Online shopping is very common nowadays. Many internet users are heading to Google to search for all different types of products whether it’s a new dress, a new appliance, or even a car. As you search on Google for specific products, you’ve likely seen Google Shopping Ads at the top of the page. This was originally created as a competitor to Amazon.

For retailers who also sell commodity items such as personal care products, hair regrowth formula, clothing, sports equipment, etc. there are a number of benefits to running Google Shopping campaigns.

One huge benefit is that is that Google Shopping Ads have pictures: Visual content tends to be far more compelling than just text content alone. Within the search results page, the shopping ads are also the only imagery, which again focusses the attention of your viewing audience.

Better Click-Through-Rate: One of the reasons for this is that people browsing for specific products tend to be further along the buying process. They often know exactly what they are looking for. Click through rates are also aided significantly by images which show the product clearly.

Reduced Cost Per Click: Google Shopping campaigns typically have much lower ‘average cost per click’ then standard search campaigns.

Mobile Visibility: With more searches conducted on mobiles and tablets than on traditional desktop or laptop PCs, it’s important for dealers to consider a mobile visibility strategy. Whilst traditional PPC search campaigns will still show above the organic search results on a mobile device, they are invariably limited to only two ads, which makes the competition for these ‘premium’ positions unviable for most dealers. That’s where Google Shopping Ads come into their own, appearing at the top of mobile searches in a carousel showing the first 15 results.

Automatically updated: Once you’ve set up an automated product feed, your  Shopping Campaign will update your inventory every night, ensuring that you’re not showing ads for products that you no longer sell or which are out of stock

Now the biggest announcement in the automotive marketing world recently came down from Google. After Beta testing with Carmax and Carvana, Google is now launching Vehicle Listing Ads and opening them to all automotive dealerships in the United States. This is certainly AutoTraders, Cars.com and CarGurus biggest nightmare. Why would you even bother clicking thru to those sites when you can click on the ad right in Google? It will be interesting to see how this plays out but one things is certain, expect others like Bing and yes even Amazon to follow suit.

In order to get into the vehicle listings program you need to set up a merchant account in Google. There are some tricky things to it though for those that are familiar with the traditional Google Shopping Ads Campaigns. Vehicle Listings is completely different. First off you can’t be enrolled in any other program. That means that when you first enroll and are defaulted to local product listings, you have to go to that program, click United States and remove it. Then start adding your business information, link your Google Ads campaigns, verify your website, and contact details. From there you need to apply to be part of the Vehicle Listings program here.  You will soon receive an email confirmation acknowledging receipt of your entry. From there it is typically 24-48 hours to gain entry into the program. After gaining expectance, you’ll want to review the Google Merchant Center Vehicle Ads Onboarding Implementation Guide. When building your feed make sure you have all the necessary attributes or your feed will not be accepted. Once your feed is accepted you are set to go live.

While Google Vehicle Listings is a great option for dealerships that sell cars in store or online, there are some careful considerations to make before embarking down the VLA route.

Depending on how many products you want to show for, the set-up time can be lengthy and time consuming. To make matters worse, this is still new to Google as well so getting someone on the phone to speak to about your feed etc,. is not happening as of right now and it can be a very frustrating process.

Google Vehicle Listings don’t work by keyword, they require a comprehensive description of the product in a feed, which Google will then compare against a search result for relevancy. With this in mind, descriptions need to be thorough.

Be price conscious. While Google Shopping isn’t directly a ‘price comparison’ site, the product price must be displayed along with the image and product title. Where multiple ads are shown for the same product, invariably the cost-conscious customer will be attracted to the cheaper option.

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If you have questions or concerns about your online presence give Stratedia a call at 860.415.0430  or visit us online at stratedia.com. Were ranked #1 as the top seo company CT by Clutch.co! Let Stratedia help you, GET TO THE TOP!

 

Published On: March 13th, 2022

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