4 Things Your Competitors Are Doing This Q4 to Crush You on Google
Q4 is the ultimate game. There is no halftime show, but all the big teams are playing, and everyone is coming to the game.
Q4 is the ultimate game. There is no halftime show, but all the big teams are playing, and everyone is coming to the game.
Google Shopping Q4 e-commerce strategy is key for more holiday sales and exposure. Here are some of the major plays your competitors will use to try and out leverage you on the Google field.
Google Shopping space on search is generally relegated to about three to eight Product ads, and three to six paid ads. While that is a good portion of the Google Shopping page (see image below), getting visibility in these areas can be a challenge.
Your competition will be leveraging space on Google to highlight their brand, store, and product attributes to encourage more click-throughs, impressions, and sales. Consider utilizing the following Google programs to elevate your products and online store:
Google Special Offers: Highlight product promotion within Google product ads.
Google Special offers highlight a deal for shoppers right on the search page, which distinguishes your store and products:
Consider leveraging this opportunity to extra visibility on search (in addition to your existing Q4 sales and shipping deals).
Google Seller Ratings: AdWords seller ratings are an important trust indicator for AdWords shoppers.
Be sure you are monitoring your customer service before and during Q4 to maintain or build up positive seller ratings. Keep in mind Google generates seller ratings from itself and other review sites such as Bizrate (Shopzilla) and eKomi.
Improve Seller ratings for Q4:
Google Product Ratings: Product ratings on Product ads.
Product ads have highlighted reviews for specific products on Google for some time. Google’s July update increased the visibility of those reviews, which now appear on product ads in search:
Unlike seller reviews which only appear if retailers have at least 3.5 stars, product ratings show on search with as low as 1 star (1-5 product rating).
Leverage product ratings for Q4 :
Q4 is the optimal time to revisit feed optimization for your AdWords campaigns. Data feed changes can be time-consuming and difficult, but have a significant impact on Google SEO, conversions, and click-through rate.
Be sure you are familiar with Google’s recent Shopping Campaign updates:
Enrich your product information:
Google Shopping Campaigns tools are a great way to track and leverage Google data for Google Shopping campaigns.
Here are some useful Google Shopping tools and reports your opposition is using:
Create an ad schedule for Google Shopping Campaigns.
Break it out into six, four-hour blocks:
For PPC, consider running the following AdWords Performance reports:
Remember to look at performance for individual campaigns, ads, and your campaign as a whole.
Mobile is the fastest-growing segment of e-commerce. Your competitors are leveraging mobile specific device bids, and optimizing mobile exposure for the holiday season.
Historically, we’ve seen conversion rate on mobile traffic is low. However, mobile is still an important part of a solid Google strategy.
Leverage Mobile Traffic on Google:
To change your device bid for mobile in AdWords:
Location Targeting is a strong lever to moderate traffic and conversions for Google Shopping during Q4.
Leverage Mobile Traffic on Google:
There are 84 days till Thanksgiving – how prepared are your Google campaigns?