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Google Ads | Channable Blog

Have you tried using Google Analytics in Channable’s rule functions? Users who have coupled with their Google Analytics account can use this information as creatively as you like. You can either specify the selection you make (“if”) with Analytics variables such as sessions, conversion rate, bounce rate, revenue or transactions, or create actions (“then”).

<img class="alignnone wp-image-7649 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/YUenyT4SqKjIT5Qe2W6N" alt="" width="872" height="378" />

Skip straight to rules and go ahead and experiment with using Analytics in the “if” or “then” section. Adding Google Analytics information to your feed with a custom label can help you differentiate certain products i.e. bestsellers or lower-converters. Create new custom labels in setup&gt;edit mapping to use in the “If” or “Then” part of your Google Analytics rule to differentiate certain products.

In the example below we create a new field called <b>bestseller</b>. So any product with a conversion rate greater than 3 will now have the value yes in the bestseller field. This is the information we can then transfer to i.e. the Shopping or Facebook feeds by adding the bestseller field in the finalize step. Why? Because you can then easily push certain products based on the performance within your AdWords or Facebook Business Manager account.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-7650 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/JNAzXUiJSnGyYWodbe9Q" alt="" width="1244" height="347" />

As of the end of 2017, you can now use the Google Analytics variables in the “Then” section to execute actions. Create statements such as calculating actual return on ad spend (ROAS) to measure the efficiency of your digital advertising campaign by using our mathematics rules.

<img class="alignnone wp-image-7651 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/uvCfhhKQ42pqaObpVfJg" alt="" width="872" height="378" />

&nbsp;

Finally, analytics can be added to your feed in the finalize step so you can send this information to your platform of choice.

&nbsp;

<img class="alignnone wp-image-7652 size-large" src="https://media.graphcms.com/OAe9gwjhR3KrhpH6dtTg" alt="" width="900" height="674" />

If you find a creative way to include Google Analytics in your rules, <a href="mailto:support@channable.com">let us know</a>! We love hearing how you use Channable.

Solutions | Channable Blog

PPC Automation | Channable Blog

Quick tips to using Google Analytics in Rules

This is how it looked before:

<img class="alignnone wp-image-7658 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/YZjIbmChTI26b6hHf5Ze" alt="" width="364" height="365" />

And this is where you can find the Shopping campaigns tab now:

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-7747" src="https://media.graphcms.com/WdpKUM7NSJ6hpP8meaGy" alt="" width="1444" height="780" />

Find Shopping campaigns in its own tab

To win at Google Merchant center first time round, you need to ensure you send certain Google approved mandatory specifications. You can send product information to [Google Shopping](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping-feed) with Channable in two ways: via a live API connection or with a <a href="/products/product-feed-management-tool">feed</a>. The difference between the two can be read in Channable's handy <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002818909-Marketplaces-data-feeds-vs-APIs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">help center article</a>. To send the right information, you can easily get an overview of the mandatory fields within Channable under either ‘Finalize’ (for Google Shopping feeds) or ‘Build &gt; Item’ (for Google Shopping API’s). Ensuring that this information is sent to Google is fundamental, but it must also be in the right format.<em> What? Right format?!</em> Yes, certain information can only be processed in a Google specific way. Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll need to send for top quality Google Shopping feeds.

First, and foremost, it’s recommended you create what Channable coins a ‘<a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002817249-How-do-I-filter-items-using-rules-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Filter rule</a>’. This rule will simply exclude any items that would otherwise be automatically rejected, or you simply don’t want to sell. For reasons such as there is no image link, or the price is 0. Channable rules work in descending order. So, starting with a filter will ensure that the rules that’ll follow will only be applied to items worth advertising. Much of the advice below involves creating a new field. If you’re unsure how to do this, you can familiarize yourself by scrolling to the bottom of <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002825765-How-do-I-map-fields-in-edit-mapping-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">this help center article</a>.

&nbsp;
<table markdown>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">**Necessary info**</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">**What exactly?**</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Image Link</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Images are very important for Google Shopping, and selling online generally. We recommend you create a filter rule when you first start making rule, to exclude any items that do not have an image. For more information about specific dimensions and picture quality accepted by Google, read about it in their <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324350?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">help center</a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Availability</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This mandatory field needs to be sent to Google Shopping in the form of either: ‘in stock’, ‘out of stock’ or ‘preorder’. You don’t need to send actual stock levels but the value you set must match the value on your website. To include this information into your feed, simply use Channable’s <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827565-Rule-set-to-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">‘set to value’ rule</a> and set a newly created field to one of the three options depending on the actual stock level.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">*GTIN/EAN
<em>* You’ll need at least one of these, as Google requires you have 2 of the 3 pieces of info: Brand, GTIN or MPN.</em> There is still hope if you don’t, please check this <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827285-Useful-rules-for-Google-Shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>help center article</em></a><em>. </em></td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">GTIN is the umbrella term for unique identifiers such as EANs, UPCs or ISBNs and is basically the barcode of an item. If you don’t already have this information, you can easily purchase them online or ask your distributor for them. Making them up won’t help, you can’t outsmart Google.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Title</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This mandatory field ought to be easily found in your feed already. Make sure it describes your item well. You can even include things like the color or size with Channable’s <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827625-Rule-combine-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">‘combine value’ rule</a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Description</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Similarly to the title, this information should already be easily found in your import. Alternatively, you can always build a new description by combining relevant information from your feed.

Make sure your description is free from HTML jargon by using our <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827845-Rule-modify-text">strip HTML </a>rule.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Link</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This field is the URL of the products. Simple.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Brand</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This information may already be in your feed, but it is VITAL for becoming Google Shopping approved, in conjunction with either GTIN or MPN. See the other descriptions below.

If the brand doesn’t have its own field but can be perhaps located in the description, you can easily search for the ‘value’ (specific brand name) and pop it in a new field.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Condition</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">The condition of a product needs to be listed as either ‘new’, ‘used’, or ‘refurbished’ in Google Shopping. Google will default set all condition's to new if you don't specify, but if in fact you do sell used or refurbished items you'll have to communicate this to them. If this information isn’t in your feed yet, you can easily implement it with the 'set value' rule. Simply create a new mapping field from the settings and then ‘set value’ to the applicable condition.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Category</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">The second stage of creating a Channable feed/API is categorization (NB: with the API if you send known EANs, Google Shopping will automatically be able to categorize the items). The options from the drop down menu are the specific categories Google has. So, you simply need to allocate which groups of items belong to which Google product category. When you map the fields (in the finalize stage or build stage in Channable) remember to use ‘**Category (internal)**’. More<a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003090569-Smart-categorization" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> tips on categorization </a>can be found in Channable's help center.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Price</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This information will be in your feed. Do not try to modify it, as the price shown in Google Shopping should match your website.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shipping Price</td>
<td>You’ll most definitely know what the shipping price is if it isn’t already in your feed. If it’s missing, simply create a new mapping field and set the value. For example, if you offer free shipping for items over a certain price you can make a simple rule to set shipping price to zero. Simply create a rule such as “IF **price **<em>is greater or equal to</em> 50. THEN take** shipping price **and <em>set to value </em>0”. You can always set shipping options within your Google Merchant account, more information can be found in <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6069284?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google's Support article</a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">*MPN/SKU
<em>* You’ll need at least one of these, as Google Shopping requires you have 2 of the 3 pieces of info: Brand, GTIN or MPN.</em> There is still hope if you don’t, please check this <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827285-Useful-rules-for-Google-Shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>help center article</em></a><em>. </em></td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">A stock keeping unit (SKU) or a manufacturers number (MPN) is a more internal method of identifying items. If you don’t have this number, but you do have a GTIN you can still advertise with Google. If you have neither, you can still send your items to Google Shopping. To find out how, check out <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827285-Useful-rules-for-Google-Shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">useful rules for Google Shopping </a>help center article.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">**Shipping Country</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">If this information isn’t already in your feed, you should know where your items will be shipping from. As it’ll probably be a fixed country, you can go ahead and make a new mapping field and then just set a country name as the shipping country.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">**Id</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This information can be any form of number/combination that uniquely identifies each of your items. Note the word, unique.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">***Size</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">For clothing items, it’s important you send the size to Google Shopping. If this value is perhaps at the end of the title, you can simply use Channable’s <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827785-Rule-split-text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">split text value</a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">***Age group</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">The age group is only applicable if you want to advertise clothing items with Google Shopping. The specific groups they accept are: ‘newborn’, ‘infant’, ‘toddler’, ‘kids’ and ‘adult’. With this list in mind, you could use a rule such as <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827725-Rule-search-for-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">search for value</a> (search for specific sizes) and then use the replacement value option. So, any clothing item with the size 0 - 9 months can be assigned to the age group ‘newborn’ by searching for it and replacing the value with ‘newborn’.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">***Color</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">The color of an item is only applicable for fashion items. Luckily Google Shopping doesn’t specify color names, so feel free to use the values you have in your feed. If you don’t have them in a specific field, simply create a new field and search for the value.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">***Gender</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This information is only needed for sending fashion items to Google Shopping and needs to be either unisex, female or male. If you sell only fashion items for one gender, this field can be easily provided by creating a new field and setting the value to the ‘Google recognized’ gender you sell to.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">****Currency</td>
<td>This is only necessary for using Channable's API connection with Google Shopping. You can either choose from 'EUR/GBP/USD/CAD/NOK/SEK/DKK/CHF' from Channable's built in drop down menu or implement it into the feed with a new field and ‘set to value’ rule. Make sure this value is true to what is displayed in the URL link of the item.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>** Mandatory for feeds only (because when you create an API connection you already specify in the first step what the unique ID per item is)</em><em>
*** Mandatory only for when fashion is selected as 'Type of market' in feed settings</em><em>
****Mandatory only for Google Shopping API</em></span>

So, there you have it, Channable's guide to creating quality Google Shopping feeds. Your items are more likely to get accepted first time round by ensuring that the above-mentioned information exists in your Google Shopping feeds/API connection. Naturally, the more information the better. So, do pay attention to the recommended and optional information in the build/finalize steps in Channable. This way, consumers will be wowed by the detail you provide and could find you more reliable than other merchants. To get started with advertising on Google Shopping with Channable, sign up <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here </a>for an unlimited free trial or get in contact with a Channable representative, they’re very friendly.

**<em>Channable and Store Growers discussed these points in a knowledge session and shared even further insight into how important it is to solve disapproved items. You can <a href="/videos" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> watch the knowledge session here</a>.</em>**

Channable and Google's guide on creating top-quality Google Shopping feeds

The description is missing, the images are low quality, and most importantly Google product category is vague.  Customer searches for plumbing and Google shows your pumps (shoes). Not what the customer had in mind. 

With over [50000 businesses](https://www.google.com/retail/solutions/merchant-center/#:~:text=500%2C000%2B%20online%20businesses%20use%20Google%20Merchant%20Center&text=Adding%20free%20listings%20to%20our,in%20online%20retail%20is%20high.) on Google Shopping and [85% of all product searches starting on Amazon or Google](https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/mary-meeker-report-ecommerce), the need to optimize your Google product category is immense.
 
How else is your product going to show up in relevant Google search queries? How else are these clicks going to translate into conversions and sales?
In this article, we’re going to discuss what is Google Product Category and how you can optimize it to boost sales. Let’s get into it.

## What is a Google Product Category?
Google Product Category is used to classify your products into distinct categories on Google’s Shopping platform. You can either let Google decide your product’s category based on its vast taxonomy or you can manually assign the right category to your product.

For example, if you’re selling cooking pots on Google Shopping, your product should be classified as **Home & Garden > Kitchen and dining > Cookware** and show up to people looking for cooking pots.

If your cooking pots are wrongly classified and come up instead when people search for gardening pots, your sales will massively decrease and your ad dollars will have a low ROAS (return on ad spend).

### How does Google Product Category work?

Google has its own constantly evolving product [taxonomy](https://www.google.com/basepages/producttype/taxonomy-with-ids.en-US.txt). When you list a product on Google Shopping feed, Google will assign a category  **[google_product_category]** to your product according to your product's data like titles, product descriptions, and GTINs.

This way Google can match your product to the customer’s query. 
Since Google Shopping is connected to Google Merchant Centre, which is synced with Google Ads, your Google product category directly affects your Google ad campaigns, too.

Google also allows you to target long-tail keywords, which is essentially your product category. These long-tail keywords translate into higher conversions and lower bounce rates on your website because of higher buyer intent. 
For example, a person specifically searching for a Men’s performance zip black leather pullover knows exactly what they want and intends on buying, as opposed to a person who’s searching for a black jacket.

So the better and more specific your product category, 

- the more organic clicks you’ll receive from relevant customer search queries, 

- the better your ad campaigns will perform.

### What is the difference between Product Type and Google Product Category?

Confused between Google product type and product category? You’re not alone.
Put simply, product type is how you categorize your products and Google product category is how Google categorizes a product according to its taxonomy. If you feel Google hasn’t correctly or specifically categorized your product, you can fill in this gap by adding your own product category.

You can use Google’s [Keyword Planner](https://www.spyfu.com/blog/google-keyword-planner/) or Ahrefs to come up with the exact terms customers use when searching for your products.

## Why are Google Product Categories important for your products?

On Google Shopping, it is not mandatory for you to categorize all your products. Apart from a few categories like Apparel and Software, you can list (and sell) your products without categorizing your products.

But should you do that? No. Google product categorization offers a plethora of benefits for businesses. Let’s discuss some of them.

### More sales and conversions

Every business loves high-intent shoppers. 

They know exactly what they want and they’re willing to buy it ASAP. The more specific your Google product category is, the more high-intent shoppers you’ll attract. This results in higher sales and conversions.

### Better return on ad spend

The average CTR of Google Shopping Ads is .[86](https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2019/04/01/shopping-ads-benchmarks)%, which means spending dollars on Google shopping ads is great for traffic and conversions. 

Sam Baldwin, Founder of KeyCommerce, [explains](https://lunio.ai/blog/paid-search/google-shopping-feed-best-practices/), *“The way that Shopping ads are designed, a customer clicking on it has a pretty good idea of what the product is, and exactly how much it costs, which means there’s a higher chance they’re going to buy it. This is why we see that the conversion rates for Google Shopping campaigns are generally higher than the conversion rates for search campaigns.”*

To get maximum clicks on your ad, you need to optimize your Google product category. Imagine, every time someone searches for badminton rackets, your tennis racquet shows up and nobody clicks on your ad. 

You can target each product category with a different ad campaign. Set different budgets, target audience, and time duration accordingly. This helps to further [optimize your ad spend](https://www.semrush.com/blog/google-shopping-ads/). 

### Correct tax is applied on products

Choosing the right Google categories for your products ensures that the correct tax is applied to your product.

Even within the same category, some products may have lower taxes than others and some products are even exempted from tax in some US states. Similarly, other countries have different tax laws depending on products. 

## How to set up Google Product Category?

There are three ways to set up your Google Product category.

- Automatic Categorization

- Manual Categorization

- Smart Categorization

### Automatic Google categorization

Since filling the Google category section is optional, you can simply let Google automatically assign your product the right category it assumes based on the product data you provide.

Sounds easy, right?

But, you can't always trust that Google will choose the correct category for your product or be as specific as you like.

For example, if you’re selling ‘vet-authorized cat food’, Google may assign your product to **Animals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Cat Supplies > Cat Food**. 

But you can manually further specify it and add it to **Animals & Pet Supplies > Pet Supplies > Cat Supplies > Cat Food > Prescription Cat Food. **

Incorrect classification of your product can lead to,

- miscalculation of taxes if you’re selling in the US. 

- Extra fields enforced (especially in Apparel & Accessories, Mobile Phones, or Software categories).

- Less control over your Google ads campaign.

### Manual categorization

You can override Google’s automatic product category placement by assigning the right category to your products manually.

The process is simple. Download Google’s Product taxonomy, add it to Excel, use the CTRL+f function to quickly find the correct category for your product, and add it to your google_product_category field in your data feed.

Manually categorizing 100s of products is a time-consuming process and can easily result in human errors.

### Smart categorization

The #1 organic Google search result is [10x more likely to get a click](https://backlinko.com/google-ctr-stats) and gets 27.6% of all clicks.

So the more optimized your Google product listing is, the more clicks and conversions you’ll get. This is where smart categorization comes in.

With a 98% accuracy rate, AI feed management tools like [Channable automatically](https://www.channable.com/blog/smart-categorization-google-shopping) categorize hundreds of products with precision. Thanks to a powerful machine learning algorithm, tools like Channable match your products on your Google Shopping feed to the most likely product category.

This not only helps you maintain a consistently updated product feed, but also improves your search rankings and gets higher conversions and traffic. 
And the learning curve?

Almost zero. It’s easy to use and categorizes hundreds of products within minutes. 
When you create your export feed for a channel, a smart suggestion will directly pop up for each of your products in order to place them in the most logical category.

This is how it looks in Channable:

![Smart product categorization on Channable](https://media.graphassets.com/FYjhtUu4Te9FLa1A0jYA)

## 4 ways to optimize Google product categories to increase conversions
As a business owner, your number 1 goal is more sales and conversions.

Optimizing your Google product categories can get you more interest, more traffic, and ultimately more sales and conversions, too.

Let’s take a look at 4 simple ways you can optimize your Google product categories.
 
### Go through all your product categories before hitting publish
Whether Google automatically assigns product categories, or you manually assign them to your products, make sure you review all the product categories once before hitting publish.

With hundreds and even thousands of products, there are high chances of human and Google errors.

For example, if you’re selling cooking pots on Google Shopping, your product should be classified as Home & Garden > Kitchen and Dining> Cookware and show up to people looking for cooking pots.

If your cooking pots are wrongly classified and come up instead when people search for gardening pots, your sales will massively decrease and your ad dollars will have a low ROAS (return on ad spend).

So give your product categories a thorough check before listing them on your Google feed.

### Choose the best, most specific, and latest category for your products

This optimization tip is straight from Google.

Google recommends,
Choose the product category that best fits your product’s main function. For example, while a mobile phone has multiple functions (works as a device to use internet on, an alarm clock, and so on) it’s main function is as a mobile phone so choose the following taxonomy { Electronics / Communications / Telephony / Mobile Phones ID: 267}.

Choosing the most specific category. For example, if you’re selling an unlocked mobile phone or a prepaid mobile phone, add a further level in the product hierarchy and choose the following taxonomy { Electronics / Communications / Telephony / Mobile Phones / Unlocked Mobile Phones}.

Choose the latest category. Google translates out-of-date categories to the latest versions, especially when you’re using Google Ads. So when choosing the product category, make sure you’re using the latest category list to match your products to. 

### Test different product categories

Let’s suppose you’re selling dog food. 
You can either assign it to {Dog Food} or {Dog Treats}. Both would work in this case. 
But which one would get you higher conversions and more traffic? 
Test and find out. Compare the results and use the product category that your audience responds to the most.

### Match your product details to your landing page

Your target audience searches for a product on Google, and your product shows up. Intrigued, they look at all the product details provided and click on your website. 
They’re all primed and ready to convert.

Your job is to provide them with a seamless shopping experience as soon as they land on your landing page.

**How do you do that?**

The first thing you need to do is make sure your landing page and Google Shopping product details are in sync - from product name, description and price to product category, everything should be the same at both places.

Next, match the product hierarchy on your website’s navigation menu to your Google Shopping Feed. If they’re searching for Dog Food, it should be classified in the menu similar to how it’s classified on Google. This improves their shopping experience, which is a must for increasing conversions.  

Lastly, make sure your category pages are mobile friendly. Optimize them for speed, user experience, and responsiveness. 

### Want to optimize your Google product categories?

Save your time and energy, and start categorizing your Google product categories with Channable.

Channable helps you organize and optimize your Google product data to better identify top-performing products and categories. Simplify your product feed workflows with Channable so you can boost sales and conversions, get higher ROAS, and keep all your product data up-to-date.

Our solution is unique because we use a tiered process to ensure all categorizations are carried out efficiently and effectively.

 It's accurate, takes a few minutes to categorize everything, and helps you manage your Google shopping feed with ease. If you’d like to start optimizing your Google product categories today, [request a demo now!](https://www.channable.com/demo)

How to Use Google Product Category To Optimize Sales and Conversions in 2024?

*Note this article was first published in December 2020 and should be used as a reference. In April 2024 Channable launched it's own [CSS connection](https://documents.channable.com/css/) to consider as a partner to showcase your products effectively.*

As of 2017, vendors can also appear in the Google Shopping search results by registering at a comparison site that is approved as a Google CSS Partner. The Google CSS Partner program is especially for Comparison Shopping Services (comparison sites) and vendors that work with such comparison sites.

On the internet, you’re overwhelmed by blogs and articles when searching for the Google CSS Partner program. These search results include a lot of stories about why Google invented this program and why you should start with it “RIGHT NOW”, or blogs that are written by companies who are a Google CSS Partner themselves. At Channable, we’re striving to be neutral in this matter, so read on if you’re just interested in the Google CSS Partner program and want to know how to get started.
<h2>Why should I work with a Google CSS Partner?</h2>
Working with a Google CSS Partner comes with a few benefits:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>There will be no visual change to your ads. They will still be shown in the general search results pages of Google Shopping, in between the ‘regular’ Google Shopping ads.</li>
 	<li>Working with a Google CSS Partner can also be more profitable. When advertisers offer €1 per click via Google, only 80 cents goes to the auction. With a Google CSS partner who doesn't charge a percentage commission, 100% enters the auction. This leads to a natural bid increase of 20% without having to actually change the bids!</li>
<li>After switching to a CSS Partner, the smart bidding algorithm will have an easier time in the ad auction. With a higher possible CPC it can buy more expensive clicks increasing the overall traffic of the campaigns. And with more traffic there will be more conversions leading to a higher overall converted value. This means that the shopping campaign will deliver more revenue for the business without changes in ROAS.</li>

</ul>
<h2>What does it look like?</h2>
Advertisements delivered by a Google CSS Partner are shown the same as all other Google Shopping ads. However, instead of ‘By Google’ under the advertisement, you’ll now see ‘By + the name of the Google CSS Partner”. A more detailed overview of the ad can be found under the ‘Shopping’ tab in Google.
<h2>How do I choose the right Google CSS Partner?</h2>
The most important thing is that you work with <a href="https://comparisonshoppingpartners.withgoogle.com/find_a_partner?page=0&amp;seed=5785641" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">an official partner</a> that fits your marketing goals and is specialized in the products (e.g. apparel or electronics) you want to advertise. Next to that, make sure you know if the Google CSS Partner supports all your products, and if they charge an additional CPC and/or CPS.

It is important to know the pricing and terms can differ between the several Google CSS Partners you can choose from. For instance, some work with a flat fee per month while others charge on a performance basis. Producthero chose their pricing model because “It is a Google policy that all of a vendor’s products are advertised on the website of the CSS Partner. With Channable, it is possible to optimize feeds for CSS channels by optimizing the product catalogue that is advertised. Leaving out any products on the CSS website, which are in fact advertised in Google with this CSS Partner, would be a violation of this policy. Therefore, when developing our CSS, we saw that a fixed or performance-based fee to place all products on the CSS website works better for most advertisers than a CPC based model.”

In addition to business models and pricing, there can be many differences between Google CSS Partners including (cancellation) terms, active countries and additional agency services as many CSS Partners are part of a marketing agency.
<h2>How do I start advertising on Google Shopping with a Google CSS Partner?</h2>
Once you have chosen a CSS Partner that fits you, starting is quite easy. You just need to confirm in your Merchant Center that it can change its association from Google to the CSS Partner of your choice and then Google will do the rest.

Channable already supports connections to a few Google CSS Partners in the tool, and setting up the feed works the same as setting up a [Google Shopping feed.](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping-feed) Please <a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">contact us</a> if you need more information or need help with setting up a feed.

Everything you need to know about Google CSS Partners

As the largest search engine in the world, Google’s paid advertising attracts business of many sizes. However, to an untrained-eye, Google Ads can feel impossible to navigate through and decipher. To make life easier, Channable compiled an infographic to help you get your head around the most common Google Ads terminology.

[![Infographic](https://media.graphcms.com/r2SYgURo6O0W3hrgtAfZ)](https://media.graphcms.com/r2SYgURo6O0W3hrgtAfZ)

Feel free to share this Google Ads cheat sheet infographic on the social media network of your choice. If you’re wanting to save time and generate your Google Ads, take a look at [Channable’s SEA Tool](/products/ppc-tool). With a built-in template, you can generate hundreds of ads for Google and Bing from the information in a data feed and they’re even automatically updated!

Channable’s handy Google Ads cheat sheet [infographic]

Being a Google premier partner often requires you to be on top of the latest Google developments, but you’re also eager to use them. <a href="https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7684791?hl=en-GB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google’s responsive search ads</a> are the next biggest development in Google Ads, and Channable has ensured that the responsive search ads template is available in its <a href="/products/ppc-tool">SEA tool</a>. Roos Rabenberg from marketing agency <a href="https://www.yellowgrape.nl" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Yellowgrape</a>, a Channable Partner, has already been busy experimenting with responsive search ads in Channable and cared to share the experience so far.
<h2>What are responsive search ads?</h2>
The responsive search ads feature is Google’s AI ad structure that will adapt to the internet user depending on what the technology has evaluated as most effective. Roos shared that “by entering 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, Google Ads will automatically test the combinations and display the best performing ads to the right customer. Responsive search ads maximize the relevance of the ad to the search term of the customer. More relevance means that your advertisement can enter more auctions. More auctions lead to a higher probability of the advertisement to win, which results in an increase in impressions and traffic.”
<h2>Why would someone want to use responsive search ads?</h2>
Google says that responsive search ads allow you to display more relevant messages to your potential customers and may even improve performance. For Roos, “Responsive search ads are of great value to each advertiser out there that wants to maximize the probability of conversions. Before, advertisers needed to decide whether or not an advertisement was relevant or performing well. Now, we let a machine decide which ads are performing best based on a multitude of variables that is impossible to take into account as a simple human being. It not only saves time, but it also leads to better customer experience in Google.”

Functionality wise, responsive search ads can be desirable because you are able to:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Create flexible ads that can adapt to different device sizes</li>
 	<li>Save some time as you provide a set list of headlines and descriptions and Google will optimize the ad</li>
 	<li>Reach more people and increase ad group performance as combinations of your headlines and descriptions can generate more ads to compete in auctions and match more search queries</li>
</ul>
<h2>Why use Channable for responsive search ads?</h2>
Channable can be used to generate responsive search ads with dynamic information that updates the ads automatically. Dynamic fields use the information in your data feed to customize ads. One template can generate hundreds of variations of ads, headlines, and descriptions.

Yellowgrape was one of the first Channable clients to put Channable’s responsive search ads template to the test. Channable’s template was quickly deemed to Roos and the team as a valuable complement to starting with responsive ads as they realized “when using static ads, it can be hard to use up-to-date product information in your advertisements. In order to differentiate your ads from competitors, one must work with a feed management tool such as Channable. Creating advertisements in Channable can be done on different levels, such as brand-, category-, brand + category, and product level. By using keyword-related variables in a responsive search ad allows an advertiser to show relevant and up-to-date ads. This creates realistic expectations for the consumer. **Relevance level: 100%. Disappointment level: 0%.**”

<img class="alignnone wp-image-16656 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/O1ZxcbCyTFOUixU8jVBc" alt="channable responsive search ads" width="652" height="249" />

Channable’s SEA tool has proven to help improve relevancy, personalization, and save time. With the responsive search ads template, Channable has strived to ensure even more efficiency and the means to support even higher quality ads. Please<a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> get in contact</a> if you’re interested in Channable’s SEA tool and using Channable to generate responsive search ads. You can also <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">open an unlimited free trial account</a> to get started.



Why use Google’s responsive search ads?

There is no doubt that Google is the most widely used search engine in the world, which leads many advertisers to use Google services to promote their products. Are you planning to create Shopping campaigns yourself or maybe you want your campaigns to perform better with less effort? Then use these tips to create successful shopping ads!

Before creating Google Shopping Campaigns, you should know that beforehand you’ll need to submit an optimized <a href="/blog/infographic-product-feed-for-online-marketing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">data feed</a> within your Merchant Center account. This is a precondition for advertisers to create their Shopping campaigns.
<h2>Shopping ads made with enriched titles and descriptions</h2>
When your Shopping ads in Google Shopping have titles and descriptions that are full of keywords, your ads will have a better visibility in the search results.** The more optimized and detailed your product information is, the more likely your ads will appear. Consequently, the more likely you are to sell your products, because consumers prefer to be well informed before buying.** Channable can be very useful for easily optimizing your titles and improving your feed for Google Shopping. Consult <a href="/blog/create-quality-google-shopping-feeds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the guide to create a top quality feed for Google Shopping</a> or the solutions to the <a href="/blog/10-common-errors-channable-users-connecting-google-shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">most common mistakes in Google Shopping feeds</a> to help get your feed in top shape.

Once your feed is complete, optimized, and uploaded to the Google Merchant Center, you can begin to create Shopping campaigns in Google Ads. Shopping campaigns allow you to manage and optimize your Shopping ads. You can find <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/2660968?hl=en&amp;ref_topic=3163841" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">how to link your Merchant Center with your Google Ads account</a> in Google’s help center.

To determine which product will be shown, Google uses a real-time auction system, the information contained in your data feed, and the search results. Only items from sellers who have sent their feeds to the Merchant Center and linked their feed to a Shopping campaign in Google Ads are eligible to appear on Google Shopping.
<h2>Align your marketing objectives and bidding strategies</h2>
After creating a good quality product feed, it is necessary to create a relevant campaign structure. Google recommends subdividing ad/product groups to have a campaign structure that ranges your items from the broadest to the most restrictive types. This structure must correspond to the advertiser’s (your) marketing goals and how much they’re willing to bid per type of item. Why is it so important for an advertiser to segment their Shopping campaigns properly? If the advertiser wants to adjust the CPCs for different products or for a product category, it will not be possible if all products are contained within the same campaign.

How do you segment your Shopping campaigns? Like a text ads campaign, there is no one right way to organize your Shopping campaigns. However, if you know in advance which attributes of your feed will mainly determine your CPCs of your ad groups, then it should not be complicated.

<img class="size-full wp-image-16743 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/yTgh9VGRQ4GfmXFIzzXD" alt="Shopping Campaign with Channable" width="1331" height="590" />

Examples of structures:
**A simple structure/all in one:** one unique ad group for all your items and one product group per brand. The disadvantage of this segmentation is that Google will control which products will appear based on the information contained within your feed. You can’t really control the negative keywords on an item level. The advantage here is that it is easy to set up and this could work if your inventory is small with homogeneous type of products.

**More complex structures:** Divide your inventory into product groups and create subsets. For example, one ad group per brand or even per product, and one product group per item (be careful this segmentation will be long and complex to configure manually!). The advantage here is that you can alter bids and block terms on an individual product basis. How does this translate into a structure?
For example:

→ Divide your items by brands vs generic products (based on your margins)
→ Divide your items by category types/product universe
→ Divide your product by performance (e.g. best sellers)

You can already easily segment your products within the Google Merchant Center using custom labels.
<h2>Channable as a way to easily automate your Shopping Campaign creation and create segmentations</h2>
To simplify and avoid manual configuration within your Google Ads account, Channable is an optimal solution. Channable's SEA tool will allow you to easily create a complex structure for your Shopping campaigns. Select the products for a specific campaign and define the level at which the ad group should be generated (e.g. category or brand). You can do this by using dynamic fields from your feed.
<h3>5 reasons to use the Channable SEA tool for your Shopping campaigns:</h3>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Simplify the creation of complex Shopping campaigns structure.</li>
 	<li>Have total and precise control over your PPCs and negative keywords at a product level without the complexity of manual work.</li>
 	<li>Add negative dynamic or static keywords to eliminate unnecessary costs.</li>
 	<li>Experience the possibility to use the performance of your products to create product groups in your campaigns to optimize CPCs for each product.</li>
 	<li>Benefit from daily updates of your campaign structures and ad information. For example, every time a product is out of stock, the ad is paused, or if you have new products in your inventory, your campaigns will be updated.</li>
</ul>
If some of the issues raised above are familiar to you and think you could benefit from Channable’s SEA tool for Shopping campaigns, do not hesitate to <a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">contact us</a> for a <a href="/demo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">demo</a> or to begin a trial.

Practical tips for successful Shopping campaigns!

<a href="https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/en_uk/about/search-ads-360" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google Search Ads 360</a> (SA360) is the part of the <a href="/integrations/google-marketing-platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google Marketing Platform </a>that enables advertisers to plan, measure, bid, and manage search ads on Google, Bing, Yahoo Japan, and Baidu. As it is part of the Google Marketing Platform, users can easily jump to and integrate data from other products in the Google Marketing Platform such as Analytics 360, <a href="https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/en_uk/about/display-video-360" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Display &amp; Video 360</a>, or Optimize 360. SA360 makes it more efficient to manage PPC in one place, as well as with a familiar interface.

[caption id="attachment_18660" align="aligncenter" width="500"]<img class="size-full wp-image-18660" src="https://media.graphcms.com/J0wUOBMR5aXrpCSfNqAz" alt="channable google marketing platform " width="500" height="352" /> <a href="https://www.blog.google/products/marketingplatform/360/introducing-google-marketing-platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Source</a>[/caption]
<h2>What makes SA360 different?</h2>
Advertisers with a significantly bigger budget and larger, dynamic inventory benefit most from SA360’s offering. This is because, in addition to managing ad campaigns for many search engines (multi-platform management), there are a few notable features that make SA360 appealing:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**ADVANCED BID STRATEGIES**
The bid strategy options in SA360 are more advanced and intricate for a more effective ad campaign. Auto bidding is powered by Google’s machine learning technology. There are various options for bid strategies including revenue and conversion options. SA360 also integrates with conversion tracking analytics, which can be used in building a bid strategy. Furthermore, there are advanced targeting options and even formulas to make a customizable bid strategy. In addition, as SA360 is multi-platform, your bids can be unified across all search engines.</li>
</ul>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**INVENTORY MANAGEMENT**
With inventory management, advertisers are able to distribute ads on an individual inventory level (e.g. per SKU) in inventory campaigns.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>What are inventory campaigns? Search Ads 360’s inventory campaigns are similar to traditional ad campaigns, but they automatically change when your product inventory changes.</blockquote>
To get started with inventory campaigns, you need to supply Google with your inventory. Your inventory needs to be supplied in a feed that meets the standards of Google. <em>BEWARE</em>, often, your feed is not in the right format to be correctly uploaded into Google so using a data feed management tool like Channable is recommended to improve your setup experience.
<h2>Improving SA360 with Channable</h2>
<a href="/success-stories/tui-channable-improve-group-wide-collaboration-save-time-offer-flexibility" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Channable client TUI has had plenty of experience with using Channable</a> to make the most out of SA360’s inventory campaigns. TUI began using SA360 because it could help centralize the whole TUI group’s PPC in one platform. “We use Search Ads 360 in order to be able to advertise all our stock. All our keywords, all our combinations, all our hotels, all our destinations, all that is done in a dynamic way.”

However, the team discovered it had the issue of having non-complementary feeds. Whilst it is possible to manage modifications in SA360, TUI found the SA360 interface and setup was far from ideal. “That’s where Channable came in place because we’re way more flexible doing it, it’s faster, and the UX is way better.” Once TUI was able to build the perfect feed in Channable, it was simply a matter of connecting the feeds in SA360 and then deciding what to send out and where to advertise.

In addition to using Channable to meet SA360’s feed standards, TUI improved their use of SA360 because it is easier to manage what inventory is sent to SA360. “Why should we advertise a certain town on Crete if we only have 5 departure dates available to that specific destination? From a PPC perspective, if you know that something is most likely to occur, you can put it in the feed.” Without Channable, TUI would only be able to react after a sales opportunity ends e.g. stop advertising a flight with only a few seats left.
<h2>Getting started</h2>
To use SA360, you will need to contact <a href="https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/en_uk/about/contact-us">Google’s sales team</a>. Once you have access, Channable can help you get started with SA360 faster and save you time. TUI has also seen improvement in expenditures by using Channable with SA360. Channable has attributed to a huge number of savings in terms of conversion expense. <a href="https://app.channable.com/login">Sign up to Channable today</a> to begin building the perfect feed for SA360.

If you only like the sound of SA360’s inventory management feature and only want to focus on Google Ads and/or Microsoft advertising or have a lower budget, <a href="/products/ppc-tool" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">try Channable’s PPC tool</a>. With Channable’s PPC tool, you can build campaigns, ad groups, and ad copy with your inventory values. Unlike Google’s custom pricing, Channable’s PPC tool starts from<a href="/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> €99 a month</a>. <a href="/contact">Contact the team</a> for a free demo and exclusive access.

How can you improve your use of Search Ads 360? - TUI & Channable

Google has grown beyond the modest search engine it began as. Whilst the consumer mostly uses it to search for results, images, items, flights, and so forth, businesses are more acquainted with Google’s vast portfolio of products. Many of the Google products accept <a href="/blog/infographic-product-feed-for-online-marketing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a data feed</a> of inventory or information to simplify, optimize, and even enable usage. Channable offers many different feeds for Google. It can be tricky to understand the difference between each and where a data feed comes in.

This whitepaper will clarify what each Google product does, who it is for, how you can use it, and how a <a href="/products/product-feed-management-tool" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">feed management tool</a> is used. The following Google products will be covered:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Google Shopping</li>
 	<li>Google Shopping Campaigns</li>
 	<li>Google Display</li>
 	<li>Google Ads</li>
 	<li>Google Search Ads 360</li>
 	<li>Google Analytics</li>
 	<li>Google Manufacturer Center</li>
 	<li>Google Play Books</li>
 	<li>Google Product Ratings</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">Download the Google products whitepaper</h3>
<p style="text-align: center;">Complete the form below to receive the Google Products whitepaper in your inbox.</p>
[form id="be174dcc-6133-4eb1-b71c-72c177cffc8d"]

Use Channable to generate your feeds for all your Google needs and speed up your scaling process. <a href="https://app.channable.com/companies/14426" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Create a free trial accoun</a>t today and ask one of our teams to give you an <a href="/demo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> in-depth demo</a> on how to build the perfect feeds for Google.


Explained: Google’s products for advertisers [whitepaper]

Google Ads offers many extensions to make your ads stand out even more. Price extensions and sitelinks are two possibilities. With these extensions, your ads will stand out even more and enrich your ad copy. Potential customers are more inclined to click on your ads and therefore the click-through rate will be generally higher!
<h2>What are price extensions?</h2>
Price extensions allow you to highlight some of your products and/or services. They are displayed under your ad as a kind of menu, and the price will be shown too. See it as a showcase of the items you want to put in the spotlight! For example, products that are on sale, or relevant for a certain season or holiday. Users can browse through that menu and click on a product or service that interests them. They will then be taken directly to the page of that specific item.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21605" src="https://media.graphcms.com/arLy0koPS4ej6LEAWgV8" alt="" width="771" height="395" />A working example is imagine you’re selling electronics, including laptops. You could set price extensions for any type/brand of laptop, such as Apple, Asus, or Toshiba, with a "starting from" price. If you have a couple of laptops on sale, then you could set price extensions for each laptop and its promotional price. You can make it as specific as you want!

**Advantages of price extensions**
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Price extensions display well on computers and mobile devices. Make sure that the pages to which the price extensions lead to are also optimized for mobile devices!</li>
 	<li>There are no additional costs. A click on a price extension costs the same as a "normal" click on your ad.</li>
 	<li>It requires less effort to update your ads with new information. You don't have to rewrite your ad copy, you just add price extensions. You will also not lose any performance statistics because of this.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Price extensions in Channable</h2>
Google Ads <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037375474-How-do-I-add-price-extensions-to-Google-ads-">price extensions are available in Channable </a>and can be implemented easily Now you can dynamically highlight your items in your ads. The different elements of a price extension are: "headline", "description" "landing page", and "price". In Channable, these fields are completely dynamic. This means that you can generate many price extensions based on your product feed. Note: In Channable, price extensions are created at ad group level.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21595" src="https://media.graphcms.com/a25NGHQdS9OproncG6rS" alt="" width="1200" height="743" />

Some of our customers already use the Channable price extension feature. Erik, Acquisition Marketing Lead at international online travel company Travix, says "With the price extension feature in Channable we can automatically and widely add relevant price extensions in Google Ads at the ad group level. The feature is easy to set up and with the rules in Channable, we can customize it as desired. "

Travix, uses Google Ads for Cheaptickets.nl, which has a very large and rapidly changing inventory. "We are now using the feature to communicate the prices of other departure airports in our advertisements. We see an improvement in efficiency because the extensions are updated daily, so this saves us manual work. But, we also see a nice performance improvement in which the ads with price extensions achieve a higher CTR than ads without price extensions, "says Erik.

Nick Oltvoort, head of Advertising at digital agency, and <a href="/partners">Channable Gold Partner</a>, Adwise, is also happy creating price extensions with Channable. Especially to keep the prices up to date, something that is not yet easy to set manually through Google. He says, "we think it is a top feature, which allows us to keep the prices in the price extensions up-to-date with feed-based campaigns. Google has not yet made it easy to automate this quickly, so you often see in accounts that prices are no longer up-to-date after a while. This takes extra time to manually check and periodically track, which is a waste of time that you prefer to put into strategic work."

