What we learnt in 2012 and what we look forward to in 2013

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Ben Potter

At the end of each year, I encourage the Leapfrogg team to take some time out to review what they have learnt from the events of the last 12 months. It’s an opportunity to take a step back and think about what we have witnessed in digital marketing, retail and the luxury sector, as well as the strategies and tactics we have employed for an ever-growing portfolio of high-end retailers.

So here are a few of our main observations from another eventful year, with comments from members of the Leapfrogg team, along with what we look forward to (hopefully) seeing in 2013.

Panda’s and penguins changed the game…for the better

Google’s Panda and Penguin updates dominated the search landscape in 2012. Scores of websites found their search engine rankings negatively impacted by the updates. The techniques they had been using to unnaturally garner search rankings (or that agencies were adopting on their behalf, such as buying links) were hit hard by Google’s aggressive, and very public, attempts to clean up their search results.

As Ben Adam, Senior Natural Search Consultant, comments ‘it seems that Google has finally found a means of taking action against web spam; the kind of action that most search marketers have been asking for, for years.’

Website Optimisation Manager, Suzanne Taylor adds, ‘The search engines have got wiser and duly penalised sites that have been chasing rankings with ‘black hat’ tactics. For some businesses, this re-education has cost them time and money, however businesses that have focused, first and foremost, on creating a good experience for their customers have benefitted.’

These updates have had a significant (and in our view, positive) impact on the discipline of natural search (SEO). As Senior Content and Social Media Consultant, Emma-Jane comments, ‘the updates place greater emphasis and reward on traditional content based and PR-style marketing, making quick-win techniques, such as sharing keyword stuffed articles and mass-submitting to thousands of low quality directories, riskier than ever before. A PR-led approach to building a holistic and sustainable link profile has seen a welcome move towards creating editorially-led, consumer facing content. This not only benefits search, but becomes an important part of the customer journey.’

As natural search is now so closely entwined with other marketing activities, such as content planning and PR, Head of Search, Matt, expects to see search getting greater recognition as a strategic business operation in 2013, commenting ‘successful search engine optimisation requires a sophisticated approach to relationship building meaning companies need to work harder to engage with customers, suppliers, partners, press and commentators. This means that SEO should, for the most forward thinking companies, be at the heart of a business not on the fringes, which can only be a good thing.’

Content marketing is nothing new

What was particularly interesting to witness in 2012, as a result of the Panda update in particular, was the sudden surge in interest for ‘content marketing’ services. I’ve been amazed at the number of agencies suddenly changing tact (and in some cases their straplines) to place content marketing at the core of their offering (as if creating genuinely engaging, useful content has always been their approach to search…when quite frankly, it wasn’t.).

‘Content is king’ they said again…and again…and again…

Content marketing, even in the online world, is not a new discipline. Neither is it one that should be getting any more, or less, attention just because Google has found a way to combat the poor quality content that for so long could be used to manipulate your way to the top of the rankings.

Managing Director, Rosie, comments ‘content is not king. Instead, the customer’ is king. Regardless of the marketing activity, whether on or offline, single or multichannel, you must put the customer at the heart of it. Good customer insight is the rocket fuel for your content and wider retail strategy…and always has been. Nothing has changed other than Google getting better at separating the wheat from the chaff.’

In 2013, we hope to see the (somewhat artificially inflated) industry furore around content marketing calm down. We’ll continue to apply a back to basics attitude where content is concerned, namely that strategies are driven by a genuine understanding of the customer, as Senior Content and Social Media Consultant, Emily, explains, ‘delving deeper into our clients’ consumer demographics with detailed customer surveys and audits of each touch point in their retail journey will further develop our customer-orientated focus in 2013, which continues to be at the heart of our approach to content strategy.’

Consumer expectations are moving faster than most retailers can keep up

Driven mainly by technology (the growth in smartphones and tablets, for example), there have been significant changes in consumer behaviour in recent years and, in turn, the expectations that consumers have of the retailers they choose to shop with.

As I noted in an Econsultancy article back in November, ‘what is a ‘nice to have’ now will be the expected norm in 2013. As consumers become conditioned to in-store consoles, delivery on their own terms and a more personalised shopping experience (to give just three examples), they will more readily question those retailers not offering the same. In short, consumers won’t put up with average when exceptional becomes the norm.’

