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IGNITING DIGITAL GROWTH A Greenlight Guide to Google Shopping

www.greenlightdigital.com

CONTENTS

2

About Greenlight

3

Tips & tricks to stay ahead with Google Shopping

4

Laura Ashley case study

8

Google Shopping feed best practices

10

Country specifications

24

Footasylum case study

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Feed your digital marketing with...‘Feeds’

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INTRODUCTION

Greenlight was born into a world in its digital infancy. It was 2003, Yahoo and AOL were the most popular sites in the world and an upstart called Google had just become the sixth. Businesses were just starting to question whether the ‘Internet’ could be an effective marketing channel. For Greenlight’s founders, there was no question - the Internet would become a critical marketing channel for brands and businesses. Traditional agencies were unprepared, uninspiring, and ill-equipped to lead the charge. Digital marketing needed a champion. Today, Greenlight remains as confident, committed

good stuff is part of their latest platform, while the

and impassioned as ever. A multiple award- winning

social guys work eagerly at getting bloggers to your

agency of 145 based in London, building and

next event. It’s pretty exciting really. At Greenlight

executing digital campaigns in 31 languages and

we make growth happen!

42 territories on behalf of clients as diverse as Legal and General, Urban Outfitters, ghd, Dixons

the site for SEO and always ahead of the curve

As a result of Greenlight’s in-depth and detail oriented approach, we’ve seen impressive improvements in overall paid search performance. We’re delighted with the impact on our sales figures and have such confidence in our terms and account structure, that we’re rolling out Greenlight’s campaign strategy much further and deeper into our account.

with beta testing in PPC. At the same time our

Gail Cayuela, Head of eCommerce, Laura Ashley

Carphone, Laura Ashley, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels, and many more. Last year, Greenlight was ranked as the UK’s No.1 digital agency by The Drum, based upon feedback from our clients and peers. Growing revenue means we work anywhere and everywhere. We’ll be knee deep in analytics, improving conversion rates, whilst optimising

ecommerce team will be busy making sure all this

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TIPS & TRICKS TO STAY AHEAD WITH GOOGLE SHOPPING START BY TREATING SHOPPING LIKE SEARCH Over a year into the upgrade from PLAs (Product Listing Ads) to Shopping, and these campaigns continue to go from strength to strength. Shopping continues to be very much a key channel for retail as it tends to be the driving force behind top performing campaigns in terms of sales and revenue driven overall, as well as an enabler to make generic terms work. Furthermore, Shopping helps drive year-on-year traffic up thanks to the ever-increasing retail space available. At Greenlight, we’ve seen real success by approaching Shopping campaigns similarly to how we do Search, starting with a granular breakout. We typically suggest breaking campaigns out by category, and then into product groups within those campaigns based on sub categories/product types. Of course this varies from retailer to retailer depending on what you sell. Shopping campaigns also give you instant access to all sorts of useful metrics to optimise your campaigns by, such as benchmark CPCs and impression share for optimisation to understand where we’re losing visibility, and benchmark ourselves against competitors. To take full advantage of this, we have to treat Shopping as a channel in its own right and bring the granularity and efficiencies from Search into our Shopping campaigns. This gives us an initial structure along the lines as illustrated below:

SHOPPING ACCOUNT

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Clothing

Shoes

Top Sellers

Dresses

Boots

Best Selling Dress

Nightwear & Loungewear

Pumps

Best Selling Shoes

THERE ARE THREE MAIN AREAS TO FOCUS ON WHEN LAUNCHING SHOPPING CAMPAIGNS WE CAN SUPPORT ALL THREE. 1. FEED OPTIMISATION

3. CAMPAIGN OPTIMISATION

Ensure strong, descriptive product

Label your top sellers, particular lines you

descriptions to increase visibility.

want to push, high margin and sale items

Use brand name and all variants of product

with custom labels to break them out into

names in the feed.

their own campaign.

Ensure images are crawlable.

Focus the budget on your top selling areas

Use words people are searching for (e.g. red

Test and optimise your product description

dress not brand specific colours for red).

lines in the SERPs.

Ensure you categorise all products correctly

As the campaign develops, implement a

and as granularly as possible according to the Google taxonomy.

more granular break out to the categories and products that are performing the best.

Upload into Google Merchant Centre and ensure all products are approved.

2. CAMPAIGN SET UP Break out at category level to increase visibility in SERPs. Optimise on a product level taking impression share, benchmark CPC and benchmark CTR into account.

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INTERNATIONAL SHOPPING CAMPAIGNS At Greenlight we run shopping campaigns across all markets where they are available. The following must be

Products must be in the local language. Product landing pages must also be in the local language. Product prices must be listed in the local currency including all applicable taxes & charges except shipping. Products must be shippable throughout the local market . However, if you ship outside the local market then the advertiser must provide shipping information.

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Product images need to be crawlable.

2

Description lines should include all variants of product names.

3

Product variations should be included to match against search terms.

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Use your full character limit for descriptions and be as unique and descriptive as possible.

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Use your brand and product names.

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Be savvy with labels: include revenue and margin etc.

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Product titles can be up to 150 characters, and should ideally be structured by: Brand, product type, gender, colour, material

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Ensure the feed is updated daily to reflect site and stock changes.

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Laura Ashley PAID MEDIA - SHOPPING

Laura Ashley is one of the world’s best-loved fashion and home furnishings companies, coming from humble beginnings. Greenlight has been working with Laura Ashley for over five years on both organic and Paid Search campaigns, providing them with an effective integrated search strategy..

