Smart Shopping is the biggest of the automated processes that have been introduced by Google over the last 12 months. If you are wondering how this works and how it can benefit your business, then we are here to help you.
How Smart Shopping Campaigns Work
Smart Shopping campaigns have now been available to advertisers for a number of months and are a fully automated campaign type. They provide an opportunity to increase ROAS and expand your reach without having to manually manage the campaign as much as a standard shopping campaign.
Smart Shopping uses automated bidding and a combination of standard shopping and display remarketing to promote products across a variety of channels such as YouTube and Gmail.
Why Should Advertisers Switch Their Attention to Smart Shopping?
One of the main advantages of Smart Shopping is that it uses several different signals in order to maximise conversion value within a given budget. It is also possible to set a Target ROAS so that the bids will be optimised towards reaching that goal.
How do Results Compare to Standard Shopping Campaigns?
You might be wondering how effective smart shopping can be and how the results differentiate from standard shopping. We have recently switched to Smart Shopping on one of our accounts and we have seen a significant amount of uplift in regards to revenue and traffic. As Google evolves and adds more automated signals, we envisage that Smart Shopping will be adopted across our portfolio of clients.
Is There a Lack of Control?
Advertisers can’t segment the data between the search network, display network and Gmail might be a concern to some, and it is easy to understand why. For years, we have been in full control of our device bid adjustments and which search queries can trigger ads, so it can take a bit of time to get used to this new fully automated process.
However, it is important to trust that Google uses 18 different signals to ensure that your campaign is targeting the correct audience at the best time, on the right days so that conversion value is maximised as a result.
Why Is It Important to Wait?
If you have used any form of automated process on any of your campaigns, you will know that there is a learning period during which the campaign adapts to the signals it is being given. The general best practice for this is to wait 15 days before starting to evaluate performance. Adding new products into the campaign can disrupt this learning period so it is better to wait until after it has passed. Once the learning period is over, we would normally allow the campaign to run for another 2-3 weeks before fully evaluating performance, as this will provide enough data to make further decisions.
Do you think Smart Shopping would be a fantastic addition to your strategy? Contact us today to find out more about how we can help.