In short, deploying price extensions through Channable will save you a lot of time in keeping everything up to date. In addition to price extensions, it is also possible to use another Google extension with Channable: sitelinks!
<h2>What are sitelinks?</h2>
Sitelinks <a href="https://helpcenter.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011084639-Adding-Sitelinks">are additional links</a> that are shown under an ad in the search results, and can lead people to specific pages on your site. They are extremely useful if you want to add extra links to website pages to your ad, for example, to a specific product page or a page with your opening hours. This allows potential customers to get faster to the pages of your website that are relevant to them. In addition, your ad with sitelinks occupies a more prominent place among Google search results, pushing other ads down. Your visibility is therefore also increased!

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21635" src="https://media.graphcms.com/BPkl6wXwQXmg91hBDa9Q" alt="" width="1500" height="997" />

**Advantages of sitelinks **
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Sitelinks display well on computers and on mobile devices. Your ad can show up to six sitelinks on a computer and up to eight on a mobile device. The minimum number of sitelinks is two.</li>
 	<li>There are no additional costs. A click on a sitelink is billed as a "normal" click on your ad.</li>
 	<li>It requires less effort to update your ads with new information. You don't have to rewrite ad copy, you just add sitelinks. You will also not lose any performance statistics because of this.</li>
 	<li>You gain insight into the specific clicks and you, therefore, know what your potential customers find most interesting.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Sitelinks in Channable</h2>
Add dynamic sitelinks <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010996874-How-do-I-add-sitelinks-to-Google-ads-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to your ads using Channable</a>. All fields from a sitelink, the "link text", "link URL", and the two descriptions can be built entirely with dynamic fields. This means that you can generate many sitelinks based on your product feed. Note that in Channable, sitelinks are created at the ad group level.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-21600" src="https://media.graphcms.com/NxlVfGHQmy5mriDvuIR3" alt="" width="1654" height="1024" />

Do you want to significantly increase your CTR? Are you ready to automate your ads and campaigns with <a href="/products/ppc-tool" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Channable's PPC tool</a>? Create your own free account <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a> and / or <a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">contact one</a> of our Channable's sales teams for more information.

Increase the CTR of your ads with price extensions and sitelinks

For many, the <a href="https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/140351?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Quality Score</a> can still be quite enigmatic. But there are a few ways that you can improve your Quality Score to help climb the ad rank, but also lower your Ad Rank threshold. <a href="https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7634668" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ad Rank thresholds</a> determine a minimum cost for showing your ad. The threshold is influenced by ad quality. Hence why having high-quality ads can further improve your Ad Rank as your threshold can be lowered - so you pay less!

In addition to the vital points that are covered below, your ad rank is also influenced by account hygiene (your historical ad performance), bid, and more. It’s <a href="/blog/blog-channables-handy-google-ads-cheat-sheet" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">good to research what else influences Ad Rank</a> to strengthen your chances.

## 1. Use the right landing page
From an internet user’s perspective, this is a no brainer. If you click on an ad you want to be brought to the page most relevant to your keywords.

As the advertiser, be sure to determine whether the keyword is specific and therefore requires a product level landing page, or more general and therefore a keystone landing page will suffice. For example, a real estate agency wants to use the price of the cheapest flat in an area in an ad. But it would like to use a landing page that includes all the flats available in that area, not only the cheapest one.

[tip]**TIP:**
Channable has a few rules that can help you extract more general URLs from your product URLs. Enabling a higher funnel landing page. In the example above, the estate agent purely needs to identify the URL pattern and implement a rule to modify it accordingly. They are:
1.  [Split text](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827785-Rule-split-text)
2.  [Modify text](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827845-Rule-modify-text)
3.  [Replace value](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002817869-Rule-replace-value)
[/tip]
In addition to being relevant to the keyword, the landing page can be improved with customer testimonials, a clear call-to-action, the benefits as well as features, ensure the page is both mobile and desktop friendly, and a fast load time.

## 2. Use a data feed to increase ad relevancy
You can quickly improve the relevancy of your ad copy if you have a <a href="/blog/blog-what-is-feed-management-and-why-do-you-need-it" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">data feed</a> at hand. The logic behind this is simple. By using the information in a data feed to create text for ads, the ad will directly contain information from the landing page and thus increase relevancy.

[Channable’s PPC tool ](/products/ppc-tool)allows you to generate ads using data feeds, increasing your ad relevancy and saving you time from manually typing each ad. Clients such as <a href="/success-stories/rituals-google-ads-campaign-focus-channable" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rituals</a>, <a href="/success-stories/automated-google-ads-for-recruitment-campaigns-tmi" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">TMI</a>, and <a href="/success-stories/komplett-effectively-easily-bringing-automation-in-house" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Komplett</a> have recorded significant improvements since using Channable to generate ads.

Some high converting data to include in ad copy can be gender, size, colors, brands, dates, destinations, price, and even availability, which are fields in your data feed. These fields can be added or combined in a template to produce dynamic ad copy, instantly generating thousands of ads. That will be instantly updated when the information does!

## 3. Increase your (good) keywords
In addition to Google's own keyword planner, there are hundreds of tools out there today that can help you identify search terms similar to your existing keywords. For instance, <a href="https://keywordtool.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">keywordtool.io</a> can help you find keywords, but also questions and long-tail search terms, without an account.

Another great, available source of keywords is your data feed. By combining fields in your data feed, you have instantly created potentially hundreds of new high-quality keywords. Combining keywords is super easy in Channable’s rules step. Channable’s PPC tool will then directly send all freshly created keywords to Google Ads with a click. <a href="/success-stories/norwegians-innovative-automation-based-on-channable-feeds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Norwegian</a> was able to go from creating 18,000 keywords manually to 200,000 after implementing Channable.

In terms of match type, quality score is only influenced when the query matches the keywords i.e. exact match. This makes sense if you think that a person specifically looking for blue summer hats clicks on your ad with the keyword blue summer hat - indicates your ad is of high quality. You can specify whether a keyword ought to be modified broad, broad, phrase, and/or exact in Channable!

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-21694" src="https://media.graphcms.com/UzProTEwSuebGThWQ5rA" alt="" width="1022" height="169" />

## 4. Bear in mind the diversity of devices
The device (desktop, mobile, or tablet) that the potential customer is using is considered when your Quality Score is calculated. Therefore, don’t overlook the importance of making your site compatible.

## Extra tip?

**Set up ad extensions**
Unless you only have one page on your site, what’s your excuse to not use <a href="/blog/blog-increase-ctr-ads-with-price-extensions-and-sitelinks" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ad extensions and sitelinks</a>? Sitelinks are a fantastic way to provide a better customer experience for customers searching the web for your offering. Sitelinks enable you to include additional hyperlinks to key pages on your website. Ad extensions also make your ad more prominent, stand out from your competitors.

As mentioned before, whilst improving the Quality Score can help with estimating ad rank, it’s only one indicator. Trial-and-error is the way to go and just keep testing and optimizing based on the performance you measure. But you can most certainly use Quality Scores to guide optimizations and experience better performance.

4 ways to improve your ads Quality Score

On 28th April 2020, the <a href="https://docs.magento.com/m2/ee/user_guide/sales-channels/google-ads/google-eol.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google Shopping ads Channel will be disabled and removed from the Magento Marketplace</a>. If you had been using the Google Shopping ads Channel extension, **Magento has recommended searching for alternative extensions** in the<a href="https://marketplace.magento.com?_ga=2.47602919.1536390789.1587384265-1906944811.1586434258" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Magento Marketplace</a> that meet your needs, and/or migrating your catalog manually to the Google Merchant Center and Google Ads.

If you’re a Magento retailer who was using the Google Shopping ads Channel,** your product data will not be sent to the Google Merchant Center** and **your Shopping Campaigns will no longer be synced**. The ads will continue to run as they were set up, but they will not be updated.

You can easily send your product data to the Google Merchant Center if you have a Google Shopping feed at hand. You may need to create one to fit Google’s requirements, or even <a href="/blog/create-quality-google-shopping-feeds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">optimize it to ensure you’ll be creating high-quality ads</a>.

However, it is highly recommended by Magento to explore alternative extensions to minimize disruption to your Google Shopping campaigns. Channable’s PPC tool is one such alternative that can be set up within a day and gives you <a href="https://helpcenter.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011005320-How-do-I-create-shopping-campaigns-from-Channable-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">supreme control on your Shopping ads</a>.
<h2>How can Channable help?</h2>
<a href="/products/ppc-tool" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Channable’s PPC tool</a> can be used in a similar way to the Google Shopping ads Channel and even offers additional benefits such as back up templates, keywords generation, <a href="/blog/google-expanded-ads-with-channable" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sitelinks, and price extensions</a>. Channable can be found in the Magento marketplace and offers a seamless integration thanks to its <a href="/integrations/magento" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Magento plugin</a>.

Users can create ad groups per product for Google Shopping campaigns and ads in mass. The Channable PPC tool provides you with the power to advertise at a product level, enabling more control over which products are advertised in Shopping Campaigns, the bid for each product, and negative keywords per item.

Having full control lowers ad spend on products with a low ROAS, improving campaign performance. In addition, any new products added to the product feed will be automatically added to the Google Shopping Campaigns. Channable’s Shopping Campaigns can help you utilize Google Shopping Campaigns to its fullest potential without the need for a dedicated team or an advanced online advertising background.

If you’re a Magento retailer that has been affected by the discontinuation of Google Shopping ads Channel, Channable would like to offer the first month of Shopping ads created by Channable for FREE. Just use the promo code** MAGENTOGSC _2020** when you create an account in Channable. <span style="text-decoration: underline;">This promo code will be valid until 15th June 2020</span>. For more information, <a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">please get in contact with a member of our sales team</a>.

Channable’s offering for all those affected by the end of Magento’s Google Shopping ads extension

With highstreets slowly opening up again and with consumers ready to shop offline, now is the time to respond. Using local inventory ads, online shoppers know exactly which of your products are in stock in every offline store.
<h2>What are Local Inventory Ads?</h2>
There are many ways to promote your products online. You can <a href="/integrations">show them on different channels like Amazon or eBay</a>. You can advertise with search ads via <a href="/products/ppc-tool">Google Ads or Bing Ads</a>. But have you considered promoting your offline store’s inventory online? Whether you have a special offer or a huge sale. Or, if your product is sold out online but you still have some in your offline stores. In many situations, it’s a no-brainer.

Google developed local inventory ads exactly for this purpose. These ads become visible when a potential consumer is close (within 50km) to one of your offline stores. They can see whether the product they are looking for is still in stock and in precisely which store they can get it. This way you can perfectly combine your online shop with your offline stores.

[caption id="attachment_24622" align="alignnone" width="960"]<img class="wp-image-24622 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/f4Ub6DftTTKYn5x32rO6" alt="" width="960" height="400" /> This is how local inventory ads appear on Google Shopping.[/caption]
<h2>What are the advantages of local inventory ads?</h2>
<ol>
 	<li>**Combine your online shop and offline stores** Consumers often plan their shopping online. Therefore, they check what time the stores open and close, if there’s a sale, and which products are in stock. Use local inventory ads, take advantage of this shopping behavior. Show live stock updates of popular products and encourage consumers to visit your store.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
 	<li value="2">**Promoting shop inventory = more sales** Is one of your products sold out online but available in store? If so, grab the attention of consumers by mentioning this in your ads. This will increase your store visits which means more sales and more upselling opportunities.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
 	<li value="3">**Set up your Google Analytics** Keep track of the impact local inventory ads have on your sales in each particular offline store and customize your ads accordingly.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
 	<li value="4">**No additional costs** Local inventory ads are within your Google Shopping budget.</li>
</ol>
<ol>
 	<li value="5">**Easy to set up using data feeds** Using <a href="/products/product-feed-management-tool">Channable’s data feed management tool</a> you can quickly and easily create fully optimized feeds for creating local inventory ads.</li>
</ol>
<h2>How do I create local inventory ads with Channable?</h2>
<ol>
 	<li>As well as a Channable account, you’ll need three other accounts. A Merchant Center account, a Google My Business (GMB) Locations account, and a Google Ads account.</li>
 	<li>You need to link these three accounts with one another. If they aren’t linked, <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/3425157?hl=en">follow these steps from the Google Help Center</a> to link these accounts and exchange data.</li>
 	<li>Next, create two separate data feeds in Channable. A general feed with all the products you sell in your stores and a feed with the local product stock. These feeds must meet certain requirements that Google has set up. With [Channable’s data feed management tool](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping-feed), you can ensure these requirements are met in no time.</li>
 	<li>Is everything uploaded? Then <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7022488">request the inventory verification from Google</a>. A specific contact person for stock verification is responsible for this. This contact person is the only person who receives information about setting up and processing the stock verification. This check is necessary for Google to ensure that the stock information matches what is actually in your stores.</li>
 	<li>Have you completed step 4? If yes, you are ready to <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7024611?hl=en&amp;ref_topic=7023401">activate your Google Shopping campaigns</a>.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Gall &amp; Gall: what if you’d like to have a special bottle of wine for the barbecue tonight?</h2>
[Gall & Gall](https://www.gall.nl), the most popular liquor store chain in the Netherlands and one of our clients, faced a dilemma. The company was founded in 1884 and today has around 600 physical stores across the Netherlands. These stores are hugely important to Gall &amp; Gall’s success. However, buying drinks online is becoming more common. And in recent years, their online marketing has focused mainly on online sales. But how do you combine online and offline the right way? Plus, how do you measure the effectiveness of online marketing on offline sales?

Jan-Willem den Dunnen, an online marketer at Gall &amp; Gall explains, “When Google introduced local inventory ads in the Netherlands, we were one of the first to try it out. We are an omnichannel retailer and know better than anyone that online advertising is an important driver to stores. We'd like to increase this effect. So we set up local inventory ads mainly for our customers. If you want a bottle of Bacardi today but when you check online it says it can’t be delivered until tomorrow, you won’t order it online. Local inventory ads provide a solution. We see an increase in the number of clicks on Fridays and Saturdays. People would like to pick up drinks for that evening. With the help of local inventory ads, we offer them the chance to find if what they want is in stock, in the shop around the corner!”

Gall &amp; Gall first started last year with a test in Amsterdam. They saw that their local inventory ad campaigns resulted in a significant increase in physical store visits. As a result, Gall &amp; Gall rolled it out across the Netherlands.

Are you looking to combine your online and offline stores using local inventory ads? Make a start by <a href="https://app.channable.com/login">using your Channable account</a> and creating optimized feeds for Google Shopping. You can also <a href="/contact">contact our sales team</a> for more information.

Local Inventory Ads: Show your physical store stock on Google

<h2>What is Google Shopping?</h2>
[Google Shopping](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping-feed)  is a product search engine service provided by Google and is not an online shop. Offering customers the opportunity to search, view, and compare items that link to the product pages of the advertised online shop. As a branch of Google Ads, it enables retailers and online businesses to advertise their products across Google’s search network. These ads can appear in the main search results on Google or under the specific ‘Shopping’ tag.

Unlike Google Text Ads which is based on keywords, Google Shopping is built on ‘product feeds.’ Meaning the ads on Google Shopping are generated directly from the information provided in your online shop. This connection allows shoppers to view advertised items you would like to sell directly in their searches and to purchase products directly from your online shop, hence the term ‘**Google Shopping feed**.’
<h2>Advantages of advertising with a Google Shopping feed</h2>
Google Shopping is the largest comparison shopping engine in the world, with an ever-expanding <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7448571?hl=en">list</a> of supported countries. Advertisements on Google Shopping include a photo, title, price, and the name of your online shop. More product relevant information is displayed at the top or right side of the Google search results – above the normal text ads and organic search results.

<img class=" wp-image-26287 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/aeWWCkvQwC3AOhVPqLMy" alt="google shopping feed" width="975" height="620" />
Why is Google Shopping such a high **conversion driving marketing channel?** Below are just some of the advantages of advertising with a Google Shopping feed, along with how they are relevant to your strategy:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**Multiple touchpoints** - Advertising on Google Shopping allows your products to be found in multiple places on Google’s Search Engine. If your online shop is search engine optimized, your products could be found in multiple ways such as traditional search, <a href="/products/ppc-tool">PPC text ads</a>, and [Google Shopping ads](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping-feed).</li>
 	<li>**Visual appeal** - Customers like to see what they are buying and visual content has proven to have a major impact on sale conversions and customers’ decisions compared to text-only ads. In fact, Google Shopping Ads can have up to a <a href="https://www.marketingcharts.com/digital/paid-search-79142">30% higher</a> conversion rate than Text Ads.</li>
 	<li>**Higher qualified leads** - As a retailer on Google Shopping, you have the opportunity to reach more of the lower-funnel customers who have a high intent to buy, leading them straight to the POS via their search terms. With product information connected directly to your ad via your data feed, Google Shopping ads are very informative and result in a higher conversion rate from prospective buyers.</li>
</ul>
<h2>What type of advertiser is a Google Shopping feed most suited for?</h2>
Google Shopping is a platform focused on fast and easy conversions. Not so much on creating awareness for a product or brand. Meaning Google Shopping should not be the only channel a brand or company focuses on. Rather a complementary channel to facilitate quick conversions from customers with a high intent to buy.
<h2>Successfully setting up your data feed for Google Shopping</h2>
To start advertising on Google Shopping you will need to set up your <a href="https://www.google.com/retail/solutions/merchant-center">Google Merchant Center</a> account, upload your products using a data feed (online shop), and set up your <a href="https://ads.google.com/intl/en_us/getstarted">Google Ads shopping campaigns.</a>

Now to successfully advertise on [Google Shopping](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping-feed), you need to ensure you send certain Google approved mandatory fields. You can send this product information to Google Shopping using an automation tool like Channable in two ways: via a live <a href="/products/marketplace-integrator">API</a> connection or with a <a href="/products/product-feed-management-tool">feed</a>:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**API** APIs allow for real-time updating: Data can be sent at any time. When something is wrong with the data that is being sent to Google Shopping, the export channel (Google Shopping) can instantly send feedback to the exporting system (Channable). This information can then be given to the user, allowing them to make the changes.</li>
 	<li>**Data feed** The advantages of a feed-based system are that it is easy to implement and does not require the sender or the receiver to use special tools or advanced API formats. Meaning even a simple spreadsheet with your product data can be used. The downsides of this system are that there is no good way to continuously update the receiving party about changes.</li>
</ul>
Further differences between the two types of connections can be read in our <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002818909-Marketplaces-data-feeds-vs-APIs">help center article</a>. To send the right information, you can easily get an overview of the mandatory fields within Channable under either ‘Finalize’ (for Google Shopping feeds) or ‘Build &gt; Item’ (for Google Shopping APIs).

Providing your product information to Google properly is critical and must be in the right format to be accepted. Certain information can only be processed by a Google shopping feed in a specific way. The following section breaks down what you’ll need to send, to successfully advertise on Google Shopping.
<h2>Tips for every mandatory field you need to successfully advertise on Google Shopping</h2>
**Pro tip**: The chart below contains all of the mandatory fields that Google requires for you to successfully advertise on Google Shopping. Organizing this information in the correct format can be very time-consuming if done manually. Using a data feed management tool can show you where errors occur and pinpoint the missing data fields. Not only that, but Channable has the capability of fixing those errors for you, using an if-then rule system. Whether or not a data feed automation tool is used, this chart will give you everything needed to create a clean product feed.
<table markdown>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">**Necessary info**</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">**What exactly?**</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Image Link</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Images are very important for Google Shopping and selling online generally. We recommend you create a filter rule when you first start making rules, to exclude any items that do not have an image. For more information about specific dimensions and picture quality accepted by Google, read about it in their <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324350?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">help center</a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Availability</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This mandatory field needs to be sent to Google Shopping in the form of either: ‘in stock’, ‘out of stock’, or ‘preorder’. You don’t need to send actual stock levels but the value you set must match the value on your website. To include this information into your feed, simply use Channable’s <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827565-Rule-set-to-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">‘set to value’ rule</a> and set a newly created field to one of the three options depending on the actual stock level.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">*GTIN/EAN
<em>* You’ll need at least one of these, as Google requires you have 2 of the 3 pieces of info: Brand, GTIN or MPN.</em> There is still hope if you don’t, please check this <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827285-Useful-rules-for-Google-Shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>help center article</em></a><em>. </em></td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">GTIN is the umbrella term for unique identifiers such as EANs, UPCs or ISBNs and is basically the barcode of an item. If you don’t already have this information, you can easily purchase them online or ask your distributor for them. Making them up won’t help, you can’t outsmart Google.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Title</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This mandatory field ought to be easily found in your feed already. Make sure it describes your item well. You can even include things like the color or size with Channable’s <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827625-Rule-combine-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">‘combine value’ rule</a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Description</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Similarly to the title, this information should already be easily found in your import. Alternatively, you can always build a new description by combining relevant information from your feed. Make sure your description is free from HTML jargon by using our <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827845-Rule-modify-text">strip HTML </a>rule.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Link</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This field is the URL of the products. Simple.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Brand</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This information may already be in your feed, but it is VITAL for becoming Google Shopping approved, in conjunction with either GTIN or MPN. See the other descriptions below.
If the brand doesn’t have its own field but can be perhaps located in the description, you can easily search for the ‘value’ (specific brand name) and pop it in a new field.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Condition</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">The condition of a product needs to be listed as either ‘new’, ‘used’, or ‘refurbished’ in Google Shopping. Google will default set all condition's to new if you don't specify, but if in fact, you do sell used or refurbished items you'll have to communicate this to them. If this information isn’t in your feed yet, you can easily implement it with the 'set value' rule. Simply create a new mapping field from the settings and then ‘set value’ to the applicable condition.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Category</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">The second stage of creating a Channable feed/API is categorization (NB: with the API if you send known EANs, Google Shopping will automatically be able to categorize the items). The options from the drop-down menu are the specific categories Google has. So, you simply need to allocate which groups of items belong to which Google product category. When you map the fields (in the finalize stage or build stage in Channable) remember to use ‘**Category (internal)**’. More<a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003090569-Smart-categorization" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> tips on categorization </a>can be found in Channable's help center.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Price</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This information will be in your feed. Do not try to modify it, as the price shown in Google Shopping should match your website.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Shipping Price</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">You’ll most definitely know what the shipping price is if it isn’t already in your feed. If it’s missing, simply create a new mapping field and set the value. For example, if you offer free shipping for items over a certain price you can make a simple rule to set shipping price to zero. Simply create a rule such as “IF **price ** *is greater or equal to* 50. THEN take **shipping price** and <em>set to value</em>0”. You can always set shipping options within your Google Merchant account, more information can be found in <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6069284?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google's Support article</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">*MPN/SKU
<em>* You’ll need at least one of these, as Google Shopping requires you have 2 of the 3 pieces of info: Brand, GTIN or MPN.</em> There is still hope if you don’t, please check this <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827285-Useful-rules-for-Google-Shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>help center article</em></a><em>. </em></td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">A stock keeping unit (SKU) or a manufacturers number (MPN) is a more internal method of identifying items. If you don’t have this number, but you do have a GTIN you can still advertise with Google. If you have neither, you can still send your items to Google Shopping. To find out how, check out <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827285-Useful-rules-for-Google-Shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">useful rules for Google Shopping </a>help center article.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">**Shipping Country</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">If this information isn’t already in your feed, you should know where your items will be shipping from. As it’ll probably be a fixed country, you can go ahead and make a new mapping field and then just set a country name as the shipping country.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">**Id</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This information can be any form of number/combination that uniquely identifies each of your items. Note the word, unique.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">***Size</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">For clothing items, it’s important you send the size to Google Shopping. If this value is perhaps at the end of the title, you can simply use Channable’s <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827785-Rule-split-text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">split text value</a>.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">***Age group</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">The age group is only applicable if you want to advertise clothing items with Google Shopping. The specific groups they accept are: ‘newborn’, ‘infant’, ‘toddler’, ‘kids’, and ‘adult’. With this list in mind, you could use a rule such as <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827725-Rule-search-for-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">search for value</a> (search for specific sizes) and then use the replacement value option. So, any clothing item with the size 0 - 9 months can be assigned to the age group ‘newborn’ by searching for it and replacing the value with ‘newborn’.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">***Color</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">The color of an item is only applicable for fashion items. Luckily Google Shopping doesn’t specify color names, so feel free to use the values you have in your feed. If you don’t have them in a specific field, simply create a new field and search for the value.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">***Gender</td>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">This information is only needed for sending fashion items to Google Shopping and needs to be either unisex, female or male. If you sell only fashion items for one gender, this field can be easily provided by creating a new field and setting the value to the ‘Google recognized’ gender you sell to.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border: 1px solid #cccccc;">Currency</td>
<td>This is only necessary for using Channable's API connection with Google Shopping. You can either choose from 'EUR/GBP/USD/CAD/NOK/SEK/DKK/CHF' from Channable's built-in drop-down menu or implement it into the feed with a new field and ‘set to value’ rule. Make sure this value is true to what is displayed in the URL link of the item.</td>
</tr></tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 11px;"><em>** Mandatory for feeds only (because when you create an API connection you already specify in the first step what the unique ID per item is)</em><em>
*** Mandatory only for when fashion is selected as 'Type of market' in feed settings</em><em>
****Mandatory only for Google Shopping API</em></span>

Finally, if you decide to use an automation tool to manage your product feed, it’s recommended you create, what Channable defines as a ‘<a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002817249-How-do-I-filter-items-using-rules-">Filter rule</a>’ first. This rule will simply exclude any items that would otherwise be automatically rejected, or you do not want to sell. For reasons such as a missing image link, or the price is 0. Channable rules work in descending order. So, starting with a filter will ensure that the rules that’ll follow will only be applied to items worth advertising. While this list may seem quite overwhelming or contain a lot of information, using an automation tool can get you up and running in no time.
<h2>Next steps</h2>
Now that you have all the information needed to successfully advertise on Google Shopping the next step is getting started. If you want to [connect to Google Shopping with Channable](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping-integration) but do not already have an account, <a href="/signup">sign up</a> for free.

Build your connection to Google Shopping in your own time and only choose a subscription when you’re ready to go live. If you experience any Google Merchant Center errors that aren’t mentioned above, you’re always welcome to <a href="/contact">contact</a> Channable’s technical support team to get you going.

How to successfully advertise on Google Shopping

<h2>What is Google Product Category?</h2>
The “google_product_category” attribute is used to classify or categorize products in Google Shopping. The goal of this product categorization is to make it easier for customers to find your items within Google Shopping.

To set up the categories correctly, you have to use the taxonomies listed by Google known as the “Google product taxonomy”. The Google product taxonomy is the list of categories that Google uses to help classify products in the [Google Shopping feed](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping-feed). There are <strong>more than 6,000 categories</strong>. This is why it’s incredibly important that you categorize your products correctly. <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6324436?hl=en-GB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Here</a> you can find more info regarding Google's product taxonomy.

Another important thing to note is that the categories are not the same in all countries. There are countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany, and the Netherlands where the taxonomy is more complete and the product categories have more subdivisions than others.

An example of Google’s Category taxonomy for clothing would be:

Clothing and accessories &gt; Clothing &gt; Warm clothing &gt; Jackets and coats

In turn, each of these product categories is associated with a numerical code.
<h2>How important is the Google Product Category in the Google Shopping feed?</h2>
You should always categorize your products. There are too many benefits you’ll miss out on if you don’t.
<ul>
 	<li>The Google Product Category is decisive when it comes to ensuring users only see products that are really relevant to their search query.</li>
 	<li>The click rate of Google Shopping campaigns will improve because your products will have more precise attributes.</li>
 	<li>Filling in the Google Product Category influences your position in rankings. This allows you to check whether your products appear ahead of your competition.</li>
 	<li>Many other channels such as Criteo or [Facebook Ads](https://www.channable.com/integrations/facebook-product-feed) also use this categorization as a reference. Making it necessary to follow Google’s product taxonomy in order to be successful in multiple, essential channels.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Tips you should take into account when optimizing your Google Product Categories</h2>
<ol>
 	<li>Google occasionally updates its categories, so you need to make sure your data feed is updated with the latest changes.</li>
 	<li>The more information you provide in your Google Shopping feed, the better. That's why it's important to be specific about your categorization. You have to choose the most specific category possible. If you use a more specific Google Product Category, your products will appear in the appropriate search results more often. Therefore your CTR will improve significantly and, by creating more relevant ads, costs will decrease.</li>
 	<li>If your product fits into more than one category, it is important that you choose the most accurate one. It is not possible to choose two categories in Google Shopping.</li>
 	<li>If the article does not match any of the categories marked in the Google taxonomy (which is quite unusual due to a large number of categories available), then you can use the product_type attribute.</li>
 	<li>Remember that each country has a different taxonomy, so you will have to configure the feed and categories based on the country where you want to sell your products. Otherwise, your products will be rejected by Google. This has a close relationship with the taxes marked by each country. For example, if you are going to sell your products in the United States, it is important that the feed is configured for this country so that the tax rate for your products is correct.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Risks with Google's automatic product categorization</h2>
Google offers a new automatic categorization feature to make it easier to categorize products. Therefore, the google_product_category attribute is now not mandatory. However, while this advance is helpful, it also poses a risk.

The automatic assignment that Google makes is based on an algorithm that analyses other attributes of the Google Shopping feed, such as the brand, the GTIN, etc. In many cases, these attributes are not very specific and this means that Google does not assign the correct category or uses a category that is too generic.

To avoid this, we strongly recommend that you fill in the Google Product Category field in the Google Shopping feed yourself.
<h2>How can Channable help me with smart categorization?</h2>
Channable allows you to set up the Google Shopping feed in 5 easy steps. And one of the steps in the configuration of the feed is categorization. With the intention of helping our customers in this process (which can be quite long in multi-product catalogs), in Channable we have developed <a href="/blog/smart-categorization-google-shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">smart categorization</a>.

Thanks to a smart self-learning algorithm, we have managed to make the products you want to export to Google Shopping automatically fit the Google taxonomy. In this way, a category suggestion will appear that matches each of your products. As this is only a suggestion, you will always have the final decision regarding which category is used. This way, you will still have full control of the categorization process.

Would you like to create a fully optimized Google Shopping feed with Channable’s smart categorization? <a href="https://app.channable.com/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Create a FREE account </a>today and set up your Google Shopping feed in no time.

Don't forget to read our blog with tips to <a href="/blog/create-quality-google-shopping-feeds" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">create the perfect feed for Google Shopping</a>.

Tips and solutions when assigning Google Product Categories in your Google Shopping Feed

## What is Smart Shopping?

*Smart Shopping is Google's automated solution that integrates product ads, smart bidding strategies, and remarketing. It's a type of campaign that utilizes machine learning algorithms to optimize your shopping campaigns.*

For far too long, setting up shopping campaigns has been a series of long, complex, and, frankly, dull tasks. Setting up campaign priorities, identifying negative keywords, and setting up bidding strategies, are probably tasks most digital marketers of yesteryear still have nightmares about. 

With Smart Shopping campaigns, you no longer need to perform these tasks. You merely need to set a campaign goal and a budget. After which, the Smart Shopping campaigns will start using its machine learning algorithms to optimize your campaigns with automated bidding strategies and the ideal ad placements. It’s that simple. And in the end, this will help you free up loads of time. Time you can use to focus on matters that are more important or beneficial to your business or life in general. You could refine your marketing strategy or even go for a walk on the beach.  

Smart Shopping campaigns are ideal for eCommerce companies with smaller budgets or who have less time to strategize and manage their campaigns. 

![Blog-image_Smart Shopping_resized_1_smart shopping mobile display_2.svg](https://media.graphcms.com/u4VzjrLQRo6E4qwY1hmk)

*Smart Shopping campaigns will feature both in Product Shopping Ads and Display Ads (e.g. remarketing ads and similar audiences through Google Search, Display Network, Youtube, and Gmail).*
 
## Is there a catch?
*A small one.*

At first glance, Smart Shopping might seem like the right path to go down. However, there is a small tradeoff between ease-of-use and campaign control that you should definitely take into account. 

With Smart Shopping campaigns, it’s not possible to set negative keywords or specify on which devices you want to be visible. Those tasks are all set by Smart Shopping’s algorithms that optimize your campaigns towards your goals.

When developing this feature, we talked to a lot of agencies and marketers who have already set up Smart campaigns on Google. Even though the lack of control was received with caution, they did concede that Google’s algorithms are effective when best practices are followed. 

## Optimize your campaigns with smart bidding strategies

Smart bidding strategies are the key feature of Smart Shopping campaigns. When setting up your campaigns, Google gives you the option to choose between two different strategies. Choosing one over the other will determine how Google's algorithm optimizes your campaigns. The two options are:

![Blog-image_Smart-Shopping_02_EN.svg](https://media.graphcms.com/GVg7E9QZysbIq3cagMCw)

If your main campaign driver is to optimize towards sales value, then you should choose **Maximize Conversion Value**. Choosing this option will maximize the number of conversions by determining exactly which of your products is most likely to convert, then to promote and make it visible to potential customers.

The downside of this strategy, however, is that there is no way for Google to know what your profit margins are on a sale. If you do want to take this into consideration, the **TargetROAS** strategy is the better option to choose. 

Setting up with TargetROAS will determine what type of campaign Google will run for you. For example; by setting a **low TargetROAS** goal on products you want to promote, you essentially tell Google that you are willing to spend a lot of advertising budget to make these products more visible. You can even decide to **set the TargetROAS to less than 1** if you are willing to make a loss with your sales as long as you’re more visible through advertising. 

Let’s simplify it further. Assume you choose a TargetROAS strategy with a relatively low TargetROAS of 3. In this example, you are telling the algorithm that for every one euro of advertising budget you spend, you want €3 of revenue back in return.  

Choosing the ideal smart bidding strategy is completely up to you. You can even combine them with the standard shopping campaigns in order to test out and find the winning formula. 

## Why feed management and Smart Shopping Campaigns are a great fit

Smart Shopping Campaigns are incredibly smart! However, they are only as smart as the information you provide them with. You can therefore easily state that feed health is the foundation for succeeding with Smart Shopping Campaigns. 

If your product feed is not in a great condition, then Google's machine learning algorithms will have a harder time optimizing your campaigns. It is therefore crucial that you ensure that your product feed is optimized and [eligible to serve](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112?hl=en). This is where feed management and tools like Channable suddenly become very handy.

With tools like Channable you can utilize built-in feed templates for more than 2500 different advertising and price comparison platforms. A template for Shopping Ads that works perfectly with Google Merchant Center is no exception and you can even set up a [top-quality feed](/blog/create-quality-google-shopping-feeds) in no time. Not only will this result in greater feed health, it will also help Google better to determine when and where products should show up in searches. 

## So, where do we go from here?

Well, if you are relatively new to Channable and feed management, then we would recommend to first take a closer look towards our blog named: [What is Feed Management and why do I need it?](/blog/blog-what-is-feed-management-and-why-do-you-need-it) This blog gives you a great introduction to Feed Management while explaining all its benefits along the way. 

On the other hand, if you already know quite a bit about feed management, already have a healthy feed or maybe you are already a client or partner of Channable, then you might jump right ahead towards our guide named: [How to set up Smart Shopping Campaigns with Channable.](/blog/how-to-set-up-smart-shopping-campaigns-with-channable)

Take your Shopping Ads to the next level by using Smart Shopping Campaigns

# The importance of choosing the right bidding strategy

Channable´s clients are now able to configure their optimal bidding strategies directly in our [PPC tool](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool). 

We know it is easy to become overwhelmed with so many different bid strategy options offered by Google Ads, that's why we have created this blog to give you some insight on which bidding strategies work best for your business, how Google Smart Bidding abilities can help you to increase your conversions and the benefits of configuring your most important bidding strategies directly in Channable. 

## How to determine your bidding strategy?

Google Ads offers multiple ways of bidding that you should choose very carefully depending on the goals you have in mind. Most advertisers focus on clicks, impressions and conversions.  Which one should you choose based on your goals? 

- *Strategy based on clicks*. Using cost-per-click (CPC) bidding will help you generate traffic to your website.
- *Strategy based on impressions*. If your goal is to increase your brand awareness and visibility of your ads, this strategy might be the one you need.
- *Strategy based on conversions*. This is a more advanced bidding method, and you will pay Google for a determined conversion or action (it could be a purchase, email sign-up, phone call, download, etc.). In order to measure interactions, you need to have [conversion tracking](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6308).

If you want to focus on conversions, **you should consider using Smart Bidding** to save time, improve performance and avoid errors setting the biddings. Smart Bidding is a kind of automated bidding that looks for ad auctions that are more likely to hit your KPIs.

[tip]Find more info in [Google Help Center](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472725) about how to determine a bid strategy based on your goals[/tip]

## Finding success with Smart Bidding

Smart Bidding is a set of automated bid strategies that use machine learning to optimize your conversion goals. On top of the machine learning capabilities, it takes into account info like device, location or time of the day to create tailor bids depending on the search context. 

Let's see the most important automated bidding options you have available with Google:

- *Target cost per action (CPA)*: helps you get as many defined actions (sign-ups, app installs, reservations) as possible at or below the target CPA you set. This is handy if you want to control the amount you spend on certain actions"
- *Target return on ad spend (ROAS)*: helps you get more conversion value or revenue at the target return on ad spend (ROAS) you set. This definitely requires a bit of calculating to determine your optimal return, but it can be a powerful method to measure your ads true effectiveness. 
- *Maximize Conversions*: helps you get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your budget. This is probably the easiest strategy to set up. All you need to know is your maximum daily budget, that you are willing to spend on text ads. 
- *Maximize Conversion Value*: helps you to maximize the total conversion value of your campaign within your specified budget. 
- *Enhanced cost per click (ECPC)*: helps you to automatically adjust your manual bids to try and maximize conversions. For example, Google can increase or decrease your bid based on the likelihood an ad drives conversions. Bids will ultimately be averaged out to achieve your budget limit.

Some users associate Smart Bidding with a lack of control on the campaigns, meaning that you totally rely on Google’s algorithms to get your targets. However, Google's algorithms are effective when best practices are followed. Smart Bidding will save you tons of account management time and advanced artificial intelligence will help you achieve great results for your PPC campaigns.

[tip]Find more info in Google Help Center about [Smart Bidding](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7065882?hl=en) and how to pick [the right bid strategy](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167148?hl=en)[/tip] 

## How can Channable help you to configure a bidding strategy?

Channable is aware of how important it is to choose the right bidding strategy for a PPC campaign in order to achieve the highest results. That´s why from now on you will be able to establish your bidding strategy directly in Channable. With this new setup in our PPC tool, we are a step closer to helping you achieve your campaign goals with less time and effort. 

Until now the only bidding strategy available was the manual CPC option. Meaning that all the bidding had to be configured in Google Ads. But thanks to this new feature we give clients the option to choose an array of bid strategies beyond CPC directly in the tool, based on their conversion and click goals of a campaign: 
![Bidding.png](https://media.graphcms.com/IeAfTmK8RNCrHf3n3ZGV)

As you can see above, all the Smart Bidding options described before (except the Target ROAS) are available for use directly in Channable. 

You do need to keep in mind that these bidding strategies will be added to Google Ads when setting up new campaigns in Channable, meaning that any updates of that value need to be done in Google Ads directly. 

[tip]In the following link you will learn [how to configure a campaign in Channable](https://helpcenter.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010964780-Configuring-the-Campaign-settings), including the bidding strategy.[/tip]

Being able to set up your bidding strategy directly in the tool will give you** more independence from Google Ads**, simplifying the set up of your dynamic campaigns. Consequently this will help you **save time and effort **creating new campaigns. **Maximize the return and help you reach your goals faster** are just some of the positive results of managing your bidding set up process within Channable.

If you are already generating your PPC campaigns using Channable, be aware that from now on you will be able to configure the bidding strategies directly in the tool for all your new campaigns. This new feature, together with the new option of [adding location targeting](https://www.channable.com/blog/increase-the-return-of-your-campaigns-by-targeting-the-right-audience), will allow you to maximize the use of Channable PPC tool. Do you want to learn how to configure the bidding and the location targeting in the tool? In the following video,  Robert Smit, our product owner will guide you through the new settings:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VEHMS5WGJ0E" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Just getting started and would like to start creating dynamic and automated campaigns for Google Ads, feel free to [start a trial account](https://www.channable.com/signup) with Channable. 



More ROI for your ads choosing the right (smart) bidding strategy

An Expert’s Guide to Google Performance Max Campaigns in 2023

Most of the people I speak to look at their Performance Max or Standard Shopping setup and wonder what they can do to improve it. 

You can’t control what keywords you show for. Audiences are limited. Negative keywords are misleading. Manual bidding is not fair. So what can you actually do to improve performance? 

Improving Google Shopping, and much of Google Ads in today’s world is less about direct tactics and more about nudging the machine in the right direction. 

There are three components to Google Shopping:

1. The feed
2. The campaign
3. The data

Today, I will show you how to make changes to each component and get better performance for Google Shopping — regardless of whether you run Performance Max (Smart Shopping) or Standard Shopping campaigns. 

It all starts with your feed, and it’s not as confusing as you might think. 