As such, we will undoubtedly see more retail casualties in 2013. However, it would be too simplistic to blame economic factors alone for these failing businesses. Instead, there will be some retailers who simply cannot evolve their business models in line with customer expectations and, as such, will disappear from our high streets.

In 2013, the successful retailers will be those who place much greater emphasis on customer insight and ‘big data’ to drive marketing decisions. Gone are the days when retailers can afford to throw money at something on a whim. The customer needs to be at the heart of every decision. As such, we expect to see customer experience become more and more of a focus during 2013 to the extent it occupies board level discussions.

Social media is evolving to become a mind-set, not just a tactic

Alongside Google’s well publicised efforts to clean up their search results, 2012 also saw social media’s influence on search results increase. As Client Services Director, Greg, comments ‘Google+ started to show real signs of traction in 2012 – especially with regards to having an impact on natural search visibility within the search results’.

We still think the jury is out when it comes to the role Google+ plays in meeting wider customer engagement objectives (simply put it hasn’t reached critical mass) but, without question, Google is making a massive push for it to a part of our everyday lives. I just hope consumers, brands and agencies invest in the platform in 2013 because it adds genuine value to their retail strategies, not just because it is a necessary vehicle to improving Google search rankings.

Aside from Google+, in 2012 we saw a definite step change in how clients’ perceive social media and the role it plays at every stage of the customer journey. As Emily notes, ‘across our client portfolio, we’ve seen an increased interest in (and understanding of), the importance of social, both for accessing and expanding their consumer bases, as well as becoming an increasingly important factor in search.’

Greg continues ‘brands have been much more willing to at least ‘have a go’ in social media even if specific objectives and KPIs are unclear at the start.’

Measurement and attribution remains a challenge

Mobile and tablet use exploded during 2012 with Matt commenting ‘adoption of mobile devices was notable last year. Customers of premium brands are more likely to own a smartphone and tablet with some of our clients seeing up to 40% of their website traffic coming from mobile devices.’

As consumers move so freely between channels and devices whilst researching, considering and making their purchase, tracking this journey and attributing revenue to the appropriate channel presented a major challenge in 2012…and it will continue to do so in 2013.

Head of Search, Matt, sees part of the solution in social media. He comments, ‘Social media offers a solution to attribution issues created by multiple devices and cookie deletion. With a billion people on Facebook and other networks such as Twitter and Pinterest growing quickly, people logged in to social media platforms and email services, especially on their mobile devices, could be the solution to the attribution conundrum’.

Watch this space!

Things get better with age

In December, we will be celebrating our tenth birthday. Quite frankly, I don’t know where the years have gone!

One thing I do know is that Leapfrogg is evolving all of the time. Each day, month and year we improve, never satisfied with our approach, processes and knowledge. For me, that is what makes a great agency; the constant desire to be better than you were yesterday.

Therefore, we look forward most to celebrating 10 years in business by continuing to work with some fantastic retail brands, constantly innovating to help them meet their commercial objectives.

Account Manager, Nick, sums this up best; ‘for me, what I’m most looking forward to in 2013 is pushing our fantastic clients to be bold, experimental and ultimately, successful. With the green shoots of an economic recovery beginning to show, 2013 will be the year when forward-thinking and innovative clients can really get the jump of their competitors. I’m looking forward to leading the way with Leapfrogg’s fully integrated approach and setting the standards.’

With that, we’d like to wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Client / Agency relationships – the evolution continues…

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Greg Lee

As we enter the last quarter of the year, much continues to change in the world of search – technically and commercially.

At Leapfrogg, we have also become ever more aware that those clients who really believe in search as a core part of their marketing armoury will face a key question as they reconsider their objectives and strategies for 2013; how much of the work involved in search – especially in terms of pure implementation – can or has to be brought in-house? What is the best balance of staffing up internally and retaining external, specialist expertise to ensure their strategy and tactics are making the most of how search marketing is evolving?

