Blog
August 12, 2024
Next Level eCommerce is a series of exclusive webinars where Channable experts, Jochem Timmers and Jules Steultjens, interview industry professionals, and dive into the hottest and most trending eCommerce topics.
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In this blog article, we'll unpack the key takeaways and insights from the second episode with Google Ads & eCommerce Expert, Ruben Runneboom. During the webinar, Ruben explained how you can use first-party product and performance data to optimize your Performance Max campaigns for higher conversions and better ROAS.
Read on to discover how to leverage first-party data to enrich your setup, how to set up a point system to segment your campaigns, and how you can optimize your campaign structure accordingly.
In a Performance Max campaign, Google focuses on finding the best way to get you conversions. While that's great in theory, it can sometimes overlap with traffic you've already targeted in other campaigns, such as branded search campaigns and remarketing campaigns.
Additionally, almost all eCommerce brands see a trend where a smaller percentage of products drive a larger portion of sales. So in a single Performance Max campaign, these high-performing products might capture most of the traffic. This approach could limit the visibility of other products, potentially leading to missed sales opportunities.
Luckily there are more advanced methods of Performance Max campaign segmentation that you can use:
Let's quickly take a look at how you can segment your campaigns based on performance data.
If you run a simple Performance Max campaign with all your products, Google might allocate parts of your budget towards products that have a lower conversion rate or profitability compared to others. That's why segmentation can be a valuable strategy, as it allows you to prioritize impressions for products with a higher potential return on ad spend (ROAS).
Here are the steps you can take to segment your campaigns based on performance:
As a general rule of thumb, you can use the following bidding strategies to improve your campaign performance:
While this advanced setup can significantly improve your campaign performance, it's important to remember there's no one-size-fits-all solution.
Here's why this particular strategy might not be perfect for every eCommerce brand:
In order to beat your competitors, you need to move beyond traditional product bucketing.
Instead, you need to deploy a proactive campaign segmentation strategy based on first-party data. Here is a list of the different data points that you can combine:
And here’s a step-by-step guide on how to segment your campaigns with this first-party data:
In Google Merchant Center, you can get benchmark data for price. To find the report, sign in to your Merchant Center account, navigate to the “Growth” tab, and click on “Price Competitiveness”.
To effectively segment a Performance Max campaign using this strategy, you'll need a sufficient amount of data and budget. This typically means aiming for 200-300 total conversions per month, with 50-100 conversions within each segment.
Enjoyed this deep dive into Performance Max campaign segmentation? Our Next Level eCommerce webinar series gives you the practical tips and strategies you need to win in the competitive eCommerce landscape.
Want to watch more episodes? Check out our recent webinar with Google Ads specialist Bob Meijer on how to master dynamic feed-based campaigns.
As we keep on improving Channable, we would like to share the latest developments with you.