## 1) Add missing attributes to your feed
Over the years, I have learned that feed optimization is an ambiguous word. It means a lot of different things, so I have distilled it down to two specific optimization tactics: 

1. Adding missing attributes
2. Improving existing attributes

An attribute is often also called a field — it’s the titles, descriptions, product types, etc in your Google Shopping Feed. 

Before you start optimizing certain parts of your feed, you need to add missing attributes. This is a step that most PPC managers miss in their work with feeds. They jump straight to optimizing titles (which is also important), but first, you need to get all the right attributes in the feed. 

Here is a list of required and recommended attributes to add:

![Blog Image 2 Table 6-step goolge shop optimization.png](https://media.graphassets.com/WB1WPx0Q6a51OYWZUYLU)

Once you have added the relevant attributes, you should start optimizing the individual attributes — the first being your title. 

## 2) Optimize your titles and others
Once you have added all relevant attributes, it’s time to optimize the most important ones in the following order: 

1. Titles
2. Product type
3. Custom labels
4. Google product category
5. Descriptions

We will review custom labels in the next section, but let’s first take a look at each attribute here.

### Optimizing titles
Here’s a quick overview of how you can optimize titles: 

1. Add category and brand to the product title
2. Add size, material, and other specifics
3. Rewrite them manually if you HAVE to

![Blog Image 1 6-step goolge shop optimization.png](https://media.graphassets.com/GAOVj0gAQpC813xbBBC8)

Once you have finished titles and product types, you can proceed to apply custom labels. 

Optimizing your entire feed is a topic in itself, and I recommend our article on [Google Shopping feed management](https://savvyrevenue.com/blog/google-shopping-feed-optimization/)

## 3) Apply custom labels
A Custom Label is a way to group products together across brands and product types without adhering to any set list of values. An example is aggregating conversion rate data for all products on sale vs not on sale. 

But you can do anything with custom labels. What we use custom labels for the most is to find performance outliers. Some of the custom labels we apply are: 

- Pricing tiers
- Discount or not
- Seasonality
- Product score
- Bestseller status
- New vs existing product
- In-stock status (across sizes, colors, etc)

Here’s a further explanation of each custom label:

**Pricing tiers**
 - Performance differences can often be found across pricing tiers. For some, it means that high-priced items have no immediate conversions, or that products under $10 aren’t profitable. 

**Discount or not**
 - Discounted products often convert better because, well, they are discounted so their price is better and there is a sense of urgency.

**Seasonality**

- Sandals, shorts, and summer dresses convert best when it’s summer, but can lie dormant most of the year.

**Bestseller status**
- This has to be the number from your eCommerce platform. Just taking the numbers from Google Ads makes little sense — Google already has these. 
- Another important note is that you can’t take bestsellers from across your site as a whole. It has to be top 3-5-10 per category preferably. 

**New product vs existing**
- If you have strong products within existing categories, your new products might have difficulty taking over from existing products because of their historical data. 
- Another aspect is if you constantly add new products that Google tests out, you might see a lower ROAS/revenue without any benefit. 

**In-stock status** (across sizes, colors, etc)
- There is already an in-stock attribute, yes, but that’s solely for the individual product variant (product, color, size). This custom label should instead track when the bestselling product variants go out of stock — as in when size 7-10 in shoe size goes out of stock.
- This is especially relevant for apparel, but also interior design products.

**Private label products**
- eCommerce businesses usually want their private label products treated separately from the rest of the products. 
- If you only have one private label brand, then this is easy and doesn’t require the use of custom labels. If you have many, it becomes more cumbersome and custom labels can be useful. 

Custom Labels can be applied in one of two places: 

1. Directly from your back-end
2. In your feed optimization tool

Some of the values can be built using your feed optimization tool even if the data isn’t in there directly. Here’s a simple example of creating a custom label for whether a product is on sale or not:

- If sale_price exists = set custom label “On Sale”
- If sale_price not exists = set custom label “Not on Sale”

Once you have applied your first custom labels, you need to analyze the data and find product segments that are worth separating from your existing Google Shopping setup. 

## 4) Find product segment outliers
I will start off by saying that it’s not always the case that there are performance differences across any of the product segments listed above.

But there are times when you should use them to:

- Better allocate budget
- Set dedicated ROAS targets
- Follow up on individual performance

A typical use-case is bestsellers, but this has been talked about for years, so let’s take another example: **New products vs existing products**.

Let’s say you create this custom label, and find that you spend 95% of your budget on products that have been active on your eCommerce store for more than a year. 

But your last year’s strategy has been to expand your product portfolio a lot, so you have actually added 25% more products to your eCommerce store. Spending 5% of your budget on your new products can indicate that: 

1. You have the wrong products
2. Your new products are too similar to existing products
3. Your ROAS target doesn’t allow new products to get launched

As PPC managers, we can’t do anything about A or B. What we can do is figure out if C) is a limiting factor. To do that, we need to segment the campaigns to change the budget and ROAS targets.

## 5) Segment your campaigns
Segmenting campaigns is a cornerstone tactic with Performance Max (and standard Google Shopping). With Performance Max, you don’t have many options to improve the campaign performance, but you should use the options that are available to you. 

Two of the options to improve Performance Max are:

1. Setting different ROAS targets
2. Applying different budgets

You can use this for a couple of different scenarios: 

- Different product categories
- Different brands (or Private Label brands)
- Different product segments (with Custom Labels)

By combining campaign segmentation, you have options to create different campaign structures that you can use to nudge Google Shopping: 

**Create a campaign each for:**

1. Private label products with a low ROAS target
2. “External” products with a high ROAS target

This will nudge Google Shopping to spend more money on private label products yet still maximize exposure for the external products you carry on your site.

**Create a campaign each for:**

1. Spring/Summer collections
2. Fall/Winter collections

This enables you to set higher budgets, lower ROAS targets, and overall tell Google it’s time to push the spring/summer products when the season starts — and lower the effort on fall/winter products. 

The sky's the limit and the best way to segment your campaigns depends on your business. 

## 6) Learn when to use Standard Shopping
Performance Max (Shopping only) is a great way to get started with a baseline Shopping campaign, but sometimes you need to use the standard Shopping campaigns to get the best results. 

With Standard Shopping you get more insights and an ability to influence the performance:

- Seasonality Bid Adjustments (will open up in the future)
- [Prioritize product segments](https://savvyrevenue.com/blog/google-shopping-campaign-structure/) over others
- Search term visibility
- Minimum and maximum bidding caps

This only applies if you actually have something that differentiates your products — and it can’t be directly correlated with the performance (revenue, ROAS, etc.) that you're experiencing right now. Because then Smart Bidding will take care of it for you. 

## Conclusion
Too many Google Shopping setups are created and left alone. Often advertisers, or agencies, will optimize a bit of the feed, change the ROAS target now and again, but mainly leave the campaigns alone.

That’s a mistake. 

As outlined above, there are several ways to improve the performance of your Google Shopping campaigns, and if you feel overwhelmed, they can be narrowed down to a few key aspects:

- Add missing attributes to your feed
- Optimize core feed attributes
- Apply and analyze custom labels
- Segment your campaigns
- Change to standard Shopping for options

The only option that shouldn’t be on the table is not doing anything. 


The 6-Step Google Shopping optimization process to improve ROAS and revenue

We sat down with Erika Shemie, Partner Success Manager at Google, to discuss Performance Max best practices and how to incorporate these campaigns into your marketing strategy for the holiday season and 2023.

But first, a quick explanation of what [Performance Max campaigns](https://www.channable.com/blog/performance-max-campaigns) are. Performance Max campaigns are the newest iteration of ads for digital marketers offered by Google. 

Simply put, Performance Max campaigns allow for advertising across Google's platforms. Adding AI and machine learning into your ad structure to maximize performance and results, Performance Max campaigns are a goal-based campaign type that helps link you to customers across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.

That being said, let's jump into the conversation with Erika and see what insights she shares for Performance Max best practices..

## 1. Hi Erika, let's talk about how can retailers benefit from Performance Max campaigns to boost reach during the holiday season.

Great topic to dive into. Let's break down some Performance Max best practices advertisers can implement with a Google Merchant Center (GMC) feed:

**Build a specific Promotion campaign**
- Build a promotion specific campaign, which can be used as a “shell campaign” for all promotions, from there you can specify a certain holiday or sale you would like to promote including more information regarding promotions & specific assets.

**Use Maximize value strategies**
- Use maximize strategies (e.g. Max. Conversion Value without ROAS target) to benefit from a shorter learning period (if starting a new Performance Max campaign) to get up and running faster for a seasonal campaign.

**Filter for promotional products**
- Filter for your promotional products in listing groups, e.g. via custom label

![Performance_v3-07.png](https://media.graphassets.com/R1ZMZQwKS6Wk1LmgQyce)

**Ensure budget matches holiday demand**
- Use the demand forecast tool and performance planner in order to calculate available holiday demand to keep your budget unconstrained and the ads working optimally.

**Create a separate Performance Max Retail ‘holiday campaign’ with (seasonal products with specific targets)**
- If you want to prioritize certain types of products, create a separate Performance Max campaign for those items (e.g. one campaign for holiday merchandise, one for high-margin categories, and one for everything else). Setting a lower ROAS target can help maximize visibility for these products in the weeks leading up to peak periods. 

### Performance Max Campaigns best practices 
Start with Maximize Conversion value strategy (without ROAS target) to benefit from a shorter learning period (if starting a new Performance Max campaign from the scratch)

## 2. Which advertisers are most suited for Performance Max campaigns?

Performance Max campaigns build off the success of existing automated solutions to deliver a comprehensive campaign that works for **all advertisers** across a wide range of marketing objectives (e.g. sales, leads, website traffic, brand awareness and reach, app promotion, local store visits & promotions) and media channels (Google Search, Google Maps, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover feed, and Google partner websites).

![Performance_v3-03.png](https://media.graphassets.com/l3HNXwUmRduwJOBhz5r4)

Online sales, store visits, and new customer acquisition are the supported marketing objectives for the retail version of Performance Max. This means everyone can benefit from using Performance Max campaigns to a certain extent. But it can be extra beneficial to new advertisers who do not have much experience in refining campaigns and why Performance Max best practices can really boost your performance when starting out.

## 3. What type of advertising strategies can you implement with Performance Max Campaigns?

Well, advertisers will have to first determine what their business objectives are and then set their campaign up to align with those goals. A few goal examples are:

- Is their objective to spend as much as possible at a certain ROAS goal? If so, we recommend setting a ROAS target and uncapping their budget

- Is their objective to drive as much revenue as possible at a certain budget? If so, we recommend setting their desired budget and to use maximise conversion value bidding without a ROAS target 

- Do they have other objectives such as driving new customers or driving store visits? If so, we recommend optimizing to new customer acquisition or store visit conversion goals.

### Performance Max Campaigns best practices
Check the [insights tab](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10256472?hl=en) on how they can improve performance. Always update the creatives and make sure they are relevant. Keep an eye on performance, and when it starts to drop, take a look at CTR.

## 4. How can advertisers improve their creatives/copy to boost conversions?

There are many ways in which you can optimize your ads to make it even easier for Google to recognize important information. A few simple techniques to use are:

- Highlight information about **products** and **offerings** (like promotions) within the headlines and descriptions. 
*Why: Promotions and discounts spark interest and help motivate customers to complete purchases.*

- Only **capitalize** the first word and proper nouns in your **headlines** and **descriptions**. 
*Why: Use sentence casing in your creative, rather than all caps, to provide a more organic and authentic ad experience.*

- **Text assets** should be distinct from each other and make sense when combined. E.g. We recommend that advertisers don't repeat phrases in the headline and description that would be repetitive. We also recommend using descriptions that could be paired with Dynamic Headlines if Final URL expansion is turned on.
*Why: This allows for multiple versions of your ads to be tried and tested for optimal performance.*

## 5. How many campaigns would you create for a certain item and how often would you refresh it?

There is no fixed rule regarding how many campaigns an advertiser should have. This Performance Best practice, really depends on a lot of factors. The setup of the campaign needs to meet the advertiser's business goals and strategy.

![Performance_v3-04.png](https://media.graphassets.com/ttXfduZ2SMaeE1mytOav)

Performance Max for online sales is designed to maximize within the advertiser’s target and budget and can run with only one campaign (if the advertiser has only one ROAS goal & budget) - if they have **different goals** this is when to consider breaking out to more than one campaign, as a Performance Max best practice.

> Generally speaking, if the advertiser has a large number of products, with high conversion volumes and different ROAS goals for different types of products, they should create more than one performance max campaign.

One example where an advertiser should create multiple Performance Max campaigns as a best practice, would be customers that are trying to achieve profitability targets for product categories. In this case, they would have to create one Performance Max campaign per category (e.g. one for footwear, one for outerwear, and one for accessories) and then set a different ROAS target for each campaign.

Another example would be if they have separate budgets, language, or geo-targeting for their goals. This means they would have to run separate Performance Max campaigns for each segmentation.

### Performance Max Campaigns best practices
If you were targeting several countries with different budgets, you would need to separate campaigns because the budget is on campaign level and would need adjusting per region for best results.

## 6. Can you give us any A/B testing tips on how to manage campaigns?

We recommend using a **pre/post** and/**or geo-split** test when switching from Shopping campaigns to Performance Max campaigns. What this means in practice is:

- **Identify products to test:** For shopping campaigns, select a subset of products to test Performance Max with 
-** Set your budget**: Set the Performance Max budget to be equal to or greater than the budget for those products in the existing Shopping campaigns. This is to prevent overall sales for those products from declining across Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
 - Performance Max will trump Shopping campaigns with overlapping products in most instances so it’s critical to ensure sufficient budget is allocated to Performance Max in order to maintain overall sales  
 - To evaluate performance, measure how well Performance Max delivers conversion value and ROAS compared to the original Shopping campaigns.

- **Same campaign setup:** Ensure that product targeting, and conversions are being optimized and that goals are the same across SSC/standard Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.

*Please note that since the new Performance Max campaign is created from scratch, it will go through a learning period.*

Once you have launched your new Performance Max campaign, pause the original standard shopping campaign, let the Performance Max campaign ramp up for at least 1-2 weeks, and exclude this time period from evaluation. 

![Performance_v3-05.png](https://media.graphassets.com/ckhncp6CRNaRBaEJMe0Y)

Evaluate the performance of 4-5 weeks after the ramp-up period + any conversion lag time* to ensure you are considering sufficient data to compare to the standard shopping campaign.

### Performance Max Campaigns best practices 
You can monitor performance via the Google ads interface by visiting “Attribution” > “Path metrics” > “Average day to conversion.” Please select “Measure from first interaction”

## 7. What components do you need to successfully set up a Performance Max campaign?

You should add as many assets as you can or as many as you have available. Performance Max is an automated solution powered by machine learning. More assets = more potential ad formats that can be created for different channels and users.

If you add a [GMC feed](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188924?hl=en&ref_topic=3163841), then technically you don’t need to upload any other assets. The minimum requirement is only if you do not attach a GMC feed. However, as a best practice, we still recommend uploading the “minimum” required assets below, as a Performance Max best practice:

- **Google Ads conversion tracking or GA4 conversion tracking**
- **Approved Merchant Center feed** 
- **Text:**
 - Headline: Recommended 5 x 30 character max headline (at least one with 15 characters or fewer)
 - Description & Short Description: Recommended 4+ x 90 character max descriptions (at least one with 60 characters or fewer)
 - Business name: 1

- **Image:**
 - Landscape image: (1.91:1)  Recommended 3+
 - Square image: (1:1) Recommended 3+
 - Portrait image: (4:5) Recommended 1+

- **Video: **
 - 1+ recommended. You can add up to 5 videos. If you don't have one, Google will create videos automatically when possible

- **Extensions:**
 - Sitelinks: Recommended 4+
 - Callouts: Recommended 1
 - Structured Snippets: Recommended 1

Keep in mind that it's a Performance Max best practice to organize asset groups like you organize your ad groups, by a common theme. For example, you might try separating asset groups by the different products or service types you offer.

## 8. What does a successful campaign look like?

What success looks like will depend on your goals. For some, success might be reaching or exceeding their target ROAS and for others, it is maximizing sales (so in that case, the focus would be on volume).

![Performance_v3-06.png](https://media.graphassets.com/xGk0Vr37TCWV5t6STwPa)

There are some general Performance Max best practices that we recommend advertisers to follow, which will help create more successful campaigns.

1. Providing Text, Image, and Video assets will help maximize the reach and value delivered. We always recommend providing more than the minimum required assets

2. Automation is only as powerful as the data you are feeding it. Be sure that the product feed is well-optimized and there are no account suspensions or warnings. We also recommend ensuring that the conversion tracking and remarketing tags are firing and working properly.
 
3. Aligning your campaign objectives to your business objectives

4. URL expansion helps advertisers to optimize performance of their Performance Max campaigns. By using URL expansion, we can replace their Final URL with a more relevant landing page, dynamic headline, description, and additional text assets based on customers’ intent.

5. We recommend setting the ROAS target to the ROAS the advertiser wants to achieve. Once your campaign is optimized they can assess performance and determine if they want to make any changes to their ROAS target. Keep in mind, there is a tradeoff between efficiency and spend – the higher advertisers set their ROAS goal, the less their campaign will likely spend; the lower they set your ROAS goal, the more their campaign will likely spend.

## 9. Can you run parallel ad campaigns? 

Can Performance Max campaigns run parallel ads with the same items and take this into consideration when optimizing when and where items and ads are displayed?

It’s not advisable to run standard shopping campaigns with the same items as Performance Max. 

This is because Performance Max will be prioritized over Standard Shopping campaigns, and Display campaigns with a Merchant Center feed in the advertiser’s account if they’re targeting the same product inventory. 

If the campaigns are in different CIDs or are not using a Merchant Center feed, higher Ad Rank will drive selection.

## Key takeaways from this interview

- For seasonal products or sales, build a specific promotion campaign.
- Performance Max campaigns utilize Google's entire ecosystem including: Google Search, Google Maps, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover feed, and Google partner websites.
- Pick your advertising strategy and give your campaign enough freedom to optimize, including budget and time to learn.
- Monitor campaign performance to see when new campaign content or tweaks are needed.
- Evaluate A/B testing only after the first 2 weeks and allow 4-5 weeks for optimization.
- Add as many assets as possible from your GMC feed and online shop for peak performance.
- Define your campaign success test strategies and goals until you reach them.

Enjoyed the insights about Performance Max campaign best practices? Stay connected and check out all the resources we have available on our [blog](https://www.channable.com/blog).


Google Performance Max Campaigns best practices for seasonal campaigns: Interview with Erika (Partner Success Manager)

Google first introduced its newest campaign type, [Performance Max (PMax)](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10724817), in November 2021. By the end of Q3 2022, PMax had [replaced](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/12280808) Smart Shopping and Local campaigns.

As digital marketers adjusted to the new campaign type, clear benefits and drawbacks of PMax have emerged.

Below, we provide a brief overview of PMax, how it works, and detailed explanations of its pros and cons. We also explore what type of eCommerce client could benefit the most from PMax plus optimization tips you can use to start or revise PMax campaigns.

## **What is Performance Max (PMax)?**
PMax is a goal-based, shopping campaign type in Google Ads that can be used to supplement your current marketing efforts.

Through AI and machine learning, it integrates data from shopping and search campaigns into your ad structure, then advertises across YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps to strengthen and optimize your pay-per-click (PPC) strategy, save you time on account management, and maximize successful performance and results.

[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)

## **How does PMax work?**

You don’t set keywords, ad targets, or bids in a PMax campaign like you would for a search ad campaign. Instead, you take the following steps: 

- Gather all your creative materials–ads, images, logos, headlines, descriptions, and videos–into asset groups

- Create a budget with a daily budget period

- Set either an optional return on ad spend (ROAS) or cost per action (CPA) target

- Provide as much session data from Google signals as possible

You can learn more about building PMax campaigns in [this overview](https://www.channable.com/blog/performance-max-campaigns). For full step-by-step instructions on how to set up this campaign type in Channable, please read our [Help Center article](https://helpcenter.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/7035825617682-Setting-up-Performance-Max-Retail-campaigns). 

![02_PMAX shopping_search ads.png](https://media.graphassets.com/5lgm8mcXQBuQmrF1NY6l)

## **What are the pros or benefits of PMax?**
The goal of this campaign type is to provide greater end-to-end efficiency by: 

- Streamlining your marketing strategy, processes, and workflows

- Increasing the value of your ad spend

- Optimizing conversion opportunities

### **Pro #1: PMax allows you to advertise across all Google channels**
Using [Smart Bidding](https://www.channable.com/blog/more-roi-for-your-ads-choosing-the-right-bidding-strategy), PMax decides the optimum placement for your ads, then pulls images, videos, copy, and other content to create ads for each channel. 

Smart Bidding uses audience targeting, bidding, budget optimization, and creative performance data to select which ad and channel will convert best according to your goals in real-time. 

In other words, the campaign will switch the format of your ads depending on what works best at specific times and in specific places.

### **Pro #2: Assets and information aren’t siloed in PMax campaigns.**
PMax creates both search and shopping ads within one campaign, and you can upload all creative assets at the same time. As a result, you won’t need to manage assets across separate campaigns, and campaign information won’t be siloed.

For example, suppose a consumer watches an ad on YouTube for five seconds. Then, they search for the product on Google Shopping, visit the website, and purchase the product. 

Performance Max tracks all that information, and all conversions refer back to one campaign. The campaign learns from this information and shows the same YouTube ad to other consumers with similar behaviors to drive conversions. 

This isn’t possible in separate search ad campaigns; you’d only be able to tell which consumers were watching your YouTube videos and which consumers were searching on Google Shopping, without connecting the two behaviors.

### **Pro #3: PMax campaigns can always be tied to conversion goals**

Since you have the option to select a conversion goal from the start of the campaign, business objectives and spend are prioritized in PMax campaigns.

PMax wants to help you drive as many conversions as possible with the least amount of campaigns. 
It optimizes results based on either your ROAS or CPA goals and determines the highest conversion opportunities across all channels. 

## **What are the cons of PMax?**

Almost any eCommerce retailer can benefit from using PMax. The question is whether you’ll find more value with a different campaign type or PMax if you don’t have the budget for both.

It’s important to keep several considerations in mind:

- The amount of control you’d like to have over your campaigns

- The effect of PMax on other campaign types like search ads

- How much PMax campaigns will cost if you have limited conversion data or assets

An experienced PPC specialist likely will use PMax campaigns to supplement and support existing search ad campaign efforts because the control over campaigns is limited.

If you’re still learning about and experimenting with campaign structure, PMax campaigns do provide ease of use and will help you get the most out of Google’s machine-learning capabilities.

### **Con #1: Marketers have limited campaign control in PMax.**
PMax is all about automation, which limits your control over most aspects of the campaigns, like which audience is targeted and what types of ads they see. 

[Roots Network](https://www.roots-network.com/en/) is a search agency with over 20 years of experience in paid search. 
The agency works with clients in eight major markets across the US and Europe that have large, complex inventories, and need sophisticated strategies and automation to help execute projects and campaigns. 
Its teams have been heavy Channable users since January 2022.

Co-founders Alex Pepermans and Marcel Smal have found PMax campaigns can be quite limiting.

> One of the challenges we have with Performance Max as an industry is that it's less transparent. There’s a larger black box over the campaign type. One of the key things you have to do is exclude your branded terms. Otherwise, they’ll be included in Performance Max, and then you have clutter in your data, said Pepermans. 

#### **Control considerations**
Since this campaign type only lets you bid on conversion or conversion value, if you have specific budget, language, geographies, or bidding strategies you want to execute, you’ll have more control with search ad campaigns.

![Enjoy co-marketing activities Channable.svg](https://media.graphassets.com/fD3DpTYTaetbfn5Rew5c)

Alternatively, you could run a separate Performance Max campaign for each specificity, or add more than one conversion goal to a single Performance Max campaign, but you’d still need to track the conversions separately.

### **Con #2: PMax can have a negative effect on other Google campaign types.**
Google prioritizes PMax over other campaigns with the exception of exact-match keywords across search campaigns or display campaigns that have a higher ad rank. 

Since ads from PMax are more likely to be shown to audiences, you might hear about PMax consuming, or “stealing,” performance metrics from other campaigns.

Guy Schepers, Head of Paid at [Fingerspitz](https://fingerspitz.nl/), a full marketing services agency in the Netherlands, has been using Channable’s PPC tool to create and scale dynamic customer campaigns for over six years. 

When it comes to PMax, he believes marketers run into issues when they’re not sure how to narrow the scope of their campaigns. 

*“What I see, and it's quite a common mistake, is marketers using the audience signals incorrectly. They make a really big audience, and it's too broad. You should use it to say, ‘This type of customer is my best fit, and I think you have to focus on this type of person,’”* he explained. 

*“I also think you should exclude specific placements. Oftentimes, our clients will see a huge amount of spend on one placement. They have a lot of volume, a lot of spend over there, but most of the volume is misclicks or kids’ channels.”*

#### **Exclusion considerations**
It’s much more difficult to set exclusions in PMax than search campaigns, but there are several ways to gain back some control over the way PMax affects other campaign types.

You can exclude branded terms, so your PMax campaigns stay focused on finding new customer segments. Consumers searching by brand name are already the most likely to convert.

Likewise, if you have keywords that perform well, you could consider excluding those terms from the materials in your asset groups and use them only in search ad campaigns. Otherwise, it’s likely ads from PMax will be prioritized over those search ads.

While you aren’t able to exclude placements for separate campaigns in PMax, you can create an [account-level placement](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7331110?hl=en) exclusion. You also can use [URL exclusions](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10724897?hl=en), but keep in mind, it will limit your reach.

### **Con #3: If you have limited conversion data and assets, PMax campaigns come with higher costs**  
PMax campaigns could be a significant investment, and budget will be a heavy factor when determining whether or not to add this campaign type to your overall strategy.

Google [recommends](https://developers.google.com/google-ads/api/docs/performance-max/create-campaign), “an average daily budget of at least three times your CPA or cost per conversion for the conversion actions selected for your campaign. Generally the budget should be consistent with other well-performing campaigns in your account.”

Also, it’s important to remember that PMax works best when it has the most information possible. If you can’t provide a lot of conversion data at the start of a PMax campaign, you could find yourself budgeting over $300 a day until it collects enough data to start showing significant results.

Schepers also has clients who’ve run into cost issues creating additional assets specifically for PMax, and those challenges relate back to limited control as well.

> The negative side is we can’t see which conversions come from a search or shopping placement. Some of our clients developed videos just to use in PMax campaigns and asked about the impact because of the associated creation costs. They wanted feedback on whether they were working or helping profits. That information isn’t really visible.

#### **Budget considerations**
If you aren’t able to provide a lot of conversion data, you’ll need to allocate at least six weeks for a new Performance Max campaign to gather sufficient data and produce strong results and actionable insights.

## **What type of eCommerce client could benefit the most from Performance Max campaigns?**
Schepers still sees an upside to the structure of PMax campaigns. Although they can be more costly upfront, his clients have become more willing to talk about brand awareness.

> Before PMax, they’d say, ‘No, we don't want anything to do with YouTube, it's not effective enough, we don't see the profit directly coming from there.’ With PMax, the mindset of some of our clients shifted. They’ve become more aware that salience is really important for overall performance.

### **Those with longer customer journeys**
If you’re still on the fence about whether PMax campaigns would be beneficial to your strategy, think about the length of your customer journey.  

*“For typical eCommerce clients, the customer journey can be as short as one day. But for the eCommerce platforms with a longer journey, PMax campaigns can be a good deal because they deliver the extra touch points needed to convert,”* said Schepers. 

### **Those seeking new customer segments**
He also believes eCommerce platforms that are interested in discovering new customer segments will be more interested in PMax campaigns.

*“Those who are curious about the new prospecting possibilities, where you only bid for new clients, could find more value,”* he explained.

## **What are some other optimization tips for PMax campaigns?**
Below are additional high-level tips that will help optimize your PMax campaigns: 

- Provide as much preexisting conversion data as you can to jumpstart a successful campaign.

- If your campaign is new, set your target to CPA, or “Maximize Conversions,” to maximize a shorter learning period while it’s collecting data.

- Provide all available asset types if possible, especially video. Video isn’t a requirement, but if you don’t add your own, then Google automatically generates it for you, and you won’t have control over the quality.  

- Build out asset groups to optimize your campaign, and make sure your asset groups are varied. If you are selling multiple products, or selling across multiple brands, think carefully about how to divide asset groups and consolidate traffic by theme, so the most relevant ads are being shown. PMax allows 100 asset groups per campaign.

- Highlight promotions and discounts in the product descriptions to motivate customers and boost conversions.

![03_PMAX_all_channels_alll_products.png](https://media.graphassets.com/htTynugvScWwHGiNBYFT)

### **Key highlights**

- PMax allows you to advertise across all channels–YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.

- All creative assets can be uploaded at the same time. 

- You have the option to select a conversion goal, ROAS or CPA, from the start of the campaign.

- PMax provides extra opportunities to find highly relevant customers and conversions, and you’ll likely want to use it to support existing search ad campaigns. 

- Its automation also limits the amount of control you have, and potentially could impact the effectiveness of other campaign types. 

- PMax could wind up costing a significant amount to start if you have limited conversion data.

- Companies with a longer customer journey that requires extra touch points might find the most benefit with this campaign type.

## **How Channable can help**
If you’ve already set up your [Google Shopping feed](https://www.channable.com/videos/how-to-google-shopping) in Channable, you can add a Performance Max campaign. Then, you can compare your search ad and Performance Max campaigns to benchmark performance goals, and gain better insights into your overall strategy.

Our [PPC optimization tool](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool) generates thousands of search ads in minutes and lets you add pre-existing assets–headlines, descriptions, and images–to your Performance Max campaigns at scale. Using Channable Insights & Rules, campaign updates are continuous. 

New products will be added automatically, and products also will move to the correct campaign accordingly. For example, if a product goes out of stock or profit margins change, it will move to another campaign to create more relevancy and specificity.

We’re working on a new feature that will allow you to auto-sort assets by theme and create multiple, theme-based asset groups for Performance Max across all product feeds.

If you’d like a demo, please [contact](https://www.channable.com/contact) our sales team.

Performance Max pros & cons – for your campaign advantage

## Prepare your Google Merchant Center feed
Performance Max functions in the same manner as Google Shopping in terms of product feeds.  You must have your Google Ads account linked to a Google Merchant account which has your product data via a product feed or a Content API connection.
The system will produce Performance Max ads using your product data. 
The most significant influence on the effectiveness of your [Performance Max campaign](https://www.channable.com/blog/performance-max-campaigns) can come from your data feed. So, your top priority should be optimizing it. Include as many properties as you can in your feed, such as 

- Titles
- Brand
- Price
- Images
- Manufacturer Part Number (MPN)
- GTIN
- Product_Category
- Product_type
- Custom Labels
[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)
](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)
###  Select Your Campaign Objectives
![Select your PMax campaign objectives.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/oGqPkLmWR0250uWhNHD3)
You must choose your advertising objective before starting your PMax campaign.
You can choose one of the following:

- Sales 
- Leads
- Website Traffic 
- Local store visits and promotions.
Additionally, you'll observe that Google provides a further option:

- Create a campaign without using a goal as a guide.
Well, this is not the most precise explanation, but the main idea is that you can pick a campaign before receiving recommendations depending on your goals.
Ian Spencer, a digital guru, has some suggestions for product vendors.
![Consider product selection based on ROI and margin for optimal profitability.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/jIGH8EkfQmaMl9VfHYpK)
### Select Conversion Goals
![Select your PMax conversion goals.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/ru1DmYQZSJeAnFy89X8o)
You must now choose your conversion goals. You can select only the conversion goals you have set up in your Google Ads account.
Although it may be tempting to choose several, the experts suggest you pick only the most important ones.
Doing this will ensure your campaign has the biggest impact and that you focus all your expenditure on activities that will produce results.
### Choose a Campaign Type and Name
On this dashboard, you'll view every Google campaign option, including Performance Max campaigns. Choose PMax, choose the name of your campaign, and then go to stage 3.
![Choose Performance Max campaigns type.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/tZ7PUfbCSCCm6ZfrgYtw)
### Set up bidding
The automated bidding strategies are the only bidding options allowed for PMax. 
It will require some trial and error on Google’s Performance Max campaigns for you to see which campaign setups work best for you.
![Automated bidding allowed by PMax.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/xdMiQJ6tT1mKD66ufhDY)
You can only use Maximize converted value (with the option of setting a tROAS) and maximize conversions (with the option of setting a tCPA).
![Set up your budget and bidding strategy.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/NoCOXbE8SjmKNUNUtRVy)
Setting budgets and boundaries is essential, just like with any other form of online advertising, to prevent racking up a hefty bill without expecting it.
###  Set Up Location and Languages
On the "Campaign Settings" tab, you specify the locations and languages you want to target. 

- Under Locations, choose your target location.
- Enter the name of your target location by clicking on Enter another location. Choose which places to include or exclude. 
![PMax campaigns settings.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/usCq0zNRrqKrfwNYeTvA)
Additionally, you can focus on particular areas located within a certain area. Select Nearby, then choose Target or Exclude once more to achieve it.
From the Languages option choose the language of your target. 
For various customer groups, you can select several languages.
### Adjust the Campaign Settings
![Adjust the Campaign Settings.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/wXhH0RVHSVGNcgYTBg0J)
The next step is to choose whether you want to have Automatically created assets. This is split in two options: Text assets and Final URL.
With Text assets, you are allowing Google to extract information from the website to create new headlines and descriptions. 
The Final URL option sends traffic to the pages which Google considers most relevant to your audience. However, this requires you to activate the Text assets creation, so Google can make sure the ad copy is relevant to the landing pages.
Why does that matter? 
If you let it, Google can explore your website more thoroughly and find URLs that closely match the audience's search intent.
You can add pages as extensions if there are any you want Google to avoid. But if you've ever worked on Google Ads campaigns, you know how important it is to evaluate and steer them properly.
###  Manage Asset Groups
Google’s Performance Max campaigns create advertising for several platforms using just one source of assets. This internal form of feed management will use your assets to create compelling ads.
![Manage your PMax asset groups.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/fevxTvQmKYXjXxhZFLng)
The bare minimum that you must offer is:

- Three to five headlines
- One to five lengthy headings
- Between two and five description texts
- A minimum of one square and one landscape picture
- A minimum of one square logo; additional logos are optional.
- Up to five [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/) videos of at most ten seconds (you are not required to do so, but if you don't, Google will make a video without your control).

The items on this list are the minimum requirements. Remember that your potential clients and customers may get advertisements across various media, so you'll want to ensure variety in your ad setup.
You must include the following in order to accomplish that:

1. Images  and logos
![ Images and logos.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/ATFt1KamRtCFCONrJS9U)

2. Videos  and headlines
![ Videos and headlines.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/KZuhri4TT2Dc5s4ZvO1i)

- Long headlines and descriptions
![long headlines and descriptions.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/HUfcW2ruTL6P9o1tyo4Y)

- Business name and site links
![call to action, option to add more asset types, and the audience signal.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/Vey43c5eRSi04FaF8IDt)
Google has produced a comprehensive guide with all the details on the assets you need for PMax campaigns in order to assist you.
Finally, you must configure the audience signal. This contains specifics on any custom segments, your audience, and whatever demographic and interest information you wish the algorithm to consider.
### Set Up Budgets 
The next step is to set up your budget and click next.
![Set up budgets .jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/FHtCxac1SlKfHePU56dj)
###  Review the Setup 
You will finally see a review summary with information about your new Performance Max campaign. Verify everything and click next.
![Name your PMax campaign.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/KLxlIOHkQlWdE6fqALvH)
Finally, select the published campaign.
## Performance Max Ad Specifications
Every Performance Max campaign requires a minimum set of assets, which may be obtained by submitting entirely new assets or using the ones you have already used in earlier campaigns. 
However, if you only want to concentrate on Google Shopping, the system will automatically create the bare minimum of assets. Although this is an excellent option, uploading more assets can help your retail Performance Max campaign even more.
For instance, assets used in a Performance Max campaign must adhere to the Performance Max standards for images and text. See more information about that below.
### Performance Max Asset Requirements
![PMAX Ultimate Guide.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/iT3nh2u7TCSwPjuzJ00X)
#### Text
You must send three to five headlines, preferably with a length of 15 to 30 characters. Also required are one to five long headlines with a maximum character count of 90. It's also necessary to include the business name and two to five descriptions, each with a maximum character count of 90.
#### Image
The image resolution must be at least 600 x 314 pixels, although 1200 x 628 pixels is preferable. It should have a 1.91:1 aspect ratio and be in landscape mode. You may submit one to twenty of them. Additionally, you must include at least one square marketing image (up to 20 total), with a minimum resolution of 300 × 300 and a recommended resolution of 1200 x 1200. There must be at least one logo with a 1:1 aspect ratio, and the recommended resolution is 1200 × 1200 (minimum 128 x 128), though you can add up to five.
Optional pictures
Up to 20 portrait marketing images should be used, with a minimum resolution of 480 x 600 and a recommended aspect ratio of 4:5.
Landscape logo: Recommended resolution is 1200 x 300, the minimum resolution is 512 x 128, and the aspect ratio is 4:1.
### Youtube video
Although it is optional, you may include up to 5 of them. It should be square, horizontal, or vertical. The YouTube video's duration should be at least 10 seconds.
#### [Call to Action](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/call-to-action-examples)
It is also optional, though you are welcome to add one. You can choose it from the list of options or have automation set as the default.
#### Media bundle
The maximum size is 15 KB.
Here are some PMax features that are useful:
###  Ad Extensions 
Expand your ad campaigns and increase their engagement. They provide additional intriguing and helpful information regarding your products below your advertisement. Ad extensions can include locations, extra links, prices, your phone number, and more. 
To clarify a few of them:

- Link to specific web pages with site links.
- Show users the location of a business with location extensions.
- Place your contact information or a call button next to your advertisement with a call extension.

#### How are they set up?
Go to Performance Max's "Extensions" page. You will see a list of ad extensions suggested for your specified objectives. You may get more information about individual extensions here. 
Ad extensions in Performance Max campaigns are linked to particular objectives. As a result, they will stand out more depending on the campaign's objectives.
Ad extensions can help an advertisement become more visible and engaging while raising its quality score. This might result in a better ad rank, meaning better ad placement and lower cost per click.
###  Audience Signals
If you know which audiences in your Performance Max campaign are more likely to convert for a given asset group, audience signals are a fantastic feature to use. They aid in directing automation more swiftly toward the intended audience.
In reality, Performance Max audience signals are recommendations for your audience that you send to Google. You specifically identify the target markets that are best for your company and have a high chance of converting.
Although adding audience signals is optional, doing so is a good idea because they are an excellent way to instruct machine-learning models on best carrying out your automated campaign.
You can target audiences using audience signals based on their demographics, interests, browsing patterns, and search history. Performance Max is compatible with the following audience types:

- Entirely custom segments 
- Your information from Customer Match or Remarketing lists) Google Audiences, for example, depending on Interests (Affinity & In-Market groups)
- Demographics
- Additional audience segments

Do not assume that just because you added a certain audience signal to your asset group, it will serve as your sole targeting criterion. If your Performance Max campaign decides that targeting consumers outside of the chosen signals will help you accomplish your campaign's goals, it will do so.
Also, don't worry if you lack insights of the appropriate audience. Performance Max will employ machine learning to identify your business's audience segments
 Insights tab
We are all aware that Performance Max campaigns' reporting features might use some improvement. It does not, however, imply that all accessible reports are worthless.  
You can get pertinent details about your campaign in the Insights page. Of course, you should wait until your campaign has been active for a few days (or weeks). Then, the top-performing "audience segments" and "search categories" will start to appear. 
A search category is a collection of related search phrases. Two crucial facts will be provided in this report:

- Whether your PMax is emphasizing brand-specific or generic searches
- Whether your PMax is targeting the exact same searches you already have or discovering new ones.

Audience segments tell you which Google audience your leads (or customers who have converted) are a part of. With the use of this information, you can determine whether specific audience segments are responsible for your conversions and whether the intended demographic is seeing a particular PMax campaign element (such as videos).
### Reporting and Management

![Setting up a successful PPC campaign, including the new PMAX campaigns with Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/cinNuXezQjC0907dOLgG)

Google offers a straightforward snapshot method so you may examine how it rates your ads and assets. There are four possible asset performance values for each campaign as mentioned above.

**So should you believe Google's rating?**

The automated scoring system is based on how well your advertisement will perform. Your specialist insight can precede the algorithm if you deal with a specialized topic.
You will also see ad strength in addition to asset performance. It doesn't matter how good your advertisement is; what matters is how complete the asset group is. You may check to see if each advertisement is complete by looking at its headline, description, image, and video.
Any holes are simple to identify and, if you've followed our guidance, simple to close. 
What would happen if you were unable to supply a video? 
You can do it with Google. PMax will create a video for you automatically.