This has become a more frequent discussion with our clients this year than ever before. As clients develop more confidence in what search can bring in terms of revenue and ROI, so there comes a time when they weigh up whether extra budget allocation for search should be invested in expanding the team internally or with external specialists. Quite rightly, it’s not best use of client budget to be spending it getting external specialists to be doing ‘grunt’ work. At the same time, if someone in-house is being tasked with devising a search strategy and executing this tactically, alongside other marketing responsibilities and tasks, they are at risk of not being as ‘sharp’ on the latest insights and techniques that specialist agencies make it their business to know.

We are in the process of working with a couple of our clients through this transition process, where elements of search strategy and tactics are ‘in-sourced’ and our expertise is deployed in a more purely consultative role, advising, guiding, corroborating and fine-tuning.

We look forward to seeing how this will evolve. We may find that the skills and expertise in-house are more robust, and that they can throw off the need to have agency ‘stabilisers’ sooner than perhaps even they think. Alternatively, it may be that the ‘weaning off’ process has tried to do too much too soon, to the detriment of campaign performance, and so agency involvement may need to be re-assessed.

Only time will tell. We shall adapt and adjust as we always must in the business services sector, as client/agency relationships continue to evolve naturally.

A summary of great client results in Q2

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Greg Lee

What’s happened to 2012? Bleak weather, bleak economic conditions, some light relief courtesy of the Olympics, but otherwise an air of uncertainty prevails.

In this climate, then, we’re so proud of the great work – and great results – we have delivered so far for our clients this year. They reflect;

the confidence of our clients to put their money where their mouths are by investing in digital to start with
our own expertise to identify areas for improvement in client digital activity and then execute our work to deliver these improvements

Following on from my last post looking at results achieved in Q1, here are some highlights from our efforts during Q2:

Premium retail;

Luxury bedroom furniture retailer, Feather & Black; their non-brand term natural traffic increased by over 60% year-on-year. Whilst I cannot disclose the actual figure, revenue from online sales is a very healthy % higher than this time last year
High-end fashion brand, Bastyan; for every £1 they spent on paid search the campaign generates ten times the amount in sales revenue
Emma Bridgewater; again, for paid search their campaign delivers return investment at a ratio of 19/1
Posturite; online revenue has increased by over 80%
Filofax; we have more than doubled their click-thru rates on paid search

Travel;

Cox & Kings; their non-brand term natural traffic has increased by 60% year-on-year. Revenue attributed to online also more than doubled year-on-year

Business Services;

Fruitdrop; their non-brand term natural traffic increased by over 100% year-on-year delivering return on investment at a ratio of 5/1
Flexioffices; we’ve recently exceeded conversion rate targets by over 40%

This is a flavour of the great results we’ve delivered to our clients. So far this year, then, we have helped them to win, to meet or exceed their own targets, about which we’re all delighted.

That said, we’re not letting the euphoria (nor the Olympic distraction) run away with us. Our clients each have challenging targets and business environments. Great results so far are lovely – but nothing like as important as making sure we’re focused on delivering more great results for them this year and beyond.

The economic outlook remains uncertain – the only thing that everyone seems to agree on is that growth is still a long way off. Therefore, strategies need to be regularly reviewed, tactics revised where necessary, results have to be maintained and improved, sales and revenue must be generated.

In some ways there is freedom among the uncertainty. If this causes the main focus to be on the here and now and making sure what we’re doing today and into the immediate future is working, then that’s what we’ll do.

That doesn’t mean we’re retreating into a tactical, short term shell, however. In July we hosted an event at RIBA in London where we presented our Retail Marketing Machine, which will underpin our strategic approach for our work for the 2nd half of this year, into 2013, and beyond (with apologies to Mr Lightyear…)

I’ll be back with an update on more great results from Leapfrogg later in 2012

Calculating the true value of a paid search campaign

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Andy Miller

What makes paid search so fantastic is its accountability. The fact that you can so clearly see the revenue generated by a campaign against click spend, on the face of it, makes measuring return on investment relatively straightforward for retailers.

However, in many cases, just doing a simple revenue against click spend formula will not tell you the entire story. I am going to explain how we calculate the return on investment (ROI) at Leapfrogg in order to understand the true value of a paid search campaign.

Calculating costs

When calculating the true ROI of a paid search campaign, there will always be additional costs on top of the basic media spend (i.e. clicks). This is especially true if there are third parties involved, such an agency managing the account or where advanced technology and attribution tools are being used.

