Product Listing Ads (PLAs) are a fantastic advertising option that, if used well, can generate a highly positive ROI. Whilst there was plenty of uproar when Google moved PLA’s into an exclusively paid model, this has actually helped create more opportunity to succeed as poor quality items aren’t being advertised and therefore the shopping experience is improving for users – meaning that clickthrough rates and conversions are increasing. The key, as with any advertising, is to optimise to succeed, and below we’ll tell you how to do just that.
The Feed
Unlike standard paid search ads, PLA’s work based on the product feed you submit yo Merchant Center. This is the initial place to begin your optimisation efforts. Now that you’re bidding on your product listing ads, it’s crucial that you begin by ensuring the clarity of your feed. The key aspects to consider at this stage are:
- Feed quality
- Whether your feed is up to date
- The quality of descriptions and titles of products
- How your feed is categorised
Each of your products needs to be as well populated in the feed as possible to ensure that your items have the best chance of surfacing for the right kinds of terms and with the relevant details to make them contextually relevant in searches. Ensure that each item has a description, title, price, and is categorised as a minimum.
Segmentation
If you’re not segmenting your ads, then now is the time to start. You are able to target your ads based on the categories in the feed, or create labels within AdWords. It is up to you whether to segment by category or label in this way, or whether to create ad groups by individual products. Segmenting your feed reduces wastage straight away, but the more you segment the more you can increase relevance.
For example, with fashion products, you may find that some of the terms your products appear for aren’t relevant based on price or because they are so different to the other products on offer. If you’re targeting ad groups at an individual product level then you can quickly see this and adjust your campaign settings to resolve the issue and reduce wastage. Likewise, you can also add in negative keywords for specific products, giving you a much higher relevance per ad.
Bidding
Once your PLA’s are properly set up, bid optimisation is one of the most essential ongoing optimisation factors. There are a variety of factors to consider in your bid optimisation for PLA’s – not just including cost per click and cost per conversion, but also including your average order value, profit margin and more to ensure that you are making a good profit still on each sale that you make through your ads.
Create a spreadsheet detailing the profit per sale, and define what you would be happy to pay per sale and work backwards from there when optimising your PLA’s.
Imagery
Don’t underestimate the power of your images in your PLA’s. When people are shopping the visual is the most important element and attracts the attention which then moves onto the price and description after the image has done it’s initial work. Don’t be afraid to test new imagery and optimise for the best image in your PLA’s. A change of image can make a massive difference in the conversion rate of your product listing ads.
Conclusion
In summary there are a number of ways to optimise your product listing ads to ensure that you are beating your competition and succeeding. Don’t be afraid to test new descriptions, titles, images and more, and ensure that you segment and target your ads properly so that you can measure performance and be more intelligent with your bid optimisation efforts. Test and learn with your PLA’s as you would with your main AdWords PPC campaign, and you’ll soon find what works for your specific product and brand.