**Do they perform well?**
You are free to make your own decisions, albeit we advise against it to protect your brand.
### FAQ:
#### How should you set the budget for a new performance max campaign?
To add a new performance plan, click the + button in the Active Plans or All Plans sub-menu. (Optional) To forecast what will occur when you construct a budget bid strategy, turn the Budget bid strategy option "On" on the "Adjust forecast" page. After entering the desired amount, click Continue.
#### How many performance max campaigns should I have?
There is no set number of campaigns that an advertiser must run. Numerous variables affect this. The setup of the campaign needs to suit the advertiser's company goals and strategy. Performance Max for online sales is designed to maximize within the advertiser’s objective and budget and can run with only one campaign (assuming the advertiser has only one ROAS goal and budget) - if they have multiple goals this is time to consider breaking out to more than one campaign.

### Final Words
Brands and advertisers must jump on board as soon as possible since Google Performance Max campaigns will play a bigger role in Google advertising in the future. Start converting your smart shopping campaigns as soon as possible to gain control over the change.
Since Performance Max campaigns are still in their infancy, some brands are having trouble seeing results, but if you need help, we're here.
[Contact us](https://www.channable.com/contact) today and start reaping the benefits of Google Performance Max campaigns!

## Transform Your Google Ads with Automation!
Is creating numerous ads with the perfect headlines and descriptions proving too time-consuming? Struggling to keep up with frequent stock and price changes? Or finding it difficult to stay on top of your campaigns’ performance? Managing Google Ads effectively can feel like a massive challenge.

[Our Google Ads automation tool](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads) solves these pain points! It automatically generates dynamic ads using your product feed, keeping them up-to-date effortlessly.

How it works:
- **Simplified ad creation**: Build one template, connect your data, and let our tool generate ads for you.
- **Seamless asset integration**: Add assets to your campaigns quickly with just a few clicks.
- **Real-time updates**: Ads adjust automatically when your stock or prices change—no need for manual updates.

Start crafting highly-targeted ads today to ensure your brand stays relevant, no matter the change.
[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)



The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Your Performance Max Campaign in 2024: Maximizing Results and Driving Performance

If you're not using Google Text Ads for your business, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to reach potential customers. Google is the most popular search engine in the world, so your ads have the potential to be seen by thousands of people every day.

This guide will explain everything you need to know about Google Text Ads, including the different types of search ads, ad copy best practices, and the importance of a good landing page.

## What are Google Search Ads?

Google Search Ads, also referred to as Google Text Ads, are pay-per-click (PPC) ads, which means that you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. The amount you pay per click is determined by several factors, including the competitiveness of your keyword, your quality score, and your bid amount.

Google Text Ads are typically made up of two or three headlines, two descriptions, and a display URL. The headlines and descriptions should be clear, concise, and relevant to your keyword, while also communicating the benefits and features of your product or service. 

Search Ads blend seamlessly with the organic search results, marked only by the small "Sponsored" label next to the URL. The primary goal of these text ads is to direct users to your website and encourage them to take a specific action, such as making a purchase or filling out a contact form.

[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)

## What are the benefits of Google Search Ads?

[Google Text Ads are relatively straightforward to set up](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-adwords-tool), and bring several advantages for digital marketers:

- You can show your ads to people who are actively searching for your products or services, allowing you to reach potential customers when they are most likely to buy. 
- If your bid is high enough, you can appear on the first page of search results as soon as your ads are live.
- You can choose the keywords you want to target, set your own budget, and write your own ad copy, giving you a lot of control. 
- Search ads are highly measurable, meaning that you can track your clicks, impressions, cost per click (CPC), and conversion rate to see how your ads are performing. 

### Google Search Ads (PPC) vs. organic search results (SEO)

![Difference between Google Search Ads PPC and organic search results SEO.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/IUMLGgrGQzCIl9EFDpqm)

PPC and SEO are two different strategies for driving traffic to your website. PPC is a paid advertising strategy, while SEO is an organic search optimization strategy.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving your website so it ranks higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). When someone searches for a keyword related to your business, you want your website to show up near the top of the first page. 

As PPC ads typically appear at the top of SERPS, they can start generating traffic to your website immediately, but they can be expensive, especially for competitive keywords. SEO takes longer to produce results (sometimes months or even years to rank organically for competitive keywords) but it can be more cost-effective in the long run.	

## Different types of Google Search Ads

Google offers two different types of text ads: Responsive Search Ads and Dynamic Search Ads. Here’s a brief overview of both ad types: 

### Responsive Search Ads

[Responsive Search Ads](https://www.channable.com/blog/responsive-search-ads) are the default ad type for Search campaigns in Google. This ad type allows advertisers to provide up to 15 headlines and up to four descriptions, and based on the specific search queries, Google will automatically test different combinations to provide relevant ads to users. 

### Dynamic Search Ads

Dynamic Search Ads are a dynamic ad type, ideal for advertisers with multiple landing pages and/or products. Instead of manually creating individual ads for specific keywords, Dynamic Search Ads automatically generate ads based on the content of your website. All you need to do is specify which landing pages Dynamic Search Ads should use, and include two descriptions. 

If you want to dive deeper into the differences between Dynamic Search Ads and Responsive Search Ads, [check out this detailed article on the topic](https://www.channable.com/blog/dynamic-search-ads-vs-responsive-search-ads) to see which is best for your business.  

## How are Google Text Ads served? 

![How the Google Search Ads auction works.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/CNlZS946SmeeQNlJCaNO)

Google uses an auction system to determine which ads are displayed for a given search query. The highest bidder with the highest quality score will have their ad displayed at the top of the SERP.

Your quality score is a measure of how relevant your ad is to the user's search query and how likely it is they will click on your ad. Google uses a variety of factors to calculate your quality score, including your ad copy, your landing page quality, and your click-through rate (CTR).

[5 main factors](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6366577?hl=en) in the ad auction determine which ads appear, and in what order:

1. **Your bid:**This is the maximum amount you are willing to pay for each click on your ad. The higher your bid, the more likely your ads will be delivered.
2. **The quality of your ads:** Google assigns a Quality Score to your ad based on the relevance of your ad and landing page. A high Quality Score can help you achieve a better ad position at a lower cost.
3. **Your ad assets:** Such as a phone number or additional links. Google Ads predicts how these assets and other ad types will affect your ad's success. This means that even if your competitors bid more, you can still get a better position for less money with the right keywords, ads, and assets.
4. **Your Ad Rank:** This is calculated by multiplying your Quality Score by your maximum CPC, determining the position of your ad in the search results.
5. **The context of your ad:** To determine your Ad Rank, Google considers the search terms, the person's location, their device (like mobile or desktop), the time of the search, the nature of the search terms, and other factors. 

## Keywords and negative keywords

Keywords are the backbone of any successful Google Text Ads campaign. Keywords are the words and phrases that you want to target with your Search Ads. So when someone searches for one of your keywords, your ad will be eligible to be displayed. 

You want to choose keywords that are relevant to your business and likely to be searched for by your target audience. The sweet spot is choosing keywords that have a high enough search volume but not too much competition.

You can use handy tools like the [Google Keyword Planner](https://ads.google.com/home/tools/keyword-planner/) to discover new keywords, see the monthly search volume, and estimate the CPC.

Negative keywords are words and phrases that you don't want to target with your Google Search Ads. For example, if you’re an e-commerce brand that sells high-priced clothing, you might want to add negative keywords like ‘cheap’, ‘discount’, etc., to avoid showing up for irrelevant search terms.  

### How many keywords should I have per ad group?

It is generally recommended to have 5-10 keywords per ad group, and [no more than 20](https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2022/05/10/google-ads-account-structure#:~:text=no%20more%20than%2020%20keywords%20per%20ad%20group). This will help to keep your ad groups focused and create ad copy that is relevant to each keyword.

## How to write Google Search Ad copy that converts 

![Google Search Ad copy best practices.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/MUcSPrgBTGWcL8o63rby)

Good ad copy is clear, concise, and relevant to your keyword. It should also be persuasive and include a call to action. Here are four tips for writing engaging ad copy, including examples:

### 1. Create product-centric headlines

Highlight your products' key features, benefits, and value propositions in the headlines. Focus on what makes your products stand out and how they address customer needs. Here are some examples: 

- "Get the Perfect Summer Look with Our Stylish Swimwear Collection"
- "Upgrade Your Gaming Setup with Our High-Performance Headset"
- "Stay Cozy and Warm: Shop our Luxurious Winter Jacket Collection”

### 2. Feature dynamic pricing and offers

A surefire way to increase click-through rates on your ads is to showcase special offers, discounts, or limited-time promotions in your headlines and descriptions, such as: 

- "Save 20% on All Laptops Today"
- "Limited-Time Deal: Buy One, Get One Free on Select Shoes"
- "Shop Our Exclusive Summer Clearance: Up to 50% Off"

### 3. Include customer reviews and social proof

Incorporating positive customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials in your ad copy can build trust and credibility, reassuring potential buyers about the quality of your products.

- "5-Star Rated: The Camera Loved by Photographers Everywhere"
- "Customers Rave About Our Skin-Soothing Organic Skincare Line"
- "Join Thousands of Satisfied Customers - Shop Our Bestsellers Now"

### 4. Write short and straightforward CTAs

Include short CTAs to guide potential customers on what action to take next. Whether it's shopping, exploring, or learning more, a clear CTA helps to drive clicks and conversions: 

- “Get Free Shipping Now”
- “Browse Our Sneaker Collection”
- “Get 10% Off” 

## The importance of a good landing page

While effective ad copy is essential, it's equally important to ensure that your landing page is optimized for conversions. Not only does your landing page impact the overall Quality Score of your ads, but it also determines whether or not a visitor will take the desired action on your site.  

A good landing page should be:

- **Relevant to your ad:** Featuring the product(s) mentioned and any offers you may have included in the ad. 
- **Well-designed:** The landing page should be easy to navigate and visually appealing. You want people to be able to find the information they're looking for quickly and easily.
- **Mobile-friendly:** In e-commerce, more and more people use their smartphones to make purchases, meaning your landing page should be responsive and optimized for mobile. 
- **Persuasive:** This means using clear and concise language, highlighting the benefits of your product or service, and making it easy for people to take the next step.

## Google Text Ads: 4 best practices

![Google Text Ads best practices.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/6cInziLIT1ulcmHnRBso)

Getting Search Ads to work for you is about putting together a smart game plan that covers everything from choosing the best keywords to selecting the right targeting strategy. 

Here are four best practices to improve your search campaigns:

### 1. Use image extensions

Image extensions are a type of Google Ads extension that allows you to add relevant images to your text ads. Product photos can make your ads more visually appealing, and lead to a higher click-through rate. 

### 2. Constantly track and optimize your campaigns

Monitor your click-through rate, conversion rate (CVR), and cost per conversion (CPA) regularly. You can use this data to make changes to your keywords, bids, and landing pages to improve your results.

### 3. Set a competitive bid

Your bid amount is one of the factors that determines your ad's position, so it's important to set a bid that is competitive enough to get your ad seen, but not so high that you're overpaying for clicks. 

### 4. Use ad scheduling and geotargeting

Make sure your ads are seen by the right people, at the right time by adjusting your ad schedule (the times ads are delivered) and geotargeting your ads to specific countries or regions where there is a high demand for your products.

## Effortlessly Manage Your Google Ads with Channable 

Is managing ads and constant updates wearing you out? Our [Google Ads automation tool](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads) generates dynamic ads from your product feed and keeps them updated automatically.

What it does:

- **Simple ad creation**: One template connected to your data.
- **Quick asset integration**: Add assets efficiently to campaigns.
- **Automatic updates**: Ads adjust instantly to stock and pricing changes.

Take control of your ad campaigns with an easy and automated solution today!
[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)

## Want to manage all your ad campaigns in one place?

Channable provides the perfect platform for managing your Google Search Ads, enabling you to generate, test, and implement effective ads. [Sign up for a free trial today.](https://www.channable.com/signup)

Everything You Need to Know About Google Text Ads (Google search ads)

eCommerce businesses usually run ad campaigns on search engines and marketplaces to create brand awareness. But video ads are also a powerful tool for every step in the sales funnel. 

Google Video Ads have a real impact in eCommerce when it’s done right. Because more than 33% of shoppers purchased products are discovered on YouTube.

Google offers many options (Video action campaigns, skippable, bumpers, in-stream, etc.) to run video ads on its platforms. Those variations serve different business goals and you can shape them to fit your goals. 

If you utilize Google Video Ads aligned with your goals, you can increase your traffic, broaden your audience, and generate more revenue. 

In this article, you will find the key benefits of Google Video Ads and tips on how you can improve your video ad campaigns.

![Google Video Ads and YouTube are indispensable tools for eCommerce brands.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/Bwzx1llTE6p0QfVJHmmf)

## Google Video Ads and YouTube are indispensable tools for eCommerce brands

YouTube is [the 2nd most visited website](https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/) in the world after Google. YouTube is not only a video streaming platform or social network, it’s also a search engine!

People visit YouTube for various reasons. Sometimes it’s learning how to do something, doing research on a specific product, or simply watching entertaining videos as long-form content or Shorts. 

Google Video Ads integrate with the viewing experience and reach the viewer directly when they're interested and engaged. This could help you to create awareness and generate website visits instantly with the right ad campaigns.

People give more attention to video content on YouTube and other pure video platforms compared to video content on other social media platforms.

[A study conducted in the UK finds](https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-emea/marketing-strategies/video/why-youtube-more-just-viewers/) that **83%** of viewers on YouTube actively watched or listened to the content, while only **58%** of viewers gave the same attention to video content on other social media platforms.

As a seller, you can use this attention for your growth with the right tone of voice and message.

This ad experience could be good or bad depending on the content, audience targeting, and hooks placed in the video.

## Fundamentals of Google Video Ads formats

In Google Video Ads, Sellers can create captivating video campaigns with various ad formats. Each format serves a different goal. By using Google Video Ads, you can reach new customers through YouTube and Google’s 3rd party video partners.

Current ad formats provided by Google:

- Skippable in-stream ads 
- In-feed ads 
- Non-skippable in-stream ads
- Bumper ads
- Outstream ads

![Fundamentals of Google Video Ads formats.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7H0KJVX8S2WRn1fBvrHT)

These are the key video ad formats Google uses. However, the most effective formats are Video action campaigns because they can be optimized to take action by viewers or promote products and direct visitors to visit your shop.

### How to allocate your advertising budget?

Not every seller has the same ad budget to allocate to each campaign. Google Video Ads can be a valuable tool for business owners, but it has a learning curve for beginners.

It’s best to start with baby steps and understand the Google Video Ads platform dynamics. Sellers don’t have to be experts instantly and be the masters of ad campaigns. But investing time, effort and money could lead to new success for your ads.

There are a few things to establish before deciding on your video ad campaign.

- How long does it take from the first contact with the customer to making a purchase?
- What is your profit margin for each sale?
- How competitive is your product category?
- How much can you spare for ad campaigns?

Sellers should spend some time on their Google Video Ads campaigns to understand what content and tone of voice is right for their audience. This requires insight and experimentation.

If your budget is tight, it’s better to focus on keywords with low competition in search volume or promoting a few products rather than displaying your entire inventory.

## How attribution works for video ads

YouTube campaigns allow advertisers to check cross-network attribution reporting, as a result, eligible sellers opt-in to see both YouTube and Display ads in their reporting dashboards. Attribution reports include “Top parts”, “Path metrics”, “Assisted conversions”, and “Model Comparison” reports.

Google Video Ads utilizes machine learning algorithms to evaluate interactions with ads. This helps you to evaluate the performance of your ad campaigns and drive customers to desired conversion points. 

Another benefit is that sellers can see how different channels support each other to deliver a better experience through the customer journey. 

Data is every eCommerce shop owner's best friend when it comes to gaining new customers. Data-driven attribution models help sellers assess how their campaigns perform and decide how to create brand awareness and turn visitors into customers in the long term.

## Best Options of Video Ads for Online Retailers

Skippable in-stream ads and In-feed ads are the most suitable options for eCommerce sellers. Because Video action campaigns are customizable and can directly promote your products. 

### Video action campaigns

When you advertise your videos through Video action campaigns, the ad will be shown to viewers before, during, or after the other YouTube videos. Viewers are able to skip the ad after five seconds. 

Sellers can easily add product details and shopping links to their products by simply connecting their Google Merchant Center accounts. 

This also improves the experience of prospects by directly visiting the product page and making the purchase while watching a video related to the product.

Video action campaigns include the **product title**, **price**, and **image of the product**. One minor downside of this format is it’s only available on in-stream ads and not on the Google Video Partners network. 

That means your Google Video Ads will only be viewed on YouTube but not on 3rd party video partners.

Main benefits of Video action campaigns:

- **Drive more conversions:** Run your video ads on and off YouTube and drive more conversions while still optimizing the lowest CPA.
- **Improved campaign performance:** When you combine your inventory from YouTube, Google video partners, and other datasets, you can get improved performance from Video action campaigns to reach new customers.
- **Scaling your campaign:** Video action campaigns can run your ads on mobile, desktop, and TV in one campaign. So that you won’t need to set bids and budget for each inventory source.

## Get the best out of Google Video Ads campaigns

Video action campaigns can help you to reach your campaign goals. Because they enable you to promote your products directly linked to videos and your audience. 

YouTube and Google Video Ads are your next undiscovered opportunity to reach new heights for your eCommerce business. 

Acquiring new customers through ad campaigns is a long-term endeavor that demands patience and trust. However, it can lead to unprecedented revenue and traffic growth for your business. 

[Channable is here to help you](https://www.channable.com/industry/retail-ecommerce) achieve your business goals with efficiency-boosting automation that matches your ads and product listings to your inventory with just a few clicks.

And don’t forget, people will see your video ads before, during, or after a video that they want to watch. 

Be conscious about your message, delivery, and context so that viewers will want to see your ads too!


Google Video Ads: How to use video to grow your eCommerce shop

In this guide, we'll give you an overview of Google Shopping Ads and explain why they can be an asset to your multichannel eCommerce strategy.

We'll cover everything from setting up campaigns to product feed requirements and optimization tips. By the end of this article, you’ll be well-equipped to use Google Shopping Ads to drive more traffic to your product pages and increase sales.

## What are Google Shopping Ads?

Google Shopping Ads are a type of online advertising that allows businesses to promote their products directly on Google's search results pages and other platforms. Shopping Ads typically appear at the top of search results and are more visual than traditional [text ads](https://www.channable.com/blog/google-text-ads-ultimate-guide), making them more effective at capturing attention and driving clicks.

Google Shopping Ads display a product image, title, price, store name, and other relevant information such as your shipping policy, shipping costs, and an average rating based on customer reviews.

### How do Google Shopping Ads work?
![how Google Shopping ads work.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/rCEHQVBHQtKWBPbIuuaC)

Unlike traditional PPC ad campaigns, you don’t need to bid on specific keywords to run Google Shopping Ads. Instead, you just have to upload a detailed product feed to Google Merchant Center.
 
This feed includes all the information about your products, like titles, descriptions, images, prices, and other relevant details. Google then uses this feed to create visually appealing ads that match your products to relevant search queries and product searches.

When setting up a Google Shopping Ads campaign, you still need to define your target audience and set your bidding strategy, indicating how much you're willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Your Google Merchant Center product feed can also be used to create [Performance Max Campaigns](https://www.channable.com/blog/performance-max-campaigns). Performance Max Campaigns include auto-generated ads based on assets provided by advertisers and in the Merchant Center feed.

Unlike Shopping Ads, Performance Max campaigns can be used in a wide range of Google Ads formats such as Display Ads, Text Ads, and YouTube Ads.

*Wondering if Performance Max campaigns are right for your business? Check out our [ultimate guide to creating a Performance Max campaign.](https://www.channable.com/blog/set-up-performance-max-campaign)*
[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)
## Google Shopping Ads: 4 benefits

Google Shopping Ads provide a convenient and informative shopping experience for users, helping them quickly find the products they're looking for. That’s why Shopping Ads can be a better option compared to other ad formats. Here’s why:

### 1. Attract high-intent leads who are ready to make a purchase

Shopping Ads let shoppers browse through images, compare prices, and make informed choices before they even click on your ad. By the time a shopper has landed on your website, they have already compared your products with competitors and are more likely to convert into customers.

### 2. Increased visibility

Your Shopping Ads are displayed in prominent positions alongside text ads and organic search results, giving your products more chance of being noticed by potential buyers. If you have similar products, then more than one of your Shopping Ads can show up for the same search query. You can also combine Shopping Ads with Text Ads to reach a wider audience.

### 3. Retail-first campaign management

Instead of relying on keywords, Shopping Ads use the detailed product information you provide in your Merchant Center data feed to match your products with relevant searches. That means you can access your inventory directly within Google Ads and organize your products into groups for targeted bidding. For instance, you can create groups for discounted products, limited collections, or high-stock items.

### 4. Advanced analytics

The Google Ads dashboard provides granular insights into how your products or product groups are performing. For example, if you sell t-shirts, you can easily filter to see how many clicks and impressions each specific product (SKU) has received. You also have access to benchmarking data which allows you to measure your performance against your competitors.

## How to set up a Google Shopping Ads campaign

![how to set up Google Shopping ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/GObJNW7oQZuVnGTwmCaq)

Before you can launch a Google Shopping Ads campaign, you need to make sure that you’ve created a product feed and uploaded it to the Google Merchant Center.

### Product feed requirements for Google Shopping Ads

The easiest way to create a product feed is by exporting your products from your eCommerce platform into a CSV or Excel file. To ensure your product feed complies with Google Merchant Center's standards and gets approved, it must include all mandatory product attributes:

- ID [id]
- Title [title]
- Description [description]
- Link [link]
- Image link [image_link]
- Availability [availability]
- Availability date [availability_date]
- Price [price]

You can find a full list of product attributes and formatting guidelines [here](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/7052112?hl=en).

### Creating a Google Shopping Ads campaign

Once your product feed is approved, your products will be listed on the Google Shopping tab for free and be eligible to be used in ads. Before you can create Shopping campaigns, you need to 
[link your Google Ads account to your Merchant Center account](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/12499498).

Already linked the two accounts? Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your first Google Shopping Ads campaign:

**1.** In your Google Ads account, click the “+” button, then click “New campaign”.

**2.** Choose your campaign objective: “Sales”, “Leads”, “Website traffic“, “Local store visits and promotions”, or “Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance”.

**3.** Select “Shopping” as your campaign type.

**4.** Select the Merchant Center account that has products you want to advertise.

**5.** This is optional but you can select an additional product feed if you want to advertise specific products or products eligible to be sold in a specific country. You can assign feed labels in your Merchant Center account.

**6.** Create “Standard Shopping campaign” as your campaign type.

**7.** Choose your campaign preferences:
- **Campaign name:** Enter a descriptive name for the campaign so that you’ll be able to find it later.
- **Bidding:** Choose “Maximize clicks” if you want to drive traffic to your store, “tROAS” if you want more return on your ad spend, or Manual CPC if you want to control the amount you pay per click.
- **Daily budget:** Choose how much you’re willing to spend per day.
- **Networks:** Choose if you want to advertise on Google’s Search Partners as well as the Search Network.
- **Devices:** Target all devices or specific devices.
- **Locations:** Choose the countries where you want your ads to be shown.

**8.** Click “Save and continue”.

**9.** Create an ad group:
- **Ad group name:** Enter a name for the ad group, such as “Winter collection - EU - Q1”
- **Bid:** Enter a bid depending on how much you want to spend for the ad group.

**10.** Click “Save”

Splitting your products into multiple ad groups is a smart way to manage your Google Shopping Ads campaigns. This gives you more control over your bids, so you can increase your bids for important product categories (such as best-sellers) and optimize your ad spend for the best results.

## Optimize your Google Shopping Ads with Channable

A dedicated [feed management tool](https://www.channable.com/products/product-feed-management-tool) helps you whip your product data into shape so it speaks Google's language, turning messy product feed spreadsheets into ads that actually work.

Here’s how a feed management tool like Channable can empower you to streamline the entire feed optimization process:

### Relevant and up-to-date product data

Getting your product data in the right format can be tricky, especially if your source data formats differ. For instance, the format of your product titles or product attributes like colors and materials might vary from Google’s requirements.

Channable's [Google Shopping API](https://www.channable.com/integrations/google-shopping) and feed connection make it easy to format your data correctly and deliver all the mandatory fields to Google. Plus, our rule system filters out irrelevant products and outdated info, keeping your feed up-to-date and accurate.

### Smart categorization

![Optimize Google Shopping ads product feed.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/CmofQENqRmWt9D7hBOMN)

Channable’s [built-in smart categorization](https://www.channable.com/products/smart-categorization) lets you categorize your products in only a few minutes with the help of AI, reducing the time you would usually spend optimizing your Google product feed. Without the need for manual product categorization, you’ll be able to get your Google Shopping Ads up and running in no time.

### Performance-based campaign optimization

Thanks to our Google Shopping API, you can see how all your products listed on Merchant Center Next are performing in Google Shopping ad campaigns, directly in the Channable dashboard.

You can get real-time insights on key metrics such as click-through rate and conversion rate, allowing you to make data-driven decisions to optimize your campaign performance, such as boosting top sellers or creating more visibility for low-performing items.

## Effortless Google Ads scalability
Struggling to create ads and keep them updated with stock and price changes? Our [Google Ads automation solution](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads) uses your product feed to automatically generate and update dynamic ads in real time. Create one template, link it to your data and let the tool do the rest. Scale quickly by integrating assets and ensure your ads are always relevant and up-to-date without manual work.

[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)

If you want to learn more about Channable, [sign up for a free trial account.](https://www.channable.com/signup)


Everything you need to know about Google Shopping Ads

But how can you bypass banner blindness and make your Display Ads stand out from the crowd?  

In this article, we’ll share the most up-to-date Google Display Ads best practices for 2024. We'll cover everything from creating the right assets to designing landing pages that convert. We'll also share some tips on how to use the automation features in Google Ads to your advantage and maximize the success of your Display advertising this year. 

## 1. Use Responsive Display Ads

![Google responsive display ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/yjiYI8MTp2UrPrUI0yyA)

While static Display Ads have been the traditional method of creating ads for the Google Display Network, Responsive Display Ads are now the default ad format. 

Responsive Display Ads allow you to upload multiple variations of ad creatives, such as images, logos, headlines, and descriptions. Google will then automatically test different combinations of these creatives to determine which ones perform best in different placements and audiences.

Even though you’ll have less creative control, Responsive Display Ads are more likely to perform better than static ads. That’s because Google's algorithm will find the best combinations of creatives for each placement. Responsive Display Ads are also easier to create and manage as Google will automatically create and optimize your ads for you based on the assets you provide.

[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)

## 2. Create a number of different assets 

To make sure your Responsive Display Ads have a chance of succeeding, it’s important to give Google a wide selection of ad variations to work with. 

That means using all available headline and description fields, including different logo formats, and, whenever feasible, leveraging all 15 image slots. 

Here are some best practices for every Display Ad creative type: 

### Images 

![best performing Google Display Ad sizes.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/ACG94RvzRbiwcsONwApM)

Images are the cornerstone of effective display ads, so it's crucial to ensure that the images you upload are high in quality. Crisp, clear images will grab attention and showcase your products in the best possible light. Make sure to avoid using blurry, excessively filtered, or color-inverted images. 

It’s also important to follow Google’s image guidelines. Responsive Display Ads let you upload up to 15 images in 3 aspect ratios: 

**Landscape image (1.91:1)**
- Recommended size: 1200 x 628
- Minimum size: 600 x 314
**Square (1:1)**
- Recommended size: 1200 x 1200
- Minimum size: 300 x 300
**Portrait (9:16)**
- Recommended size: 900 x 1600
- Minimum size: 600 x 1067

Finally, do not overlay any logos, text, or buttons over your images as this violates Google’s Ads policy. 

### Logos

If you have different versions of your logo (i.e. icon, text only, icon with text), we’d recommend uploading them to your Google Ads platform. 

Make sure to upload them in the correct aspect ratio: 1:1 (e.g. 1200 x 1200 px) and 4:1 (1200 x 300 px).

### Copy 

The best ad copy is clear, descriptive, and benefit-driven. For your headlines, use simple text to describe your products, such as “High-performance running shoes” or “Energy-efficient smart TVs for small spaces”. 

You can also include prices and promotions in your headlines to incentivize potential shoppers to click on your ads and browse your products. 

Descriptions can be up to 80 characters long, so use this extra space to showcase some additional information about your products. Consider including shipping times, your return policy, and any other benefits or problems your products solve. 

Want more tips? You can find more ad copy best practices in our [Google Text Ads guide](https://www.channable.com/blog/google-text-ads-ultimate-guide#:~:text=How%20to%20write%20Google%20Search%20Ad%20copy%20that%20converts).

## 3. Create 3 to 4 ads per ad group

Creating 3 to 4 ads per ad group allows you to test different messaging and imagery, enabling you to identify which combination resonates best with your target audience. Google Ads automatically shows the better-performing ads within an ad group more often. 

Here are examples of different images, messaging, or angles that you could test with different ads:

- **Product images:** Shots of your products from different angles and in different settings.
- **Lifestyle images:** Showing your products being used in real-world situations.
- **Social proof images:** Images of customers using or wearing your products.
- **Benefits-oriented messaging:** Focus on the benefits that your products can provide to customers.
- **Problem-solution messaging:** Identify the problems that your products can solve for customers.
- **Discounts or promotions:** Include any deals you may be running in your ad copy.
- **Seasonal or holiday promotion:** Test if seasonal promotions such as “Back to school” or “Black Friday deals” resonate with potential customers. 

## 4. Separate remarketing from brand awareness campaigns 

Remarketing campaigns are designed to engage users who have already shown interest in your brand by visiting your website or taking specific actions, such as adding products to their cart.  This means they are already familiar with your products and may be closer to making a purchase.

That’s why it’s a smart strategy to separate remarketing from brand awareness campaigns as it allows you to tailor your messaging to each audience. For example, remarketing Display Ads should focus on specific products, promotions, or messaging that removes any barriers to purchasing.

To make sure there’s no overlap between your remarketing and brand awareness campaigns, you can exclude your remarketing audience in your general Display Ads campaign. In the campaign overview, click “Audiences” and then “Add exclusions” at the bottom of the page. 

## 5. Keep your Display Ads and landing page consistent

Clicking on your Display Ad is just the first step in the customer journey. The landing page is where you'll seal the deal and convince potential customers to make a purchase. 

While it might sound obvious, making sure your landing page matches your ad in terms of messaging and imagery is critical. That's because you want the customer journey to be as seamless as possible to provide a consistent user experience. 

Ideally, your landing page will match the look and feel of your Display Ad in terms of colors, fonts, and images. If your ad text includes any limited-time offers or discounts, make sure to feature the same promotions on your landing page. 

## 6. Use Google’s advanced format options for Responsive Display Ads

![advanced format options for Google Responsive Display Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/9VpCMfodTHKXOkL4kvg8)

Even though Responsive Display Ads can be more effective than their static counterparts, some eCommerce brands may feel like the quality of the auto-generated ads does not align with their brand image. 

The good news is that Google has launched a new feature called **‘advanced format options’** which enable you to create more visually appealing Responsive Display Ads. 

When you’re creating your ads, you’ll see an option to select three advanced formatting options: asset enhancements, auto-generated videos, and native formats.

Asset enhancements include smart cropping images to highlight focal points such as your product or headline and/or offer. The auto-generated video feature lets Google create video ads by combining your headlines, descriptions, and images. This is particularly useful if you do not have the time or resources to create animated banner ads.

## 7. Test keyword targeting 

Did you know that you can also target keywords in your Display campaigns? Under “Targeting” you can upload a list of keywords related to your products. 

You can either choose to show your Display Ads to people likely to be interested in your keywords and also webpages, apps, and videos related to your keywords; or only show ads on webpages, apps, and videos related to your keywords. 

If you already have a bunch of successful keywords in your [Search Ads](https://www.channable.com/blog/dynamic-search-ads-vs-responsive-search-ads), chances are, they'll work just as well on the Display Network. 

Just bear in mind that the intent is different on the Search and Display Network, but it's still worth testing to see if your top-performing keywords can also drive results in Display Ad campaigns. 

Bonus tip: Need inspiration for creating your own Display Ads? Check out [Google’s Rich Media Showcase](https://www.richmediagallery.com/) to view real examples from brands across different industries. You can even filter by country, ad product, vertical, format, and sizes. 

## Simplify your Google Ads with automation!

Facing the challenge of creating thousands of ads with the right headlines and descriptions? Struggling to keep your ads updated with constant stock and price changes? Feeling overwhelmed trying to stay in control of your ad campaigns and performance? These common pain points can make managing effective advertising campaigns feel impossible.

Our [Google Ads automation tool](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads) can take the load off! It uses your product feed to automatically create dynamic ads, ensuring they're always updated! 

Here’s how it works:
1. **Easy ad creation**: Create one template, connect it to your data, and let our tool do the rest.
2. **Quick asset addition**: Efficiently scale the integration of assets into your campaigns in just a few simple steps
3. **Real-time updates**: Stock or prices change? Your ads update automatically—no manual work required.

Jump quickly into creating highly-targeted and accurate ads, making sure your brand stays relevant at all times. 


7 best practices to elevate your Google Display advertising campaigns in 2024

Whether you’re managing a dozen Google Ads accounts or just one, it’s hard to keep a laser focus on all the important details at the same time.

As your workload piles up, you might be forced to cut corners or overlook important information. There’s also a temptation to simply “set and forget” your accounts without continually monitoring and optimizing.

The good news is: There’s a reliable way for you to keep a clear overview of your Google Ads accounts and make sure you’re not overlooking any important details.

The answer is to regularly perform a Google Ads audit.

In this article, we’ll show you what a Google Ads audit is and why it’s important. We’ll also give you a handy checklist to make sure your audit covers all the necessary topics.

[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)

## What is a Google Ads audit?

A Google Ads audit (also known as a PPC audit or SEM audit) is a structured review of your Google Ads account’s settings, configurations, key metrics and other important details. Don’t worry: We’ll cover all the details to audit in our checklist below.

The goal of a Google Ads audit is to effectively monitor your ad campaigns, so you can continually learn and improve your performance.

By setting apart time to regularly review your Google Ads account, you maintain a clear view of your online advertising activities. You can also identify what’s working and what’s not, so you can adjust and continually optimize your strategy. 

## How often should you perform a Google Ads audit?

![How often should you perform a Google Ads audit.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/s9mcRdnFRGK85icIb5nd)

For most advertisers, it’s a good idea to perform a Google Ads audit once every 3 to 6 months. This ensures you’re staying on top of your accounts and enables you to take action in time, in case any corrections need to be made.

## How does a Google Ads audit improve my ad campaigns?

As an eCommerce retailer or online advertiser, you already have plenty of items on your list of things to do. Should you really plan extra time to perform a Google Ads audit? Definitely!

An audit may be time-consuming depending on the complexity of your account structure. Having a checklist helps you keep the process organized and ensure you don't miss any important steps.

Once you’ve performed a regular audit a few times, it becomes part of your routine and gets easier and easier each time. 

Plus, most advertisers actually find the audit process really rewarding. It’s a great moment to reflect on what’s going on in your Google Ads accounts, to evaluate how well your campaigns are performing and to decide how to fine tune your strategy.

On top of all that, you can expect to see many of these great benefits when you regularly audit your Google Ads accounts:

- **Optimized performance:** A Google Ads audit empowers you to fine-tune your campaigns for maximum performance, ensuring that every advertising dollar translates into tangible results. 
- **Cost-efficiency:** By identifying and addressing inefficiencies in your campaigns, you minimize wasteful spending and allocate resources to where they have the most impact.
- **Better Google Ads Quality Score:** Monitoring and improving the components of your Google Ads, such as keyword relevance and ad quality, elevates your [Quality Score](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167118?hl=en), leading to [higher ad rankings and lower cost per click (CPC)](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-quality-score-improve-performance-google-ads-hironmoy-ghosh-dj1tc/).
- **Competitive advantage:** Regular audits give you an opportunity to ensure all your ad campaigns are fully up to date, so you are optimally catering to your target audiences’ latest interests and preferences. This makes your ads more appealing and enhances your brand’s competitiveness. Remember that [nearly half (42.3%) of all Google Ads accounts](https://disruptiveadvertising.com/adwords/2000-adwords-audits/) don’t have any form of conversion tracking set up at all. So simply paying attention to the most important KPIs will already set you apart from many of your competitors.

## How to prepare for a Google Ads audit (preparation checklist)

![How to prepare for a Google Ads audit.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/0DFIg4XkTXG2Y7u6zApW)

To ensure a successful audit, take a few steps to prepare. Here’s a quick preparation checklist to help you:

- Set a date and block off adequate time in your calendar to perform an audit. If this is your first audit, you may want to block off extra time until you get the hang of the audit process.
- Try blocking at least 2 hours for each account you want to audit, if possible. You can adjust your future audit times, depending on how your first audit goes. The main thing is: set a date in your calendar and make it a priority, like you would any other important task.
- Create a Google Doc, Word Doc or Excel Sheet to document your audits in a structured way. You can use our checklist as a template for documenting your audits. Keep track of any changes you make during an audit, so you can maintain a clear overview of how changes affect your performance. All changes you’ve made for the past 2 years will also appear under [Change History](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722070?hl=en#zippy=%2Cchange-history) in your Google Ads account’s Tools tab.

## Your Google Ads audit checklist 

Ready to audit your Google Ads account? If you’re new to auditing or just looking for a more efficient way to do it, this checklist helps you make sure you don’t leave anything out. 

### Conversion tracking 

- Check to ensure you have conversion tracking set up for all your campaigns. Visit the Google Ads Help website to [learn more about Google Ads conversion tracking](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6308?sjid=7534987290576196739-EU).

### Campaign settings

- Each campaign has a specific goal set.
- To avoid wasteful spending, switch off the campaign setting “Include in Google Display network” under your campaign’s “General settings” > “Networks.” Search ads showing on the Display Network get lots of impressions, but they have very low conversion rates.
- Each campaign is set to the target “People in or regularly in your targeted locations” instead of the default/recommended setting “People in, or show interest in, your targeted locations.” The way Google broadly defines “interest” in your targeted locations means your ads will be displayed to people who are nowhere near your actual locations if you have the default setting selected here. (Read our full article to learn more about [targeting the right audience with your ads.](https://www.channable.com/blog/increase-the-return-of-your-campaigns-by-targeting-the-right-audience))
- Tracking templates are set up for each campaign under “Campaign URL options.”

### Ad Group structure 

- Each [ad group](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6372655?hl=en#:~:text=Organize%20your%20ad%20groups&text=Ad%20groups%20can%20help%20ensure,set%20of%20focused%2C%20relevant%20keywords.) is defined narrowly and specifically. Ideally, one ad group represents just one of your company’s offerings, product categories or business areas. (Read our full article on this topic to learn about [the difference between ad campaigns and ad groups](https://www.channable.com/blog/blog-difference-between-ad-campaigns-and-ad-groups-ppc-advertising)).

### Keywords

- [Keywords](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1704371?hl=en) are all grouped by search intent.
- You have selected 5 to 20 keywords for each ad group. Find out how to [add keywords](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7476658?hl=en&sjid=9316489195805700290-EU) here.
- You have selected [audiences](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2497941?hl=en) for ad groups with [broad match keywords](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2407779?hl=en).

### Negative keywords

- You exclude non-relevant search queries ([negative keywords](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453972)) for each Search campaign.
- You exclude branded keywords from non-branded campaigns.

### Ads and ad copy

- Your [responsive search ads](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7684791?hl=en) all have the maximum number of assets (15 headlines and 4 descriptions). Read our full article to learn about [the differences between dynamic search and responsive search ads](https://www.channable.com/blog/dynamic-search-ads-vs-responsive-search-ads)).
- All ad copy contains the right targeted keywords.
- Ads contain relevant numbers and CTAs (not required, but can be helpful for driving ad performance).

### Ad extensions

- No campaigns are missing ad extensions
- All ad extensions are approved.
- All call extensions are scheduled during your business’s working hours.
- “Call reporting” is enabled to track conversions from call extensions.

### Quality Score

- Check the [Quality Score](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6167118?hl=en) for each keyword.
- Replace or optimize keywords with a low Quality Score.

## Start optimizing your Google Ads performance today

![Start optimizing your Google Ads performance today.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/Sdg8F1QSPKpId5njLBUs)

As you can see, there are many topics to include in your Google Ads audit. The key is to stick to a regular audit schedule to make sure you’ve got all your accounts and campaigns fully under control. Once you’ve audited an account a few times, it becomes a routine part of your online advertising work. Even better, with regular auditing, you’ll have a deeper understanding of what’s going on with your campaigns, so you can make better decisions to optimize performance.

## Automate Your Google Ads and Simplify the Process!

Struggling with creating thousands of ad variations? Finding it hard to keep them updated when stock or prices change? Managing your Google Ads campaigns can feel overwhelming, especially when trying to stay on top of performance metrics.

Our [Google Ads automation solution](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads) makes it easy. By leveraging your product feed, the tool automatically generates and updates your ads so you don't have to worry about missing changes.

Here’s how we make it easy:
- **Effortless ad creation**: Create a single template, connect your data, and let the system handle ad generation.
- **Fast asset integration**: Add assets to your campaigns quickly, ensuring efficient scaling.
- **Automatic updates**: When stock levels or prices change, your ads will be updated instantly—no manual effort required.