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THE OBJECTIVES

THE RESULT

At the beginning of 2014, structural changes were made to Google Shopping campaigns and the way they were managed within Adwords. This added more complexity, yet gave advertisers more control than ever before. We were tasked with:

CONVERSION RATE INCREASED 82% YEAR- ON -YEAR

Fully restructuring Google Shopping campaigns to the new format Increasing impression share for Laura Ashley’s products across

ROI IMPROVED 72% YEAR- ON -YEAR

Google Shopping Leveraging Laura Ashley’s internal data in order to break out and target best sellers

436% INCREASE IN CONVERSION VOLUME

Using the new product grouping and bulk bid features to

Conversion volume

increase both revenue and ROI

increased 436% year-on-year

THE STRATEGY Previously, Product Listing Ads (PLAs) could only target on two levels - product ID or by the product type, as set in the shopping feed. The new Google Shopping structure has allowed us to target up to five different levels of category, brand, condition and product ID.

SEARCH SPEND INCREASED BY 214% Google Shopping contribution to overall search spend increased by 214%

With this in mind, we completely restructured Laura Ashley’s campaigns to provide the granularity that was previously not possible, through the new tiered approach for categorisation.

One campaign, one generic product category target, one CPC

Four campaigns, two targeted by granular category, two targeted by brand of category

REVENUE UP Furthermore, using Laura Ashley’s internal data we set up campaigns targeting their best-selling ranges for each category. In addition to this, we have been able to make bid changes at scale using the insights Google now provides with Benchmark CTR and Benchmark Max.

431%

YEAR- ON -YEAR

CPC: This has enabled us to make intelligent changes to our bids, based on information from the Google Shopping search results, allowing us to control both volume and subsequently ROI.

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GOOGLE SHOPPING FEED: BEST PRACTICES

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Feed Overview To ensure you follow best practise when you implementing a Google Shopping Strategy adhere to the following technical guidelines:

KEY TAKEAWAYS All feeds must be in CSV or XML. We recommend CSV as

The Google Product Category is also important. This relies

it is easier for us to download, review, troubleshoot and

on the Google taxonomy. When the user enters a search

make recommendations from.

query, Google first scans to find the relevant product

Shopping campaigns can run in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and US. In order to run Shopping campaigns in these markets, you need a local language and currency feed uploaded to the Google Merchant Centre for that market. Required attributes (columns we cannot run Shopping campaigns without) are: unique product ID, title, description, google product category, product type, GTIN, link and image link (all explained below). For each size and colour a product is offered in, it needs a replica line for that size & colour. Your product descriptions are really important – it’s what the user queries match to and ultimately what makes your Product Listing Ads (PLAs) show. Think about how

categories, and then looks for the relevant products. While your PLAs can still show if you’re in a higher category, it will take the Google bots longer to find you, therefore your chances and position decrease. Therefore ensure you go as granular and correct as possible with your categorisation. Ensure all entries in your feed are readable, and all images are crawlable. Use up to five custom labels to label your best performers/top sellers, high margin items, sale items, special offers etc. These can then be targeted separately from your normal campaigns. Ensure your feed is kept up to date and accurate – otherwise it’s at risk of being disapproved by Google for creating a bad user experience. Use 50 characters or less for your title to avoid truncation in the SERPs.

your consumers talk about your product, and use multiple

Match your titles to the user search queries and the

product names when appropriate, e.g. a ‘tshirt’ is also a ‘top’.

landing page.

Use words that your customers do, especially in your

Use clean, clear images with a minimum resolution of

product descriptions. If you have a red dress then call it a

800x800.

red dress in your feed – while your brand may use brandspecific terminology, your customers won’t, and if you don’t use the keywords your consumer is searching for, your Shopping ads won’t show.

All prices and product availability must match your website, therefore ensure you update your feed whenever you update your site.

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Technical Detail SUPPORTED FILE FORMATS

We use the term item to describe a single product listing.

We currently support data feeds in the following formats:

equivalent to one line in your data feed. Items are similar to

Text (Spreadsheet) or Tab Delimited XML. When creating

products, but we assume that products can occur in multiple

your data feed, remember to save your file in one of the

variations. These variations - product variants - differ by

supported filetypes with the appropriate filename extension:

‘color’, material, pattern, or size. We use item to refer to a

If you are using Text or Tab delimited format, an item is

single variation of a product. FILENAME EXTENSION .txt: text

We also accept feeds formatted according to the Yandex specifications for data feeds targeting Russia.

.xml: XML .gz: Gnu zip, compressed text or XML .zip: Zip, compressed text or XML .bz2: Bzip2, compressed text or XML

IMPORTANT NOTE

If you are using a delimited format, you can use the attribute names in either English or the language of your target country. Make sure that the attribute names (e.g., ‘condition’) and values

PRODUCT FEED SPECIFICATION

(e.g., ‘new’) are always in the same language.

Please choose your target country from the drop-down

If you are using XML or API, you must use English

menu below. The content will be specific to the target

attribute names shown within the brackets.

country you select. United Kingdom

In order to prevent suspension of your feed please read the Google Shopping policies very carefully before creating a feed. This page lists all the attributes you need to provide in order for your products to be listed in Google Shopping. Some attributes are required for all items, some are required for certain types of items (such as apparel), and others are recommended. Failure to provide a required attribute may prevent that particular item from showing up in Google Shopping results, whereas failure to provide recommended attributes may result in items showing up less frequently. Read through the entire document to make sure your products show up on Google Shopping. Before creating your feed, choose the file format that is right for you.

