On this podcast, we discuss a new feature that is available to 黑料门 merchants to completely automate their Google Shopping ad creation and management.
Ricardo Lasa is the CEO of Sitewit/Klicken the company that 黑料门 partnered with to deliver this new functionality.
We discuss the overall advertising market for Google shopping, integration with 黑料门,
Transcript
Jesse: Hey guys, Jesse Ness here, with the 黑料门
Richard: Hey, how鈥檚 it going, Jesse?
Jesse: It鈥檚 a good day here! Today is actually different: we鈥檝e got a couple guests, and before introducing them鈥� This is a feature that we鈥檙e going to talk about today, and a partner that really shows what 黑料门 is all about. So we鈥檙e going to talk about some really
David: Hey everybody! It is great to be here! Jesse, thank you for the welcome, much appreciate it! You know for me today, I think it鈥檚 really important to share a little bit of my background so we get an understanding of what I bring to the table and why I鈥檓 so into 黑料门 and why I think you should be too, so.
My history is that I鈥檝e been doing
So, joining 黑料门 as the VP of Marketing has been a great opportunity for me because I鈥檝e gone from sitting in your shoes where you鈥檙e trying to drive traffic into helping drive a platform to make sure that it works well for our customers and making sure it has the updated features and capabilities to help you guys grow. What鈥檚 really interesting to me is that I mentioned a lot of these big humongous brands鈥� Right, we did have tremendous budgets, we had a lot of people, and we had a lot of capabilities, and that was amazing because we could do things that other smaller shops couldn鈥檛, and the seat that I find myself in now is really interesting with 黑料门, because what we鈥檙e doing is bringing those capabilities that we had for
We鈥檙e bringing these capabilities down to small shops and giving big reach and big capabilities to small companies that don鈥檛 have the big budgets, don鈥檛 have the big stages, but allow them to have a significant presence around the world and grow their businesses. So, I鈥檓 super stoked to be a part of this and working with you guys, Rich and Jesse, has been just phenomenal.
Jesse: Awesome! So, David, we want to take some of your experience and have you chime in when we interview our next guest. Ricardo Lasa is the CEO of SiteWit who runs the the application Kliken. Ricardo, can you introduce yourself?
Ricardo: Sure! Thank you for having me. I am Ricardo Lasa, I鈥檓 the
Jesse: Awesome, awesome! So, I think let鈥檚 start off with introducing Google Shopping to our customer base. So, in your words, what is Google shopping if you are not aware of it?
Ricardo: Sure! So, Google as a platform has a couple variations on how you can actually advertise on it. So, the first platform that they provided was Google AdWords. And that was a platform that was used for both selling or advertising
Jesse: Ricardo, when you鈥檙e talking about the AdWords platform, as most people know it that鈥檚 where you type a search into Google and you see text ads — that鈥檚 what you鈥檙e talking about, right?
Ricardo: That鈥檚 right! Actually, when you just search into Google, the results that you see primarily are driven by the AdWords engine and they鈥檙e all text ads.
Jesse: Sure. And now I鈥檓 moving on to where we stand today, what is Google shopping?
Ricardo: Sure! So, then Google made a specialized advertising engine for
Richard: Oh, that鈥檚 awesome! Hey, Ricardo, this is Richard. Quick question, you mentioned one of my favorite words a few sentences back — automation — because Jesse and I have tried to do this in the past on our own,
Ricardo: Sure. Actually this is a thing I鈥檓 super excited about, because we鈥檝e built such a wonderful integration between the both platforms. So, 黑料门, obviously shines at the store side of things, right: inventory management, you had all the product information, and so forth. And then if you were going to try to do this manually with Google Shopping, that鈥檚 pretty long set of steps that you need to go through.
