Marketing investment in COVID-19 (or other downturns) – 4/1/2020

4/1/2020   Sales are down! We have to cut costs! Whoa, stop that train of thought for a sec…   Sometimes people believe things that aren’t true, such as believing that bulls (which are colorblind) hate the color red.  There are many reasons that smart people believe things that aren’t actually true, such as the confirmation bias, where people will often unknowingly go to great lengths to find evidence to support what they already believe. It’s scary to go through a downturn, and it may mean unpleasant decisions like cutting valued staff or other resources.  In the face of declined revenues and increased stress, the idea of not cutting and potentially even increasing costs does not make sense to the vast majority of people, including marketers.  But if marketing is driving sales, what do you think will happen when you cut it?  Consider this question – do you no longer…

Retargeting Improvement: Increase Retargeting Profitability and Scale with This Simple Tactic – 8/09/2019

Retargeting Improvement:  Increase Retargeting Profitability and Scale with This Simple Tactic 8/09/2019 Retargeting is a prominent tool for most eCommerce brands because it increases website conversion rates.  It is especially valuable for brands whose products require consideration (not an impulse purchase on the spot) from potential buyers. We perform many ecommerce retargeting audits and this post shares one of the biggest areas of inefficiency we come across in those audits, which is in how placements (the websites/apps where retargeting ads are displayed) are managed.  Inefficient placement management doesn’t just lower ROI, it creates a ceiling on sales potential that simply shouldn’t be there. Below are examples of how to cut frivolous ad spend and increase conversion rates by using placements more deliberately. Get Rid of Junk Inventory for Your Biggest Campaigns with Placement Exclusions When setting up a display campaign in Google Ads, retargeting or otherwise, your ads with be automatically…

Google Marketing Live 2019 – New Products and Multi-Channel Campaigns – 5/21/2019

Google Marketing Live 2019 - New Products and Multi-Channel Campaigns 5/21/2019 Google just announced some significant changes to its advertising ecosystem at the annual Google Marketing Live event in May.  The theme that the search and advertising giant is focusing on for 2019 is the adoption of highly automated multi-channel advertising campaigns.  Across search, shopping, apps, display, and YouTube, Google is extending the reach of individual Google Ads campaigns to serve across more of their platforms utilizing machine learning algorithms to drive strategic decision making on ad placements and budget allocation between channels/properties.  Additionally, the introduction of a few new ad formats will continue the trend of an expanded footprint for ads on Google products. We will highlight some of the key announcements and what this means for companies who advertise on Google.   New and Updated Product Announcements Smart shopping campaigns: This campaign type was introduced in 2018 and…

The Pros and Cons of Google Manufacturer Center

The Pros and Cons of Google Manufacturer Center Google launched the Google Manufacturer Center in 2015 to enable manufacturers to provide Google with product data.  Google claims there are three incentives for manufacturers to consider doing this. Improve upon product data that is submitted by retailers using Google Merchant Center Obtain analytics about your products online selling performance Potentially increase click volume to manufacturer listings Google Manufacturer Center is not the same as Google Merchant Center.  Google Merchant Center is where your retailers (and you if you sell direct and advertise) upload product data with the purpose of enabling advertising using through Google AdWords.  But there is substantial overlap in the data that is provided to both Google Manufacturer Center and Google Merchant Center. Google mentions the benefits to manufacturers of this tool in the thinly detailed description offered here https://adwords.googleblog.com/2015/07/introducing-manufacturer-center-tool-to.html.  They have produced a more substantial 30-slide PDF that we’re happy…

Google Smart Shopping Campaigns – Good or Bad for You?

Google Smart Shopping Campaigns – Good or Bad for You? On May 4, 2018 Google announced a new Shopping campaign type called “Goal Optimized Campaigns” rebranded from “Universal Shopping Campaigns”. Recently, for the third time in three months, these campaign types were rebranded again to “Smart Shopping Campaigns”. We discuss what they are, what they claim to do, and why you should think twice before implementing them. What Are Universal / Google Goal Optimized / Smart Shopping Campaigns? Google’s Smart Shopping campaigns are fully automated campaigns have been in development for months now as Google’s “Universal Shopping” campaign beta, but now will be making their way into AdWords Next accounts over the next few weeks. The release of Google’s Smart Shopping Campaigns (SSCs) marks another step towards Google’s focus on automation and machine-learning. SSCs effectively merge Google Shopping campaigns with Google Responsive Remarketing ads, opening up the reach of your Google Shopping ads to…

Why We Don’t Love Automated Bidding

Why We Don’t Love Automated Bidding Summary Automated Bidding is popular, especially for larger ecommerce firms with extensive products to advertise.  It promises the benefits of reduced labor requirements, and more rapid bid adjustments in response to changes in ad performance.  But at Conversion Path we aren’t bullish on Automated Bid Management (ABM). ABM only automates one facet of the many that drive success The byproduct of ABM is that it reduces the amount of evaluation as to the reasons for performance changes that is needed to identify and drive further action to improve sales Detail To properly optimize an ad account requires an analyst to look at performance changes, evaluate and understand “why” performance changed, and then execute the next steps to improve profitable sales performance.  Sometimes adjusting bids is THE best next step, sometimes it is ONE of several best next steps, and other times it is unnecessary. …

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