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If you are using XML or API, you must use an underscore in place for a space within an attribute name (e.g., “image_link” instead of “image link”.) A space within an attribute value is allowed (e.g., “in stock”).

GOOGLE SHOPPING FEED BEST PRACTICES - TECHNICAL DETAIL

BASIC PRODUCT INFORMATION

AVAILABILITY & PRICE

The following attributes contain basic information about

The attributes in this section are required in order to specify

your items.

the availability and prices of your items. The availability and

REQUIRED ITEMS:

prices of your items can change quite frequently and you need to make sure Google is notified of these changes as

id [id] - An identifier of the item

they happen.

title [title] - Title of the item

We regularly check these attributes, and if the values

description [description] - Description of the item

provided in these attributes are found to be different from

google product category [google_product_category] - Google’s category of the item

all your items from Google Shopping.

product type [product_type] - Your category of the item link [link] - URL directly linking to your item’s page on your website image link [image_link] - URL of an image of the item

The following attributes contain basic information about

the information presented on your website, we will remove

REQUIRED: availability [availability] - Availability status of the item price [price] - Price of the item sale price [sale_price] - Advertised sale price of the item

OPTIONAL:

your items. RECOMMENDED ITEMS: additional image link [additional_image_link] - Additional URLs of images of the item

sale price effective date [sale_price_effective_date] - Date range during which the item is on sale

condition [condition] - Condition or state of the item

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ABOUT UNIQUE PRODUCT IDENTIFIERS Unique product identifiers go beyond the ‘id’ attribute to define the product you’re selling in the global marketplace. Common unique product identifiers include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs) and brand names. Providing unique product identifiers, especially GTINs, can make your ads richer and easier for users to find.

Name

Description

Universal Product

A unique numerical identifier for

Code (UPC), also

commercial products that’s usually

called GTIN-12 and

associated with a barcode printed

UPC-A

on retail merchandise.

European Article Number (EAN), also called GTIN-13

Japanese Article Number (JAN), also called GTIN-13

Location

Format

Feed Attribute

Primarily North

12 numerical digits

GTIN

America

A unique numerical identifier for

Primarily

Typically, 13 numerical

commercial products that’s usually

outside

digits (can occasionally

associated with a barcode printed

North

be either 8 or 14

on retail merchandise.

America

numerical digits)

commercial products that’s usually

Only in

8 or 13 numerical

associated with a barcode printed

Japan

digits

GTIN

A unique numerical identifier for GTIN

on retail merchandise. ISBN-10: 10 numerical digits (last digit may be “X” which represents the number “10”). Note that this format

A unique numerical identifier for

was deprecated in

International

commercial books published since

Standard Book

1970 that can be found on the

Number (ISBN)

back of the book, along with the

can be represented

barcode.

using ISBN-10.

Globally

2007, and not all books

GTIN

ISBN-13 (recommended): 13 numerical digits and typically starts with either 978 or 979

Brand

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)

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The brand of the product.

Globally

The number which uniquely identifies the product to its manufacturer.

Globally

Name of brand

Alphanumerical digits (various lengths)

Brand

MPN

GOOGLE SHOPPING FEED BEST PRACTICES - TECHNICAL DETAIL

INCLUDE UNIQUE PRODUCT IDENTIFIERS IN YOUR PRODUCT DATA Depending on the type of product you submit, you’ll submit different identifiers. For all your items, we recommend submitting all three attributes (‘gtin’, ‘brand’ and ‘mpn’) to help boost ad performance and help users find your products.

TIPS FOR SPECIFIC TYPES OF PRODUCTS COMPATIBLE PRODUCTS A compatible product is meant to be used together with another product that’s not necessarily from the same brand. For example, compatible products can include chargers, electronics accessories and toner or inkjet cartridges. If you sell compatible products, submit the GTIN and brand from

Use the following set of rules to provide the correct

the manufacturer who actually built the compatible product.

identifiers for each of your products.

For example, if you sell printer cartridges, you’ll submit the

For any items with ‘new’ condition and GTINs assigned by the manufacturer, submit unique product identifiers using these attributes: REQUIRED: gtin [gtin] brand [brand]

RECOMMENDED: mpn [mpn]

Own-brand items and other products for which you are the only seller generally don’t have and won’t be required to include GTINs. Other products that commonly don’t have GTINs assigned by the manufacturer include replacement and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) parts, custom products, antiques and some clothing products. In addition, you may not have GTINs for items with availability ‘preorder’ or condition ‘used’. When no GTIN is assigned, submit unique product identifiers using these attributes:

GTIN and brand from the manufacturer of the cartridge you’re selling, not the manufacturer that makes the original printer or printer cartridge. MULTIPACKS A manufacturer-defined multipack is a package of several individually packed identical items sold as a unit. Use the unique product identifiers required for your product type. You should use the identifier that relates to the multipack, not the items contained in the multipack. A merchant-defined multipack can contain either several units of the same or of distinct products sold as a unit. Use the unique product identifiers required for the individual base item in the multipack. BUNDLES A manufacturer-defined bundle (for example, a camera body with a lens) is a product that contains multiple items and at least two of the items are different. A merchant-defined bundle is a custom grouping of different products defined by the merchant and sold

REQUIRED: brand [brand] mpn [mpn]

together for a single price. Use the unique product identifiers required for the product type of the main item in the bundle. Plus, use the ‘is bundle’ attribute in your data. Products customised by engraving or other personalisation

Some products don’t have a clearly associated brand, including movies, books and musical recordings. You don’t need to submit a brand in cases like these. In the rare situation where your product has neither a GTIN nor MPN (for example, made-to-order or handmade items), set ‘identifier exists’ to ‘FALSE’ to indicate that you have no identifier for the product.