Take control of your advertising and create more effective, up-to-date ads with ease.
[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)



How to perform a Google Ads audit: A comprehensive checklist for online advertisers and eCommerce retailers

Nowadays, it is very simple to set up a Google Ads account, create a couple of campaigns and then wait for the results. You might think that Google’s AI capabilities lowered the barrier to entry when it comes to managing the campaigns, but without giving the algorithm the input it needs, getting good results out of your campaigns is not as easy as it seems. In this article, we will discuss some of the Google Ads best practices for 2024 to maximize your campaigns and take it to the next level.

## Leverage automated bidding

With Google's AI bidding algorithms taking the reins, only a handful can still successfully run manual CPC campaigns. This shift means advertisers can breathe easy, as bidding strategies now handle the heavy lifting, allowing them to concentrate on other aspects of their accounts.

However, if you are just starting with a brand new Google ds account, you will not have any historical conversion data. In this case, it is better to set up your campaigns with a manual CPC bidding strategy. 

Keep in mind that [Smart bidding is always learning](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10970825), even from manual CPC campaigns. So when you have enough conversions, you can switch your bidding strategy. A good benchmark is to have about 15-30 conversions / month before switching.
[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)

## Check your competitors’ ads

![Ads Transparency Center.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/9Q60fGrJS8u5GKBxntLg)

This might not seem an obvious thing to do, but it is a very good way of making your ads stand out. Through Google’s [Ads Transparency Center](https://adstransparency.google.com/), you can check what types of ads a company is running. 

You can find data on ad formats, sort filter them by location, and even check specific date ranges. This is really helpful, because it gives you information about the way they are writing the ads. 

With this information you will be able to position your products and services better and make more compelling ads. 

## Refresh the ad copy

![ad copy best practices.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/QnP9eCweTRiHj9CwYQ6Q)

Refreshing your ad copy every now and then is a must if you want to keep attracting clicks. And this ties nicely with the previous point we’ve discussed. After you have analyzed your competitors’ ads, you can start improving yours. 

First, you can look at the ad assets in your Google Ads account and see which headlines / descriptions got the most impressions. Also, make sure to check the Performance grade Google gave them. Remember to look at a longer date range when reviewing the assets’ performance. In order for Google to grade your assets, you’ll need at least 1000 impressions, but the more data you’re looking at, the better.

Besides these points, make sure you are using as many [ad copy best practices](https://marketingbowtie.com/how-to-craft-irresistible-google-ad-copy/) as you can:

- Include numbers in your ad copy: this will attract more attention and more clicks.
- Add the keywords in the headline
- Test imperative verbs to add an edge
- Include the landing page call to action in your ad

## Don’t forget about sitelinks and ad extensions

Sitelinks are a great way to maximize your ‘real estate’ in the search results. This will increase your overall CTR as people get more links they can click on. And it will give you the opportunity to paint a bigger picture.

You can complement your ad with related links. For B2C, you can add related product categories, subscription options and pricing, or any other important landing page your business might have. For B2B, the sitelinks can cover additional features, the pricing page, or the signup form page. 

Also, don’t forget to include the other types of extensions (image extensions, callouts, price extensions, etc.). These will help your ads to stand out even more. 

## Update to data driven attribution

If you haven’t done so yet, consider using Google’s data driven attribution model. This will give you more insight into how people are interacting with your ads. 

Typically, advertisers used last click attribution. But this model gives all the credit for the conversion to the last ad the user interacted with. 

With data driven attribution, all the ads the user interacted with will get a piece of that conversion. This way, you will know which are most engaging and more likely to lead to a conversion. 

This attribution model is a more accurate representation of your customers’ journey. So besides a very few exceptions, this is your best bet for optimizing your campaigns. 

## Test Performance Max campaigns

[Performance Max campaigns](https://www.channable.com/blog/performance-max-campaigns) can be a tough nut to crack. Their problem is that they are very easy to set up, and because they can target multiple channels make them very appealing. 

But the real challenge is to create a Performance Max campaign that performs well. You need to have a solid foundation to build your campaign on. And this starts with conversion tracking. 

Without good conversion tracking, Google’s bidding algorithm  will not know if the results are good, if any. This will affect the campaign and it can cause it to spend the budget without providing revenue for your business, or the campaign can stop spending altogether. 

Besides accurate conversion data, you must also provide PMax campaigns with high quality assets. You want to avoid feeding the campaign with subpar data as it will only generate subpar results - garbage in, garbage out. 

So make sure your product images are clear, with no overlays or text added, you include lifestyle images and show people how the product works. Another important aspect are the videos. If you don’t provide any, Google will create generic videos using your assets, and use them for [YouTube Ads](https://marketingbowtie.com/how-to-manage-your-youtube-ads-and-maximize-returns/). 

While you might be thinking it is a good thing because you don’t have to create them, they’re quality is low and might affect your brand image. 

## Optimize landing pages

When thinking about Google Ads performance, you should not neglect your landing pages. The ads are bringing in the traffic, but the landing page converts. A lot of traffic without conversions is just wasted money.

Your landing pages should consider the user's journey. Make it easy for a website visitor to find what they are looking for, to add to their cart, and checkout without too many steps. 

Another aspect to keep in mind is that Google assesses if a landing page reflects the ad message and the keywords you are targeting. If they match, the quality score for your keywords will increase. 

Moreover, optimizing your landing pages will also prepare you for Google’s Search Generative Experience. More likely than not, Google will include organic product listings in there (aside from the ads). 

## Be critical: Look at the context

![Google Ads Best Practices.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/qe0tD6WmRBy4P37vAj8e)

Keep in mind that best practices are just some tactics that work most of the time. But not all the time.  So, you should develop the habit of being critical of ideas. 

Depending on your account knowledge, think if it would make sense to implement such tactics. 

As an example, let’s say you sell snow globes. One of the best practices is to implement and test a PMax campaign. But will it really work for your business?

In this context, the algorithm will have a really hard learning phase. And by the time it might have finished learning, the season is done. 

So you might skip the PMax tactic and opt for a combination of a standard Shopping campaign and Search Ads. 

Driving Maximum ROI: Essential Google Ads best practices for your business

[Advertising on Google Shopping](https://www.channable.com/blog/google-shopping-ads) offers great benefits for eCommerce retailers , but standing out from the crowd requires a well-planned title optimization strategy. After all, your product titles are a key factor for success. 

While images catch the customer’s eye, it’s the product title that actually connects a search query to your ad. In this article, we’ll share with you some proven best practices for Google Shopping title optimization.

[![Google Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/7FvAoExST4G0ZQECjeD7)](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads)

## Why Google Shopping title optimization is so important

Google Shopping titles play a key role in how customers find your products online. On Google Shopping, the title is almost as important as the product image, and it’s one of the four primary attributes consumers see on the results page (along with the image, price and rating). 
A well-crafted title does more than describe the product – it aligns your products with your target customers’ search intent, which helps you boost your conversion rate.

Some of the top benefits of optimizing your Google Shopping titles include:

- **Enhanced visibility**: Better titles improve your products’ SEO performance, making them more likely to appear in search results.

- **Higher click-through rates (CTR)**: Clear and descriptive titles look professional and attract more clicks.

- **Improved conversion rates**: Titles that match search intent help connect the right product with the right customer, which increases the chance of conversion.

![Image 1.png](https://media.graphassets.com/output=format:jpg/resize=height:800,fit:max/PcBDLgBGQPOIrbvM3L4E)

## 10 best practices for optimizing Google Shopping titles

Ready to start [getting the most out of your Google Shopping ads](https://www.channable.com/blog/google-shopping-optimization)? The best practices below are a must for creating powerful, high-visibility product titles:

### 1. Choose powerful keywords
While most online retailers understand the importance of keywords, it’s crucial to remember that not all keywords actually help drive conversion. This is why you’ll want to start by finding powerful keywords to include in your titles.

Powerful keywords are:

- **Specific**: They highlight unique features that your customers are likely to search for.

- **Relevant**: They use language that your customers are likely to use, and instantly provide an overview of your product at a glance.

- **Accurate**: They do not misrepresent or exaggerate your product or its features.

While you might be tempted to stuff popular but less relevant keywords into your title, that only makes it harder to match your product to people who might be interested in it. In other words, overly general keywords do not necessarily help drive conversion.

### 2. Use a consistent, detailed structure
Your product title’s structure is just as important as the content. Customers often search for key details like a specific brand, clothing size or material, so be sure to incorporate those attributes into your title’s structure.

![Image 2.png](https://media.graphassets.com/XhOw9N3QT6Jyp5Dm24AP)

Some recommended structures for different verticals:

- **Fashion**: Brand + Gender + Product Type + Attributes (color, size, material)
Example: Lacoste Men’s Polo Shirt Sky Blue 100% Cotton Regular Fit Size M Short Sleeve Breathable Casual Wear

- **Toys**: Brand + Product Type + Attributes (material, color) + Age Group
Example: LEGO Kids Pirate Island Collectible Building Set with 6 Minifigures Pirate Ship and Treasure Chest Ages 8-12

- **Furniture**: Brand + Product + Attributes (size, material, color)
Example: Ashley Furniture Rectangular Wooden Dining Table 6-Seater Solid Oak Natural Finish 180 cm x 90 cm Mid-Century Modern Design

Structures like these make your product titles informative, appealing and better aligned with search intent.

### 3. Follow Google's rules
Want to succeed on Google Shopping? Play by Google’s rules. Some important guidelines to remember when planning your titles: 

- **Avoid hype**. Your product should strictly describe the product without sales-related add-ons like “while supplies last” or “lowest price”

- **Stick to character limits**: Make every word count, but keep it under 150 characters.

- **Avoid ALL CAPS**: Use appropriate title case and only use all caps for abbreviations or brand names that are normally written that way.

- **Be consistent**: Ensure your titles follow a uniform structure across all your listings.

- **Use clean, clear formatting**: Focus on readability and avoid non-standard characters or symbols that Google might reject.

### 4. Think like your target audience
Highlight the most relevant attributes so shoppers can easily tell whether your product meets their needs. Tailoring your titles to match search behavior is key. For example, if your customers often search by brand name, make sure to include the brand prominently in your titles.

### 5. Use your search query performance data
Check your Google Ads search terms report to find high-performing queries that have led to conversions. Use this data to refine your titles to include the most effective keywords. Tools like Search Console and Google Trends provide additional insights into search behaviors.

![Image 3.png](https://media.graphassets.com/U99sDWQJSBGtlX864Ft4)

### 6. Include product categories and brand names
If brand recognition is significant in your market, include the brand name in your titles. This helps capture brand-loyal customers. If the brand is less known to customers, focus more on descriptive keywords. Including the product category also helps users quickly identify product types, making your ads more relevant. Not sure which category to choose? Try using an online tool like this [Google Product Category Finder](https://productcategory.net).

### 7. Make every character count
[Google Shopping recommends using 70 characters](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6098378?hl=en#:~:text=One%2520or%2520more%2520of%2520your,or%2520less%2520characters%2520whenever%2520possible.) as a maximum for your product titles, as the title will be truncated after that. However, you can use up to 150 characters, which gives you space to include additional, relevant keywords.

### 8. Put key important information up front
Make sure the most important information appears within the first 70 characters of your product title. This grabs the customer’s attention and makes key details instantly available. Since mobile devices may truncate longer titles even further, placing key information at the start ensures it is always visible.

### 9. Continually analyze and optimize
Title optimization is an ongoing process. Make time to regularly review and update your titles based on the latest data insights and shopping trends. That includes monitoring for new, high-performing keywords.

### 10. Automate Google Product title optimization
Optimizing your Google Shopping titles can be a complex, time-consuming task, especially if you have a large inventory. Save time and ensure high quality with automation tools, like [Channable's Google Shopping integration](https://www.channable.com/integration/google-shopping). With Channable, you can automatically optimize product titles using rule-based mapping and real-time data analysis. This feature allows you to:

- **Easily combine relevant attributes**: Create comprehensive titles that include all necessary product details.

- **Automatically update titles**: Ensure your titles are always optimized based on the latest data and trends.

- **Save time**: Focus on other aspects of your business while Channable handles title optimization.

With a data-driven, automated approach, you stay ahead of your competitors and keep your Google Shopping ads performing at their best.

## Start optimizing your Google Shopping titles today
Without optimized product titles, you risk wasting ad budgets and missing out on potential conversions. Investing time and effort into refining your Google Shopping titles can significantly enhance your ad performance. 

Start with your best-selling products and gradually expand to your entire product range. By following the best practices outlined above, and leveraging tools like Channable’s Google Shopping integration, you can ensure your product titles match your customers’ shopping preferences.

## Streamline Your Google Ads with Channable
Too many ads to create and manage? Our [Google Ads automation tool](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads) solves that by using your product feed to create ads that automatically update with stock or price changes.

How it works:

- **Simple setup**: One template, connected to your data.
- **Efficient scaling**: Add assets quickly.
- **Automatic updates**: Ads update automatically—no manual work needed.

Get started with targeted, up-to-date ads today!

Optimize Google Shopping product titles with these 10 best practices

From Search Ads to Smart Campaigns, Google Ads come in many different forms and having a clear understanding of each one is key to realizing PPC [campaign optimization](https://www.channable.com/blog/campaign-optimization-for-ecommerce).
 
If you’re looking to discover the [essential Google Ads best practices](https://www.channable.com/blog/google-ads-best-practices) for your business, you’re in the right place. Let’s start by taking a look at the different types of Google Ads available for you as a marketer and learn which one is best suited to achieve your marketing goals.

## An Overview of Google Ad Campaign Types
With a market share of [28%](https://www.mayple.com/blog/ppc-platforms), Google Ads is the biggest PPC platform in the world and yet, not everyone is a hundred percent clear on the different types of Google Ads available on the platform and how each can be utilized to fit your goals, such as brand awareness, traffic, sales, and more. 
![Google Ad Campaign Types.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/p554fvPxQW29KozTY7gL)
Essentially, there are nine different types of Google Ads available to marketers: Search Ads, Display Ads, Shopping Ads, Video Ads, App Promotion Ads, Performance Max Campaigns, Local Ads, Discovery Ads, and Smart Campaigns. Each ad type differs in terms of its placement, customization, and features. Keep reading to find out more about each one:

### 1. Search Ads
Search is what Google is known for so it stands to reason that its Search Ads are one of the most powerful tools at a marketer’s disposal. Google Search Ads are text-based ads that look like the typical link listings that appear on the search engine results page (SERP). 

Google Search Ads are keyword-based so getting these terms right is fundamental to matching your ad to the things people are searching for. Search Ads work most effectively when they are relevant, timely and high-quality. 

They can work particularly well at capturing high-intent users looking for specific products. If you’re unsure about the right keywords to use in your Search Ads copy, our [Google Ads audit](https://www.channable.com/blog/how-to-perform-google-ads-audit) can point you in the right direction.

### 2. Display Ads
Display Ads are visual ads that appear across the 200 million sites, apps, and videos that make up the Google Display Network. They can consist of images, videos, logos, text, or animations and you might find them as banners, to the side of your screen or woven throughout the content you’re consuming.

Best practices for Display Ads include using compelling visuals, clear CTAs, and targeting options for better performance. Although Display Ads have a relatively low click-through rate, their conversion value is high, making them especially good for driving brand awareness.

### 3. Shopping Ads
Retailers may find that Shopping Ads are the best option for them. Shopping Ads deliver a more visual way to promote products, pairing product images with prices and other details directly in the SERP, Google Maps, and other relevant locations. They work by pulling data from product feeds in the Google Merchant Center.

The benefit of Shopping Ads for eCommerce comes from the way they showcase real, tangible products and drive high purchase intent. Of course, there are other eCommerce-focused platforms out there so even if you’re certain this is the right type of ad for you, be sure to compare [Google Ads vs Amazon Ads](https://www.channable.com/blog/google-ads-vs-amazon-ads) before you allocate your marketing budget. 

### 4. Video Ads
Video Ads are those hosted on YouTube, acquired by Google in [2006](https://www.investopedia.com/google-s-incredible-youtube-purchase-15-years-later-5200225), and other sites within the Google Display Network. They come in various formats, including skippable in-stream ads, bumper ads, masthead ads, and others. 
![Video Ads.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/56caEn7HQkeELHbnT6GA)
The advantage of Video Ads is how effective they can be for storytelling, brand awareness, and product demonstrations. They say a picture tells a thousand words, well, a moving picture can be even more compelling for getting your campaign message across.

### 5. App Promotion Ads
App Promotion Ads are tailored to promote app downloads and engagements across Google properties like the SERP, Play Store and others. 

Rather than asking businesses to build an ad from the ground up, these work by taking data from your app's Play Store listing, before testing various layouts that align with your keywords. These ads are ideal for mobile-centric businesses, as they are specifically designed to increase app downloads and usage.

### 6. Performance Max Campaigns
Launched in late 2021, Performance Max Campaigns use Google’s AI to optimize ad performance across all Google ad channels, automating processes where possible. Because Performance Max Campaigns require little from advertisers aside from sharing their campaign goals, they are a great way of optimizing ad placements and budget allocation without the need for much manual work

### 7. Local Ads
Local Ads are ideal for marketing brick-and-mortar stores to nearby customers and promoting location-specific products. But first, advertisers have to meet Google’s requirements as part of the Local Services Ads hub. 

Local Ads are highly targeted ads designed to drive in-store visits and promote local services. After clicking on a Local Ad, individuals can then call or message the business directly.

### 8. Discovery Ads
Among the various types of Google Ads, Discovery Ads are great for targeting prospects who are open to finding something new. Using visually engaging content, Discovery Ads are displayed on YouTube, Gmail, and the Google Discover feed.

Discovery Ads are another Google Ad leveraging AI, using the technology to tailor ads across channels. Given that [22%](https://www.marketingweek.com/marketers-ai-online-luxury-5-interesting-stats/) of marketers reportedly use AI multiple times a day in their role, this is hardly surprising. 

### 9. Smart Campaigns
Smart campaigns are Google’s AI-driven ad campaigns for small businesses and beginners. Although they require marketers to be a little more hands-on than with Performance Max Campaigns, Smart Campaigns act as a centralized hub for cross-channel advertising, saving brands the hassle of creating separate campaigns for each relevant channel.

Smart Campaigns still provide useful automation features when targeting a range of channels, such as the SERP, Google Maps, YouTube, and others. However, the limited control that marketers are given over settings could be an issue.

## Finding the right type of Google Ad for you
If you’re searching for PPC campaign optimization, choosing the right type of Google Ad is key, but this will ultimately depend on what your goals are. Search ads, for example, are great at driving traffic for service-based businesses. Alternatively, if you want to target shoppers in close proximity to your store, Local Ads might be the way to go. 

There is real value to be had in testing different ad types to find the best fit for your brand. There’s a lot to consider when setting up a Google Ads campaign (as our [Google Ads cheat sheet](https://www.channable.com/blog/blog-channables-handy-google-ads-cheat-sheet) shows) and no one type of ad is right for everyone. At Channable, we can help your eCommerce business make the most of whichever type of Google Ads you ultimately decide is the best for you. 

No matter your growth stage, Channable provides all the key solutions businesses need to successfully advertise on Google, Amazon and Bol. Find more information [here](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool).

What are the different types of Google Ads marketers should know about?

In this advanced guide, we’ll break down the key features and functionalities of the [Google Ads API](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool/google-ads), how to integrate it into your existing applications, and share some automation techniques for large-scale campaigns.

## Google Ads API key features and functionalities for power users 

The Google Ads API offers a diverse set of tools to automate and optimize your advertising campaigns. By leveraging this API, you can gain granular control over your campaigns, enhance targeting, and improve overall performance.

Let’s explore some of the key features and functionalities that can help you maximize your ROI:

### Ad customization and dynamic parameters

Ad customization and dynamic parameters allow you to personalize your ad campaigns and target specific audiences with tailored messaging. By leveraging feed-based and dynamic elements, you can create highly effective ad copy and targeting strategies that drive better results. 

**1. Feed-based elements:** This includes information from your product feed such as titles, descriptions, prices, and images. By incorporating feed-based elements into your ad copy, you can dynamically generate ads that have a higher chance of converting. 

This is especially helpful for:

- **Highlighting discounted prices:** Dynamic ads can automatically display your sale prices, enticing customers with a "Save {product.discount_percentage}%" message.

- **Creating urgency:** Show limited-time offers or low stock with messages like 
`Now only {product.sale_price}` or `Only {product.stock_count} left!`

**2. Dynamic parameters:** These parameters allow you to insert specific values into your ad copy or targeting criteria based on user behavior, demographics, or other relevant factors. For example, you can use dynamic parameters to display personalized product recommendations or tailor your ad copy to a user's location. 

### Targeting and audience segmentation 

The Google Ads API provides the tools to implement sophisticated targeting strategies, enabling you to reach the right audience at the right time. 

One method is “Audience segments”, also known as user lists, which are groups of people with specific interests, intents, or demographic information. You can target audience segments directly by creating and targeting a UserList, these include: 

- `crm_based_user_list`: User list of CRM users you provide.

- `rule_based_user_list`: User list generated by a rule or set of rules, typically based on actions the user did—or didn't— take.

- `logical_user_list`: User list that is a custom combination of user lists and user interests.

- `basic_user_list`: User list targeting as a collection of conversion or remarketing actions.

- `similar_user_list`: Output-only user list of users which are similar to users from another list.

- `lookalike_user_list`: User list composed of users similar to those of a configurable set of seed user lists.

Dynamic retargeting in the Google Ads API enables you to show personalized ads based on specific products or categories viewed on your website. Dynamic remarketing for eCommerce brands requires a product feed provided by Merchant Center and the Google tag installed on all the pages of your website that send remarketing information. 

Using the remarketing parameters (e.g. Product ID, Product Price, Product Category) you can personalize your retargeting ads. 
For example, you could show a user an ad for a specific product they viewed on your website, a similar product from the same category, or a product at a similar price point.   

Additionally, geo-targeting, also known as location targeting, allows you to show your ads to users in specific geographic regions, such as cities, countries, regions, or multiple locations. For instance, you can target all the cities where you have a physical store location. You can even target campaigns by proximity to a location, e.g. 10km outside of London. 

### Bid management and strategies

![Google Ads API-02.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/YWiLBR5QiD4T9ChJVRwB)

The Google Ads API offers a range of customizable bidding strategies that allow you to automate your bidding process and achieve your campaign goals. These include: 

**1. Custom bidding strategies**

Google Ads API offers a variety of bidding strategy types, each with its own purpose and mechanics. Here's a breakdown of the available bidding strategies:

Manual bidding strategies:

- `MANUAL_CPC`: This is the most basic strategy, where you set a maximum CPC bid for each keyword or ad group.

- `MANUAL_CPM`: This strategy is used for Display Network campaigns and allows you to set a maximum CPM bid.

- `MANUAL_CPV`: This is used for TrueView video ads and allows you to set a maximum CPV bid.

Automated bidding strategies:

- `ENHANCED_CPC`: This automatically adjusts your bids to improve conversion rates within your budget.

- `MAXIMIZE_CONVERSIONS`: This aims to get the most conversions for your budget.

- `MAXIMIZE_CONVERSION_VALUE`: This aims to maximize the total conversion value for your budget.

- `TARGET_CPA`: This helps you set a target CPA and automatically adjusts your bids to achieve it.

- `TARGET_ROAS`: This helps you set a target ROAS and automatically adjusts your bids to achieve it.

- `TARGET_IMPRESSION_SHARE`: This helps you target a specific percentage of ad impressions for your keywords.

**2. Bid modifiers**

Bid modifiers allow you to adjust bids for specific criteria, such as device type, location, or audience segment. This helps you optimize your bids for the most valuable traffic. Examples include:

- **Device bid modifiers:** Increase bids for mobile devices if they have a higher conversion rate.

- **Location bid modifiers:** Increase bids for specific geographic locations with higher potential.

- **Audience bid modifiers:** Increase bids for specific audience segments that are more likely to convert.

## Google Ads API integration strategies 

Integrating the Google Ads API with your existing tools and data can unlock valuable insights and automation opportunities.

### Integrating the Google Ads API with your data warehouse or CRM

Integrating the Google Ads API with your first-party data can refine and enrich your audience targeting. Here are some use cases: 

- **Customer segmentation:** Segment customers based on purchase history, demographics, and behavior to create highly targeted ad groups.

- **Lookalike audiences:** Identify similar users to your existing customer base and expand your reach.

- **Custom affinity audiences:** Create custom audiences based on specific interests or behaviors derived from your CRM data.

### Synchronizing with analytics tools

Integrating the Google Ads API with analytics tools like Google Analytics provides a comprehensive view of your advertising performance and customer behavior. This enables you to understand the full customer journey with end-to-end tracking and identify high-value customer segments. 

By integrating the Google Ads API with Looker you can create a unified data platform where you can consolidate Google Ads data with other marketing and business data sources. You can also create tailored dashboards to visualize key Google Ads metrics and trends, such as clicks, impressions, conversions, and cost-per-acquisition. 

### Using webhooks for real-time updates and responsive ad adjustments 

Webhooks enable real-time communication between your Google Ads account and your applications. Here are some examples of when you might set up webhooks:

- To automatically update product feeds to reflect inventory changes, pricing updates, and new product launches.

- To trigger ad campaigns for flash sales or limited-time offers based on predefined schedules.

- To receive notifications when budgets are nearing depletion to avoid campaign pauses.

- To monitor key metrics and receive alerts for significant performance drops or spikes.

## Automation techniques for large-scale campaigns

Do you run multiple ad campaigns on Google? Setting up scripts and workflows for routine tasks, such as bid changes, budget adjustments, and keyword updates can help you optimize your campaigns for better performance and higher ROI.

You can create scripts to automatically adjust bids based on performance metrics like conversion rate, cost-per-acquisition (CPA), or return on ad spend (ROAS). For instance, a script could increase bids for high-performing keywords and decrease bids for low-performing ones. You can also use scripts to dynamically shift budgets to top-performing campaigns or allocate more budget to campaigns with higher potential; or implement scripts to add, pause, or remove keywords based on specific criteria. 

**Example:** Let's say you have a large-scale campaign with hundreds of ad groups. You might want to automatically increase bids for ad groups with a conversion rate higher than 5% and decrease bids for those with a conversion rate lower than 2%.

### Automating reporting

Using the Google Ads API, you can automate the generation of customized reports with key performance indicators (KPIs) like clicks, impressions, conversions, and cost-per-click. These reports can be delivered directly to your inbox or integrated into your data visualization software.

Additionally, you can leverage the API to extract deeper insights from your data. For instance, you could analyze the performance of different ad groups, devices, and demographics to identify optimization opportunities. 

### Machine learning and AI

![Google Ads API-03.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/ip4vqF4IQk6ZnvlUma38)

Leveraging Google’s machine learning algorithms and AI-powered optimizations can help you automate your Google Ads campaign and optimize for performance.

Common use cases: 

- **Automated bidding strategies:** Use machine learning algorithms to optimize bids in real-time with the Target CPA and Target ROAS bidding strategies. 

- **Ad scheduling:** Automate ad scheduling to show your ads at the optimal times when your target audience is most active.

- **Ad creative optimization:** Use machine learning to test different ad creatives and identify the most effective combinations.

## Conclusion 

The Google Ads API can help you automate routine tasks, handle large scale campaigns and complex strategies, and optimize your campaigns in real time by automatically adjusting bids, budgets and targeting settings. 

But it’s not without its challenges. To make the most of the Google Ads API you need technical expertise and a solid understanding of programming languages and API concepts. It’s also a significant time investment due to the initial setup and the ongoing maintenance. Not to mention the potential development costs associated with building and maintaining the API. 

The good news is that there are tools built on the Google Ads API that simplify the complexity of API interactions, allowing you to reap the benefits of automation and optimization without the steep learning curve.

### Optimize your Google Ads campaigns with Channable’s PPC tool

Channable’s PPC tool for Google Ads allows you to easily create complete ad campaign structures for multiple products and languages at scale. 

Our tool also uses campaign and keyword automation rules to maximize your return on investment and avoid overspending. You can set up rules that will automatically adjust your bids, add or remove keywords, move keywords between campaigns, or blacklist certain keywords based on specific criteria.

No matter your growth stage, Channable provides all the key solutions businesses need to successfully advertise on Google, Amazon and Bol. Get started with our [PPC Optimization](https://www.channable.com/products/ppc-tool) tool.


Getting started with the Google Ads API

Because CSS partners work with multiple retailers, they can often negotiate better ad rates and provide expert campaign management, potentially reducing marketing costs and improving the visibility of your products. In this article, we'll briefly cover what a Google CSS partner does and explain how partnering with one can save you money on your ad spend. 


## Comparison Shopping Services (CSS) vs. Google CSS partners 

You'll often hear "CSS" and "Google CSS partners" used together, but they're not exactly the same thing. CSS stands for [Comparison Shopping Service](https://www.channable.com/blog/comparison-shopping-services); it's a price comparison website that Google uses to display product ads in Shopping results. A Google CSS partner, on the other hand, is a company that's been certified by Google to use the CSS platform on behalf of retailers.

Here's a breakdown of the differences:

### Comparison Shopping Services 
A [Comparison Shopping Service](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/12653197?hl=en#zippy=%2Cdo-i-have-to-pay-google-for-ads-placed-by-csss-on-my-behalf%2Cdo-i-need-to-use-a-css-to-place-shopping-ads-on-the-google-general-search-results-page%2Cis-it-better-to-advertise-through-a-specific-css%2Cwhat-if-i-dont-want-a-specific-css-to-advertise-for-my-products) is a website that collects product offers from different retailers and then sends users to the retailers’ websites to make a purchase. Merchants need to work with at least one CSS to begin placing Shopping ads. Google Shopping is the default CSS, but there are many other independent CSSs. 

![CSS Blog-01.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/mRVYJjMRmehZIuhFHSkO)

### Google CSS partners  
CSS partners are companies that have been trained and certified by Google to help businesses successfully advertise their products on Google Shopping. Their expertise lies in optimizing product feeds, managing bids, and ensuring your products are seen by the right customers within Google's platform. Additionally, CSS partners will often operate their own Comparison Shopping Service.  

## 4 ways you can reduce your ad spend with a Google CSS partner

Working with a CSS partner can help you save money and get better results. Not only do they help you bypass some of Google's fees, but some also give you the tools and expertise to make your ads more effective. Here’s how they do it:

### 1. Reduced Google margin
When you run Shopping ads directly through Google, Google takes a 20% cut of your bid as their margin. This means that for every euro you spend, only €0.80 is actually going towards your ad spend. However, with a CSS partner, this 20% fee is eliminated. So every euro you spend goes directly towards your bid, giving you significantly more value for your money.

### 2. Increased bidding power

Not paying Google’s 20% margin translates directly into increased bidding power. Let's say you're willing to spend €1 on a click. Bidding with a CSS partner, that same €1 bid is equivalent to a €1.20 bid through Google directly. 

This increased bidding power allows you to outbid your competitors more effectively and secure better ad placements, ultimately driving more traffic to your website. With increased bidding power, you can often achieve the same or better ad placement with lower bids, resulting in a lower cost-per-click. 

![02_Paid_Ads-With vs. Without CSS-Horizantal option1.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/aKvhslKbToqCLQcvy3yc)

**Case study**: Discover how Rocket Digital helped Noirfonce, a leading sneaker retailer, [increase their return on ad spend by 30% and reduce costs by 25%](https://www.channable.com/success-stories/rocket-digital-increases-noirfonce-roas) by leveraging Channable as a CSS partner. 

![03_Paid_Ads-Testimonial Quote-Horizantal with people.png](https://media.graphassets.com/1MqhkIkOQBSzkwEOW7ER)

### 3. Google Shopping expertise to improve campaign performance

CSS partners bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the table. They understand the intricacies of Google Shopping campaigns, including product feed optimization, bid management, and targeting strategies. Most CSS partners handle the technical heavy lifting, ensuring your campaigns are set up correctly and running smoothly. This expertise can lead to improved campaign performance, including higher click-through rates (CTRs), increased conversions, and a better return on your ad spend. 

### 4. Integrated tools to maximize return on ad spend 

Some CSS partners offer a comprehensive suite of Google Ads tools beyond just CSS services. This can include centralized product feed management, PPC campaign optimization tools, and in-depth analytics. These integrated tools can be used to refine product data, improve campaign structure, and gain deeper insights into performance. They also allow you to automate and optimize your paid ads at scale saving you time and resources. 


## Why choose a Google CSS partner to save money on your ad spend? 

If you're running Google Shopping ads and you're not using a CSS partner, you're likely leaving money on the table. Working with a CSS partner lets you bypass Google's hefty 20% margin, which, in turn, increases your bidding power. 

You also get access to Google Shopping experts who can give you tips on how to optimize your campaigns, manage your bids, and make sure your products are seen by the right people. And some of these partners offer integrated tools that enable you to optimize your product feeds and ads, saving you time and improving campaign performance.


## Ready to simplify your Google Shopping strategy with Channable as a CSS partner? 

[Channable's CSS](https://www.channable.com/products/css) is seamlessly integrated within the platform, accessible across all 21 supported markets. Easily combine Google Shopping with other marketing channels like Meta Ads, Amazon, eBay, and over 2,500 additional options, all managed from a single platform.

Channable's CSS is a key component of our Google Success Formula. We equip you with the tools to optimize listings, create targeted campaigns, leverage powerful features like product categorization, and seamlessly integrate with search ads – all within one user-friendly platform.

![CSS Blog-04.jpg](https://media.graphassets.com/SYfdeyShQlKCQDjfm3WC)

Here's are some other reasons why Channable is the perfect CSS partner:

- **Automated campaigns and insights**: Elevate your marketing strategy with automated PPC campaigns, and gain valuable insights from Channable Insights to measure performance and optimize campaigns for better results.

- **Technical support**: Channable provides exceptional, personalized technical support to empower you every step of the way.
- Simplified billing: Enjoy the convenience of consolidating all expenses into one bill.
 
- **Risk-free partnership**: Eliminate the need for intermediaries; the billing process directly engages the end customer, mitigating agency risks.

- **Google CSS Premium Partner**: A trusted name with a strong track record, Channable is Google's CSS Premium Partner and a winner of the Google CSS Spotlight Award

Want to see what Channable can do for you? [Sign up for a free trial today](https://www.channable.com/signup). 

eCommerce Industry | Channable Blog

How a Google Shopping CSS partner can save you money on ad spend

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Travel

Whitepaper

Today, countries are slowly relaxing their travel restrictions as the general population carefully considers their next vacation. But things have changed. The future of travel is definite but uncertain. For travel companies and eCommerce businesses reliant on the travel sector, how they prepare for this unknown is crucial.

Drawing from the experience of Channable and their clients, this white paper intends to help you prepare your business for the future of travel in eCommerce. Discover which eCommerce practices are best to employ, insights on the direction travel in eCommerce is heading, and what is required to remain competitive in this sector.

**Download the industry insights article: Travel in 2021 and beyond**
<br><br/>
[form id="f9230338-ab7e-406b-a78f-7ddc3f8baa3d"]



Travel in 2021 and beyond: An eCommerce Perspective

Download Channable's 2021 eCommerce calendar and enjoy valuable info, insights, and tips that you can use to refine your business’ eCommerce strategy.

**Channable's eCommerce calendar 2021**
<br><br/>
[form id="38291abb-3ca7-4e0d-a002-29cb144cd99b"]


Channable's eCommerce calendar 2021

For quite a bit of time, we have been familiar with the four keyword match types: *Exact match, broad match, phrase match*, and *broad match modifier*. But before we know it, we have to say goodbye to the broad match modifier as Google has announced they will bring its behaviour into the phrase match type. 

> To simplify the keyword portfolio and help advertisers reach more relevant user searches, we are bringing behaviors of broad match modifier (BMM) into phrase match, and phasing out support for BMM, tells David Wihl from the Google Ads API Team, source: [Google Ads Developer Blog.](https://ads-developers.googleblog.com/2021/02/changes-to-phrase-match-and-broad-match.html)

It is no secret that many advertisers have been experiencing lots of overlapping behaviour between the two match types in the past. Therefore, it seems only logical that Google will bring both match types together and thereby give advertisers an easier way to gain more control and a better reach. 

To give a more detailed explanation of what a pairing between the two means we would like to refer to Google´s very own example of a moving company that wants to be found by people interested to move away from the city of New York and up to Boston. Using the optimized phrase match, the moving company can now reach people who want to make this exact move, even without reaching people who want to move the other way around. Check out the illustration below for more details.

![About changes to Phase match and BMM final V3-01.jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/9r1wuGgsSE2759pCA5I2)
Source: Google, [Making it easier to reach the right customers on Search](https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10346549)

## What can users expect from these changes?

Obviously, this depends a lot on the individual users' usage of both phrase match and/ or Broad match modifier. Let's try to set up two scenarios: 

1. **Users who to a greater extent uses phrase match**
    
    These users should expect to see an incremental increase in both clicks and conversions. The reason for this is because of the added queries to which keywords will now be eligible to match. For example, “vacation on Ibiza” as the updated phrase will begin to match “vacation hotels on Ibiza”, which was previously only eligible for broad match modifier in the past. 

2. **Users who to a greater extent uses broad match modifier**

    These users should expect to see a slight decrease in clicks and conversions. The reason for this is due to these broad match modifier types where the modifier was only added to one part of the keyword, for example, football +shoes.

    Furthermore, Google will also start to consider the order of the words when it has some importance to the meaning of the keywords. Therefore, for some matches that were previously matched by a broad match modifier, these will be filtered out. To shortly go back to the illustration from Google before, this is also what you see at the very bottom of the illustration (the optimized phrase match will not catch “Boston to New York” but only “New York to Boston” because this has importance to the keyword and the advertiser). 

*Note*: all changes to broad match modified and phrase match will **not** have an impact on negative keyword match types.

## When will these changes happen and is there anything you need to do?

As mentioned in the introduction, Google has already taken the first steps to move the behaviour of broad match modifiers into the phrase match. They will start with the languages English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Russian before continuing in Q2 2021 with all the other Google Ads languages. Google expects to have the new phrase match fully updated in July 2021.

But is there anything you need to do? *Only a tiny bit*.

At Channable we will also start phasing out the creation of broad match modifier keywords, meaning from July 2021 you will no longer be able to create these types of keywords. What this also means is that Channable will no longer be able to send broad match modifier keywords to Google, meaning you will have to make a decision with your setup, if you are using these types of keywords. Maybe they need a conversion to phrase match or some other type?

We know this task can be quite challenging, especially if you run multiple Google Ads generators at the same time. To smoothen the transition just a tiny bit we will be releasing a bulk-convert button later in May 2021. With this button, you will be able to convert your broad-match modified keywords to other types of keywords all at once. 

[tip]**A few tips in the end:**

1. With all this in mind, we recommend all users decide which keyword types they want to convert to. Phrase match might be the most straightforward option, but we will leave the choice fully up to you.
2. Going forward, we likewise recommend all users stop creating new broad match modifier keywords.
3. As traffic might fluctuate a bit, depending on your keyword usage, we recommend monitoring the performance and make budget adjustments if needed.
4. If you are concerned about losing coverage, try to use broad match keywords in combination with a smart bidding strategy. This will most likely help you generate more relevant searches that also meet your performance goals.[/tip]

New changes to phrase match and broad match modifier - What does that mean for you?

For this whitepaper, feed management tool Channable is joining forces with Retail Assist on a project to arm you with the best eCommerce knowledge. With key sector stats, industry insider tips, as well as an eCommerce overview, this whitepaper is here to help your retail business improve its speed to market – and to increase your chances of success in the ever-changing retail landscape.

Discover more about the importance of speed to market with the following sections:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**A brief history of eCommerce trends**
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Facts and figures of the history of eCommerce and where it is today</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li>**The future is fast-paced**
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Insights from Channable + retail Assist's survey for retailers on market expectations and issues.</li>
 	<li>What internet giants Amazon and Google are introducing to shape the future of retail</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li>**The importance of speed to market**
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Working examples of industry successes and failures</li>
</ul>
</li>
 	<li>**How to keep on top**
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Tools and tips on staying ahead</li>
</ul>

### Request the whitepaper
[form id="08b2db28-b68e-40d0-8314-8eb59f30b159"]

Check out <a href="https://omio-retail.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">OMIO's PIM system</a> to get your data ready for feed management and read up on <a href="/blog/blog-what-is-a-pim-and-why-might-i-need-one" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">how PIM systems and data feed management tools can work in harmony</a>. If you're after more guides on speeding up your time to market, <a href="/blog/blog-explained-googles-products-for-advertisers-whitepaper" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">brush up on all the Google products</a> you can utilize to increase your exposure online or <a href="/blog/blog-4-ways-improve-quality-score" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">4 ways to improve your quality score</a>.

Survival of the fastest: the importance of facing speed to market head on [whitepaper]

<h2>What are KPIs or performance indicators?</h2>
We all understand what a “Performance Indicator” is. It’s a fact or figure that tells us the benefit or advantage we get from a particular action. So far so good. For example, a performance indicator for physical activity at the gym would be the maximum number of beats per minute our hearts can pump. So, we have some data that gives us some information that tells us what to do depending on that data: working out harder or taking a break to prevent a heart attack. In the business sense, it’s the same. A KPI will give us data and depending on what it tells us, is how we’ll act and what kind of strategy to prepare.