So first, you have to get a Google Merchant Center account on your own. You have to get that verified and then claim which basically means that you need to put a snippet of tagging to the website. Once you go through all that process, you need to export your inventory into a Google feed. And then you need to basically select what parts of that feed you want to use on a campaign. Then, you need to add that to Google AdWords, so, basically you need to get a Google AdWords account, so you need to set all that up, and set up a campaign, and the Google AdWords feed and then launch the campaign. So, now we鈥檙e talking about seven to twelve independent steps on multiple platforms, so it鈥檚 a very complex task.
Jesse: For sure. Now I hope for people listening out there: I hope you did not take notes, because that鈥檚 what you used to have to do. It鈥檚 painful, there鈥檚 a lot of steps there, a lot of things that can go wrong, a lot of frustration. Ricardo, how did you guys tackle that issue?
Ricardo: Sure. We鈥檝e will built a platform for Google Shopping from the ground up with 黑料门, right. Actually, we鈥檝e worked with 黑料门 and Google itself.
What we do is basically we automate all the processes. For example, the creation of a merchant center account is automatic, we do that directly and programmatically through the API, the verification of the stores also gets done programmatically on the 黑料门 Instant Sites. And then the actual generation of the feeds to go into the campaign — it鈥檚 also automatic.
So, you just select what categories you want to advertise on, and we generate the feeds for the campaigns automatically. Actually, it鈥檚 beyond just generating the feeds. We worked with 黑料门 and Google to form specialized product description and product titles that are actually
The final result is that your feeds are much better than you would do them by hand. They鈥檙e fully automated, there is no Google Merchant account acquisition. There鈥檚 no AdWords account acquisition either. I mean we actually do that automatically. Basically, you just choose what categories you want to advertise to, how much money you want to spend, and we launch the campaigns. The process goes from a set of multi steps, you know,
David: Wow! Ricardo, you make the sound so simple. Actually I鈥檝e been through the process and looked at what you guys have been doing. I鈥檓 super impressed with it and we鈥檙e really happy to integrate you into 黑料门. I think it鈥檚 going to be a great partnership, absolutely.
One of the things I鈥檇 love to cover just a little bit is “the why”. Having sat in 黑料门 merchants鈥� seats for many years, the interesting thing about Google Shopping and why we should all be paying attention to this, listening to the knowledge of Ricardo and Richard and Jesse? Is it that the world is changing and search is changing. What鈥檚 happening now is people used to like the text and they actually read. Nobody really reads anymore. This is a visual world and that鈥檚 the element that Google shopping brings to the Google search engine results page, is that it鈥檚 the imagery that鈥檚 associated with it.
So, suppose you want to go look at a
Richard: It almost seems like some things that traditionally might appear to be hard to sell online could actually be easier, like rugs. Jesse and I used to talk about rugs, like, what a strange one to sell but how do you
Jesse: Yeah, and so for 黑料门 merchants: think of all the times you Google something and you just look at the pictures at the top. This is what we鈥檙e talking about. If your products are visually appealing, if you need to see an image in order to sell it, Google Shopping is really where you need to be.
David: It鈥檚 not just our thoughts too, right? it鈥檚 not just that we all love visual. Google itself has change the search engine results page over time, and it used to be all text. And then they just started going: “Hey, you know what, people shop visually. Let鈥檚 put the images at the top.” So, you really don鈥檛 have a full game if you鈥檙e doing just paid search. You really need the visual shopping component.
Jesse: Yeah! Ricardo, maybe you know because you鈥檙e in Google Shopping all the time. I heard a stat recently that 50% of all
Ricardo: Yeah. I think it鈥檚 about the same number that I鈥檝e heard. But it鈥檚 growing. So I wouldn鈥檛 be too surprised over time. It would actually keep on increasing as a percentage.
I actually wanted to add to the discussion another, I think, really important factor to understand about Google Shopping. It鈥檚 really designed for
Jesse: Yeah! Ricardo, how does it work? Let鈥檚 stick with the
Ricardo: Sure. So, the matching process is primarily on the description side. So, let鈥檚 say you have an
Jesse: Perfect! So, for merchant, that鈥檚 good to know, because that means you need to really think about what is the product title. You name your product appropriately, so that when it shows up in Google it makes sense to people. I think, the the tip there would be: “Don鈥檛 get too cute”, you know. Just say what it is. And then the description — you do have a lot of room there, you have several hundred words where you can describe it. That鈥檚 what鈥檚 Google using the match that can make it way more specific.