If you offer customisation, engraving, or other personalisation of a product that’s been assigned a GTIN by the manufacturer, submit the GTIN and use the ‘is bundle’ attribute to let us know that the product includes customisation. You should also include a description of the product’s customisation in both the ‘title’ and ‘description’ attributes.

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TROUBLESHOOTING

FINDING UNIQUE PRODUCT IDENTIFIERS FOR YOUR PRODUCTS When you’re working with unique product identifiers, it’s important that you don’t invent or approximate the values.

Resolving invalid identifier errors If you submit your feed and encounter errors with your unique product identifiers, you can check a few parts of the identifiers to make sure that you provide the right values: Too many or too few digits

Each product has a prescribed value assigned by the

Letters or symbols (instead of numbers only)

manufacturer, and any other value will be flagged as invalid.

Non-standard manufacturer part number

The most accurate source of GTINs is always from the product packaging or the product’s manufacturer. Ways to find unique product identifiers:

Invalid check digit* We will generate errors for incorrectly formatted values for the ‘gtin’ attribute. These errors will prevent an item from

Refer to the GTIN on your product’s packaging.

appearing in Google Shopping.

Contact your product’s manufacturer or distributor to ask

For more information about the validation of GTINs, refer to

for it.

the GTIN Validation Guide1 edited by GS1.

Use the Google Shopping “Compare prices” page under

*The check digit is a digit within the GTIN that can be used

the “Details” section for any product.

as a mathematical check to make sure the product identifier

Look up UPCs or EANs on GTIN Info, which includes many,

is accurate. You can validate your product identifier and check

though not all, product identifiers that have been issued.

digit at GS1.

Look up ISBNs at ISBNdb.com or on Google Books.

Because users rely on accurate product information, each

Making sure your GTIN codes are correct Ensure that each GTIN that you submit includes the correct number of digits and check digit (or letter for ISBN-10). The check digit is a digit within the GTIN that can be used as a mathematical check to make sure that the product identifier is accurate. If you use GTIN-14 codes, only use packaging levels (1-8) if you are selling packages containing multiple items; do not use the bulk level indicator (9). GTIN submissions should not include codes in the restricted ranges (prefixes 2, 02 or 04) or the coupon range (05, 981, 982 or 983).

product submitted to the Merchant Center must use the correct identifying information. If your products don’t have correct identifiers, they’ll be disapproved. Remember to use the manufacturer-assigned part number in the case of ‘mpn’; for ‘brand’ an appropriate brand name (not a store name or product name); and for ‘gtin’ there should be a valid check digit. No unique product identifiers available In rare cases where a brand name product has no unique product identifier (e.g. replacement parts), provide this information explicitly in your feed by specifying the ‘identifier exists’ attribute for that item with a value of ‘FALSE’. If an identifier exists for the item but you don’t have it, it’s important to add the correct identifier to your feed instead of using the ‘identifier exists’ attribute. 1. www.gs1us.org/resources/standards/gtin-validation-guide

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

01. I sell many products exclusively through my site, and these do not have GTINs. Will these products be

04. I sell books that are either too old or rare to have ISBNs. What should I do?

disapproved? If the books have an old SBN code (9 digits, used in No, own-brand items and other products for which you

Great Britain until 1974), you can convert it into an

are the only merchant generally do not have GTINs. As

ISBN-10 by adding zero as a prefix. You can also convert

a result, we won’t require GTINs for these products and

an ISBN to ISBN-13 using online tools.

won’t disapprove them. Instead, submit a brand and MPN for these products.

If the books you are selling pre-date SBN codes, you do not need to submit values for GTIN.

02. Isn’t ISBN a sub-set of EAN? How should I submit it?

05. I sell used and refurbished goods.

Yes, ISBN-13 is a sub-set of EAN, which in turn is a subset of GTIN; therefore, you should use the ‘gtin’ attribute

Unique product identifiers offer the same ad

to submit your values.

performance benefits for used and refurbished products, so we recommend that you submit the identifiers

03. I have books, videos and DVDs that have UPC and ISBN values (the values are different). Which value should I include or should I submit both? Submit both values. For Text/Tab-delimited format, separate multiple UPCs with a comma and space. For XML format, include a attribute at the item level for each additional UPC.

whenever they’re available. We recommend that you always include the GTIN and brand to help your ad appear for more user searches. If a GTIN isn’t available, you can still include a brand for a similar effect. For example, if you sell compatible toner and inkjet cartridges, make sure that you include the unique product identifiers of the manufacturer who actually built the printer cartridge.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

06. What if my products have more than one UPC? Use the following guidelines when submitting UPCs: Variant products: For products that have different UPCs for each variant of the item, such as size or colour, submit one UPC per item. Make sure that you link these items together using a common ID in the ‘item group id’ attribute. Multiple UPCs:

Similar conversion rules exist for drugs issued in European countries. See Guideline on the packaging information of medicinal products for human use authorised by the Union published by the European Commission. Refer to our policies for more information about submitting prescription and non-prescription drugs to Google Shopping. 09. I sell printed music.