To better define what it is,** a performance indicator is a tool that precisely determines the relevant health of a business or an eCommerce shop in our specific case**.
<h3>Characteristics of all good KPIs</h3>
The performance indicators of a business should be:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**Measurable**: can you even imagine “unmeasurable” metrics?</li>
 	<li>**Quantifiable**: something that can be measured or quantified. If we were talking about money, we would quantify it depending on the currency: EUR, USD, etc.</li>
 	<li>**Specific**: only measure one specific thing. Let’s not overdo it.</li>
 	<li>**Measurable in time**: we should be able to choose if we measure it by the day, week, month, or year.</li>
 	<li>**Relevancy**: depending on the business type.</li>
</ul>
The first thing we should do as an online business owner is to figure out what KPIs interest us. Start with a consultant or auditor for the eCommerce shop. However, if we do not have the resources for an audit, there are a few performance indicators that about 90% of businesses find it useful to measure. Pay attention!
<h2>Basic KPIs to bear in mind if you have an eCommerce</h2>
Let’s finally get the checklist we’re really looking for. What do I have to keep an eye on to see if my online store is doing well?

<img class="size-full wp-image-24937 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/A8yHagCReKmnd88VhWkA" alt="" width="674" height="447" />
<h3>ROI: Return on investment</h3>
Return on investment is in the name, but to get things straight, this KPI will tell us the **economic value generated as a result of any marketing activity**. In other words, this indicator will measure the results of our investment. Basically, whether we have made a profit or not depending on what we’ve spent. This KPI is quite interesting if we invest in Google Ads and/or Social Ads campaigns since we will be able to figure out if it’s worth it to continue spending money on them, increase/decrease our investment, or get rid of it altogether.
<h3>Average Order Value (AOV)</h3>
Easy. It’s the result of dividing sales by the number of transactions; thus, obtaining an average value of each sale either globally or through different and specific channels. If we **segment it by channels**, we’ll get information on whether your customers are spending more (on average) on certain channels and try to understand your target audience better.
<h3>Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)</h3>
This KPI gives us the “**engagement**” and this is the capacity that a brand or product has to create in order to establish a solid relationship with its consumers or users. This metric gives us an idea of the total number of purchases that a potential customer would make over a period of time if they remained loyal to the brand or product, but remember that this KPI is relative! A customer who buys a little over many years is more interesting for us than someone who only buys once and spends more money. What we try to achieve with this indicator is to organize a future projection based on the behavior patterns of our own customers.
<h3>Cost per Acquisition (CPA) or Cost per Share</h3>
We sell, yes, but that process requires a series of actions that cost us an investment of money, time, and resources. In other words, we don't get our sales for free. With the CPA (Cost per Acquisition) we know how much it costs us to get a new customer and how much those strategies that we make to get new contacts (what in marketing we know as leads) based on a **buyer’s persona**.

We will see the real impact of our paid advertising campaigns, which are almost always necessary and beneficial if we do them well. If we don't know how to do a good PPC campaign (because let's be honest, it's something complicated), we can resort to <a href="https://www.cleverecommerce.com?utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.channable.com%2F&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=guestposting&amp;utm_content=guestpost_essential_ecommerce_kpis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">free tools or apps that help us with these investments in getting paid traffic</a>.
<h3>Sales Conversion Rate</h3>
This is the star figure, the one that shows us at the end of the day **the profitability of our eCommerce shop**, and our goal, of course, is to make this number as high as possible. It is obtained by dividing the number of sales by the number of visits to a channel. However, don’t worry because normally this rate does not exceed 2% in most businesses, so if you get a number lower than 3 or 4% ... You're doing fine!
<h3>Shopping Cart Abandonment Rate</h3>
Data from various studies indicate that** the abandonment rate of shopping carts/baskets is 79%, a very high figure**. Why? It could be due to the shipping costs or the lack of information about a product -- this is why we must always try our best to understand our goal as much as possible with a good customer journey and a good buyer in mind, as mentioned previously. How many people put something in the shopping cart but then leave it there and exit out? This is an important piece of data, especially to know the reasons and make the necessary improvements in our eCommerce shop so that this percentage can be reduced as much as possible.

Now that you know the most important KPIs to measure the performance of your business, you may want to <a href="https://www.cleverecommerce.com/ecommerce-blog/ecommerce-conversion-rate?utm_source=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.channable.com%2F&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=guestposting&amp;utm_content=guestpost_essential_ecommerce_kpis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">know more about how to increase the conversion rate of your eCommerce shop</a>. Okay, maybe your brain is fried after all those numbers and indicators, but at least knowledge doesn't take up space!

Essential metrics you must pay attention to if you own an eCommerce business

If you have an online shop, there are more and more events that you have to mark as important on the calendar. Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, Christmas, summer sales, and for the last few years, Amazon Prime Day. In 2015, <a href="/integrations/amazon-product-feed" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon</a> wanted to innovate the sales seasons by offering great deals that were only available for 30 hours. This way the marketplace not only joined the “sales bandwagon” but made Amazon Prime Day a highly anticipated date for their loyal Amazon Prime customers.

<img class="size-full wp-image-26829 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/jVuKzBjQGaYU0jcQr5bv" alt="" width="600" height="787" />
<h2>What is Amazon Prime Day?</h2>
Amazon Prime Day is an annual event that is celebrated in 18 countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and China. For approximately 30 hours, people can buy all kinds of products at very low prices.

In order to enjoy Amazon Prime Day, you must be an Amazon Prime customer. The offers are changed and renewed throughout Amazon Prime Day, so customers have to complete purchases quickly for their desired products. It is estimated that in 2019 approximately **40% of the products came from small/medium businesses** that use Amazon as one of their online sales platforms.

It is possible to find discounts on all kinds of products, although the biggest offers are found on Amazon-brand products, especially those related to the electronics sector. In 2019 the best sellers were Echo Dots, Fire TV Sticks, and Kindles.

Historically, it has always been celebrated during the month of July. However, this year due to the uncertainty experienced by COVID-19, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/02/amazon-delays-prime-day-until-october-due-to-coronavirus.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the date has been postponed several times</a>. With the huge increase in orders that Amazon received during the first half of the year, it was impossible to stage an event as popular as Amazon Prime Day. In the absence of official confirmation, everything indicates that it will be held in October, but we are still waiting for a final date.
<h2>Why should you participate in Amazon Prime Day?</h2>
Amazon Prime Day 2019 was a resounding success, becoming the largest event in Amazon's history; even surpassing Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday 2018. In 2019 more than 1 million offers were available worldwide.

While Amazon never discloses the revenue generated by Amazon Prime Day, there is that suggests its great growth year on year. For example, it’s predicted that over 100 million products were sold in 2018. However, in 2019 the number of products sold is said to have almost doubled reaching 175 million.

This large number of purchases implies a large number of returns. According to Adobe Digital Insights, 30% more products were returned in 2018 than during Amazon Prime Day 2017. This means that sellers must have an incredible logistic service to be able to handle this event with the required guarantees.
<h2>How can you sell your products on Amazon Prime Day?</h2>
First and foremost, if you still don't have your catalog integrated into Amazon, you definitely should in preparation for Amazon Prime Day and in general. In the following video, we explain the 6 steps you should follow to create a quality listing for Amazon in a quick and easy way.
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/k24FayMRioY" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
Once your listing is integrated into Amazon, you need to improve the visibility of your products to make sure you stand out from the competition. Competition is fierce, especially on a day as important as Amazon Prime.

Here are some of our best tips that can help your business succeed on Prime Day:

- Create attractive titles for your products including keywords and relevant attributes such as brand, color, material, and size.
- Use Amazon Pay Per Click to give your products a jump-start.
- Reduce shipping times, response times, and the number of faulty orders to reach the Buy Box.
- <a href="/blog/blog-improve-opinions-amazon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Improve your verified reviews on Amazon</a>.

Check out our other blog in which we offer you more tips you should implement to help you to <a href="/blog/blog-tips-for-advertising-your-products-on-amazon" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">advertise your products successfully on Amazon</a>. With Channable's feed manager, it’s simple to configure your Amazon listing. You can also manage all your <a href="/products/marketplace-integrator" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon orders directly from your eCommerce platform</a>, and even configure the <a href="/integrations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">listing for other marketplaces</a>. If you have any further questions, <a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">our dedicated team</a> is more than happy to help.

Amazon Prime Day - What to expect and how to profit from it

<p style="text-align: left;">It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, especially in the world of eCommerce. Which also makes it more important to distinguish your offers from competitors.With our last-minute tips, you can easily upsell your business this season and make customers fall for your offers. 'Tis the season for promotions, services, and offers online shoppers can't resist.</p>


[caption id="attachment_19015" align="alignnone" width="800"]<img class="wp-image-19015 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/NajjTqrAQrC7O7u7X96R" alt="Last minute holiday tips" width="800" height="1333" /> Our list to finish the year strong[/caption]

6 jolly last-minute tips [infographic]

Valentine's Day has surpassed Easter as the biggest eCommerce event in the beginning of the calendar year. And it is still growing in importance - especially for online marketing. The perfect V-Day purchase in 2020 will be made last-minute but it will have a personal touch. Catering to such a dynamic, heartfelt market is no problem with data feed management and PPC automation. Learn how to equip your online shop and lead the way towards the perfect Valentine's experience for your customers.

![Infographic](https://media.graphcms.com/Iop9j6vBQ5uUpGX2YQag)

[center][button link="https://media.graphcms.com/N74xii6iRvqRQGs21tUw"]See full infographic[/button][/center]

V-Day is not only for lovers [infographic]

Italy is one of the fastest growing European countries for eCommerce. According to the B2C E-Commerce Observatory, eCommerce in Italy generated €27 billion in 2018, showing an increase of 16% compared to 2017.

Channable wants to help shed some light on this, potentially unknown market for your business. You can read more details about the situation of eCommerce in Italy, such as what payment methods are the most used, which sectors are the most demanded, and, above all, which platforms are the most in demand.
<h2>What are the benefits of selling online to the Italian market?</h2>
<ol>
 	<li>You will find less competition than other markets with more experience in eCommerce, such as Germany and the United Kingdom. Around 20% of online stores generate 70% of online sales. With much less competition, it will be easier to stand out.</li>
 	<li>The mentality of the Italian buyer is changing. Every day there are more and more online shoppers and more purchases are being made on smartphones. Currently, about 24 million people shop online in Italy.</li>
 	<li>Italian brands cannot address this increased demand, so there is room for foreign brands that offer new and innovative products.</li>
</ol>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-20243" src="https://media.graphcms.com/KZqyqe6lTj24aMp2rkm2" alt="eCommerce in Italy" width="2923" height="1689" />
<h2>The Italian market, how does it work?</h2>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**<em>Payment methods</em>**</li>
</ul>
You should consider the following payment methods. According to Icepay, you cannot ignore the Italian CartaSi credit card if you want to sell your products and services in Italy. Together with MasterCard and VISA, they are the most used cards. We must also highlight PayPal and payment on delivery or payment upon delivery. Prepaid cards such as Postepay or Italian mail are also common.
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**<em>Purchase hours</em>**</li>
</ul>
You should not forget that in Italy there are big differences between the north and the south. An example being work schedules. In the north they usually finish work at 6:00 pm, while in the south they end much later because of the break for lunch. Translating to online shopping schedules that are also different.
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**<em>Catalog in Italian, YES or YES</em>**</li>
</ul>
The vast majority of the population speaks Italian, so they will feel more comfortable completing the purchase if the information of the products or services is available in Italian. Therefore you should consider the option of translating your webshop, especially if you use comparison websites such as Google Shopping.
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**<em>Amazon, the indispensable marketplace</em>**</li>
</ul>
As in many other countries, Amazon is one of the undisputed leaders in the Italian market. You should not forget that with the Channable API connection you can send <a href="/integrations/amazon-product-feed" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">your listing of products to Amazon</a> in minutes.

Other very used channels are Zalando, eBay, Wish, ManoMano and Privalia, which we also have connections with all these online platforms. You can send your optimized and updated product listing through a feed or API connection, depending on the channel. Check all the <a href="/integrations?country=italy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">list of channels available in Channable</a>.
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**<em>Most used shipping companies in Italy</em>**</li>
</ul>
Regarding the ranking of the most used shipping companies in Italy, we can highlight these 6: DHL, BRT, TNT, Savino del Bene, CEVA and Saima Avandero.

If your eCommerce webshop is developed with PrestaShop, Magento, Shopify or Woocommerce, you may want to know that we have <a href="/products/marketplace-integrator" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">order connections</a> with all of them. That means that you can manage Amazon and eBay orders directly in your webshop, centralizing marketplaces orders in one place and making their management much easier.

As you know, shipping products can be the best point of contact with the customer. That's why you might be interested in using a platform like <a href="https://www.qapla.it/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Qapla</a>. Thanks to this Italian tool you can take advantage of the delivery of the order status to include information on other products, increasing the possibility of doing upsells and cross sells, improving this way the brand awareness and loyalty.
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**<em>Most demanded sectors</em>**</li>
</ul>
The sector with the highest growth in eCommerce in Italy compared to 2018 figures is for the food sector, which has grown 40%, followed by the home and decoration sector, which increased by 30%. However, we cannot forget that tourism, fashion, electronics and the beauty sector still reign.
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**<em>Other advise</em>**</li>
</ul>
Italian consumers have high expectations about customer service, but they are often patient, they have no problem with receiving orders in 3 or 5 days. However, on many occasions they assume that shipping will be for free. In addition, it is important to offer simple solutions for returns, especially for the fashion sector where returns are around 40%.
<h2>eCommerce in Italy, last figures</h2>
According the the last "Osservatorio eCommerce B2C 2019" (Osservatori Digital Innovation - Poli.Mi. and Consorzio Netcomm), online purchases in both Italian and foreign online shops have reached 31.6 billion euros, which represents a 15% increase from 2018. The purchase of products has increased by 21%, compared to the purchase of services, which has only increased by 8%. This phenomenon has caused a considerable increase in the number of shipments. In terms of transactions, the value of the purchase of products has reached 18 billion euros, compared to 13.5 billion generated in the services sector.
<h2>Where to start?</h2>
It is true that breaking through into a new market can be intimidating. But if you have enough information that allows you to control the situation, everything will be easier. It is always good to start with a SWOT analysis, which allows you to discover the weaknesses, strengths, threats and opportunities of your company to face that new market that you want to explore. We hope that the indications offered in this article about the situation of eCommerce in Italy will help you to configure this analysis and future strategy of your company in the Italian market.

The keys to expanding your online business in Italy

The best ecomm strategies include these 7 easy-to-implement tactics that help you to:

*   Show up in the right place at the right time
*   Select and sell on multiple shopping portals with a click of a button
*   Use inexpensive online advertising more effectively to promote your products
*   Automate the process with real-time order to delivery information at your fingertips

7 tactics to increase profitability from eCommerce stores

You’ve no doubt heard of eBay. Alongside Amazon, it is one of the biggest marketplaces in the world, and it’s an attractive sales channel for many retailers. But are you selling on it? That decision is up to you but a few tempting facts include that there are over **182 million buyers (1)** on eBay worldwide, eBay users spend an average of **07.22 minutes per visit (2)**, you can easily [sell variants](https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/creating-listings-variations?id=4150), create detailed listings, and assign different profiles to products within minutes by listing with Channable’s latest eBay integration. 

By choosing to send your products to eBay with Channable, you will be able to upload masses of products with optimized listings in minutes.

## Variants support

Channable supports sending products as a product group with variants. This is a useful function if you have a certain product in many different sizes or colors. Instead of uploading them as separate items, you can set up product groups with Channable. What’s even better about this possibility, is that you will only need to pay the one monthly eBay listing fee for the whole group. [Learn how to set up product listings for eBay with our step-by-step tutorial](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002829565-How-do-I-create-product-listings-for-eBay-)

## Supply eBay with every single detail

Channable’s [attribute builder](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360030477513-What-does-the-attribute-builder-do-) is the bread and butter to structuring, building, and sending your information via APIs to channels, such as eBay. Channable offers a complete attribute builder for all of eBay’s categories (and there are many). This gives you the flexibility to optimize your eBay listings by providing the buyer with any and all information they can need. Any retailer will know that today, information is vital in the buyer’s journey. [Read more about how to set up attributes with eBay](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002829565-How-do-I-create-product-listings-for-eBay-)

## Shipments and stock updates

If you choose to also opt for an eBay [order sync](/products/marketplace-integrator) in Channable, you will see that Channable will send shipment and offer updates between your online store and eBay. Streamlining your order processing. 

**Do you have multiple profiles on eBay?**

Good news, Channable gives you the flexibility to configure different profiles for selling products. This means that you needn’t only link your products to one payment, shipment or return profile - but with any! This feature is a little more fiddly, but nothing Channable’s technical support can’t help you accomplish. 

**Keen to get started?**

If you haven’t already, sign up to Channable in seconds with your email address. Once you’ve [created a project](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002825365-How-do-I-set-up-a-new-project-) and [imported your items,](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002825625-How-do-I-import-products-) you can start setting up an eBay connection in the API tab. Full instructions can be found on [the Channable support site](https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002829565). If you’re already using Channable’s eBay connection and want to migrate to our newest version, please contact your customer success manager or our support team via [support@channable.com](mailto:support@channable.com).   

1. [https://www.oberlo.com/blog/ebay-statistics](https://www.oberlo.com/blog/ebay-statistics) 
2. [https://www.similarweb.com/website/ebay.com](https://www.similarweb.com/website/ebay.com)

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vlDgoNVXacg" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
***Callum explains you in this video how to get started with eBay in Channable.***

The most seamless integration to eBay

Social media networks have become an everyday norm for a large portion of the globe. Whether it’s a way to kill time when you’re waiting, discovering new products or hobbies, or a way for you to keep in touch with your loved ones. People are spending hours a week on their devices. <a href="/blog/blog-why-integrate-social-media-into-your-marketing-strategy">No wonder social media platforms</a> are becoming the hot spot for businesses to reach and connect to their audiences.

Keeping on top of all the networks and how to advertise on them can be a struggle. Being visible and found on social media networks is a full-time job. Using an optimized product catalog feed can save you time in getting started, so you can concentrate on converting viewers. This comparison of the biggest social media networks (<a href="/integrations/facebook-product-feed">Facebook</a>, <a href="/integrations/instagram">Instagram</a>, <a href="/integrations/pinterest">Pinterest</a>, and <a href="/integrations/snapchat">Snapchat</a>) can give you a good indication of which platform will work best for your offering, and help you generate an optimized feed to advertise faster.

![channable---Réseaux-sociaux-pour-le-E-commerce-EN.jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/9upbXbgwSCFTzRb65GpQ)

If you would like to read more about <a href="/blog/blog-why-integrate-social-media-into-your-marketing-strategy">advertising on social media platforms</a> or <a href="/blog/blog-get-the-most-out-of-pinterest-advertising">advertising specifically on Pinterest</a>, Channable has written a few <a href="/blog">blogs</a> on the subject.

Itching to get started with advertising on social media channels with Channable? <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sign up for a free trial account today</a> and <a href="/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">get in touch</a> with the team to schedule a free demo.

<em>Read this in <a href="/nl/blog/infographic-hoe-kun-je-jouw-social-media-advertising-synchroniseren-met-je-online-winkel">Dutch</a> or <a href="/de/blog/infographic-synchronisieren-sie-ihre-werbung-auf-social-media-mit-ihrem-online-shop">German</a>.</em>

How to sync your social media advertising efforts with your online shop [infographic]

There are many shipping methods, matching the different types of customers you have. Many consumers look for the most reliable shipping method, although the price also influences the choice of the chosen shipping.

For instance, many Americans prefer faster shipping over having the absolute cheapest option. Of course, delivery time is a determining factor to a certain extent. The large online retailers and their express delivery methods have made everyone, as consumers, more and more demanding in this regard. 44% of consumers perceive same-day delivery as a sign of trust and are willing to pay more for this method.

We understand that with so many options it can be overwhelming to make a choice and meet all the requirements demanded of your clients. However, we are here to help you make that choice! Below is a list of 6 key points to help you create a strategy that best suits your online shop.
<h2>6 key points to consider when creating your shipping strategy</h2>
**1. Carriers and shipping methods **

Not all products sold online today have the same characteristics. When considering the most appropriate shipping method for the items you sell in your online shop, you should not only focus on the product itself, but also on consumers. What kind of customers do you have?

Depending on the type of customer and the type of product, consumers will not be surprised to have to wait a couple of days until they receive their order. Therefore, a carrier with ultrafast shipments and very expensive rates may not be the best choice. Some customers will focus more on economic factors than on delivery time, while others will simply take what is presented. Our tip? Know your customers and their needs, and then offer the best method to meet their needs.

**2. Shipping costs**

Shipping costs are one of the most decisive factors when completing a purchase process. The US is a particularly demanding country with regard to shipping costs.

Free shipping is the best option to get customers to complete their purchase. However, you have to take into account certain factors so that absorbing shipping costs on behalf of the customer does not result in losing money.

Free but controlled shipping costs are an excellent marketing strategy to target who can access free shipping without a loss for your business. For example, shipping can be free or not depending on the location, weight, and total of the order.

In the US, a common practice is to offer free shipping when standard delivery is chosen or if a product is over $20, for example, but may require payment in other countries or for an expedited option.

When determining different methods, consider the all rates that carriers apply and stay within a margin that benefits your business.

**3. Automating the shipping process**

It is estimated that the average time spent processing an order is around 10 minutes. From the moment a new order enters the system until the package is ready to be picked up, the carrier must perform a series of tasks that many retailers continue to handle manually. However,<a href="https://www.sendcloud.com/process-orders?utm_source=Blog&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=blog_channable" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> automating the shipping process</a> can save up to 3 minutes per order.
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Shipping rules: configure custom shipping rules to detect the appropriate shipping method for each type of order.</li>
 	<li>Automated pick-ups: with an automatic shipping list you can instantly schedule a pick-up for your orders once enough have been placed.</li>
 	<li>Creating and printing labels: nobody should be “copy and pasting” or typing the addresses of clients separately. Automatically creating a label list is essential to help the flow of your products.</li>
 	<li>Documents, tariffs, and taxes: the bane of every retailer, customs and tax forms, invoices, and personal income tax / VAT. There are now tools available to automatically generate these documents.</li>
 	<li>Automated update emails: no longer will you have to worry about keeping the customer aware of the purchase process, as these emails are automatically sent at predetermined intervals, updating the status of the order at all times.</li>
</ul>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-20693" src="https://media.graphcms.com/RApkF27KTUiHRZAaWDQv" alt="Emails seguimiento pedidos" width="2392" height="1028" />

**4. Tracking emails**

A satisfying shopping experience does not happen by just clicking a button and filling in some fields. Up to 90% of follow-up emails are opened and read. This presents an opportunity to promote other items, sell more items, and build customer loyalty.

One sneaky idea is to add related articles, banners, or information about your business in the mail with the shipping information. The chances of customers opening and seeing this information will be high.

![article-image-ckgijxfko06np0b07eik47qtn-9485.jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/CThAg2SSRTSGcfClf5er)

**5. Return strategies**

67% of consumers read the return policy before deciding to buy from an online shop. For 84% of them, this is one of the most important factors when making a purchase online. It is important that the customer can access clear policies about the return period of a product and what are the options to return it. Your return policy must appear in a visible place on your website and be written in a clear and concise manner.

<a href="https://www.sendcloud.com/return-portal?utm_source=Blog&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=blog_channable" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Create your own return policy with different methods</a> for different countries or types of shipping, offering options that fit the needs of your customers. Can you afford to offer free returns or should return costs fall on the customer? Depending on the nature of your products, you can also consider a subscription model that includes free returns to subscribers as an advantage of their membership.

Finally, it is important to create an organized and detailed return form. Collecting the reasons for each return, which specific products are returned and the reason. Just as you manage each order that leaves, you must keep track of each item that is returned.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-20703" src="https://media.graphcms.com/3Y232MpQvJYUgOQLOhQ0" alt="Devoluciones de pedidos" width="1288" height="1103" />

**6. International strategy**

Many online shops want to take the international leap and introduce their business abroad. A good international strategy may begin with the <a href="/blog/blog-amazon-netherlands-whattoexpect-howtoprepare" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Amazon EU seller programs</a>.
The most important points to consider for a good international sales strategy are the following:
<ol>
 	<li>Negotiating international rates is essential when agreeing with carriers on shipping rates abroad.</li>
 	<li>Transparency in shipping methods and delivery times is another factor to consider. Customers want to know the details about delivery time and shipping costs before making a purchase. This way you will avoid abandoned carts from unexpected expenses or duty tax fields that can appear at the last moment.</li>
 	<li>Applying for European legislation is essential when you are going to make international shipments within the European Union. <a href="https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/shipping-delivery/index_en.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Check with the official website of the European Union</a> to ensure that your shipping process meets the requirements.</li>
</ol>

How to create a successful shipping strategy

As an online marketeer, you know the struggle of selling online. You have your own website, but that is not enough. You want to advertise on price comparison websites, marketplaces, affiliates and have lots of SEA campaigns running. To do so, you need a data feed - ideally one that is linked to your website and your actual shop system. This data feed can be used for your export platforms. But because the data feed requirements vary per platform, it is necessary to adjust your feed according to the standards of the platform.

For this task many people use feed management tools, like Channable. In a tool, like Channable, you are able to edit your feed with rules that are based on IF-THEN statements. <em>IF your price is empty, THEN exclude the product from the data feed.</em> Some rules will be specific to certain channels because they have specific requirements. Other rules might be needed for all exports in general, so it can be a real time saver to put them into the newly implemented master rule groups.

Master rule groups is a feature that Channable recently introduced. Normally, you would create rules for the export channel you have chosen. Whereas with master rule groups, you can create several groups and execute them for multiple exports. These rules are very convenient if you want to apply changes that are needed for multiple channels. Per export, you can select which master rules you want to apply. Below we’ll show a couple of examples of how you could use this new feature.
<ol>
 	<li>**Exclude seasonal products**
It’s winter, there is snow outside and your data feed contains winter coats but also beachwear, swimming suits and other summer fashion. At this time of year, you only want to advertise products that are relevant for this cold weather and exclude anything that is related to summer. With master rules you can easily do that for your entire product feed and won’t have to worry about it per channel.<img class="aligncenter wp-image-13271" src="https://media.graphcms.com/4p7Ff5RRCByWA1yWZllA" alt="" width="1200" height="558" /></li>
 	<li>**Exclude unwanted**
Does your feed contain HTML or textual discrepancies (e.g. unwanted capitals)? Do some items lack information like images, price etc.? These are issues in your feed that you certainly want to eliminate for any export. Use the master rules and you’ll save even more time!</li>
 	<li>**Exclude blacklisted products**
Some brands or categories are not meant to be advertised, so you usually blacklist them. Even if you work in travel, you might want to exclude certain destinations. Create a master rule group for the items you want to blacklist and be done with it forever!</li>
 	<li>**Exclude parent items**
Parent items or configurable products can be excluded in advance, so it’s easier for you to advertise only on the products on that you want to advertise.</li>
</ol>
In our <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015726134-What-are-master-rule-groups-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">help center</a>, we explain how to implement master rules in even more detail.

One master rule to rule them all

Feed-based marketing is becoming more accessible to marketers thanks for product feed management tools. <a href="/blog/find-the-perfect-feed-management-tool">Product feed management tools</a> enable data feed optimization that enables optimized advertising on your chosen online marketing channels. Channable offers a <a href="/products/product-feed-management-tool">product feed manager</a> and therefore knows all about feed-based marketing. Channable's international expertise in the field of digital marketing and its product feed management tool is used by many industries for a lot of different marketing purposes.

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-13083 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/RNkFvZ4YTZqqXewtOcFg" alt="product feed Channable" width="600" height="1800" />

If you want to know more about how feed-based marketing can be useful for your business, <a href="mailto:support@channable.com">don't hesitate to contact us</a> for more info or <a href="/demo" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">for a demo</a>!

And if you like this infographic, feel free to share it on social media!

What is a product feed in marketing? [infographic]

It was time to make the health check section a bit more user-friendly. Therefore, it has been renamed from "health check" to "quality check" and of course it has had a little upgrade at the same time.
<h3>What has changed</h3>
The quality check functionality is more extensive. You can now click on the items affected by the issue. Once you click, the tool will show you all the items that lack the specific information.

As examples speak better than words, let’s say that 39 items lack a description in your Google Shopping feed. With Channable’s quality check, you can now see exactly which ones, and you can even use the search bar to flick through them. The next step is still yours to make and would be to go to add this missing information by using the rules section to make your feed better and more complete.

<img class="size-full wp-image-13469 alignnone" src="https://media.graphcms.com/botDK95gRuHyREQMZRpu" alt="New channable functionnality: quality check" width="1902" height="770" />
<h3>Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger</h3>
Not only is it easier for you to check the errors in your feed, but this functionality is even faster! Test it with your feeds to see how fast it is and start using it to improve the data in your export feeds.

New Channable feed quality check will give you more insights

<h2>Why is there a new Fnac API?</h2>
The Fnac **Products** API is the new API and it allows you to send unknown products (EAN and other important information) to Fnac. No more “product not found” errors! It only needs to be used once so that Fnac can add the product to its database. Fnac will receive and upload the item(s) and all its accompanying information into the Fnac system.

The other Fnac API (the one that has been in Channable a long time) has been renamed Fnac **Offers** API. It is used for creating, updating or deleting product listings/offers on Fnac. You can optimize product information, control flow, sync stock levels and provide Fnac with all the vital information they need in order to sell your products e.g. shipping costs. If you wish to use <a href="/products/marketplace-integrator">Channable’s order connection</a> for Fnac, a feature that synchronizes order information from Fnac to your online shop, then a Fnac Offers API is necessary.
<h2>How do I do it?</h2>
You will first need to create a Mirakl account. You can then create the new Fnac Products API in Channable and complete the attribute builder stage with all the required attributes. Then you just have to click “Run now” in the API overview and Channable will send the new products and their information (EANs, title etc.) to Fnac.

Once this has happened, the Fnac Products API can be paused. Simply because the new products will be in the system. There is no need to send them again and it will help keep the Channable tool running smoothly.

You will then need to create a <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004172333" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Fnac Offers API</a> to control and modify the products offers you want on Fnac.
<h2>More information?</h2>
For a more visual and detailed guide on how to use the new Fnac Products API, check out the <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019296454-How-do-I-add-unknown-EANs-to-Fnac-" target="_blank" rel="noopener">help center article</a> we’ve written. There is also a <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004172333" target="_blank" rel="noopener">help center article</a> for creating product listings for Fnac.

Send new products to Fnac with Channable’s Fnac Products API

Whilst there are multiple differences between both marketplaces and comparison sites, Channable identifies that both can bring you great benefits to your online sales.

<img class="wp-image-15450 size-full aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/XxFFscdZSjOwsK0I7nkg" alt="marketplaces vs comparison sites" width="800" height="1905" />

Feel free to share this infographic on the social media network of your choice.

Channable offers connections to more than a thousand marketplaces and comparison websites around the world. Take a look at the <a href="/integrations">different possibilities</a> that you have in Channable and choose the ones that fit best with your online sales strategy.

Marketplaces VS Comparison Websites [infographic]

Search advertising marketing automation tools were introduced to reduce the time and effort spent on tasks that could be done by anybody. They are there to enable the optimization of processes, costs, and efforts. Naturally, there will be certain processes that businesses will prefer to be handled by a real marketer. By identifying what those are, you can start to draw up a list of what you expect from a marketing automation tool, the essentials, and what would be nice for it to do. Not all tools are perfect, but knowing what aches and pains it can soothe are worth knowing.

Automating the generation of search ads is one method of marketing automation for search advertising. Whilst the functionalities of each search ad generation tool differ, they all aim to save time, lower CPA, and increase ROAS/ROI. Channable’s PPC tool is no exception and focuses on being a marketing automation tool for** feed-based automation** for both search and shopping campaign creation. But what does that actually mean? And how is it different from other tools?

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-15188" src="https://media.graphcms.com/gnKmvF1pR96iL5eDifFj" alt="" width="1070" height="515" />
<h2>What can you do with the Channable PPC tool?</h2>
As the Channable PPC tool is a feed-based generation tool, you can use it for aspects of search advertising that can be generated from item attributes imported via a data feed, plugin or API. These aspects include:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Campaigns</li>
 	<li>Ad groups: medium and/or long tail</li>
 	<li>Ad copy</li>
 	<li>Shopping Campaigns</li>
 	<li>Keywords</li>
 	<li>Negative keywords</li>
 	<li>Basic targeting</li>
 	<li>A default CPC</li>
 	<li>Sitelinks</li>
</ul>
Using an ad generation tool is useful if you need to generate a large number of ads that are still unique for the right audience. Managing ads for thousands of items can be time-consuming. Not only when it comes to creating the ads but also having to keep them up to date and pausing irrelevant ones.

Channable’s tool ensures that your ads are up-to-date and relevant as you can use dynamic information in your feed to create the above-mentioned list.

For example, if you wanted a campaign for each subcategory or destination you offer, simply use the field ‘subcategory’ when building the campaign template in Channable. There is also a template for ad copy, so you can create unique ads from one template because of the dynamic information contained in your feed.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-15186" src="https://media.graphcms.com/4aK3vBMYTT6ibH5oPXV7" alt="" width="1070" height="489" />
<h2>What will I still have to do?</h2>
Bid Management, budget, and advanced targeting are not included in the Channable PPC tool. Although Channable can be used to set a default CPC or targeting, we recommend you finetune this in your Google or Bing ads manager. Do not worry, adjusting CPC and targeting will not result in any errors in Channable.

Furthermore, if Channable is unable to help you create certain campaigns, ad groups or keywords you can still manually create them in your ads manager. As these manually added ads will not be linked to Channable, they will not be affected by Channable and will remain in your ad account intact.

Finally, campaigns and ad groups that are created in Channable, **cannot** then be edited in Google/Bing. This is because the synchronization between Channable and your ad manager will be lost. Therefore, ads will not be refreshed as they will no longer be recognized by Channable. This will ultimately result in an error in Channable.

When choosing a tool, you need to think about what it is you want it to assist you with, what’s necessary and what is nice to have. If you’re looking for a solution to help you manage and create the right ads, with relevant keywords, and a clear and comprehensible structure in campaigns and ad groups, then Channable’s PPC tool could be the best option.

The dynamic nature of the PPC tool means that the campaigns, ad groups, ads, and keywords are always cohesive with your site and relevant. So long as you’re aware that there will be certain aspects like bid management, budget and targeting that you will still have to do manually. Furthermore, remember a tool is there to compliment and help you but you will still have full control and can revert to manual when necessary.


Why use a marketing automation tool to automate search ads?

The rules within Channable work hierarchically. With every rule you create, you exclude, filter or modify items. Per rule, you can check which items are selected. These selected items are not only manipulated by the rule you are in at that moment but by any rule that is above the rule you are working in. This hierarchy is important to keep in mind if you download the CSV list of selected items.

Here are some ideas of what you could do with the download:
<ol>
 	<li>**Optimize your website**
Imagine you want to see which items are missing a certain field (image, description, etc.). This is an easy way to export all “faulty” products and optimize them right away.</li>
 	<li>**Share insights with other departments**
If you want to share certain values, missing fields, images or in general data of certain items with other departments, this is the perfect way to collect the data, download it, and share it. As a result, every colleague can use the data without needing to access Channable.</li>
</ol>
Did you know that you can also download CSVs in the master rules step? Read more about our <a href="/blog/blog-master-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">master rules</a> and <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">start using</a> them today!


Download sections of your items as CSV

In order to be “where your buyers are” marketers are investing more and more in the growing list of online channels to advertise on. From marketplaces and comparison sites to affiliate networks and social media platforms, the struggle today is creating unique ads for all these channels and keeping them up to date.

Pinterest is a social media network that has seen exponential growth in recent years and has begun to offer advertorial space for brands. Users, or aptly named “Pinners”, use Pinterest to search for inspiration, information, and entertainment. As an advertiser, your first goal should be to be discovered. Once you’ve accomplished that, you’ll want to convert pinners to buyers. Looking into advertising on Pinterest could be the next step to achieving that.
<h2>Why use Pinterest?</h2>
Pinterest is no longer a social network, it’s a search engine. Pinterest’s never-ending boards encourage visual discoveries and personalize the results based on a user’s interests. This engrossing way to entice users into spending hours scrolling and building their own pinboards introduces them to new brands every second. Pinterest is a great way to build brand awareness, boost favorability, shift perceptions, and get people to buy. One brand, gofeminin.de, recorded an impressive 20% of traffic coming from Pinterest, compared to only 2% from other social media platforms. Albeit, the conversion funnel may be longer with Pinterest, but awareness is the first step. Using Pinterest’s advertising option can further help improve your chances of conversion.
<h2>Why advertise on Pinterest?</h2>
There are many benefits to advertising on social media platforms. Namely, because social media is a fast and effective way to be in front of your target audience. At the time of writing, there were over 250 million Pinners worldwide. However, if Pinterest’s vast audience isn’t enough to persuade you to advertise on Pinterest, there are many other appealing factors depending on your target audience and goals.

If your target market is women between 25-50, advertising on Pinterest will most definitely be interesting for you. Brands such as IKEA, Boursin, and Hunter have found value in advertising on Pinterest. Their Pinterest ads helped to increase intent to purchase, heighten visibility during high sales seasons, increasing offline sales, and more.

By advertising on Pinterest, you are able to pay to promote your images (pins) to appear higher, and more frequently, on Pinterest boards. Your advertisement/promoted pin appears as an image with a short description and a link to the product on your website. A user is able to save this pin and it will be seen in other people’s boards too. Further increasing visibility and engagement.
<h2>How to get started with advertising on Pinterest?</h2>
The first step is to upload your products into Pinterest via Pinterest Shopping. Pinterest Shopping, aka Catalogs, allows “Pinners” to discover, save, and eventually buy your products via Pinterest. In order to list your products on Pinterest for shopping, you need to supply Pinterest with your product catalog/product feed. You can then generate hundreds of product pins.

To advertise on Pinterest, you will have to choose to promote a pin to a shopping ad. Simply choose which pins/products you would like as Shopping Ads through the Pinterest Ads Manager. These pins then become “promoted pins”. Pinterest uses a pay per click model, so you will only pay when a user clicks on your pin. The Pinterest Ads Manager works similarly to other ad managers, you will need to set a campaign, ad group, budget, time frame, etc.
<blockquote><em>Good to know! Advertising on Pinterest will mean your pins promoted status will come to an end. However, the pin will remain on Pinterest forever. Meaning your products will always be on display, generating only more views and clicks.</em></blockquote>
Converting your existing product feed into a Pinterest compatible one is really simple if you use a tool like Channable. It's merely a matter of uploading your product feed into Channable, choosing Pinterest as a feed, completing the steps to ensure Channable completes the Pinterest feed with the correct data from your original product feed, and then voila - you will be provided with a new feed URL that is Pinterest ready. This will save you a lot more time in becoming listed so you can start advertising on Pinterest faster.

Remember, Pinterest is visual. For every image you supply in your product feed a separate pin will be made. You can have multiple images for one product. Simply include them in your Pinterest product feed as additional images. If you have a separate feed with images you can easily combine it with your master product feed in Channable. You can use any pin to advertise on Pinterest.
<h2>Our tips for advertising on Pinterest</h2>
<h3>Create Pinterest titles and descriptions</h3>
Most likely the content in your pins will match what is listed on your site. To make your Pinterest advertising more relevant, consider adapting titles and descriptions. Write ad copy specific for Pinterest and consider excluding any overly generic images that wouldn’t generate as much attention as your fancier ones. These modifications can be simply done in the rules section of Channable.
<h3>Use keywords</h3>
It’s possible to use your Google keywords to improve your discoverability and advertising on Pinterest. You can pop them in your titles, descriptions, and even the image itself. Alternatively, experiment with Pinterest’s own search bar and see what the auto-completion suggests. If you use Channable, you can modify titles and descriptions for Pinterest without having to change your master feed.
<h3>Clickbait</h3>
Being found on Pinterest is just the first step, you also need to ensure that your pin gets clicked and saved. Anything that stands out is sure to give you the upper hand. Consider the following:
<ol>
 	<li>Big text in the image</li>
 	<li>Colors that POP</li>
 	<li>Text blocks in images</li>
 	<li>Keywords in images</li>
</ol>
<h3>Less isn’t always more</h3>
The Pinterest inventory seems unlimited. Therefore, ensuring that you have a sufficient reach will require you to post frequently. Some marketers recommend 20-30 pins a day. It may seem a lot, but reposting is also acceptable.
<p style="text-align: center;"> <img class="alignnone wp-image-15365" src="https://media.graphcms.com/qrlkgMmcR72xBLSxHzXs" alt="Pinterest advertising tips channable" width="176" height="329" /> <img class="alignnone wp-image-15364" src="https://media.graphcms.com/zBAwJROmQeKyYhUuiaY7" alt="pinterest advertising channable" width="176" height="327" /><img class="alignnone wp-image-15363" src="https://media.graphcms.com/er1fEhBcQOSQFDJN9Q82" alt="pinterest ads channable" width="98" height="330" /></p>
By making relevant ads for Pinterest you will also increase the value of using it as an online marketing channel. Pinterest advertising can be sped up with Channable. Save yourself time and use Channable to manage your online marketing channels so you can easily scale and spend more time on making ads more relevant.