Even if you are managing your account in-house, it is likely that somebody is being employed to look after it (I hope so anyway!). How long are they spending on it each week/month? These staffing costs should always be accounted for in any ROI calculations.

For retailers, there are also other costs involved which come at the point of sale, for example the cost of any discounts applied (and therefore the impact on margin) and delivery costs. If you want to calculate the real value of paid search, these need to be taken into consideration.

Another cost to factor in, which is so often ignored, is returns. If 10% of all orders are being returned this can significantly alter the profitability of a campaign.

Calculating revenue

Reporting on revenue can be more complex than you think. Most analytics tools report on revenue using the “last click wins” model, which means that the last visit to the site (and therefore traffic source) is credited with the sale.

However, in the multi-channel world that retailers now find themselves operating in, most customers are likely to visit the site on numerous occasions via a number of different channels before converting. This is where the “last click wins” model discounts any sales which involve more than one interaction with the site in the user journey.

In Google Analytics, the multi-channel funnels report will show you a breakdown of sales by “last interaction” as well as “assisted” (which involve more than one visit to the site). If you are not already familiar with these reports, I would recommend reading our blog post on multi-channel funnels.

We usually report on revenue by separating out “last click” sales and “assisted” sales, however some clients have different attribution models depending on the complexity of the user-journey. For example, assisted sales could mean only sales made on a “first click wins” rule, or could include only those sales where the user’s last interaction with the site came on a brand term or by a direct visit to the site.

This is why it is important to agree on a sensible sales attribution model before you start reporting on sales and revenue. Many different channels (i.e. search, affiliates, email, display, etc.) will all be competing for the conversion and you have to be careful you don’t end up over-reporting on sales.

To take your reporting even further, we would also recommend calculating the lifetime value of a paid search customer. How many of these new acquisitions go on to make a repeat purchase? We found that 17% of new customers from paid search went on to make a repeat purchase for one of our clients. This sort of data is valuable and could alter the price you are willing to pay for a click when you understand the true value of a new customer.

And what about offline sales? If you have tracking mechanisms in place (such as voucher codes or call tracking) to attribute in-store or telephone sales back to paid search activity, you are in serious multi-channel ROI heaven!

Conclusion

In summary, calculating the true value of a paid search campaign is not an easy task but by doing so you’ll be in a far better place to make much informed decisions on the development of your paid search strategy and the price you are willing to pay to acquire a new customer.

How do you report on ROI?

What a multichannel retailer should include in a search marketing brief

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Ben Potter

Back in November 2010, I wrote about the importance of, and what to include in a brief when looking to appoint a search agency. Whilst much of the advice remains the same, an awful lot has changed in the last couple of years, which in turn impacts how a retailer needs to brief prospective agencies.

Firstly, search has continued to evolve. It is far from the stand-alone discipline it perhaps once was. Social media, content strategy and online PR are now all critical components of a successful natural search strategy (also known as organic search or SEO).

Furthermore, retailers are operating in a complex multichannel environment where increasingly savvy customers expect a consistent and seamless experience as they move between different channels, such as desktop PC, mobile, store and catalogue.

The winners will ultimately be those who can effectively integrate their search, social media, content and online PR strategies, whilst also ensuring that their online and offline operations work in unison.

As such, when multichannel retailers are looking to source a search agency they need to provide access to information, which on the surface, may appear irrelevant. However, in the context of an evolving search landscape and multichannel environment, such information is integral to the delivery of an effective search strategy.

Why is a brief important?

Ultimately, developing a brief is to the benefit of both parties. The agency can build a strong understanding of the business, which leads to the most appropriate solution being presented. The retailer benefits for the very same reason; a solution is developed which is most appropriate to their objectives, internal resource and budget, whilst being aligned to other marketing channels.

What should be included in a search marketing brief?

With the above in mind, multichannel retailers should include the following information in a search marketing brief. Please note; it is not unusual for an NDA to be signed at pitch stage bearing in mind the sensitive nature of some of the information required

Company background

It is useful for the agency to understand the context of why you are looking to engage them. This starts with an understanding of where you’ve come from before we explore where you want to go. Therefore, this section should include a brief history of the business, recent market trends, how the company has performed and the challenges you are facing (both internal and external).

