1. Generate Winning PLA Results
Matthew Umbro
Director of Paid Search at Exclusive Concepts & Founder of PPC Chat
www.exclusiveconcepts.com
www.ppcchat.co
@Matt_Umbro #PPCchat
2. About Me
• Proud member of the PPC industry since
2007 and Director of Paid Search at Exclusive
Concepts. Have worked with clients across
multiple industries to attain profitable ROIs,
improved lead generation and better brand
awareness.
• Founded PPC Chat to connect industry
professionals across the world. Weekly topics
include principles such as writing effective
text ads and keyword bidding strategy to
PPC theory and advanced techniques.
• I’m getting married this October!
@Matt_Umbro #PPCchat
24. Conclusions
• Be cognizant of all PLA formats on both google.com and
google.com/shopping
• Create campaigns and ad groups based upon your product
targets – also utilize custom combinations
• Use the excluded destination attribute to disallow certain
products from showing
• Always write promotional text
• Optimize, optimize, optimize!
@Matt_Umbro #PPCchat
To put it bluntly, PLAs are awesome! They show great cost per conversions and conversion rates while producing higher click-thru-rates than text ads. And most of the time at lower cost per clicks! This presentation will help you better understand how product feeds run and how you can create profitable AdWords PLA campaigns.
Session overviewPLA FormatsHousekeepingProduct FeedsAdWords CampaignsQ & A
Before we discuss how to setup profitable product listing campaigns, it’s important to note where they show and how they can show. On google.com, PLAs can show in any of these formats:At the top of the pageIn the top right hand cornerBelow the top PPC ads
Before we discuss how to setup profitable product listing campaigns, it’s important to note where they show and how they can show. On google.com, PLAs can show in any of these formats:At the top of the pageIn the top right hand cornerBelow the top PPC ads
And on mobile
Within the actual shopping interface, PLAs can show as a series of photos…
Or as a list.
As a reminder, PLA campaigns must also be Enhanced Campaigns. PLA Enhanced Campaigns aren’t as much of an inconvenience as regular Search and Display Network campaigns as there are no keywords or extensions (other than Product). Nonetheless, you will still have to set your mobile bid adjustment.
Now here’s where the real fun begins! You get to dig into your product feed and determine how to best structure your PLA campaigns. I’m a firm believer that you should setup multiple PLA campaigns. In fact, I tend to break out PLA campaigns by theme, just as I do for regular text ad campaigns. But how do you break out these campaigns?
AdWords offers you six different targeting options for your PLA campaigns. Because PLA campaigns don’t utilize keywords, these attributes are how Google determines the most relevant ad to show based upon the user query. These targeting options are called product targets and are attributes of your feed:Product IDProduct typeProduct brandProduct conditionAdWords labelsAdWords groupingThese attributes allow you to segment your PLA campaigns accordingly. Now, only 3 of these attributes are required by Google, but you should be using all 6 within your feed.
The product type, AdWords labels and AdWords grouping attributes are all optional, but highly recommended. The product type attribute is very similar to the Google Product Category attribute, but you can customize and be as specific as you would like. For example, if you sell five different colors of running shoes, you can create five different product types instead of one generic “shoes” type. The product type attribute is often written as a string. I tend to create PLA campaigns around the various product types and use these product types as my ad groups. If I don’t feel the product types are segmented enough I will segment further.
The AdWords grouping attribute is very similar to the product type, but can be more generic. For example, instead of having a string such as Running Shoes > Red Running Shoes, you can use just “Running Shoes.” I tend to use the product type attribute more as I feel it’s more specific, but AdWords Grouping is worth testing
Probably my favorite attribute of all is the AdWords Label field. This attribute allows you to target specific items such as high margin items or top sellers. You literally create your own naming convention and tag your specific products accordingly.
Each ad group will now need to be assigned a product target and be validated. In fact, you can use up to three product targets per ad group if you desire. For example, maybe you only want your PLAs to show if the product type matches “Red Running Shoes” and the brand is “Nike.” The combinations are infinite to which you can test. Please note that your auto target bid trumps your ad group bid. Many advertisers will adjust the auto target bid and often pay more (or less) than they desired because they though the bid was set at the ad group level.
Google also allows you to disallow certain products from showing by utilizing the excluded destination attribute. You can use this attribute to disallow products from either Google Shopping or Commerce Search (or both).
Every ad group should be assigned a piece of promotional text. Your text can be up to 45 characters and should be unique to each PLA or at least offer a special promotion. In most formats, the promotional text only shows when users hover over your ad, but in select formats the text will show without being prompted. Just like text ads, make sure you have an enticing message. Additionally, Google is very touchy about promotional text, often putting brand names under review. If you are under review it’s best to change your message as you’ll be in “under review” purgatory.
Every ad group should be assigned a piece of promotional text. Your text can be up to 45 characters and should be unique to each PLA or at least offer a special promotion. In most formats, the promotional text only shows when users hover over your ad, but in select formats the text will show without being prompted. Just like text ads, make sure you have an enticing message. Additionally, Google is very touchy about promotional text, often putting brand names under review. If you are under review it’s best to change your message as you’ll be in “under review” purgatory.
You should also create an All Products product feed campaign that targets all of your items, but set at a much lower bid than your other PLA campaigns. This all products campaign will act as a “catch all” and result in very cheap cost per clicks and cost per conversions.
Just like text ad campaigns, you’ll need to make optimizations! Unfortunately, Google has made bid optimizations tougher as you can’t see your PLAs average position anymore. It’s not the end of the world as average position isn’t as important with PLAs, but nonetheless, it would help with adjusting bids. I’d recommend reviewing performance and potentially increasing/decreasing bids and see what the effects are.
You’re also able to exclude search queries. Just like you would a regular search query report, you can see exactly which queries triggered your PLAs. Before you exclude queries, keep in mind your search funnels. It’s possible that your more generic queries are assisting in conversions later down the line.Generally, I’ll exclude queries that see at least 40 clicks and no conversions.You may also want to proactively exclude one word exact match queries, such as “shoes” or “tables”. Though generic queries sometimes see conversions, they will eat a bunch of budget.