Get the most out of Pinterest advertising

Get ready to reach more customers, sell more, and still relax this sale season.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15271" src="https://media.graphcms.com/ISlJCWtBStiIPSmrlSvL" alt="" width="800" height="2133" />

Feel free to share this infographic on the social media network of your choice.

Channable offers connections to more than a thousand marketplaces and comparison websites around the world. Take a look at the <a href="/integrations">different possibilities</a> that you have in Channable and choose the ones that fit best with your online sales strategy this summer.

Tips for Summer Sale [infographic]

Perhaps you discovered Channable in a blog, used it at your previous company, or you’ve met someone from our wonderful team. Whatever the reason, you know that your company can benefit from Channable, but your managers are harder to convince. Let us help you with ways to convince your manager that Channable is a valuable asset that improves performance and saves both time and money. Below you can find a letter template and manager-proof responses to the most common objections.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear ……..........................…………,

**RE: Using Channable as a feed management and SEA solution**

At [company name] we continue to optimize our processes to be more efficient to deliver more for our clients. I am aware that you are always on the outlook for new technologies and trends that can make our processes more efficient whilst saving time and money, so I wanted to bring your awareness to Channable. Channable is an all in one feed management and SEA automation tool that offers feeds and integrations to over 2500 online marketplaces, affiliate networks, and comparison sites, and enables ad generation for Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising.

The Channable tool can be used to:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**Save time** (Channable’s client <a href="/success-stories/cotswold-use-channable-to-merge-maximize-and-rise">Cotswold outdoor</a> were able to advertise on Criteo within an hour),</li>
 	<li>**Save money** (marketing agency <a href="/success-stories/adwise-generating-dynamic-text-ads-channable">Adwise</a> saw an 11% decrease in cost per click for their client Oad), and</li>
 	<li>**Optimize online marketing** (SDIM were able to <a href="/success-stories/automated-google-ads-for-recruitment-campaigns-tmi">generate highly specific keywords and ad copy</a> for recruitment agency client TMI improving relevancy and increase conversion rate).</li>
</ul>
Based on these factors, we will have more time to focus on [performance analysis/acquiring new clientele/optimizations/etc.] because Channable will relieve us from spending hours manually [making optimizations in Excel/asking IT to modify feeds/creating keywords/searching for the channel criteria/etc.]. By using Channable to automate at least 20% of our tasks, we can save a whole day a week.

We can get a demo of the tool when it is most convenient for you, and Channable offers an unlimited free trial of the tool that’ll provide full access to all the functionalities. In terms of pricing, Channable has different sizes of packages that can be easily activated, upgraded, downgraded, or canceled at any time. The Channable technical support team is also at our disposal to clear up any issues that may arise when trialing the tool.

Let me know whether you have any concerns or questions about the points I have raised. Otherwise, we can <a href="/demo">request a demo</a> or directly make <a href="/contact">contact</a> with the Channable team.

Kind regards,

…………………………………………………….

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If the above letter isn’t enough. You can find some compelling arguments to the most common objections below:
<h2>Common objections:</h2>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**We’re doing fine for now**
The world of marketing is rapidly changing, largely due to the innovation of technologies and AI. It is becoming essential to remain up-to-date and current with such innovations, which will require change. Looking into and adopting new technology like Channable is an investment in the beginning. However, over time Channable’s tool will save you time and money which will make your organization more agile and ready for the future.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>“Google is pushing for automation, everything is becoming automated. If you don’t push forward with these things, you might not see immediate changes now, but if you do it 2 years from now, you’re already too late. You will fall behind in the market.” - Martin Michels, Paid Search Manager at TUI</blockquote>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**It’s too expensive**
Channable’s monthly subscriptions are determined by the number of SKU’s imported, channels used, and projects created. The subscriptions are flexible with no setup charge, cancellation fee, commission on sales, or hidden costs. By using Channable, users cut down the average time spent on ad and feed management from 22% to 5% a week (based on a 40-hour workweek). Furthermore, Channable’s support team is free for all and available by phone or email during working hours.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>“Real value for money” - Mark M on Capterra</blockquote>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**We don’t have time right now to start**
Channable’s free trial is unlimited so creating an account takes just seconds and can be revisited whenever is convenient. As a welcome, Channable offers the first feed set up for free. Getting you up and running as fast as possible. Channable’s solution exists to save time. Therefore, if the lack of time your manager perceives is due to other tasks being too time-consuming, Channable could be a solution to that lack of time they’re rebutting with. If your team is wasting time using Excel or another software to manually edit product listings, keywords, ad copy, etc., then Channable is most definitely going to free up time.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>“Previously [using different marketplaces and prices comparison sites for each geographical market] was time-consuming because we did not have the feed adapted to each platform. Now we just need to open an account. It takes 1 minute to adapt the feed thanks to Channable. The feed is no longer a problem.” - Alex Poza, Consultant at ECCO Shoes</blockquote>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**It’s too confusing and time-consuming to learn to use**
Channable offers an unlimited free trial that allows you to familiarize yourself with the tool and all its functionalities in your own time. The tool has been designed to be as user-friendly as possible, and Channable is often praised for being the most user-friendly tool of its kind. The team is happy to give demos to you to help you get acquainted with all the tool’s features and answer any questions you may have. Channable has found that many of its clients conduct their own in-house training now, so it can only take one person to train the rest.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>“Super-duper user-friendly. I haven't tried yet, but I think I can teach a monkey to use Channable. In a PPC world where the use of feeds gets more and more important, it is of great value that there is a tool like Channable that enables me to manage my feed, without having any programming skills.” - Danny V on Capterra</blockquote>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**We’re just looking around right now**
Pitching an idea to a manager always requires plenty of evidence and solid reasoning. Snoop out the competitor and determine why in particular Channable is the best solution for you. Is it the user-friendliness? Potential? Affordability? Channable’s sales team has plenty of experience with existing and prospect clients. They are supplied with informative material should you need it for analysis. Together, you can develop a fool-proof strategy to win your manager over and start saving (both time and money) with Channable’s feed management and SEA solution.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>"We have tried many tools for both general feed management and building inventory management campaigns. But Channable is by far the best I have tried." - Christian H. on Capterra</blockquote>
Let us know if this letter proves successful, or whether you have any additions to add. The Channable team is ready to take on any and all managers to ensure that you and the team get access to the best feed management and SEA solution the web has to offer.

How to pitch Channable to your seniors

Adapting the numerical data in your product feed to the specifications of all your chosen online marketing channels can be a challenge. Prices, discounts, promotions, taxes, and fees come in different formats with a variety of different decimal separators. Imagine having to modify all figures to comply with Google Shopping, Criteo, and Amazon’s required format because yours is different.
<h3>How you could do it before?</h3>
Channable has always been able to help you modify your numerical information. You could create a set of rules to ensure the modifications would be applied. Combing rules such as ‘<a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827945-Rule-round-number" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">round number</a>’ and any <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002818089-Rule-calculate-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">‘calculate</a>’ rule can help improve your information in your data feed. Unfortunately, it was not guaranteed that numbers in your data feed with irregular decimal separators would be successfully modified.
<h3>Channable’s awesome new rule</h3>
As the Channable team is made up of perfectionists, it was important to make this experience as efficient as possible. Therefore, what you could previously do in 4 clicks now only takes one. This revolutionary reformat number rule allows you to switch your decimal separator to the format you desire. Here’s how it looks in the tool:

<img class="size-full wp-image-16471 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/m9Mx4yqYQXa7HpbjyEAK" alt="Format number rule in Channable" width="1339" height="518" />

<em>Note: It is important that this rule is always the last numerical rule that you apply. For instance, if you’re wanting to modify the process with a discount percentage then it is most convenient to use the reformat number rule later.</em>

Channable’s rules allow you to make powerful modifications to your data. There is a long list of rules that you can apply to help you to easily improve the data in your product data feed. Modifying descriptions, optimizing titles, and filtering out products with low stock levels are just some examples of the options available. Interested? Feel free to <a href="mailto:support@channable.com">contact the technical support team</a>, who will be happy to advise you on which rules can help you to optimize your feed.



Reformat the numbers in your feed

Google is undeniably the current search engine leader. According to <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stat counter</a>, 92% of internet searches were made with Google in 2018 worldwide. With such figures, it’s no surprise that advertising on Google is a favorite for online merchants. The success of this type of advertising is not only due to Google Ads, but also the unstoppable growth of Google Shopping.
<h2>What do product ratings in Google look like?</h2>
Product ratings on Google Shopping appear as a star rating. Written reviews can also appear in the organic search results in Google.
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-17038" src="https://media.graphcms.com/X2wrtnSkSUSPlkGxpPBu" alt="" width="1387" height="911" />

The rating is displayed on a scale that ranges from one to five stars. Ratings focus mainly on different aspects such as quality, materials, product features, user satisfaction, etc. Keep in mind, these ratings are for the product specifically not the seller. According to <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/6059553?hl=en-GB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google</a>, the overall rating is compiled from various sources.

By clicking on product ratings, a potential buyer will be brought to the Google Shopping product page where all reviews are displayed. In addition to the ratings, this product page also displays the list of sellers/online shops that stock the item, prices, special offers, shipping information, and seller ratings.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-17022" src="https://media.graphcms.com/MNwMId3SlSzFkgj9eXIw" alt="" width="1333" height="446" />
<h2>How do Google Product Ratings work?</h2>
Unlike the seller’s ratings, product ratings are specific to that individual product. Naturally, delivery experience, returns policy, and customer service all factor into a buying experience, Google product ratings are intended for the products themselves and not the sellers.

These product ratings are supplied by third parties, which can be different sellers, marketplaces, review sites, etc. To associate ratings to each product, Google uses unique product identifiers, such as GTIN or other data such as the SKU, the brand, manufacturer number (MPN), and the product URL.

If a search is very generic, for example “red t-shirt”, an overview of different models will be shown. When you click on one of the models, the ratings of the sellers will appear. Whereas, if a search term is more specific, includes the brand name or the specific seller, then only the ratings for this seller will be displayed.
<h2>Advantages of integrating product ratings into Google Shopping</h2>
<em>**Ratings and reviews can help you distinguish yourself from the competition.**</em>
Online shoppers are strongly influenced by the opinions of other consumers. Products with ratings are more distinguishable than those that do not, which improves conversions and therefore sales. If your listing has many positive reviews, it will be easier for you to sell.

<em>**More informed consumers**</em>
Opinions do not just allow one product to stand out against another, it also helps consumers make a decision. In most cases, product descriptions provided by sellers are often impersonal and partial, which makes customers wary. Therefore, customers value and trust the opinions of fellow customers more. Especially, when reviews provide information that is missing from the product description.

<em>**Improve your conversion rate**</em>
Customers who come to your online shop through Google Shopping are more likely to buy.
<h2>Steps to integrate reviews into Google Shopping with a Google Product Ratings feed</h2>
The first question you need to ask is: Do I have enough product reviews? You need to be able to supply <a href="/blog/infographic-product-feed-for-online-marketing">a feed</a> with a minimum of 50 reviews for all products, but where do you get them from? You can gather them from your own online shop, an external review site that you work with, and Google customer reviews.

Once you have enough reviews, follow the steps below:
<ol>
 	<li>First, you need to have a Google Merchant Center account that is linked to your online shop. If you do not yet have an account, you can find instructions on how to set one up in <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188924" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google’s support center</a>.</li>
 	<li>Before you upload the feed, you need to complete <a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/contact/product_ratings_interest_form?hl=en&amp;visit_id=637000781696320879-1333004373&amp;rd=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Google’s Product Ratings Interest form</a>.</li>
 	<li>Create the feed containing all the reviews. Google accepts it in an XML file format. Use Channable’s feed management tool to easily create such a file, notably as the required fields are already built into the tool. Meaning you can compile a Google Product Ratings feed in a few minutes.</li>
 	<li>Import the newly created XML/Product Ratings feed into the Merchant Center.</li>
</ol>
<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-17027" src="https://media.graphcms.com/Zu2vREKoTDydrlDq1pV2" alt="" width="658" height="518" />

With Channable, you can modify your product data feed to the specifications of many Google products. You can create the perfect feed for Google Shopping, Google Display, Google Product Ratings, and even the Google Manufacturer Center. You can also set up the structure of your Shopping campaigns or create thousands of ads for Google Ads with the dynamic Channable SEA tool that uses information from your product feed. Channable is the most complete tool for managing all your marketing efforts on Google.

How to embed product ratings into Google Shopping?

Google Shopping merchants received an announcement late January that Google will no longer support integrations with BigCommerce, <a href="/integrations/magento">Magento</a> or <a href="/integrations/prestashop">Prestashop </a> vendors from 20th March 2018 onwards. Google Merchants received an email from Sales &amp; Orders stating that the decision was made: “in order to better focus on solutions that will make the Shopping ads onboarding a more seamless experience. We’re continuing to work with e-commerce platforms to explore more frictionless integration opportunities.”

However, this does not mean the end for Google selling for webshop owners. The use of third parties to generate feeds and build API connections for Google Shopping remains supported.
<h2>Channable supports Google feeds and API</h2>
Channable has long supported feed generation and is continuously improving an API connection with Google Shopping. So rest assured, you can continue to sell on Google Shopping, as well as over 1000 more channels, and enjoy many more of Channable’s other features such as <a href="/products/marketplace-integrator">order connections</a> and <a href="/products/ppc-tool">SEA tool</a> for dynamic text ads and shopping campaigns.

With Channable you can optimize your product information to increase your discoverability on Google Shopping with our unique rules. So you can make sure that your titles and image links are optimized, before you appear on Google Shopping.

Channable wants to help everybody that has been affected by Google’s decision. We’ve created a special promo code* to ensure that you remain on Google Shopping as fast as possible. We will set up your Google Shopping feed free of charge when you use the promotional code: <b>GOOGLE_PROMO2018</b>. Hurry, <em>**this code expires 1st April 2018**</em> - and no, this is not an April’s fools joke. After you<a href="/signup"> create an account </a> , enter the code at the set up and one of us will be in contact asap to discuss the finer details. Make sure to take a look at your new feed and experiment with our rules to make your products shine!
<h2>Prestashop and Magento Channable Plug-Ins</h2>
If you have a Prestashop or Magento shop you can directly import your data feed into Channable with a plug-in. The plug-in incurs <i>no additional costs</i> and you can make use of any of our <a href="/pricing">monthly subscriptions</a> starting at 19 euros a month. It’s possible to import products into Channable if you use BigCommerce with an XML import. Once your import is complete, create a Google Shopping connection with just a few clicks. Channable's API connection is continuously being developed to ensure that a more seamless integration is offered.

Feel free to <a href="mailto: support@channable.com">contact us</a> if you have any questions regarding our tool, how our connections work or to have a good old rant about Google’s decision

Channable’s solution to Google’s decision to drop BigCommerce, Magento and Prestashop API connection

GDPR. Those 4 dreaded letters. The<a href="https://edps.europa.eu/data-protection/data-protection/legislation/history-general-data-protection-regulation_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> General Data Protection Regulation</a> has instilled a certain amount of frenzy in the past few months. It is a new EU regulation introduced to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe to protect and empower EU citizens. But it needn’t be as scary or stressful as the media make it out to be (who would’ve guessed?). Admittedly, it was about time to update online data protection regulations, the previous one having been put in place a whopping 23 years ago. A time before Google (just), Facebook and Amazon.

The GDPR is being put into place to regulate the collection, storage, transfer and usage of personal data. For people, this is great news. For companies, this may mean a lot of paperwork but also an opportunity for companies to shine light on how they process personal information. Accordingly, these types of companies are coined **controllers** or **processors**, depending on what they do with the information. The **controller** determines the purpose and means of processing the personal data. **Processors** basically process personal data on behalf of the controller.

Naturally, due to the industry Channable is involved in, Channable is a processor as it processes a certain amount of personal data e.g. names, email addresses, and, if you use the order connection feature, order shipping information. Channable has received many inquiries into the actions that are being taken in preparation for GDPR. So to be more efficient, this post will cover how Channable is affected by GDPR and what you need to do.

Firstly, Channable holds the personal data of its users e.g. names and email addresses. This data is stored and encrypted in Channable’s servers. Therefore, a new privacy policy has been created to better communicate how Channable uses the personal data that you provide. In order to continue using Channable’s tool, you will need to agree to the new privacy policy which can be found in the tool.

The other personal data Channable processes is related to our order connection feature. As a processor, Channable doesn’t interpret or use the personal data that is received from order connections. However, as many of Channable’s clients are sub-processors/controllers and have inquired about documentation, Channable has created its own Data Processing Amendment (DPA) to save you time and effort.

To see whether you will need to read and sign the agreement Channable has made, just follow the flowchart below.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9035" src="https://media.graphcms.com/8Zv5m2ZzQXiqfLKapxQb" alt="" width="800" height="1028" />

Depending on where you ended in the flowchart you will either have to do:

1) read and accept the new Privacy Policy

2) and read and sign the DPA

The new documents can be found in the tool under Company settings &gt; Legal &amp; compliance.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9020" src="https://media.graphcms.com/yoHaWbwQTGLkEg1eORRP" alt="screenshot channable GDPR" width="721" height="448" />
<h3>The new and improved Privacy Policy</h3>
Our reviewed Privacy Policy makes it clearer for you to know what data Channable stores about you, how it is protected and how you can amend/delete it.

Here's a brief summary of the Privacy Policy:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>If you use Channable, Channable may ask or gather personally identifiable information from you (e.g. email address, phone number, address) in order to contact, identify and invoice you</li>
 	<li>Channable may also collect information that your browser sends (e.g. IP address, browser type, browser version, the pages in our tool that you visit, the date of your visit) in order to improve the Channable tool or its website</li>
 	<li>Channable will never sell or trade any personal information to third parties</li>
 	<li>Channable will do everything in its power to protect and secure your personal information</li>
</ul>
Some ways your data may be used:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>To deal with inquiries you send to Channable</li>
 	<li>To create and administer records of how you use Channable</li>
 	<li>To provide you with information and access to resources that you request from Channable</li>
 	<li>To provide you with technical support</li>
 	<li>To improve Channable’s website</li>
 	<li>To improve Channable’s customer service</li>
 	<li>To send you more information about the company and new possibilities within the tool (via newsletters that you opted in to receive)</li>
</ul>
<h3>The Data Processing Amendment</h3>
For customers who benefit from our order connection feature, the DPA will be found in the tool, awaiting your approval. The document explains what Channable does with all the personal data that is retrieved from the order connections.

In short the DPA document states:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Channable uses 2 kinds of different "personal information": 1) information for delivering technical support and 2) information of clients' customers in the form of order information</li>
 	<li>Channable processes the personal data from order connections to provide you with order synchronization and with technical support if you seek it</li>
 	<li>Channable will not accept sensitive data (data that can be used to uniquely identify someone) for processing</li>
 	<li>Channable allows you to delete personal data at any given time on request whilst you’re a paying client of Channable</li>
 	<li>If you decide to stop using Channable and notify us of this termination, Channable will destroy or return any of your customer data that is in its possession if requested. Any deleted data will be properly deleted 30 days after the subscription has ended.</li>
 	<li>The security measures Channable currently has in place to protect your data are: the pseudonymization and/or encryption of personal data, the ability to ensure ongoing confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of data processing systems and services, and regularly testing and evaluating whether these measures are effective</li>
 	<li>The staff at Channable that work with personal data comply with Channable’s security measures</li>
 	<li>If a data incident occurs, it will be immediately communicated to you via email</li>
 	<li>If you would like to request an audit to verify our compliance with GDPR you are welcome to but you are responsible for any costs and you can only request it once in 12 months.</li>
 	<li>Within Channable, you are able to access customer data, correct any inaccurate customer data, restrict the processing of it and export or delete it</li>
 	<li>You authorize us to use sub-processors (though they’re only allowed to access and use customer data to the extent that they’re contracted to). A list of our sub-processors can be found in the document as they are subject to change.</li>
</ul>
You will need to agree to the new Privacy Policy, and potentially the DPA, to continue using Channable’s services.

Hopefully now you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that Channable has always prioritized data protection and privacy. Everybody at Channable tries their utmost best to deliver a service that you can trust in. If you’re not yet a customer of ours, feel free to <a href="/signup">create a free trial account </a>or <a href="mailto:support@channable.com">chat to one of our support members</a> to find out more about how Channable can make selling online a piece of (safe) cake.

A small update on what to expect from Channable’s GDPR preparations

Bing may be responsible for a modest <a href="https://gs.statcounter.com/search-engine-market-share/all/united-kingdom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">7.24% of the share from the search engine market in the UK</a>. But at the beginning of 2018 the search engine platform was counting, on average, <a href="https://secure.bingads.microsoft.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">6 billion monthly searches</a>. Therefore, there is no need for us to explain why there is definitely huge potential in using Bing Ads to reach your customers. Before telling you how to master Bing Ads and explaining to you how Channable can rock your Bing Ads, here is a little bit more insight into the service.
<h2>What are Bing Ads?</h2>
Bing Ads is essentially Microsoft’s version of Google AdWords. Similar to AdWords, Bing Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising system. It is part of the web search engine called Bing. Signing up to Bing Ads is free, you’ll pay only when someone clicks on your Text Ads. As Bing says: “no click, no charge”.
<h3><em>Text Ads</em></h3>
Once you’ve created your Text Ads in Bing, they will appear on the top or to the right of Bing, Yahoo, and MSN search results.
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone wp-image-9920 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/NaT8jbT361rGWTIjudCA" alt="" width="600" height="405" />
<em>How a text ad appears on Bing.</em></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Your ad position will be determined by different factors such as how high your bid is compared to your bidding competitors, your click-through rate or how closely your ad and website fit with the keyword. Similarly to AdWords, you can target your ads to geographic locations, times or days of the week, etc.</p>

<h3>**<em>Product listing Ads</em>**</h3>
Again, similar to Google, you can create Bing Shopping ads and use Shopping Campaigns to organize, manage, and bid for your Product Ads. Like with the Google Merchant Center, the Bing Merchant Center allows you to create Product Ads for each of your items. Product Ads showcase your items in a larger format with images, text, pricing, etc. Don’t mistake them with Text Ads (see the above picture for an example).
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone wp-image-9925 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/qnpjJuVmQty2PXRNFevY" alt="" width="600" height="405" />
<em>How a Product Ad will appear on Bing.</em></p>

<h2>Why should you use Bing Ads?</h2>
Of course, you don’t tell someone to “Bing” something but rather “Google” it. However, there are still good reasons for you to start using Bing Ads:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Bing Ads can connect you to millions of internet users that are NOT using Google.</li>
 	<li>The competition is lower than AdWords and therefore Bing Ads is known to be “cheaper” than AdWords.</li>
 	<li>If you're already using Google Adwords, you can easily sync your campaigns to Bing Ads, but this comes with constraints*.</li>
</ul>
* <em>Imagine you want to create a specific campaign for Bing, this option will prevent you from it. But if you are using Channable and our SEA tool, you can copy your ads’ templates to the Bing Ads generator and still manage your ads specifically for Bing exactly as you want them to be.</em>
<h2>Bing Ads within Channable</h2>
Maybe you already know that Channable has a <a href="/products/ppc-tool" target="_blank" rel="noopener">special SEA</a> tool that enables you to create thousands of dynamic ads for AdWords based on the information in your product feed. Therefore we thought, why not offer a similar feature for Bing Ads!
Here a handful of reasons why it’s a good idea to use a tool like Channable to create your Bing Ads:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>The SEA tool is very intuitive and user friendly, which helps you to create your campaigns effortlessly.</li>
 	<li>Automatically create thousands of customized Bing Ads based on your feed with the ad template.</li>
 	<li>Everything will be updated automatically: Channable retrieves all new information from your feed daily or even up till every hour and updates your ads accordingly.</li>
 	<li>New items are automatically added, into the right campaign and ad group, and with the correct advertisement.</li>
 	<li>You decide which (dynamic) attributes you’d like to use in your text ad (i.e fluctuating price, brand, title or stock).</li>
 	<li>Create your own A/B testing template: generate different ad templates for your items in just a few clicks to see which ad performs better.</li>
</ul>
In Channable, there are two ways to easily generate your Bing campaigns.

1) As mentioned above, you can copy rules and templates from Channable’s AdWords generators into your Bing Ads generators. After that, you can fine-tune the ads for Bing, within Channable, in anyway you like.
<p style="text-align: center;"><img class="alignnone wp-image-9926 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/EHzyTZGdT6adCDKTVPpg" alt="Bing Ads Channable" width="600" height="372" />
<em>Push thousands of custom ads for all of your items to Bing.</em></p>
2) Generate your campaigns for Bing from scratch, based on the feed containing all your items’ information. The first step in creating ads is selecting the level on which you want your campaigns to be generated (i.e. brand level - would create a campaign for every brand in your feed). The next step is to simply construct your Bing ad groups, ads, keywords and negative keywords. Channable’s Bing ads generators and templates make advertising with Bing simple and easy to implement.
<p style="text-align: left;">So, if you already know <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/categories/115000528889-Dynamic-Ads" target="_blank" rel="noopener">how the SEA tool works within Channable</a> you can get started right away! If you don’t have yet a Channable account, <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sign up here</a>. If you do, <a href="/contact">contact us </a>to enable the Bing feature for you and start setting up your Bing campaigns, as it works pretty much in the same way! Awesome, right?</p>

Why you should consider using Bing Ads

Channable’s rules are the (not so) secret behind being able to optimize and modify data to perfection. You may already be familiar with the <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002828085-Rule-group-items" target="_blank" rel="noopener">group items rule</a>, which is used to merge multiple items together under one item if there are variants i.e. of size or color. There is also the deduplicate items rule, which can be used to keep the item with the lowest variable of a group e.g. the item with the lowest price. To further improve what you can do with grouped items, Channable’s special “Calculate item group” rules have been introduced.

This overarching rule includes: COUNT ITEMS, CALCULATE SUM and FIND HIGHEST/LOWEST VALUE.

With the rules it is now easier and faster to:
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Get an overview of how many items are in an existing (or newly created custom) group.</li>
 	<li>Find the total sum of a variable for all the items that are in the group. For example, the total sum of stock for all the items in a group.</li>
 	<li>Easily find the lowest value in a group, which makes advertising on the lowest price easier</li>
 	<li>Find the highest value of the group, which can be useful for communicating the highest discount</li>
</ul>
For a full overview of how to implement these rules, and for more examples, <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360007539014-Rule-Item-group-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener">consult our help centre article</a>.

Channable’s new group rules

**Sell in the land of watches and chocolate**
From 2012 to 2017, the e-commerce sector grew by 53% and this trend will continue over the next few years. Even if it took the Swiss a bit longer to use online marketplaces, nowadays Swiss consumers love to shop online. Last year, they spent almost 9 billion Swiss Francs (spread amongst only 8 million inhabitants) on the internet. In 2017, almost 20 percent of all online sales were made on webshops from abroad. According to <a href="https://blog.carpathia.ch/2018/02/20/vsv-gfk-zahlen-2017" target="_blank" rel="noopener">carpathia</a> over the next three years, foreign trade is expected to rapidly increase by another 20 percent. Now is the perfect time to start an expansion into Switzerland. Do you want to jump on the bandwagon? You can profit from the success of international marketplaces and the trend of shopping from abroad if you join the Swiss market now.

<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-11682" src="https://media.graphcms.com/FXBWIwi8TPeZ83bG49H2" alt="" width="900" height="512" />

**The Swiss particularities**
International online retailers are on the rise and are unstoppable. But, how do you conquer a market that is resilient? This is a question raised by many online retailers who want to sell their items in Switzerland. Swiss people like Swiss products but competition from abroad is increasingly putting Swiss online retailers under pressure. The Swiss online marketplaces have to compete with vendors and marketplaces from abroad. The online marketplace, Digitec Galaxus, is still the market leader but international players in e-commerce are catching up. Players such as Amazon - who only launched in Switzerland in 2018, Zalando and AliExpress were all in the top 10 top-selling marketplaces in Switzerland last year.

Foreign vendors must make an extra effort and offer good deals to convince Swiss citizens to commit to purchasing. Alongside logistical and administrative hurdles there are further obstacles such as insufficient product information. Product specifications must be communicated as clearly as possible, which can be solved easily with a feed management tool if international vendors want to successfully sell their goods and services in Switzerland.

**Climbing over the Matterhorn to reach the Swiss market**
Cross-border trade in Switzerland requires some knowledge in the areas of VAT, customs clearance and logistics. In many cases, it pays off to work with logistics partners who are specialized in offering tailor-made solutions.

**What are the most important points to consider when trading online from abroad to Switzerland?**
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**Language:**
Multilingualism is an important feature of Switzerland as there are 4 official national languages spoken in the small country. If your online shop is available in at least two languages (German and French are the majorities) you already have an advantage in the Swiss market.</li>
 	<li>**Currency:**
The goods and services should be offered in Swiss Francs. Not only the price but also the payment methods are decisive. According to the ecommerce news magazine, bill payment is the most popular method, but credit card, PayPal and PostFinance should not be missed. If you sell your products only on marketplaces, no need to adapt the currency on your website, because the sale will take place directly on the marketplace. Problem solved!</li>
 	<li>**Customs and shipping:**
When importing your products, you must complete a customs declaration for each parcel with the price of the goods in Swiss Francs. For each package there is an import and sales tax. That sounds pretty complicated and laborious? That's why there are logistic solutions that pick up orders in your existing warehouse in Europe and process the entire import customs clearance. You don’t need a warehouse or company location in Switzerland to offer customers the same ordering convenience as Swiss e-commerce retailers. For returns, you will receive a refund for the import duties. More information can be found at the <a href="https://www.ezv.admin.ch/ezv/en/home/information-companies/declaring-goods/importation-into-switzerland/courier-by-post--online-shopping--mail-order-company.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Swiss Customs Administration</a>.</li>
 	<li>**Taxes:**
Value added tax (VAT) is very low in Switzerland. It amounts to 7,7% of the assessment basis. A reduced rate of 2.5% applies for certain goods (e.g. edibles, books, magazines and medications).</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

<img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-11793 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/c1WUFI3zTdSZU1cpjqzw" alt="" width="555" height="1024" />

**The most lucrative Swiss marketplaces**
The <a href="https://www.galaxus.ch/en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Digitec Galaxus AG</a> and <a href="https://www.ricardo.ch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ricardo</a> are the main Swiss marketplaces in the e-commerce market.
<ul markdown>
 	<li>**Digitec Galaxus**
Digitec Galaxus AG is the largest online marketplace in Switzerland. With about one million active customers, Digitec Galaxus is the #1 online store in Switzerland. It had 861 Billion revenue on the platforms digitec.cg and galaxus.ch in 2017. Both marketplaces offer a broad and growing sortiment. Digitec Galaxus works with established and select vendors. As a retailer, you pay no basic fees but will be subject to a sales commission, when you sell an item. For EU merchants Galaxus offers a customs clearance solution, the EU hub. Read more about <a href="https://www.galaxus.ch/en/page/become-a-merchant-12462">how to become a merchant</a>.</li>
 	<li>**ricardo**
ricardo.ch is more than just a marketplace, it’s an online auction house and has a very high reach in Switzerland. The listing of products on ricardo is free. You only pay a commission fee of 9% on each sale.</li>
</ul>
The following channels are also very popular in Switzerland: Amazon, Zalando, AliExpress, Wish, Facebook, Shopping.ch and Google Shopping.

Channable offers marketplace connections to Digitec Galaxus and ricardo, and links to many other Swiss online sales channels. With our tool you can adapt your product data according to the requirements of the marketplaces and list your products automatically on the channels.
Do you want to start selling in Switzerland? <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get started</a> and conquer the Swiss market!

How to conquer the Swiss online market

The first Black Friday was in 1951, the first Cyber Monday in 2005. While these days were mainly a US phenomena for a long time, in the last couple of years Europe also joined the hunt for perfect deals. In 2017, 91% of UK retailers offered Black Friday deals (as opposed to 81% in the US). In the EU, customers spent 508 percent more on Black Friday than they did on an average Friday. Revenues are increasing every year, so it’s the perfect time to join the bustle! With our 6 tips, you won’t miss out on the hordes of customers.
<h2>Get started</h2>
Everything starts with a plan. Think about what your marketing budget is, what your discount will be, which products are relevant for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and where you want to sell or promote: marketplaces, comparison websites, affiliate networks, social advertising, etc.
<h2>Be seen where it’s relevant</h2>
To reach as many potential customers as possible, you’ll want to be seen. This might already be a challenge on normal days, but for the kickoff of the holiday sales you'll be in need of additional exposure. Channable’s got your back! Decide which platforms are relevant for your business and get there with Channable. Easily send your product feed in to more than <a href="/integrations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2500 marketplaces, price comparison websites and affiliate platforms</a>. One of the advantages of using a feed management tool for increasing exposure is that your product data (prices, stock, etc) on platforms are synchronized with your website. Pretty relevant during a period where you offer sale prices and stock level might vary, right?
<h2>Filter &amp; optimize your products</h2>
Depending on the platform, you have to decide if you really want to advertise all products - or only the ones that are on sale, top sellers or premium products. You could <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827265-What-are-examples-of-common-rules-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">filter products</a> and only send e.g. products over €50 to Amazon. Or, how about automatically <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002827585-Rule-append-value" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">adding the word ‘SALE’ to every title</a>, or adding the original price into the description? That’s all possible without hassle. Learn <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmI9QpxXZsc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">how to optimize your product feed</a> before exporting it! Don’t forget to <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002817249-How-do-I-filter-items-using-rules-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exclude items</a> that are out of stock.
<h2>Advertise anywhere</h2>
In addition to the people who are already browsing price comparison websites or marketplaces, you might want to reach the shoppers who haven’t decided yet and surprise them with your Black Friday deal. Think: Facebook Ads, Google or Bing Text Ads, Google Shopping or display ads through affiliates. How do you use them without spending days creating campaigns? Easy, with Channable you can adjust your product feed to the needs of the export platform, even set up entire search campaigns, ad groups and ads <a href="/products/ppc-tool" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">with a few clicks</a>.
<h2>Show what you’ve got</h2>
It’s important to display the most recent stock level so that customers don’t try to order products that might be sold out. Many export platforms fetch product information once a day, even Channable does by default. That means that your stock level on export platforms can be a day old. To always have the latest stock information, Channable offers extra runs. This way your product information gets updated up to 24 times per day. Therefore, customers won’t leave your site disappointed after they realize that your product is sold out. Check out Channable’s <a href="/extra-runs" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">holiday promotion</a> for extra runs! Note: Make sure the export platform allows multiple updates a day if you want to benefit from the extra runs.
<h2>Sell fast, send fast - The aftermath</h2>
Congrats, you’ve made it through Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and you’ve sold more than you expected! That’s awesome. The money has been made, now you have to please your customers by sending them their new goods as fast as possible. With Channable’s order connections, all your orders from various marketplaces can be imported automatically into your shop system . No more copy-pasting addresses, or manually updating stock numbers. A direct API-connection between your online store and the marketplace syncs everything automatically. At the time of writing, Channable supports order connections with Magento, Lightspeed, WooCommerce, Divide, Prestashop and Shopify shops. If you are not using any of the mentioned shop systems, you can connect your shopsystem to the Channable API. Read more about <a href="/products/marketplace-integrator" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">order connections</a>.

Ready to begin the sale of the year? <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Start your Channable trial now! </a>

How you can get the most out of Black Friday & Cyber Monday

Channable is a tool that can convert your <a href="/integrations/xml-converter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">XML</a> to <a href="/integrations/csv-converter">CSV</a> (or even your Google Spreadsheet or TXT file), but the tool can be used for much more than just converting a file. This data feed management tool is perfect for managing, editing and working on your data. It will give you all the freedom to tweak your data in the easiest way possible and convert from many different types of files to a custom CSV or other. Channable can be THE solution for these issues: you face problems such as modifying data in hundreds of different Excel files, you have to combine data from different files with a different format, or you are facing difficulties editing fields in your file with the Excel formulas, etc.
<h2>On the import level</h2>
You can easily import your XML to convert it into a CSV later on. This is not the only supported format: XML, CSV, TXT or Google Spreadsheet are also accepted. The big advantage of Channable is that you can import more than one file and all of them can be with a totally different format. This is very useful if your data is spread across many files that are in different formats. Simply, import, combine or merge your XML, CSV, TXT or Google Spreadsheet.

<img class="size-full wp-image-12545 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/yKRP7GKTSIOGU2T1lvDa" alt="With Channable convert any file to create a new custom CSV" width="945" height="170" />
<em>Have a look at a short instruction here:</em>
<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kb6YMUa7XtI" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h2>Edit and adapt all your data</h2>
One of the best features in Channable is the rule section. In that section, you can easily manage your data. This can be done with our IF-THEN statements, which are extremely powerful and yet so easy to use.
<h3>A non exhaustive list of what you can do with these rules:</h3>
<ul markdown>
 	<li>Set up actions which allow you to filter on data</li>
 	<li>Exclude data you don’t want to include in the CSV</li>
 	<li>Enrich your data by appending values such as an optimized description or brand name in any field</li>
 	<li>Limit a field to a certain amount of characters</li>
 	<li>Enrich your data by adding columns (fields) and filling them as desired</li>
</ul>
<img class="size-full wp-image-12550 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/ebgLsKPKQImaASL1REwx" alt="Combine values with Channable rules" width="1327" height="496" />

This is one idea on how to use the rules within Channable but the possibilities are endless and it is way more user-friendly than Excel. If you want more ideas on what can be done, check out <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/categories/115000535005-Rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our guides</a>.
<h2>Export your custom CSV</h2>
Once you’ve modified the data within the rules section, you can either export all the fields or select which ones you want to export to your new CSV. This way, you’ll avoid having too many useless fields in your newly made custom CSV file. Furthermore, decide in which order you want your data or what will be the names of the columns.

There are more conversion options in Channable than just XML to CSV; you can also create a TXT file, another XML file (also a unescaped XML file), a JSON file or even a RSS feed.

<img class="size-full wp-image-12548 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/2qUJDIKzQAK81VzzNL4Y" alt="Convert XML to csv with Channable" width="1174" height="136" />

Want to use Channable to manage your data? Then <a href="/pricing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">check which plan would suit you best</a> and <a href="/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">get started now</a>!

Convert any file to create a new custom CSV

Google’s expanded ad template was introduced mid-2018. An <a href="https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7056544?hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">expanded Google ad</a> allows advertisers to write three headlines, as opposed to two, and an additional description of 90 characters. The ability to expand ads was <a href="https://www.iprospect.com/en/us/our-blog/googles-expanded-text-ads-are-now-bigger-and-better/#" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warmly welcomed</a> by the marketing commuting and Channable saw to implement the expanded text ads structure immediately. The additional headline and description are optional but give marketers an extra 120 characters to communicate more information.

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-12963 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/M8kWlwFnS82xHKXtv5k0" alt="" width="1500" height="561" />

This option to share more information is great news. Especially if your ad headlines currently only contain vital information and you feel limited for creativity. For example, you currently advertise on the brand name and your own USP but have little room for much else. This third headline gives you the option to add a second USP such as free shipping, a call to action, or temporary information such as seasonal promotional messages. With Channable’s dynamic template, automating expanded text ads and modifying a third headline is simplified. Notably as you can communicate dynamic information such as price or availability without pausing ads.
<h1>Sitelinks are also here!</h1>
To further improve your ad and click through rate, use sitelinks. They are also available in Channable’s ad templates. Sitelinks appear as additional URLs in a search ad and can provide users with immediate access to e.g. your phone number, your opening hours, special offers. You can have up to six sitelinks, and a minimum of two.

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-12964 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/ZMjfY0vUQ36qbjJFE9OQ" alt="" width="1500" height="997" />

Sitelinks are great as you can edit them without creating new ads or losing performance data of your ads. Sitelinks also help you get a better understanding of your clicks and what information your potential customers want the most.

Improve and automate your Google ads with Channable’s dynamic expanded ad template. Then, watch your ad performance and click through rate boom. For a demo of the SEA tool, just <a href="/demo">fill out our demo form</a> and a Channable expert will be in contact asap.

Channable’s new and improved ad template: Google expanded ads and sitelinks

<h2>What’s new?</h2>
If you’ve activated <a href="/products/marketplace-integrator" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Channable’s Order Connections</a>, you’ll already be benefiting from the synchronisation i.e. of order information, stock levels, track and trace status, from a marketplace such as Amazon or Bol.com straight into the backend of your online store.

The order information that Channable processes can now be downloaded as a CSV file.
<h2>Why would I want orders in a CSV?</h2>
Whilst an overview within Channable is very nice, many of you requested whether you could easily extract the information for your own information processing.

Having the CSV can be useful for your own documentation, reportage and record keeping.
<h2>How do I do it?</h2>
There’s a handy “Download as CSV” button in the bottom right corner of the order overview page within Channable. You can set a specific date range for the download, as otherwise the default is the previous month.