Ricardo: Sure. And that description side of it. Exactly, because you have so much space, right? Just remember, Google is matching you based on a variety of factors, right, from the keyword product name itself but also the brand, the type of product, many other things. So, if you鈥檙e descriptive on the product itself, on the product description, you have a much better chance of getting matched to relevant searches. So, I will definitely emphasize, you know, having very good product descriptions.
Richard: I would imagine too that in that description is where your help in Google鈥檚 algorithm actually make it be, when you鈥檙e talking about relevant to someone who鈥檚 actually looking to buy something, not just, wanting to look how to make a
Ricardo: Sure. Yeah, and I would say that the Google Shopping engine is itself, because they know how to search, how all the people are actually searching in the context of the search. They鈥檙e very effective and making sure that the answer shown for a purchase intent.
Jesse: For sure. That鈥檚 the best time to get in front of internet searchers — when they鈥檙e ready to purchase. So, put your picture right in front of them, have a price. So, Ricardo, I know it always depends on the term and there鈥檚 a lot of things that go into the history or the price of a click. Do you have an average price per click for Google Shopping?
Ricardo: That鈥檚 difficult to come to an average because it is really so broad by product and category, and also by geolocation.
Obviously, the more competition there is for the auctions, the higher the price. And that, you know, can be affected by the product, how many searches there are for a product, the search volume for the product, but also the geolocation.
We have seen throughout is that the cost per click is kinda like in the same context as the normal AdWords cost per click. Certain categories are much cheaper, certain categories can be more expensive. But the one thing that we have seen across the board is that the conversion ratio (the ROI) is the highest on Shopping. And I think that is related to what we鈥檙e saying. So, the intent is there, the fact that you have actually seen the product when you click through to it, you have selected the product you want, right. You鈥檙e not going to click on the product that you don鈥檛 like from the returned results. You鈥檙e almost halfway there when you do that. So, it鈥檚 so much higher conversion ratio and return investment on Google Shopping then almost any other media for
David: That鈥檚 fantastic, Ricardo. One of the things that always concerns me about venturing into a new avenue for driving traffic growth — and it probably does for our merchants as well — is that you may not have a real understanding of how something works. You may not know how to bid on something. You may not know what the ROI is going to be, and our merchants are often small businesses, that鈥檚 who we really support. They don鈥檛 always have the time required to really understand how to do testing and really understand bidding strategy. That鈥檚 what I love about you guys and what you鈥檙e offering here, is a really solid
Ricardo: Sure. I mean another huge factor on that is the full automation. We don鈥檛 have to have human management behind it, it allows us to start with pretty small budgets. So, on top of the fact that the plane basically flies on autopilot and it鈥檚 not going to crash, it鈥檚 actually going to do the really good job at planning the marketing. You can also start with a smaller budget, so it鈥檚 not a huge investment, you can take a look and see how it鈥檚 performing for your store with a small budget in the low hundreds or even $70
Jesse: Wow, that鈥檚 perfect. Ricardo, that鈥檚 means your AI is actually controlling the bidding. And that means that it鈥檚 not the price per click is determined by how much you bid, and those changes happen automatically on your platform?
Ricardo: Yes. There鈥檚 no human intervention on the bidding side. So, it鈥檚 a portfolio optimization and what we do is we maximize the return on investment for the budget of the campaign.
Richard: That is really super cool, Ricardo! I was wondering, kind of back to Dave鈥檚 point, small businesses just getting started, not knowing exactly where to get started, so this sounds like a great potential new traffic source, new revenue source for them. Is there an average order value or an average margin, that someone should be working with, before they start working with you?
