planner. This tool allows you to generate a list of placements to target that meet the criteria you select. You can get very specific or fairly general, depending on how many attributes you choose to select. The tool will then tell you which ad formats and sizes the site selects and an estimated number of daily impressions your ad can receive. Composition Index refers to how closely the site matches your audience, while Reach refers to what percentage of the users in that audience would be reached on that site alone. 

Ad Planner is also a great tool to use if you want to know whether or not a particular site accepts ads through the Google Display Network. On the Search By Site tab, input the URL you’re wondering about. The tool will tell you if the site accepts ads, and in which formats and sizes. It will also include an annotation on whether the site is part of the Google Display Network, as well as reach and page view estimate figures for the site. 

If the Ad Planner tool overwhelms you, try the Google Placement tool instead. Simply log into your AdWords account and go to the Placement Tool under Tools and Analysis. Here you can generate a list of placements available on the Google Display Network either by putting in phrases that are important to your business, site categories or a similar website to one where you want to display.  Click search, and the tool will show you a list of sites you can then select and add to a placement targeted campaign. If you’re running on Placements in conjunction with Keywords, your ads will show on those placements only when the keyword matches the theme of a page on that placement (site).

3. Category Targeting
If you’re a fan of Category Targeting, the best tool for seeing what sort of sites your ads will appear on using Category Targeting is the Google Placement Tool within your AdWords account. Simply use the category menu to select the category you plan to run on and click “Search.”  The tool will display a list of sites and the ad types they accept. There is also a link to “view site profile” which will take you out to Doubleclick Ad Planner and show you the information pertaining to that specific site.

I hope this has helped you to understand the tools available to plan, launch and refine your Display Network campaigns. For more help on Display Advertising, see our previous articles on Display Network Best Practices.

Blog post by Jackie Jenkins, Global Manager, Search Services