Using Competitive Data

to Drive Performance

on Google Shopping

Michael Stricker U.S. Marketing Director, SEMrush

• Leading competitive research tool for digital marketing

• Agency, consulting and web design studio experience

• 100s of successful digital marketing campaigns

• 1,000,000s of impressions for web-based businesses

• Speaker: ClickZ Live, HEROconf, Etail, SMX East.

• Author: blogs CIO.com, Business2Community, SEMrush.com

Publications Philadelphia Inquirer and Philly Ad News.

• Worked with Enterprise Brands 2Modern, AeroPostale, BET,

GolfSmith, HomeFirst, RedCats, RE/MAX, The-House, Toshiba

Using Competitive Data to Drive Performance on Google Shopping

1. Building the Account Architecture from Scratch

Through Competitive Analysis

2. Identifying the Keywords that Surface Your

Competitors' Top Shopping Ads and What to Do With

Them

3. Mining for Top-converting Search Terms to Integrate

into the Product Data Feed

4. How Price Plays a Role on Shopping and How to

Leverage Competitive Pricing Data

1. Building the Account Architecture from Scratch

Through Competitive Analysis

9. Adjust bids for optimal ROI. Reallocate

budget to extend wins and cut losses.

10. Modify Ad Group structure to shift

merchandise and rework your feed to add

inventory and eliminate poorly-performing

products.

11. Frequently update your data feed, keep pace

with your product inventory database.

1. Create Google Merchant Center account

2. Link to AdWords account

3. Structure the data on your landing pages

4. Prep your funnel for device, location

5. Build and upload your product feed

6. Set up new PLA campaign

7. Create appropriate product groups

8. Start bidding and tracking your PLAs’

performance

1. Building the Account Architecture from Scratch

Through Competitive Analysis

These are not the first steps…

9. Adjust bids for optimal ROI. Reallocate

budget to extend wins and cut losses.

10. Modify Ad Group structure to shift

merchandise and rework your feed to add

inventory and eliminate poorly-performing

products.

11. Frequently update your data feed, keep pace

with your product inventory database.

1. Create Google Merchant Center account

2. Link to AdWords account

3. Structure the data on your landing pages

4. Prep your funnel for device, location

5. Build and upload your product feed

6. Set up new PLA campaign

7. Create appropriate product groups

8. Start bidding and tracking your PLAs’

performance

Pre-Planning

Research

Pre-Planning Research

1. Identify Competitors

2. Evaluate Keywords

3. Compare Competitive Performance

Pre-Planning Research

Wait a minute, why are we talking about keywords?

This is Google Shopping. I can’t bid on Keywords…

Pre-Planning Research

Wait a minute, why are we talking about keywords?

This is Google Shopping. I can’t bid on Keywords…

• Relevance through to Landing Pages

• Product Names, Numbers, Brands, slang

• Feed, Titles, Descriptions, additional columns

• Groups, labels

Pre-Planning Research

Identify Competitors

• Google Shopping Competitors

• SERP Competitors

• AdWords Competitors

• Business Model Competitors

• Keen Competitors

Identify & Evaluate Competitors

Identify & Evaluate Paid Competitors

Identify & Evaluate Paid Competitors

Pre-Planning Research

2. Identify and Evaluate Keywords

Pre-Planning Research

2. Identify and Evaluate Keywords

Pre-Planning Research

2. Identify and Evaluate Keywords

Identify & Evaluate PLA Competitors

Filter by Product, Export PLA Competitor Keywords

Identify & Evaluate Paid Competitors

Identify & Evaluate Paid Competitors

Common Keywords = Battle Zone

Common, Strong Competitors = Sweet Spot

Identify & Evaluate Paid Competitors

Identify & Evaluate Paid Competitors

Identify & Evaluate Paid Competitors

Identify & Evaluate PLA Competitors – All KWs

Identify & Evaluate Paid Competitors

Your Unique Keywords = Defensive Posture

Competitors’ Unique Keywords = Opportunity

Identify & Evaluate PLA Competitors – Unique KWs

Pre-Planning Research

Identifying the Keywords that Surface Your

Competitors' Top Shopping Ads and

What to Do With Them

What to Do With Them

Incorporate Keywords in appropriate Feed columns

Start with Title and Description

Pre-Planning Research

Identifying the Keywords that Surface Your

Competitors' Top Shopping Ads and

What to Do With Them

Some Put Brand First – every opportunity

Primary Keywords to the fore

Some evidence that plurals and mis-spellings work

What to Do With Them

View Competitors’ Ads for Promotions

What to Do With Them

Deploy Counter-Measures in “Create an Ad ”Interface

How Price Plays a Role on Shopping and How to

Leverage Competitive Pricing Data

How Price Plays a Role on Shopping and How to

Leverage Competitive Pricing Data

How Price Plays a Role on Shopping and How to

Leverage Competitive Pricing Data

How Price Plays a Role on Shopping and How to

Leverage Competitive Pricing Data

Questions?

Thank you!