<img class="size-full wp-image-12541 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/vqzlfGPQSWEP1BQ8KLNh" alt=" Download Orders as CSV within Channable" width="1320" height="705" />
<h2>More Information?</h2>
For a screenshot and some more information about finding the order connection in Channable you can take a look at <a href="https://support.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013185094-Download-orders-and-order-returns-as-CSV" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the help centre article</a>.

New Feature: Download Orders as a CSV

In the Netherlands alone, approximately 124 million kilos of textiles per year end up in rubbish tips and are incinerated, which makes reusing clothes deemed fundamental in today’s mass produced society. The trend is not a new one but it’s one that deserves promotion. Year on year unsustainable, fast fashion is having lasting effects. A clothes swap is an event that can stimulate reusing clothes and improve the CO2 footprint of individuals. Afterall, as the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
<h2>But how?</h2>
Channable’s marketing team took responsibility to schedule the event, hunt for resources - everything from sourcing hangers and mirrors to what refreshments to serve - and manage correspondence with the charities.

The charity chosen to raise money for was Make-A-Wish. A charity that Channable has long supported and is particularly important to certain employees. Make-A-Wish is an organization that goes about fulfilling the wishes of terminally ill children.

In addition, any left over clothes were donated to the ReShare movement by Leger des Heils (The Salvation Army). Leger des Heils is the largest clothing collector in the Netherlands and recycles around 26 million kilos of clothing a year, either to new owners or breaks materials down to be repurposed.

&nbsp;

<img class="wp-image-14152 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/fE1nTRxBQAW5DzdaanjJ" alt="clothes swap channable" width="461" height="346" />

&nbsp;
<h2>The day</h2>
The evening itself was a lot of fun for everyone involved. It consisted of prosecco, sushi, laughs but most importantly clothes swapping. Everyone at the office contributed to the mountain of clothes that was up for grabs. In return, everyone walked away with many new items and yet over seven bags of clothing were salvaged and donated. In addition, over 130 euros was collected and donated to Make-A-Wish.

It is Channable’s honour to be able to participate in more sustainable initiatives and support the projects that are important to its colleagues. To read more about what other sustainable contributions Channable has made to society, check the CSR page.

<img class=" wp-image-14149 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/4NwlF4GjQuaSTsIBfCbv" alt="Channable clothes swap " width="500" height="375" />

Channable clothes swap: Spring cleaning never felt so good

<h2>Move around</h2>
From the beginning of Channable, there has been standing desks. For those who are not familiar with this concept, it’s a desk that can be altered in height. It means you do not have to be bound to sitting at (or, in some not so exceptional cases, lying on) your desk; providing you with the choice to sit or stand whilst working. When Channable moved offices in August 2017, it recognized people’s enthusiasm for these height adjusting desks and ditched all other types of desks, to make sure everybody would always have the possibility to switch up positions throughout the day.
<h2>Move even more</h2>
There are many kinds of people; one kind loves to stretch and flex their muscles more than the others. For that reason, as of May 2018, yoga sessions are hosted at the beautiful Channable office once a week. A qualified yoga instructor leads an hour of Vinyasa Yoga, to ensure that the Channable yogis move every muscle, providing relief to all the aches and pains that come with desk jobs.

<img class="wp-image-14160 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/lpZo6sCUSuGooqPaxGJe" alt="Channable yoga" width="491" height="368" />
<h2>Relax to the max</h2>
To start 2018 in the best way, Channable’s employees had the pleasure of welcoming Esther. Ever since, Esther has become everyone's favorite person to see around the office. You may be wondering, who Esther is? Well, Esther is a masseuse! Everyone at Channable gets to enjoy twenty whole minutes of pure relaxation during their workday.

Esther mentions on her <a href="https://de-stoelmasseur.nl" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> “I love to give people some time to themselves in which they can relax and reenergize”. Isn’t that all that a company could wish for? A team of relaxed and energized people, able to give their best.
<h2>The Channable soccer team</h2>
Next to weekly yoga classes, Channable also has a footy team that plays every week. The team, ‘Rentable’, consists of men and women from both Channable and Rentman and plays every Wednesday evening against another local company or team of friends. Whereas ‘normal’ soccer seasons tend to have a break during winter and summer, these die-hards play a match every week, three seasons a year, come rain or shine. If you’re ever in the neighborhood and recognize our orange/blue kits; come see some winners in action.

<img class="wp-image-14161 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/z1htz57lR6qbzgdhhXtF" alt="" width="495" height="329" />

If none of the above suit you, there are many other hobbies or after-work activities to be found at Channable. Many Channable employees regularly play Ping Pong, and really test their skills at the biannual tournament. Next to that, there are groups that meet to batter opponents in squash, battle on the padel court, and climb to new heights in bouldering halls.

For some, sports are just not their thing. These Channable employees can often be found hanging out at the in-house bar or playing a heated game of FIFA. Even better still? Channable’s doors are open to their friends, family, clients, prospects and more, so feel free to join if you want to see how Channable play!

Channable loves its people

<h2>Recognize, encourage and appreciate</h2>
It can be difficult for young artists to start a career and gain visibility. That’s why Channable wants to offer a platform with this initiative. Channable has opted for a collaboration with the Fine Art course at the HKU. Hanging the works from this creative resource in Utrecht makes Channable proud.
<h2>New in old</h2>
At the HKU, the students of the Fine Art program learn to develop ideas, translate them into visual work and display their own style. In January 2018, Channable started a project to alternately hang the artwork of Fine Art students in its offices. This gives the third-year students an opportunity to display their art on the walls of a beautiful old building in the center of Utrecht. Consequently, the employees and visitors of Channable can enjoy the creations from the latest art generation from Utrecht. The art pieces are on loan to Channable, which means the student is financially compensated for their decorative contribution to the Channable office.
<h2>Introducing the latest artist</h2>
First up is Robin Speijer. She caught our eye with the special details she incorporates into her paintings.

[caption id="attachment_14244" align="aligncenter" width="267"]<img class="wp-image-14244" src="https://media.graphcms.com/LaCvvtizQA2YR62b5WSN" alt="laces robin speijer" width="267" height="345" /> Robin Speijer. Laces, 2017.[/caption]
<blockquote>"I am fascinated by details and I paint different textures enlarged on canvas or panel. Soft materials, such as hair and textiles, are often the subject of my paintings. During my process, I collect many photographs from which I make a selection and frame a detail. I search for certain combinations of colors, light, contrast, and levels of sharpness. I then make a series of paintings in which I depict the material in various ways."</blockquote>
<em>You can view more of Robin's work here: <a href="https://robinspeijer.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://robinspeijer.com</a></em>

The second young talent is Bas Heinen. Bas has been drawing since childhood and was 21 when his art was chosen for the Channable office. In order to be able to work more with contrasts and colors, he started painting and in 2015, he started the Fine Arts course at the HKU.

[caption id="attachment_14249" align="aligncenter" width="313"]<img class=" wp-image-14249" src="https://media.graphcms.com/BSeQrN2eQpqP6ZhZJYFu" alt="Blue morning Bas Heinen" width="313" height="290" /> Bas Heinen. Blue, Morning, 2018[/caption]
<blockquote>"I am interested in depicting the environment with an emphasis on nature. In my paintings, the focus is on creating a serene representation of my impressions on canvas. The works exhibited at Channable offer a moment of peace in the hectic lives of the Channable team. During the painting process, I examine various ways in which nature can be depicted. In each series, I try to work with light, contrast, and depth in different ways, to convey the atmosphere as accurately as possible."</blockquote>
&nbsp;

Young company supports young artists

It's getting colder outside and we are slowly approaching Christmas. Millions of people are looking for the perfect gift for their loved ones. As many people don't want to leave their house to participate in the Christmas shopping marathon, they order their presents from home - online. So the question is: Is your online store ready for the Christmas business? With these tips, we are sure you will succeed and sell more.
<h3>1. Your homepage</h3>
**Responsive design**
Ever tried to scroll from one side of a homepage to the other on a mobile device? Then you know - it's not fun. Nowadays, responsive design is a must for every homepage and online store. Make sure to offer your potential customers the best homepage experience and invest in a responsively designed website.

**Optimize website speed**
3 seconds is all you have - this is the maximum amount of time it takes a website user to leave when a page is not responding. Increase the speed of your website and improve your user experience to encourage browsing and purchasing.

**Christmas design and festive layout**
Get potential customers into the Christmas spirit. Change teasers and slideshows into a winter wonderland, feature seasonal products and display high-quality pictures, graphics and/or videos. These will grab the customer’s attention and result in a longer stay on your homepage, which could lead to higher conversion rates.
<h3>2. Products</h3>
**Promote best-sellers**
Do you have any best-sellers that continually perform well throughout the year? Make a special promotion presenting them as an "often bought by others" or apply a discount on those products. If they sell well during the year, they will probably also perform well over Christmas.

**Modify product descriptions**
Add value to your products with holiday-specific pictures or modified product descriptions. Add for example "Perfect for Christmas" or "the perfect Christmas present" etc. so your products appear on the search terms "Christmas" or "present".

**Stock**
Prepare for potential stock shortages! Get an alert before your stock falls to zero. By increasing your minimum stock level, you will be able to process your orders without stress or stock shortages. Exclude products which are out of stock to make sure that only available items are shown. You can update your data several times a day on those marketplaces to ensure that your products are shown with up-to-date information on price comparison sites, display ads or others. Another way to encourage customers to finalize their purchases is to post how much stock you have left.
<h3>3. Increase traffic</h3>
**Rethink your advertising strategy**
lure more visitors to your e-commerce platform with the help of Google AdWords or remarketing to reach a higher conversion rate. With Channable you are able to optimize your product feeds and even feed based text within minutes.

**Place your products on price comparison sites**
Consumers will compare your prices on the internet. So make sure to be found on any price-comparison site that is relevant for your business.

**Consider selling on marketplaces**
Have you just started a web store and people don't know about you yet? Then consider selling your products on online marketplaces. Each month, there are millions of unique visitors on Amazon, Cdiscount or eBay <a href="/integrations?channel=marketplace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">(you can find more marketplaces here)</a>. Take advantage of their name, amount of visitors and customers to sell more!
<h3>4. Deliveries</h3>
**Communicate delivery times**
Have you ever been desperate for your package to arrive on time? Then you know how crucial it is to communicate the exact delivery time. Check the delivery deadlines with your couriers prior to guaranteeing delivery before Christmas to your customers. Communicate all the delivery times, even if they are after Christmas day.

**Free delivery and packaging service**
Free delivery is one of the top reasons to buy online and spend more money (as shoppers are saving on delivery costs). Also, make your customers happy by offering free gift wrapping, for example for Amazon you can easily share this information in Channable’s attribute builder. Regular shoppers will appreciate the service. Don't forget to buy enough wrapping paper and scotch tape!

**Return policy**
Offer free returns and a longer return period than usual. No need to stress people out during their Christmas break to return unwanted presents. Give them at least 30 days to return their unwanted gifts.

So, are you ready for this year's holiday shopping? If you need help on optimizing your product feeds, setting up your marketplaces or feed based text ads, let us know. We will support you by setting up your first product feed in our feed management tool. Test it now for free and ask for a demo from one of our experts. Happy Christmas selling everybody!

How to sell more: Get ready for the online holiday shoppers

Today, boxing day is more well known as the day after Christmas when the infamous end of year sales begin and the masses flock to the high street to subtly exchange those unwanted Christmas gifts. Luckily, shoppers can now enjoy the Boxing Day sales from the comfort of their sofa. But are you ready, as online retailers, for the final surge of sales for Britain and other commonwealth countries this year?

Channable’s data feed optimization tool means that you also won’t need to lift too many fingers because as, you’ll all know, rules to filter, optimize, and complete your product information are made in just a few seconds! So you can instead spend the day with loved ones, catching up on the new Doctor Who special or simply digesting. Here are some of our top rules for Boxing Day:

**Sales means sale prices**
If you’re going to participate in the Boxing Day Sales you will need to advertise on your sale price. <em>Note:</em> Make sure not to just change your price in Channable if you use feeds because the comparison website or other platform might reject your product if your ad price differs from your webshop. To add a sale price field in your import feed/own webshop and use this figure. You can either: use rules to copy the sale price into the price field…

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7443" src="https://media.graphcms.com/0DUlWbZ5TQORT2qKmMHf" alt="" width="952" height="416" />

...or, in the finalize step, map the sale price to either the sale price field or the price field if there isn’t the sales price channel field (just make sure all your products include a sale price).

<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7448" src="https://media.graphcms.com/AOjrvqVRwGKRsSIml8AI" alt="" width="900" height="365" />

You could go one step further if you could choose to advertise products with a certain discount percentage. For example, you want to only push advertisement’s whose sale prices are 20% less than the retail price. You can do this by using the calculate rule. See our example below:

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7451" src="https://media.graphcms.com/gIJOxBGBT2eI74VSzUA3" alt="" width="700" height="708" />

Above we calculated what the percentage is by creating a new mapping field (price_discount_percent), first subtracting the price from the sale price (to calculate the difference) then dividing the difference by the initial price and multiplying this value by 100. This was the end result:

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7452" src="https://media.graphcms.com/aNFudli2T9OREtjc0JMO" alt="" width="286" height="238" />

This percentage field can now also be appended to the title. You can then decide what you would like to do with products that have an exceptionally high/low discount, perhaps a rule to exclude products which have a discount percentage which is too high or too low, or sell them at their normal price without the sales discount, or even sell high discount products on different channels. The possibilities are endless!

**Boxing Day AdWords Campaigns**
Modify your AdWords advertisements to include boxing day keywords, limited stock keywords and sale prices. Channable allows you to include dynamic ad customizer fields so you don’t need to constantly monitor all of your campaigns; then you can push them all with a few simple clicks!

<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7453" src="https://media.graphcms.com/AjgzuCF6QZWtY7J0dNXc" alt="" width="900" height="246" />

**Add size to the title when the stock level is low**
This is a great rule to include if you want to avoid wasting money on CPC when certain sizes are out of stock. Check out our simple Channable method to do this below:

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7454" src="https://media.graphcms.com/Ub11x113Rmmv8NOvaNXZ" alt="" width="969" height="496" />

**Prepare in advance!**
In Channable you can create rules now that can be paused until Boxing Day. This way you can fine-tune them and activate them at the right time, so you can have even more precious time to yourself on the 26th.

<img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-7455" src="https://media.graphcms.com/gu7MKSgCQKU1E9JMej1E" alt="" width="900" height="338" />

We even have rules that are based on a date if you have the promotional period in your data feed, so you don’t even need to unpause them yourself. Just create a rule that uses “if” the date is in the promotional range i.e. 26th December, “then” push the specific products with promotional values. You can even append certain expressions to the title for this specific period, like in the example below.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7456" src="https://media.graphcms.com/3AGosghzS06p49H5UxA3" alt="" width="827" height="490" />
<br><br/>
**Ensure you don’t run out of stock! **
Best case scenario, you sell everything! However, be sure to allow yourself a safety net to ensure that you can fulfill all those orders. Channable can offer to run your feeds multiple times a day at an extra price (contact us to find out more!). However, check with the channel first to see if running your feed multiple times is feasible, as it depends on the update time of your own data and the time the platform updates the information.

If you’re selling on a marketplace that uses an API connection and you have order processing active, you can include rules to exclude all products if your stock level falls below a certain amount.

Channable's top Boxing Day rules (aside from relaxing)

<h3><b>An insight into today’s job industry</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The job industry is a dynamic and fast paced market with vast numbers of job vacancies opening and closing daily. Job agencies are also faced with the huge task of managing job ads for multiple markets, cities and even countries. The magnitude of online job vacancy data feeds has led to an increase of issues. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Issues such as: displaying and paying for job ads that have already been fulfilled, not reaching the correct candidates, not meeting the specifications of a selected job board or other platform and finding that individually uploading, modifying and pausing ads is (inevitably) time consuming and expensive.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Display advertisements, text ads and job boards, are just a few channels and methods of how jobs vacancies can be spread. However, they in turn are coupled with their own issues. If you want to reach the maximum number of people in your market, you’ll want your ads to be visible on as many outlets as possible. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Creating new job ads every time a vacancy is opened is an ordeal in itself. But the moment those vacancies are filled, it is necessary to go through and pause or update every single ad on every single platform. Luckily, some of these platforms allow you to upload your feed, happy days! Unfortunately, the necessary information is different for every job board, so lots of time is spent filling it in manually. Furthermore, remember those text ads you wanted to create on job level...good news, there is a way to simplify the process. </span>
<h3><b>Introducing: Feed management possibilities for advertising jobs</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Data feed management tools like Channable can provide both employers and job agencies with the means to ease the process of:</span>
<ul markdown>
 	<li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ensuring that job vacancies are posted at the appropriate time to the right audience</span></li>
 	<li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Automatically pause job adverts that have already been fulfilled</span></li>
 	<li><span style="font-weight: 400;">Save time, money and resources by using only one dashboard to advertise job openings everywhere online</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">By using Channable as a middle man between your data feed and the places for displaying job openings, stakeholders of the job industry can relax. The information can be smoothly managed during the day, minimizing the need to manipulate it manually out of office hours.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">But don’t take it from a blog post, Blue Mango Interactive is a marketing agency for Randstad, one of the world’s leading HR service providers, and also a happy Channable client:</span>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">"With more than 4,000 vacancies in 26 different industries in 2,402 cities continuously throughout The Netherlands, Randstad is one of the biggest job boards in The Netherlands. Thanks to Channable's ad generators, we can create, activate and pause all these Randstad vacancies automatically and in real time with very specific and dynamic keywords, ad copy and landing pages."</span></i></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Gemma van Dorst - Search Specialist at Blue Mango Interactive</span></i></p>
</blockquote>
<h3><b>Using Channable to help post your job ads</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">So how can Channable help you? First and foremost, it provides you with the means to optimize and fulfill your data feeds according to the specifications of over a thousand channels, including Google and Facebook. These platforms attract many applicants and offer versatile recruitment opportunities. Many agencies also turn to third parties like job boards to list their vacancies. But displaying on multiple channels is also beneficial for re-marketing strategies, as you can control what information gets shared on which platform. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Custom CSV files can be created in Channable too. This is a true time saver if you want to organize and segregate your data feeds into i.e. market specifications. Extracting all jobs of a certain criteria from your master feed and placing them into one custom CSV enables you to create specific rules for only that criteria without having to import a second master feed. Perhaps you want to separate student jobs from executive jobs, and place them on different channels to reach the right target audience - this can all be easily arranged with a Channable custom CSV! </span>
<h3><b>How to advertise job vacancies with dynamic text ads in Channable</b></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Creating text ads at the individual job level can be a real nuisance. Merely setting up the ad is time consuming but the process is further extended when monitoring the ads to ensure they’re up-to-date and relevant. Their continuous adjustments make it further time consuming and costly, which is why our tool can be a blessing. By partnering Channable and your data feed, you can automatically generate dynamically templated campaigns, AdGroups, text ads and keywords that will then be automatically paused when fulfilled. This is because the information will already be in your data feed.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">You’re in control and can decide which fields from your feed you’d like to use. Do you want a campaign on city level and ad groups on vacancy level? Or do you want campaigns on industry level and ad groups on city level? Make your life easier and <a href="/signup">give it a try</a>. Use one template for hundreds of ads! See our example below of how you can create potentially hundreds of unique ads depending on the industry, region and number of vacancies; your data feed will fill in the blanks.</span>

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-7585 size-full" src="https://media.graphcms.com/pPxqhcRWSIyR4n7EqevW" alt="" width="1067" height="466" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Ads are automatically paused within our tool based on the smart rules you set up. Set up the right templates for the right campaigns and let the Channable text ads feature do the work. You specify when to pause ads; for example, if a vacancy is fulfilled or when there are less than 5 vacancies in a city or branch, because you can even create branch specific ads. Channable has the potential to specify your AdWords ads to your taste.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Channable offers this feature for <a href="/products/ppc-tool">Google Ads</a> and will also soon launch this feature for Bing Ads, which is perfect if you serve markets and target audiences where Bing is favoured. Channable’s got your back. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Channable works hard to streamline everyone's online experience, not just the obvious contenders. Data feed management can help the job industry with its core business. We invite you to try it for yourself with our</span><a href=""><span style="font-weight: 400;"> free trial</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and discover how else Channable can improve your online job vacancies.</span>



Advertise Job Vacancies Online with a Feed Management Tool

Running ads on <a href="/integrations/facebook-product-feed">Facebook</a> and <a href="/integrations/instagram">Instagram</a> is one way to go, giving you the chance to reach the right people this season. Learn more about the power of these platforms and how you can use your holiday catalog last-minute to create ads that capture attention in no time.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-18324" src="https://media.graphcms.com/IwH0ymEoTZSg4xXmvVO9" alt="" width="800" height="1014" /> <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-18330" src="https://media.graphcms.com/vHOXIOzeRXegfDuB55Du" alt="" width="788" height="1024" /> <img class="aligncenter wp-image-18335" src="https://media.graphcms.com/Q9rRN1b6S92WOyWhhURM" alt="" width="800" height="1185" />

Last-minute Christmas Ads for eCommerce [infographic]

If you are working in <a href="/integrations/google-adwords-tool">Google Ads</a> or <a href="/integrations/microsoft-advertising">Microsoft Advertising</a>, you’ll no doubt know their character limits by heart: 30 for headlines and 90 for descriptions. But what does that look like visually?

We know you are busy people and don't have time to count each character - especially if you’re using dynamic fields in Channable’s ad generators. Therefore, Channable has included a visual warning in the SEA tool template builder for when you exceed the limit.

The visual warning will turn the field in question red and will notify you what the character limit is. Even better still, if the error occurs because you are using a dynamic field (those blue and pink ones), Channable will display which percentage of the values exceed the character limit.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-15225" src="https://media.graphcms.com/YkKyowfREGHumMMGggDy" alt="" width="1000" height="548" />

For instance, if you decide to use the title field as the headline 1, but 10% of your titles are longer than 30 characters, Channable will display a warning reading “Around 10% of values are longer than 30 characters”. This will save you jumping back and forth between the preview and the ad groups steps. To fix fields that exceed character limits, you can either create rules to shorten the values or use the handy back-up templates.

The character limit percentage warnings will be displayed in the ad template section AND the sitelinks section.

Make your ads more relevant, faster, and error-free with <a href="/products/ppc-tool">Channable’s SEA tool</a>. Curious to know more about how you can benefit from ad generation and Channable’s SEA tool? Get in <a href="/contact">contact </a>with one of Channable’s sales representatives for a <a href="/demo">demo</a>.


Be limited by characters no more!

Nowadays, people rely more and more on technology. Simultaneously to the rise of technology’s demand, the market for second hand and refurbished electronics is also booming. Buying electronics online has become a regular habit for many consumers. Electronics and appliance specialists have been significantly affected by the rise of internet retailing. It’s become necessary for them to adopt a multi-channel strategy in order to survive this new evolution. Find out how a data feed management tool can help you to master selling online.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9400" src="https://media.graphcms.com/ock2rMkWTyrU1dX1Ti8z" alt="Sell electronics with Channable" width="800" height="485" />
<h3>Stay on top of managing your channels</h3>
If you have a large amount of products and if the information on your ecommerce website changes frequently (i.e. new products, price and stock changes), then a data feed management tool is necessary for managing your online projects. This tool will indeed automate the whole management process and help you to keep all your ads and listings updated.

For example, within the electronics industry, price matters. Vendors will know about the price war on certain platforms. If your pricing is dynamic and changes often throughout the day, Channable can offer to run your feed multiple times a day to make sure your price is always updated on every platform you sell your goods on. Another useful trick with a data feed management tool: if your stock runs out, you can create a rule to “pause” your ads on marketplaces or price comparison websites, avoiding useless costly clicks for products with no stock left.
<h3>Increase your online visibility</h3>
Marketplaces, price comparison websites and search engines are very useful for increasing your online visibility to the widest range of buyers possible. Electronics and their accessories can be rather expensive and consumers like to compare prices before making their choices. In order to reach more customers, it is necessary to have your ads on a range of platforms, but preferably with minimal effort (see above). Channable has connections to over <a href="/integrations">2500 channels</a> that you can manage from one dashboard.

<img class="wp-image-9375 size-full aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/IPQ9iDgxQkSxqiHrTzmt" alt="Channels for electronics" width="723" height="197" />
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Some platforms where you can sell your electronic items</em></p>

<h3></h3>
<h3>Instantly create perfect product listings</h3>
Using a data feed management tool to display content rich ads for electronic goods is vital for conversion. So, how can you do that?

Within your product feed, it is likely that you don’t have all the specifications of your products in separate fields. If you weren’t already aware, consumers find electronic’s specifications very important. For smartphones, the RAM size (GB) is vital; for a fridge, its the consumption of kW; for a computer, the core speed (GHz), and the list goes on for all electronic appliances or pieces of technology. However, this kind of product information might be in the title or even in the description. With Channable you can easily extract this information and place it in it’s own field to be modified in order to make it match the marketplaces’ requirements. No need to manually copy-paste individual product information into the marketplace’s ad creator as Channable will send products instantly to the marketplace through a feed or a direct connection.
<h3>Analyze your performance</h3>
Channable also gives you the opportunity to discover which items are your top sellers for each comparison website and search engines that you display your items on. This information can be really insightful and help you choose which items you want to advertise. You can <a href="/blog/blog-analytics-insights-for-better-performance">connect Channable to your Analytics</a> and use all the performance information to optimize your sales.
<h3>Make sure your strategy covers all the (mega)bits</h3>
Up until now, we’ve mainly touched upon how to make the best product ads for marketplaces and price comparison websites. But you shouldn’t forget retargeting in your multi-channel strategy.

Data feed management tools can help you to create feeds for affiliate platforms and, ultimately, save bundles of time. Imagine a potential customer visits your website and buys a new camera. With the help of affiliate platforms or display networks you could target this visitor again with ads about matching lenses or SD cards. Whenever they visit a photography blog or are browsing their social media pages, they would see your ad. This kind of paid marketing is much more efficient as it reaches people already interested in your items.
<h3>Make the most relevant Paid Ads yet</h3>
A data feed management tool will help you to organize and structure your AdWords and Bing Campaigns, both text ads as well as Shopping Campaigns. What is actually very special in Channable is that you have the ability to<a href="/products/ppc-tool"> create dynamic text ads</a>, based on the product information in your feed. Enabling you to advertise on long tail keywords without the manual hassle.
<h3>A data feed management tool is all you need...</h3>
A tool like Channable will facilitate any electronics seller’s digital marketing. Channable will enable you to automate all the processes and create perfect, optimized ads for your online marketing strategy, which includes price comparison, marketplaces, affiliates and AdWords. Get in contact for more information by emailing us at <a href="mailto:support@channable.com">support@channable.com</a>, or <a href="/signup">sign up</a> for an unlimited free trial to test it out for yourself.

Why a feed management tool can be a blessing for selling electronics online

Who doesn’t love a good old checklist to get themselves organized? At Channable, we want to make this summer season easier for you. Therefore, we have prepared a checklist with 10 relevant tips you can implement for your business.

Fill out the form below and grab the chance to download the full checklist!
<br><br/>
[form id="efcd23c2-b1d9-4276-a60f-24aa2b546dc4"]

Summersales checklist 2021 - 10 tips you shouldn't miss!

<blockquote> **UPDATE**: <a href="https://www.amazon.se">Amazon.se</a> is now live! To set you off for a great start, we have summarized the key benefits and how you can prepare for this exciting launch.</blockquote>
<h2>Start setting up your product listings now</h2>
With the news that <a href="https://tamebay.com/2020/09/seller-central-is-now-available-in-sweden.html">Amazon</a> has already released the Seller Central Sweden,<span style="font-weight: 400;"> you can already start preparing your product listings today. At Channable we are pleased to announce that we have finalized a real-time API connection that enables you to create and push your product listings directly to Amazon.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">By utilizing the API connection through Channable, it doesn’t only enable you to push the products. It also enables your product data and stock information to be automatically and instantly updated as soon as a product gets sold either via the Amazon marketplace or via your own webshop. </span>

<img class="size-full wp-image-27047 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/KqhekgzT5GZ4hhQHSepJ" alt="Amazon Sweden Channable" width="830" height="201" />
<br><br/>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">

Seize the opportunity by setting up product listings now. This will give your business a great start.  </span>
<blockquote><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">See also: </span></i><a href="/integrations/amazon-product-feed"><span style="font-weight: 400;">How can I make Amazon product listings with Channable?</span></a></blockquote>
<h2>Use rules to enrich your listings and filter out products</h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Setting up product listings manually on Amazon can usually take up quite a bit of time. Especially if your webshop has a large offering/inventory. By utilizing the integrated API from Channable you can automate a large part of this process to significantly decrease the time spent on creating product listings. For instance, take advantage of the built-in </span><a href="https://helpcenter.channable.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011077260-What-does-the-attribute-builder-do-"><span style="font-weight: 400;">attribute builder</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to easily meet attribute requirements. Or, utilize the many </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQGAdEr5TfA&amp;feature=youtu.be">powerful rules</a> that can help enrich your listings as well as filter out products you don't want to list. </span>

<br><br/>
<img class="size-full wp-image-27056 aligncenter" src="https://media.graphcms.com/gNTsSrxFSyao6QJxpRZC" alt="Amazon Sweden Rules" width="464" height="176" />
<br><br/>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">By using rules to automate the creation of product listings, you do not only reduce the time spent but also gain greater control of the flow of products you send to Amazon Sweden. As soon as you set up a rule, the integration will give you immediate feedback which will maximize the impact of your listings as well as minimizing the eventual cost. </span>
<blockquote><span style="font-weight: 400;">See also: </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQGAdEr5TfA&amp;feature=youtu.be"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Video: How do Channable rules function</span></a></blockquote>
<h2>Handle all orders directly in your own webshop</h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Selling products on Amazon usually means you need to handle all orders from the marketplace itself. However, what if we told you that it does not have to be this way? What if we told you that with Channable, we retrieve all your orders and send them directly to your own platform/webshop allowing you to handle everything from there?</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">By adding an </span><a href="/products/marketplace-integrator"><span style="font-weight: 400;">order connection</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to your Amazon Sweden API, your orders will be synchronized to your online shop, meaning you can finally say goodbye to copy-pasting and hello to automatically received order information. Utilizing the option to add an order connection will not only free up time spent on order management but will also help increase the overall efficiency regarding your Amazon efforts.</span>
<blockquote><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">“We could say that now we don't have to take care of order management. Channable takes care of this task automatically. We only have to take care of our customers and prepare the picking of the order. Channable is also in charge of the tracking, which is more and more important to Amazon” </span></i>

From Wapalli use-case</blockquote>
<h2>Why list your products on Amazon Sweden?</h2>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Are you new to selling products on Amazon? And, with all the buzz around Amazon Sweden, are you thinking about trying it out? If so, then you are definitely not the only one. Try reading the stats in the illustration further below. Selling products on marketplaces such as Amazon can not only create more visibility for your products, it might also open up a whole new revenue stream for your business. However, before making any quick decisions, it might be a good idea to </span><a href="/blog/increase-sales-marketplaces"><span style="font-weight: 400;">evaluate your marketplace strategy</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span>

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-19873" src="https://media.graphcms.com/0mkOoDqHTfSvq5tlHzvk" alt="" width="1234" height="372" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">On a global scale, Amazon has about </span><a href="https://www.marketplacepulse.com/amazon/number-of-sellers"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2.3 million active sellers</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> worldwide on its platforms combined. Obviously the American version is still the most popular with more than 461.000 active sellers, but the French and Italian versions are not far behind with 234.000 and 227.000 active sellers.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">At first, this landscape might seem pretty competitive. But as Amazon is continually creating features to optimize the distribution of revenue between sellers, it might be a good idea to consider joining the movement.  </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">What could also be relevant to take into account is the fact that when Amazon enters a new market, many consumers will quickly swarm to the marketplace and create a revolution in the product searches. Usually, when consumers have easy access to Amazon, you will often see them using Amazon as their first touchpoint to discover and potentially make a purchase. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Furthermore, by looking at some of the numbers concerning the launch of Amazon Netherlands, which happened earlier this year, it is quite interesting to see that it is not only consumers who swarm to the marketplace. In fact, since the launch of the Dutch marketplace, Amazon has reported an increase of </span><a href="https://www.marketplacepulse.com/amazon/number-of-sellers"><span style="font-weight: 400;">87.422 active sellers</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> making it the fastest-growing department relative to its marketplace size.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">With all this being said and as a last remark, keep in mind that the consumer is always right. Being present in the channels where your consumers are can be crucial for the success of your business. If Amazon Sweden experience the same growth rates as some of its former market launches, it might be a good reason to look into the possibility to list your products here.</span>
<blockquote><span style="font-weight: 400;">See also: </span><a href="/blog/blog-tips-for-advertising-your-products-on-amazon"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Are you looking for some tips on how to advertise your product on Amazon? </span></a></blockquote>

Amazon is coming to Sweden: Are you prepared?

## Marketing agencies are essentially mobile phones
*Bear with me.*


The first commercially available handheld mobile phones had one simple function. And shock, that was to make phone calls. As they became more popular, the number of functions began to increase. Not only due to technical innovation but also consumer demand.

The first notable applications that were introduced were contacts and SMS. To be at the forefront of personal communication prior to these features, you needed so much stuff. Address books, directories, stamps, envelopes, postcards. It just wasn’t manageable and required invention and innovation. 

![Old_mobile_phone.jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/zoZiE7sSSlPIR6wc7rNQ)

New apps continued being introduced. They would absorb and replace now borderline immaterial inventions. While, at the same time, continue to push the boundaries of technology. The calculator, the watch (sorry, Casio), the calendar, GPS devices, the camera, the internet, journals, spreadsheets, and more were made redundant by the ever-innovating mobile phone. 

Fast-forwarding to 2021, the smartphone is indispensable. The pressure to continue innovating and adding more features is immeasurable. If the smartphone isn’t performing neurosurgery in the next decade, people will question whether they actually need this miracle of technology that lives in their pockets. Tell me if I’m wrong, but this isn’t too different from the expectations placed on a marketing agency from its clients; is it?

![Multitaksing.jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/KNpQEfS3GvRxWKRHfbwF)

Though the marketing agency started with streamlined responsibilities. Today, the demand to grow, adapt, and improve is huge. Marketing agencies manage multiple clients from various industries with completely different requirements and measures of success. Much like a smartphone is expected to be an excellent phone, camera, diary, personal computer, and now fitness companion. Marketing agencies are expected to be excellent copywriters, strategists, advertising experts, marketplace gurus, teachers, and therapists. It’s a hideously difficult task. And without a transparent, clear overview it becomes an impossible one. 

## What can marketing agencies learn from the smartphone?
The smartphone is the archetype of a transparent, clear overview. It manages hundreds of applications with different functions and can be incredibly personalized. But how does the smartphone achieve this and what can marketing agencies learn from it? Let’s do a direct comparison. 

The hardware in a smartphone can be compared to the people like yourself working in a marketing agency. It all comes down to potential. The quality of the hardware determines which and how many applications (features) a phone can potentially perform at a high level. Those working in a marketing agency do exactly the same thing. The ability to be able to meet all the desired expectations of different clients (users) is completely dependent on the quality of the team.

![Blog-graph (1).jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/MRbPRey9RtGUzaCO221a)

Looking at the image above, we’ve gone through the user, the application, and the hardware. So what about the operating system? 

The operating system unlocks the potential of the hardware. Without a robust and flexible operating system, applications couldn’t run at an optimal level. Meaning either downgrading to a lesser quality application or not being able to meet user expectations. This is exactly the same as the software used in a marketing agency. In order to fulfill the potential of the team and to meet the expectations of clients, the software used needs to be both robust and flexible. 

But it’s not just about being robust and flexible. Operating systems need to continually develop in order to manage more demanding applications and users, more applications in general, and improve UX. And it’s the same with software. As client demands increase with new platforms, technologies, best practices, etc. marketing agencies are expected to innovate. This can only be achieved with leading software and platforms that continually improve. 

With all this considered, it becomes obvious that the operating system (or the software used in marketing agencies) is the reason the smartphone is the blueprint for a transparent, clear
overview. 

## What should marketing agencies consider when searching for the perfect software?
![Iphone.jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/4s5twsISFiOBgBS8QCQQ)

Let’s look at the iPhone. The user-friendly interface of the operating system and its ability to use a large number of high-quality optimized applications make it stand out from the crowd. It’s exactly the same with software and platforms. We conducted a survey with close to 80 marketing agencies and, to no surprise, a friendly UX and extensive functionalities were at the top of their wishlist. 

Second to that was the price. The commoditization of the smartphone means that you no longer need to pay thousands of dollars for high-quality products that can rival Apple’s iPhone - enter Huawei. Software has gone through the same process. It’s no longer necessary to spend a large portion of your budget on big names and service costs. You can find robust, flexible, and innovative software that does exactly the same thing for a fraction of the price. 

![Busy-store.jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/NfCBFZhT0qZPhwhNav6Z)

Black Friday is a hectic period for marketing agencies. Equipping your team with software and platforms that require little-to-no maintenance is invaluable. It should be intuitive, simple to use, optimized for multiple tasks, and transparently and fairly priced. It should provide solutions for the eclectic demands of multiple clients and, most importantly, give you a clear overview of all your clients’ accounts and activities. This will allow you to better understand how to improve the performance of your marketing efforts and increase ROI for your clients. 

**Want examples of marketing agencies who have found their ideal platforms? Channable has a number of inspiring success stories from various marketing agencies that can be found [here](/success-stories).**

Why software is key for having a clear overview and increasing your clients’ ROI this Black Friday

Automation is EVERYWHERE and takes up more and more space in the digital marketing world. This coupled with the fact your clients are better informed of the automation opportunities adds a sizable amount of pressure for digital marketing agencies. You have to stay in the know as your clients expect you to. 

[Forrester conducted a study for Google](https://services.google.com/fh/files/emails/forrester_research_paper.pdf) in which they asked 300 brand marketing leaders *“what benefits do you expect from an effective digital marketing agency partnership?”.* The top responses were:
1. 43% expect more profit  
2. 41% expect more ROI  
3. 37% expect their agency to keep pace with shifts in consumer behavior  

While responses 1 and 2 are to be expected, number 3 really caught my attention. In line with consumer needs, the goal of effective marketing is to stay relevant. Between 30% and 50% of consumers in European markets [prefer to engage with and purchase from purpose-built brands](https://services.google.com/fh/files/emails/forrester_research_paper.pdf) that deliver relevant content rather than only ads.

In eCommerce, automation tools are the driver to work on the hard KPIs such as profit and ROI and, at the same time, enable you to maintain and improve your expertise and smart strategies. In the end, the purposeful messaging and understanding of consumer behavior have to be added to the campaigns by nobody else but you.

![young-creative-team-meeting.jpg](https://media.graphcms.com/6d1ZG3GZTGWy9dQTK9lk)

Let’s look at it like this: With tooling at hand, you free your schedule to do the deep thinking and strategizing that AI cannot take over from you and find a way to feed the algorithms with exactly the data they need. In a world where agencies have access to the same pool of tools and software, the distinguishing characteristic is how you use them.

> Now that automation has generally been accepted, advertisers find themselves in a position in which they have access to the same tools and algorithms, which leaves little room to differentiate themselves from competitors. So the question becomes: How do you outperform your competitors despite leveraging the same instruments? By shifting the narrative to supplying algorithms with the right data to make the best possible decisions to drive maximum performance.
<div align="center">*Job Hilbers, Head of Paid Search at Artefact*</div>

## How can both you and your client profit from change through automation?
Join forces with technology! The technical knowledge that agencies had developed over the years has become somewhat redundant. But leading agencies appreciate the time that their consultants have won back to actually *advise* their clients and to develop creative strategies that allow algorithms to perform at their best. 

The nature of the [relationship between an agency and its clients](https://services.google.com/fh/files/emails/forrester_research_paper.pdf) may actually change for the better. As an account manager, automation allows you more time to work much more closely with your brands and to share your knowledge in order to help them acquire a certain know-how themselves. The way agencies work is also becoming more holistic. Media teams work closely together with data analysts and technology experts [to use first-party data in the best way possible](https://www.channable.com/blog/create-personalized-ppc-ads-improve-ctr-roas).

## Agencies need AI to grow but AI needs you to rise and shine 
[Agencies need automation in order to scale](https://www.clickz.com/the-rise-of-the-automation-powered-agency/264227/). The more tasks you can automate, the more clients you can manage with the same personpower. In an agency context, account managers, as the actual users of automation tools and software, will be in charge of mastering and educating the machines in order to help AI grow in the right direction. 

This role of the human at the intersection of automating and strategizing will become even more important with increasingly smart algorithms. Your understanding of performance data will be needed in order to find the right starting point for a campaign. Only when your strategy is in place and working, will you be able to hand over the baton that is the campaign to AI.

Do you want to be at the forefront of automation and master your biggest challenges? Find out all you need to know about feed management and PPC automation for digital marketing agencies in the [dedicated agency space on our website](https://www.channable.com/industry/digital-marketing-agencies).

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