For products which have more than one valid UPC, such as a global UPC and a UPC which is specific to a

International Standard Music Number (ISMN) can be

merchant or distributor, provide all applicable UPCs

converted into GTIN codes. See the Wikipedia page

in the ‘gtin’ attribute. For Text/Tab-delimited format,

about ISMN for more information.

separate multiple UPCs with a comma and space. For XML format, include a attribute at the item level for each additional UPC.

10. I sell replacement parts or accessories that are compatible with a brand-name product that requires a GTIN. What identifiers should I submit?

07. I sell magazine subscriptions. International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) values can be converted into GTIN codes. Learn more about converting values from the ISSN Centre’s website. 08. I sell prescription or non-prescription drugs. National Drug Code (NDC) values in the United States can be converted into GTIN codes. See the GTIN Validation Guide Appendix C.

Submit the GTINs for your products if they’ve been assigned by the manufacturer. Make sure that the value you include for the ‘brand’ attribute is the actual manufacturer of the part and not the manufacturer your products are compatible with. You can put details about compatibility with certain brands in the ‘description’ attribute. Don’t submit the GTIN, brand or MPN of the product with which you are compatible. If you do this, your products will be disapproved.

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GOOGLE SHOPPING FEED BEST PRACTICES - TECHNICAL DETAIL

EXAMPLES OF UNIQUE PRODUCT IDENTIFIER SUBMISSIONS

APPAREL PRODUCTS

BOOKS

Accessories’ (including all sub-categories) in Google’s

Rare old books: submit ‘identifier exists’ with a value

Apparel includes all products that fall under ‘Apparel & product taxonomy.

of FALSE. New books (published after 1970): provide ISBN in the ‘gtin’ attribute. CUSTOM GOODS Hand made goods: submit ‘identifier exists’ with a value of FALSE. Antique goods: submit ‘identifier exists’ with a value of FALSE. APPAREL

For feeds targeting the US, UK, DE, FR, and JP: The following attributes in this section are required across all products in the ‘Apparel & Accessories’ product category (including all subcategories): gender age group color

Mass produced clothing: provide ‘brand’.

In addition, the ‘size’ attribute is only required for the apparel

Custom clothing: submit ‘identifier exists’ with a value

subcategories ‘Apparel & Accessories > Clothing’ and ‘Apparel

of FALSE. MULTIPACKS

& Accessories > Shoes’. Recommended for other product categories (might become required in the future).

Manufacturer-defined multipack: follow the Unique Product Identifier Rules as described above. This multipack should be treated as a single item.

For all other countries: While the apparel attributes listed here are not currently required for countries outside the US,

Merchant-defined multipack: follow the Unique Product

UK, DE, FR, and JP, they may become required in the future.

Identifier Rules as described above for the individual

Therefore, we strongly recommend that you include all the

base item in the multipack.

relevant attributes where possible.

PRODUCT BUNDLES A manufacturer-defined bundle (e.g., a camera body with a lens): follow the Unique Product Identifier Rules as described above. This bundle should be treated as a

gender [gender] - Gender of the item age group [age_group] - Target age group of the item

single item.

color [color] - Color of the item

A merchant-defined bundle (e.g., a custom bundle of

size [size] - Size of the item

camera, lens, and case): submit ‘identifier exists’ with a value of FALSE for these items and do not provide unique product identifiers, even if the bundle contains some individual items that have unique product identifiers.

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PRODUCT VARIANTS

HOW TO SUBMIT VARIANT DATA

We define variants as a group of

Begin by submitting an item for each variant. For example, if you offer a

identical products that only differ by

t-shirt in four colours and five sizes, you need to submit 20 item variants.

the attributes ‘color’, ‘material’, ‘pattern’, or ‘size’. Variant-level information is required only for products in the ‘Apparel & Accessories’ category, and all related subcategories. Apparel variants are only required for feeds targeting

Include unique ‘id’ attribute values for each item variant, just like you would for all the other items in your feed. To identify these items as variants of one another, you are required to include the ‘item group id’ attribute (required for apparel items in the US, UK, DE, FR, and JP) and submit identical values of this attribute for each variant in a given group.

the US, UK, DE, FR, and JP. For feeds

Include variant attributes that indicate what makes each variant unique.

targeting other countries, the

You can use one or more of the following attributes: ‘color’, ‘material’,

attributes are recommended and may

‘pattern’, or ‘size’.

be required in the future.

You must only include single values for each of these variant attributes

If you don’t include variant attributes

and the values of these attributes must be unique across all variants in

in your feed, you shouldn’t submit

the group. For example: If one item in a variant group includes the values

several variants of the same product as

“Blue” and “L” for the ‘color’ and ‘size’ attributes, all other items in the

separate listings (ex: the same product

variant group must have values for ‘color’ and ‘size’, and each offer must

in different colors, sizes). These items

have a different combination of values for those attributes.

will be considered as duplicates which is against our Program Policies. You can find more details about submitting variant data below. By submitting variant products, you will help shoppers find what they are looking for more easily. Either by enabling them to navigate between the different product variations on a details page or helping them discover additional colors, sizes, patterns etc. for a given product.