Products

There should be a particular emphasis on your most profitable and popular product lines. For the purposes of forecasting be open to sharing average order values and margins, as well as an overview of your product strategy i.e. innovations, new launches and so on.

Competition

The agency will be looking to assess potential keyword targets (based on the product lines you have cited above). This will involve identifying your competition in search results, as well as researching other marketing activity they are undertaking. It is worth noting that often your competition in search results is very different to your competition across other channels. A small retailer selling black dresses, for example, may find themselves competing in search results with major players, such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis, which in turn may make related keyword targets unrealistic.

Target audience

Describe your target audience (sex, age, geography, for example), whilst also outlining what your insight is based on. For example, have you got an active database of customers where you have conducted surveys or focus groups? Ultimately, if an agency is going to help you acquire more customers they need to have an acute understanding of who you are trying to reach.

Also consider why this audience should listen to you. Why are you better than the competition? For example, do you position yourself on price, quality or service? Drawing out your USPs and key benefits will be critical to shaping a content-driven, search strategy to increase customer acquisition.

Your commercial objectives

I cannot stress enough the importance of sharing your overriding commercial objectives, ideally for the next 2 – 3 years. If an agency is to deliver an effective search strategy they need to understand the context of how it is expected to contribute to overall business goals.

At Leapfrogg, we work on the premise that objectives should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound) and based on reliable market data.

At this stage, you should also explain your wider business and marketing plans. Reiterating the point that search does not operate in a silo, it is important that the agency understands what other marketing channels you will be investing in to meet your objectives and in turn, how search might support them, for example new store openings and your mobile strategy.

Current activity and performance

To develop a top line strategy and tactical plan at pitch stage, the agency need to understand the investment you have already made in the channels under discussion, as well as having access to data via tools such as Google Analytics.

Therefore, an overview of the tactics that you are currently employing or have employed in recent months, such as natural search, paid search, social media, content and so on, will be useful. This is a chance to outline other partners or agencies that you employ and that your search agency will be expected to work alongside, for example web developers and offline PR.

Understanding your in-house resource is also essential in the spirit of developing a collaborative partnership with an agency. You should not be looking to ‘outsource’ your search marketing in the traditional sense of the word. Instead, you should seek to partner with your agency, sharing roles and responsibilities where applicable. As such, the agency needs to understand the skill, experience and desire of in-house staff to work on certain aspects of the strategy and tactical execution.

Timescales and budget

All too often, time and resource is wasted during the pitch process (on both sides) because important matters such as timescales for moving ahead and budget are not discussed openly and honestly upfront. An agency will invest many hours, perhaps days, in putting together a proposal. Therefore, to avoid time being wasted, which also includes your time in sourcing and supplying information, it is helpful to know when you intend to start the project, whether you are in contract with an existing agency and any notice clauses.

When it comes to budgets, avoid a situation where you give no indication of what you have to play with. Have in mind a budget and be prepared to share it so that the agency can shape a solution that is appropriate. Essentially, ensure there is a correlation between your commercial objectives and the amount of budget you are prepared to invest in meeting them.

Finally, outline the stages you will be working through in making a decision; how many agencies are you inviting to pitch, who will be involved and who will make the ultimate decision, as well as any particular conditions an agency has to meet. This might include specific sector experience or preferred payment models, for example.

Conclusion

Without establishing a brief you run the risk of making a potentially costly decision when it comes to your search strategy. The briefing process should involve intense questioning by the agency and a willingness on the part of the retailer to share required information.

Anything less than this and you are likely to fall into the trap of buying an off-the-shelf, packaged solution…the polar opposite of a search strategy that is aligned to your business objectives and in tune with your wider retail strategy. The latter can only be achieved with a properly defined brief.

Yes, the process takes time but in the long-run will ultimately deliver far greater returns.

Sticking to our New Year resolution…a summary of great client results in Q1

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Greg Lee

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun! We’ve got to April already (how did that happen, exactly?!) and, in keeping with our New Year’s resolution for 2012, we thought we’d have a look back over the first quarter of the year, reflect on the impact of the work we have executed for some of our clients and, importantly, shout about it! So below I’ve pulled out some edited highlights from three key clients operating in the premium / luxury space; Feather & Black, Bastyan and Cox & Kings.

