Goodbye Google Product Listing Ads, Hello Google Shopping Campaigns

Max Braglia - March 7, 2014

If you are an e-commerce retailer and promote your store via Google AdWords, then you know that Product Listing Ad campaigns are a must-do. Product Listing Ads appear in their own box on Google Search, separate from text ads, and they have been proven to be a very effective way to increase targeted traffic and sales.

Google, always working on improving its products and services, recently launched a new campaign type for Product Listing Ads (PLA) called Shopping Campaigns, which give users access to inventory and product feed information directly in AdWords, making it easier for marketers to monitor and optimize their efforts.

Today, I had a discussion with Brittany, one of the Strategists here at MoreVisibility, in which she shared with me several new Shopping Campaign features and benefits that are now available to e-commerce retailers. I was very impressed and definitely think that there’s great potential for those e-commerce businesses who want to give Shopping Campaigns a try.

Here’s a recap of some of the new features and benefits available in Google Shopping Campaigns:

• Unprecedented ability to filter and segment performance data by your product attributes or for individual products.
• Custom labels are available within the AdWords interface itself.
• You can be as broad or granular as you want.
• Bid preference is an option so that if you continue running regular PLAs at the same time, you tell Google which bid has priority.
• Benchmark competitive metrics are available so you can:
  • Determine a competitive bid.
  • See how to grow your impression share.
• A new feature called “bid simulator” is launching soon so that you will be able better control your bids
• Bulk edit option is available.
• Reporting at the item level is available.
• An updated API is available.

It would seem as though Google Shopping Campaigns are here to stay, and they will make it easier for e-commerce retailers to connect with their consumers and promote their products on Google. Give them a try!