You only need to send us data for variant attributes if your product varies by that specific attribute. So, if your shirts are all made of cotton, there’s no need to send the “Material” attribute. However, if your shirts were available in three colors and three sizes, you would send us nine separate line items, varying by color and size. For apparel items, it is required that you provide a unique image of the specific variant if the item differs by ‘color’, ‘pattern’ or ‘material’. For variants that differ only by ‘size’, you may submit identical images. We recommend sending separate images for variant products in other categories as well. But at this time we will not enforce this as a requirement for any category other than Apparel & Accessories. We also recommend you submit URL links that pre-select the variant. For example, if a user selects the red dress in size 10, they should be taken to a landing page, where the “red” and “size 10” options are already selected. If this is not possible, you may include identical link attribute values for each of the variant items within a group.

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GOOGLE SHOPPING FEED BEST PRACTICES - TECHNICAL DETAIL

TAX & SHIPPING For apparel variants in feeds targeting the US,

Taxes and shipping are an important part of the total cost of

UK, DE, FR, and JP:

items. In fact, shipping cost is the most common reason for users

For apparel products that vary by ‘color’, ‘material’, ‘pattern’, and/or ‘size’, it is required to include the ‘item group id’ for each variant, where each item has a unique combination of attribute values to describe each variant. For all other countries and categories: All variant attributes in this section are

abandoning their shopping choices. The ‘tax’ attribute is only applicable to feeds targeting the US - for all other countries except for Canada and India, value added tax (VAT) has to be included in the price. For Canada and India, it is required to submit prices that are exclusive of applicable taxes. There are three ways to specify tax (US only) and shipping costs: 1.

specify tax and shipping costs if your pricing structure is

recommended for apparel- and non-apparel

relatively simple. For example, if you have one shipping price

variants, but may become required in the

for all your items, or if you use a structure based on the weight

future. However, If you choose to include ‘item

of the packaged item (in that case, include the shipping

group id’, it is required that you also include at

weight attribute), our system can easily accommodate your tax

least one of the following variant attributes:

and shipping information. Learn more.

‘color’, ‘size’, ‘pattern’, ‘material’ and following the corresponding variant guidelines.

2.

structures.

submitting variant apparel products.

be sure to include the title common to all variant items. Visit the ‘title’ attribute for more details.

Attributes in the feed: By using the tax and shipping attributes below, you can model more complex tax and shipping cost

Please see this article for more information on

Important: When naming your variant products,

Settings in the Merchant Center: We offer various ways to

3.

Combination of the two: You can specify default tax and shipping information in the Merchant Center, and then override those defaults for certain products by specifying the attributes below.

You are required to use one of the ways above to specify tax item group id [item_group_id] - Shared identifier for all variants of the same product

and shipping in the US and only shipping information in the UK,

color [color] - Color of the item

If you can’t provide accurate tax or shipping information, please

material [material] - Material of the item

provide estimates. For example, you can provide tax as well as

pattern [pattern] - Pattern/Graphic of the item

tax and shipping attributes. Please estimate tax and shipping costs

size [size] - Size of the item

or overestimated for the majority of users.

Germany and France.

shipping cost for each product and state individually by using the such that the total cost in Google Shopping results is either correct

tax [tax] shipping [shipping] shipping weight [shipping_weight] - Weight of the item for shipping

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MERCHANT-DEFINED MULTIPACKS Multipacks are packages that include several identical

CUSTOM LABEL ATTRUBUTES FOR GOOGLE SHOPPING

products to create a larger unit of sale, submitted as a single

Shopping campaigns are a better way to use Product Listing

item. Merchant-defined multipacks are custom groups of

Ads and promote your products online using retail-centric

identical products submitted as a single unit of sale.

tools to manage and optimize your campaigns. With Shopping campaigns, you create product groups based on

multipack [multipack] - Submit merchant-defined multipacks

ADULT PRODUCTS Google cares about the family status of the product listings you submit in order to make sure that appropriate content is shown to an appropriate audience. You should use the ‘adult’ attribute to indicate that individual items will be considered “adult” or “non-family safe”. For more information on our “adult” or “non-family safe” status please refer to our Family Status Policy. adult [adult]

the attributes for your product data and then set bids on those product groups. In a Shopping campaign, you subdivide your products based on existing data from the category, brand, item ID, condition, product type and custom label attributes. You can use custom labels if you want to provide values of your choosing to subdivide your products. For example, you can use custom labels to indicate that products are seasonal, on clearance, best sellers, etc. You can create up to five custom labels, numbered 0 through 4, for each item in your feed. You may submit one value per item for each custom label attribute. As custom labels are meant to allow grouping of items, only 1,000 unique values are supported for each custom label attribute across the items in your account. Products with a

ADWORDS ATTRIBUTES

custom label submitted after the limit was exceeded won’t be

To track through a third party tracking provider you need to

the issue, update your product data to reduce the number of

following column, in which you include the landing page

unique values for the custom label to less than 1,000.

included in product groups using this custom label. To correct

with the required tracking append. custom label 0 [custom_label_0] adwords redirect [adwords_redirect]

custom label 1 [custom_label_1] custom label 2 [custom_label_2] custom label 3 [custom_label_3] custom label 4 [custom_label_4]

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GOOGLE SHOPPING FEED BEST PRACTICES - TECHNICAL DETAIL

UNIT PRICES

MULTIPLE INSTALLMENTS

These attributes allow you to submit the unit pricing for

The attribute below only applies to feeds which target

your applicable products in feeds targeting European Union

Brazil. It lets you specify an additional option for users to

countries and Switzerland.

pay in multiple installments.