Looking first at Feather & Black, the luxury bed and bedroom furniture specialist, we helped them attract almost 40% more natural traffic year-on-year. Their paid search campaign continues to deliver greater revenue for less cost, and is evolving to support their multi-channel strategy to generate greater footfall in their UK showrooms.

Feather & Black continue to grab the headlines; this year they have also been shortlisted for the Best Multichannel Retailer award at the 2012 Paypal awards. We are expanding both natural and paid activity from April, working ever more closely with their in-house team to keep momentum going on all fronts and build on the success of last year…when we helped Feather & Black grow online sales by 46%.

Staying within the retail sector with Bastyan (part of Aurora Fashions), we significantly exceeded revenue targets and delivered a return on investment (ROI) of over 14:1 across paid search. In parallel, we are working with them to refine their core site, and from May will be developing their content strategy and channel prioritisation for their marketing.

Our work with luxury travel specialist, Cox & Kings, in Q1 has really focused on improving conversion rates; these have increased across both natural search (four times greater than the set benchmark) and paid search (exceeding benchmarks by an average of 30% across all campaigns).

The call tracking solution we put in place (that integrates with our analytics and attribution technology) shows exactly how the digital activity is generating phone calls, enquiries and sales. This intelligence, where we can track the customer journey during a long and complex buying process, allows us to optimise channels accordingly, leading to greater efficiency and ROI.

Anecdotally, looking at all of our clients as a whole, we would also observe the following from Q1;

Multi-channel activity, both in thought and execution, is growing in importance across ALL sectors
There is confidence to invest in digital where the results are clear (and positive!)
While the digital picture may look rosy, clients are still cautious overall about what the future looks like

Clients still want ‘brand prominence’, and happy consequence of remarketing activity, for example, is that it does just that – provides a sense of brand ‘scale’ to those people who have already engaged with the brand, over and above generating extra sales

At the end of Q2, I’ll provide a similar overview looking back at the first half of 2012, as well as some thoughts on how the second half of the year is shaping up.

Microsoft/Yahoo search alliance update: the impact for advertisers

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Andy Miller

As you might be aware, Yahoo’s natural search results are now completely powered by Bing as part of their search alliance deal. From 19th March 2012, they will kick off the latest phase of their search alliance by migrating all Yahoo paid search accounts into the Microsoft adCenter platform. There will be a two week roll-out period of Yahoo traffic to the adCenter platform and the transition is expected to be complete by the end of April.

What does this mean for advertisers?

As an advertiser, this means you’ll be able to buy from a combined Yahoo and Bing audience through one platform, Microsoft adCenter. Managing both of these through one interface will save marketers much more time and hopefully lead to increased ROI for advertisers.

According to the latest Experian Hitwise stats, Google still dominates nearly 92% of the search engine UK market share, with Microsoft receiving 3.57% and Yahoo 2.53%. This means that Microsoft and Yahoo combined have a market share of over 6%, so although this is a small piece of the market, it is still not to be discounted.

Back in August last year we dropped all Yahoo paid search activity from our retail marketing campaigns because of declining Yahoo PPC results from its search partner network. However, once the transition is complete, you will be able to exclude the whole search partner network in adCenter and target Yahoo only.

For similar retailers, who advertise on Bing but not on Yahoo, this presents a great opportunity to generate a completely new source of traffic with no additional resource required. More importantly, the increase in traffic should also lead to increased sales and ROI. As a general rule, we would recommend that advertisers increase their click budgets in adCenter by 75% to cover for the increase in traffic from Yahoo.

We have been impressed with the ROI from Bing over recent months, so we are hopeful the transition will improve performance further. We will keep you updated with any results so watch this space…

An Introduction to Google Product Listing Ads

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Andy Miller

Another month, another new ad format! This month we bring you “Product Listing Ads”, Google’s latest ad innovation. Product listing ads (PLAs) are a standalone ad format that includes richer product information directly in the ad, such as images, price and merchant name.

You may have noticed PLAs across Google over the past few months. They usually appear on the right hand side of the page, as shown below:

Google started to roll PLAs out to UK advertisers towards the end of last year, and we have been testing them over the past few weeks with one of our clients.

