Google released new smart features and ways to buy ads on its different channels. Much like all other updates to Google Ads features, there will be learning curve with the new tools. Here is how you can make them work for you.

1. Get listed for free on Google Shopping

Google is still operating as a paid PPC channel, but you can also enjoy its free traffic. Once Google had introduced the shopping channel to their platform, Google completely beat most of the other price comparison websites from its SERP (Shopping.com, Shopzilla, BizRate). Following this very significant move that occurred in 2017, the European Commission fined Google €2.42 billion (~$3 billion) for breaching EU antitrust rules by “giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service.” This claim is still going through appeal, Google has made changes to ensure other options are present on its services and SERP than its own.

How should you make it work for you? Number one priority is optimizing your Shopping Ads and understand what products click and convert the most. For example, you can use SEISO Google Shopping Analyzer (Free to try) to get shopping reports. From there you can adapt your product feed and product pages to ensure you focus on products that are margin positive.

2. Get impressions on Goolge Ads for free.. only pay  your sales

When it comes to online acquisiton of new formats, video and display formats are not the first type of format you think of They are more popular for brand awareness and influence targets. Google now is trying to convince you otherwise. Google has so much data on users’ profiles and their intents that they can predict what they will buy. Google knows the users very well: from the search queries, from the media they consume (Videos, AMP pages…), and its past purchases thanks to receipts received in Gmail.

Thanks to this treasure trove of data points, the algorithm identifies which new video game console the user wants. And it only shows him the relevant ads when the customer is ready to buy. The ad will be more likely to convert and Google will get a higher revenue per page by only showing converting ads to users: win/win.

You can now run performance-based targeting for Youtube Ads and on the Display network. It usually means a lower reach than a CPM or a Trueview campaign but you will get incremental conversions while controlling your budget.

How to keep tracks of offline conversions

Nowadays, it is very simple to forget that most of the business still happens offline and that zoom calls and online shopping are not all there is to life. Yet offline conversions tracking are not always taken into account. According to Google, 30% of mobile queries are local searches and it is the fastest-growing segment. And 75% of users making a local search will go to a store within 24 hours. This is a lot of conversion lost to online tracking.

In order to be successful tracking these conversions for Google Ads, you will need to set up an omnichannel tracking that integrates offline elements. From there you will be able to measure different types of conversion. You should create a set of conversion actions for each campaign:

• In-store visits: Google automatically tracks walk-in traffic from user’s location captured from their Apps and OS). You will need to register all your points of sales addresses or GPS coordinates.
• Offline purchase thanks to offline the Conversions API or bulksheets upload.
• Online purchase through your regular tracking pixel.

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