(EU COUNTRIES & SWITZERLAND ONLY)

Please note that you should not submit both unit prices and energy labels for an item.

(BRAZIL ONLY)

installment [installment] - Number and amount of installments to pay for an item.

unit pricing measure [unit_pricing_measure] unit pricing base measure [unit_pricing_base_measure]

ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTES The two attributes below allow you to control the

ENERGY LABELS

(EU COUNTRIES & SWITZERLAND ONLY) This attribute allows you to submit the energy label for your applicable products in feeds targeting European Union countries and Switzerland.

destination of your items and the period during which your items are valid. excluded destination [excluded_destination] - Excluded destinations of your items expiration date [expiration_date] - Date that an item will expire

Please note that you should not submit both unit prices and energy labels for an item. energy efficiency class [energy_efficiency_class]

LOYALTY POINTS (JAPAN ONLY) The attribute below only applies to feeds which target Japan. It lets you specify how many and what type of loyalty points the customer receives when buying a product. loyalty points [loyalty_points] - Loyalty points that users receive after purchasing the item

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Country Specifications To include your items in Google Shopping, your items must meet the following guidelines:

Google Shopping:

United Kingdom

• Products must be listed in English. • Product landing pages must be in English. • Product prices must be listed in pounds sterling (GBP), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout the UK. If you ship from outside the UK, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in the UK and cover all custom charges.

Product Listing Ads for:

Belgium

• Products must be listed in French or Dutch. • Product landing pages must be in the same language as the products in the feed. For example, if you list your products in French, you must link to landing pages in French. • Product prices must be listed in Euros (EUR), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Belgium. If you ship from outside Belgium, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Belgium and cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping:

Spain

• Products must be listed in Spanish. • Product landing pages must be in Spanish. • Product prices must be listed in Euros (EUR), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping.

Google Shopping:

France

• Products must be listed in French. • Product landing pages must be in French.

• Products must be shippable throughout Spain. If you

• Product prices must be listed in Euros (EUR),

ship from outside Spain, you need to provide the

including all applicable taxes and charges

shipping information applicable to customers in Spain and cover all custom charges.

except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout France. If you ship from outside France, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in France and cover all custom charges.

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Google Shopping:

Germany

• Products must be listed in German. • Product landing pages must be in German. • Product prices must be listed in Euros (EUR), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Germany. If you ship from outside Germany, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Germany and cover all custom charges.

Product Listing Ads for:

Turkey

• Products must be listed in Turkish. • Product landing pages must be in Turkish. • Product prices must be listed in Turkish Lira (TRY), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Turkey. If you ship from outside Turkey, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Turkey and cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping:

Italy

• Products must be listed in Italian. • Product landing pages must be in Italian. • Product prices must be listed in Euros (EUR), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Italy. If you ship from outside Italy, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Italy and cover all custom charges.

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Product Listing Ads for:

Norway

• Products must be listed in Norwegian. • Product landing pages must be in Norwegian. • Product prices must be listed in Norwegian Krone (NOK), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Norway. If you ship from outside Norway, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Norway and cover all custom charges.

Product Listing Ads for:

Denmark

• Products must be listed in Danish. • Product landing pages must be in Danish. • Product prices must be listed in Danish Krone (DKK), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Denmark. If you ship from outside Denmark, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Denmark and cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping:

the Netherlands

• Products must be listed in Dutch. • Product landing pages must be in Dutch. • Product prices must be listed in Euros (EUR), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout the Netherlands. If you ship from outside the Netherlands, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in the Netherlands and cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping:

Switzerland

• Products can be listed in English, German, French, and/or Italian. • Product landing pages must be in the same language as the products in the feed. For example, if you list your products in German, you must link to landing pages in German. • Product prices must be listed in Swiss Francs (CHF), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Switzerland. If you ship from outside Switzerland, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Switzerland and cover all custom charges.

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Product Listing Ads for:

Sweden

• Products must be listed in Swedish. • Product landing pages must be in Swedish. • Product prices must be listed in Swedish krona (SEK), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Sweden. If you ship from outside Sweden, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Sweden and cover all custom charges.

Product Listing Ads for:

Poland

• Products must be listed in Polish. • Product landing pages must be in Polish. • Product prices must be listed in Polish złoty (PLN), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Poland. If you ship from outside Poland, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Poland and cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping:

Czech Republic

• Products must be listed in Czech. • Product landing pages must be in Czech. • Product prices must be listed in Czech crowns (CZK), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Czech Republic. If you ship from outside Czech Republic, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Czech Republic and cover all custom charges.

Product Listing Ads for:

Austria

• Products must be listed in German. • Product landing pages must be in German. • Product prices must be listed in Euros (EUR), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Austria. If you ship from outside Austria, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Austria and cover all custom charges.

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Product Listing Ads for:

Canada

• Products must be listed in English or French. • Product landing pages must be in the same language as the products in the feed. For example, if you list your products in French, you must link to landing pages in French. • Product prices must be listed in Canadian Dollars (CAD) and must be exclusive of all applicable taxes, charges, and shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Canada. If you ship from outside Canada, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Canada and cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping:

United States

• Products must be listed in English. • Product landing pages must be in English. • Product prices must be listed in US Dollars (USD). • Products must be shippable throughout the continental US. If you ship from outside the US, you need to provide in your feed the shipping information applicable to customers in the US and cover all custom charges.