They are great for retailers as they work in addition to standard search text ads, meaning you can take up more real estate on the results page, which should lead to higher click-through rates (CTRs). You are charged on a cost per click (CPC) basis, much like standard text ads. They are also not to be confused with product extensions, which we wrote about last month.

How do they work?

PLAs are created for your products dynamically, without the need for keywords. Without keywords you say!? How? Well, Google uses the product information in your Merchant Centre account to match a product with a user’s search, therefore it is essential your product feed is up to date and well-optimised if the ads are going to be relevant to the user.

How do I set them up?

Once you have set up and optimised your Merchant Centre product feed, you are ready to set up your PLAs. The first step of the process is to link your AdWords and Merchant Centre accounts. Login to Merchant Centre, click Settings then AdWords, and enter your AdWords customer ID.

Create a new campaign

The next step is to create a new campaign in AdWords for your PLAs. When you do this, you’ll need to tick the Product checkbox under ad extensions (as shown below). You should then be able to select your Merchant Centre account, so Google can link the two accounts together.

Create your ad groups

The beauty of PLAs is that you can automatically select which products you would like to target. For our test, our recommended strategy was to target those products which were already performing well in our paid search campaigns, have high margins and/or are competitive on price.

We then organised these products into different ad groups. Doing this will allow you to see performance data for each product and will mean you can set different bids for different products.

Target your products

Once you have organised your ad groups, you are ready to select which products are to be shown in your ads. Under the Auto targets tab in AdWords, you can target products based on five attributes from your Merchant Centre account; condition, brand, product_type, adwords_labels or adwords_grouping.
Warning: this is where it got a bit technical! As we wanted to target specific products, there wasn’t an existing attribute which fitted our needs, so we had to create a new adwords_labels attribute in our Merchant Centre product feed. We effectively tagged our products meaning we could target individual products by their title, like so:

It is important to note that the text you enter above must exactly match the values in your Merchant Centre feed, otherwise your ads will not be served. There is a Validate button where you can see if it matches, as shown above.

You need to repeat this process for all of your ad groups. Although this takes a while, it is well worth it further down the line, as you’ll be able to see performance data from each product much more quickly.

Create your ads

The final part of the process is to create your ads. Ads are created dynamically by Google based on your product feed information, however you can enter promotional text (up to 45 characters) to support your ad. Click on New ad then Product listing ad to do this.

As our client offered free shipping on all orders, we used the same promotion across all products. However, if you have promotions on specific products, this is great to highlight here.

You should now be ready to launch your campaign. Before you do, remember to include any negative keywords to prevent your ads coming up on any irrelevant searches. Your new product listing ads should soon begin running!

Results

Although we are only a few weeks into testing, we have been very impressed with the results thus far. Compared to standard text ads, click-through rates (CTRs) are 21% higher while conversion rates are 2% higher.

Driving more traffic which is better qualified to convert is a win-win in our eyes, so get testing before your competition does! If you have any questions please feel free to enter your comments in the box below…

The retailer’s guide to using AdWords Ad Extensions

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Andy Miller

If you’re a retailer running a paid search campaign on Google AdWords, ad extensions should be your best friend.

If you’re not currently utilising them, this post will explain what they are and how they can benefit your business so you can start using them immediately.

Ad extensions allow you to provide additional information in your Google adverts, making them more relevant and useful to prospects. In the context of increasingly competitive search engine result pages (SERPs), ad extensions can really make your ads stand out from the crowd, leading to significant increases in your click-through rates (CTRs) and better qualified traffic to your website, which in turn is likely to convert at a much better rate.

All ad extension options can be found under the “Ad Extensions” tab (see below) which is located in the “Campaigns” window.

We are going to run through our favourite ad extensions along with some of our top tips and examples of how we use them at Leapfrogg:

Ad Sitelinks

Sitelinks allow you to promote specific pages of your site within your ad text. We have seen CTRs increase by as much as 20% with the introduction of sitelinks. Google allows you to have a maximum of 10 sitelinks per campaign however we have rarely seen more than 6 appear in a SERP.

Because sitelinks are so quick and easy to update, they provide retailers with a great opportunity to inform prospective customers about special promotions and sales.

Here is an example of a sitelink extension in action directing visitors to the ‘Winter Sale’ and ‘New Arrivals’ pages, for example. The upshot is that prospects have the opportunity to click directly through to the content most relevant to them. Backed by high quality landing pages this leads to reduced bounce rates, increased time spent on site and ultimately increased conversion rates.

Top tips for setting up sitelinks

Keep sitelinks short and sweet – this increases the number of links that can be shown within the ad

If you tag the URLs of each sitelink with the parameter “?sitelink=XYZ” you will be able to track the performance of all your sitelinks in Google Analytics. You can then optimise each sitelink based on clicks and conversions etc

As you can only have one set of sitelinks per campaign, it is worth splitting up your campaigns into different products/categories. This will not only give you greater targeting and budget control over certain products, but will allow you to create relevant sitelinks for each product, thus leading to an increase in click-through rates.

Location extensions

If you’re a multi-channel retailer with physical stores you should definitely be using location extensions. These help prospects and customers find the store nearest to them when they search for your products or services (based on their physical location or their search query).

Here is an example of a location extension in action:

To set these up, you can either manually enter your business locations, or if you have a Google Places account, you can link this up to AdWords and addresses will automatically be uploaded. You can set location extensions at campaign-level or ad-level.

Top tips for setting up location extensions

If you run exclusive offers in some of your stores, we would recommend setting up separate geo-targeted campaigns around these locations. You can then apply the relevant business address to each campaign so that ads show for the locations where that promotion is available

If you link your Google Places account, always check that all correct business locations and addresses have been uploaded. We have seen instances where incorrect addresses have appeared because the Google Places account was out of date or details have changed

Product Extensions

Product extensions work with your Google Merchant Centre account to include additional product information within your ads, for example images and prices. These act as a great way to showcase your products and highlight price before someone has clicked on your ad.

To set these up, all you need to do is link your Merchant Centre account to your AdWords account and apply the extension to the relevant campaign. If you don’t have a Merchant Centre account, set one up immediately. By submitting a regular data feed of product information to Google, you have the opportunity to feature in Google’s shopping results and increasingly, due to blended search, have product listings appearing at the very top of the main Google SERP.

Here is an example of a product extension in action:

Top tips for setting up product extensions

Before you set up product extensions, ensure that your product feed data in your Merchant Center account is accurate and up-to-date. Google has some optimisation guidelines for this

If you add specific AdWords labels, this allows you to categorise and target specific groups of products, such as your top sellers or most profitable products

Call Extensions

Call extensions allow you to include your business phone number in your text ads, making it easy for users to directly get in touch with your business.

There are different call extensions you can choose, depending on the user’s device. If you enable a Google forwarding number, a unique phone number will be shown in your ads and you are charged on a per-call basis. The unique phone number means you’ll also get more detailed reporting on your calls.

If you choose not to enable a Google forwarding number, your business phone number will not appear on desktop or laptop computers, however it will be shown on mobile devices and made clickable (see below for example). If a user clicks on this number, you’ll be charged at the same rate for a standard ad click.

Top tips for setting up call extensions

Call metrics are great for mobile and local campaigns, however for larger retailers we would recommend implementing a dedicated call tracking solution to track all traffic sources. AdInsight is our preferred partner for this

Seller Ratings

Seller ratings allow you to display your online business ratings and reviews in your ad. Users can quickly identify highly rated businesses helping them to make more informed purchase decisions. You are only charged if someone clicks on your ad, so you get more qualified traffic at no extra cost.

You don’t need to change anything in your account to set these up – they will automatically appear if you have 4 or more stars and at least 30 unique reviews within Google Product Search. The reviews are aggregated by Google from a variety of sources across the web, including Reseller Ratings, Bizrate and ReviewCentre.com.

Here is an example of how the seller ratings appear in an ad:

Top tips for seller ratings

To encourage more reviews from your customers, we would recommend implementing a customer feedback/review system. Feefo is our preferred partner for this

Hopefully this has given you enough information to start using ad extensions in your campaigns. It shouldn’t take long for you to start seeing improvement in your campaigns’ CTR and conversion rates.

Don’t settle for the bog standard text ads when Google provide options for you to be far more creative. Don’t get left behind – start using them now!

Leapfrogg

The digital marketing agency for premium brands and retailers

Category Archives: Paid search