Product Listing Ads for:

Mexico

• Products must be listed in Spanish. • Product landing pages must be in Spanish. • Product prices must be listed in Mexican Pesos (MXN), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Mexico. If you ship from outside Mexico, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Mexico and cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping:

Brazil

• Products must be listed in Portuguese. • Product landing pages must be in Portuguese. • Product prices must be listed in Brazilian Reals (BRL), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Brazil. If you ship from outside Brazil, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Brazil and cover all custom charges.

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Google Shopping:

Australia

• Products must be listed in English. • Product landing pages must be in English. • Product prices must be listed in Australian Dollars (AUD), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Australia. If you ship from outside Australia, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Australia and cover all custom charges.

Google Shopping:

Japan

• Products must be listed in Japanese. • Product landing pages must be in Japanese. • Product prices must be listed in Yen (JPY), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Japan. If you ship from outside Japan, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Japan and cover all custom charges.

Product Listing Ads for:

India

• Products must be listed in English. • Product landing pages must be in English. • Product prices must be listed in Indian Rupees (INR), and must be exclusive of all applicable taxes, charges, and shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout India. If you ship from outside India, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in India and cover all custom charges.

Product Listing Ads for:

Russia

• Products must be listed in Russian. • Product landing pages must be in Russian. • Product prices must be listed in Russian rubles (RUB), including all applicable taxes and charges except shipping. • Products must be shippable throughout Russia. If you ship from outside Russia, you need to provide the shipping information applicable to customers in Russia and cover all custom charges.

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Footasylum PPC & SHOPPING THE OBJECTIVES

THE RESULT

Footasylum wanted to increase its online revenue, particularly through sales of trainers and apparel. However its PPC agency, Greenlight, needed to simultaneously reduce CPA in order to improve sales margins.

MARCH 2015

THE STRATEGY Greenlight adopted Google Shopping campaigns to gain Footasylum greater visibility amongst customers. The campaigns were structured to allow for the top performing brands to generate immediate returns.

REVENUE INCREASED

175%

Thereafter, the strategy aimed to create granular campaigns, allowing for deeper analysis of performance. A detailed negative strategy was also implemented to ensure relevancy by showing products for the correct keywords.

CPA REDUCED BY

£7.05

ROAS IMPROVED BY

119% AUGUST 2015

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FEED YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING WITH...‘FEEDS’ From affiliates to marketplaces to Google Shopping, a SKU level marketing campaign is an excellent way to tap into long tail, low cost & high ROI traffic. But the scale and granularity of the task requires precise and intelligent work with highly structured data feeds. Something which marketers often find difficult to obtain and keep up-to-date.

We remove the complexity and resource issues required to create feeds so that you can leverage these highly productive shopping channels. Using patent pending technology, we index your site, create highly structured feeds and optimise, deploy and track them in each channel whilst integrating with your other campaigns.

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FEED YOUR SEARCH MARKETING

FEED YOUR DIGITAL MARKETING

Our ADAPTive campaign builder uses

CUSTOM DATA EXTRACTION & FEED BUILDING

your structured data feeds to deliver

Running high performing search

feeds, enable you to leverage your

highly efficient and granular search

campaigns isn’t the only benefit of

entire product range across your

campaigns on Google, Bing and

being able to extract and structure

marketing channels. Now you can

Yahoo. Leveraging your product range

data into feeds. From testing to price

support your affiliates, white label

and category structure, we create

comparison, inventory management to

partners and marketplaces such as

campaigns that reach out far into

data transformation and enrichment,

eBay, whilst having enriched and

the tail to capture qualified, low cost

our clients have benefited widely from

optimised feeds to execute high

and high converting traffic, as well

our ability to extract and leverage data

visibility campaigns on Google

as delivering product level keyword

from a wide range of sources. So if you

shopping. And you won’t have to talk

optimised ad copy. We can even include

have a unique requirement, why not

to three different companies to do it.

dynamic pricing and inventory control

ask us. We love a challenge!

Our rich, structured, and up-to-date

to turn ads off when stock runs low.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

STANDALONE OR INTEGRATED

CUSTOM FEED BUILDING SERVICES

We can run feed-based marketing

Feeds don’t have to be difficult. Our

Get in touch +44 (0)20 72537000

campaigns as a standalone service for

data analysts can quickly map out your

[email protected]

you, or integrated as part of a wider

requirement using our proprietary

search marketing campaign. Either way

indexing tools. We’ll train our systems

we’ll track them, attribute them and

to extract and reform your data into

deliver great ROI.

any variety of structures and file formats. We’ll even keep it updated on regular schedules for you, so that your marketing is ‘feed ready’.

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OUR CLIENTS We’ve had the pleasure of working with some great clients, including many in the retail sector, creating digital growth for big high-street brands right down to family run businesses. URBAN OUTFITTERS SUPERDRY GHD ASICS FOOTASYLUM HSBC

OUR AWARDS We like to set our sights high and over the years we’ve picked up some significant awards, including: The Drum Independent Agencies Census Elite 2015 UK Search Awards Winner 2015 Econsultancy’s Top 100 Digital Agencies 2015 The Drum DADI Awards Finalist 2015 The Drum Search Awards Finalist 2016 RAR Digital Awards Finalist 2016 Brand Republic Digital Awards Finalist 2016

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www.greenlightdigital.com The Varnish Works 3 Bravingtons Walk King’s Cross, London, N1 9AJ +44 (0)20 7253 7000 [email protected]

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