Ricardo: Yes and no. Generally speaking, they show up on their store, the order values, it is difficult to make marketing work, when just selling products in the, let鈥檚 say, below couple dollars range without volume, obviously, right. Because on a per order basis, your conversions and your revenue are probably not going to be more than your cost proposition. We have seen throughout, on average order values, right, in the twenties or higher, you know. Generally, we can see passive return Investments quite easily. Obviously the higher the value amount of the order, the better returning investments is going to be. I would say, average of the values — over $20 per order work well.
Richard: Got it.So, in a hypothetical scenario, someone has a $60 product with the $25 margin, they鈥檙e perfect for this?
Ricardo: Sure!
David: If I can add to that just for a second, this is Dave. So, I used to run thechive.com, which is a pretty big
Jesse: Yeah, I mean, that鈥檚 actually very encouraging, because I would have thought prior to this podcast that maybe need to be at a hundred bucks or so in order to afford the marketing to have the margin for that. So, that鈥檚 awesome, that this could be for people, you know, even at a fairly low average basket size.
So, Ricardo, you鈥檝e mentioned earlier that you guys do the optimization and the AI has that. So, that means you actually are able to track all the way to sale as well, you know. How does that work? Is that with the integration with 黑料门?
Ricardo: Yes, so, what we do is we integrate into the order, you know, the part of 黑料门 where the order actually happens. Once the order completes, we trigger that, so we know exactly what keywords work in this case or what product drew the sale, what鈥檚 the actual sale value, so it gets associated to the actual dollar amount or the sale amount. And then we can compute your return on investment for advertising, spend, and everything else. So, it鈥檚 all fully integrated, and we also trigger Google AdWords sale at that point. So it鈥檚 both on our platform, on 黑料门, Google AdWords, so you can see all your conversions.
Jesse: Oh perfect! So that even helps if you鈥檙e selling, let鈥檚 say,
Ricardo: Kinda. So, what it does is it maximizes the return investment. So, it鈥檚 not necessarily that it would turn them off, but it would get the maximum of amount of clicks for the higher converting, higher revenue items automatically. And smallest budgets are constrained. It鈥檚 not like you鈥檙e running like a million dollars amount budgets, like when you have $150, let鈥檚 say, to spend. So, what would happen organically, is that the process, because it鈥檚 is getting the higher value, higher revenue converting products, it starts getting those that are not converting as well would not see the traffic, if they will not get any clicks. So it鈥檚 not that mean technically we don鈥檛 turn them off if they don鈥檛 see that traffic.
Jesse: Sure. So it鈥檚 effectively squeezed but not necessary turned off. Now, you know, AI take little time. It鈥檚 based on statistical significance, and you need traffic. How long does it take for your algorithms, your AI to kick in and start improving things?
Ricardo: Sure. So we start from the
Then we get conversions in the engine, that improves significantly to maximize conversion so, obviously, it鈥檚 always learning. So, the more it runs, the better it runs. With that said, in the first month, we get it to to a fairly stable, pretty good optimization going with five conversions. We get much clearer picture of what, you know, prices are working and what conversions are working and so forth.
And then, you know, after five conversions it keeps improving, improving and improving. So the long term is a pretty much immediate from the
Jesse: Sure. So, breaking that down for a newbie merchant. So they have a store, they鈥檝e made a few sales, maybe they are doing some things on Facebook and email, but they鈥檝e never launched an advertising campaign. So, we鈥檙e talking about maybe an hour or so to get this launched and, maybe you know, a couple hundred bucks to really get some good feedback and figure out what鈥檚 their cost per sale, is that fair?
Ricardo: So far the numbers that we have is like 20 minutes. It鈥檚 relies directly on the inventory of the store. So, if you have all the data for items, the prices and everything else is pretty seamless, it takes like 5 minutes or less. But we鈥檙e saying about an average of 20 minutes to complete the campaign, so it鈥檚 pretty easy. And yes, i think a package for $75. So you can set up $75 per month and then grow the way to hundreds and then thousands. So, we have pretty good steps, you know, 75, 150 a month and then 300
Jesse: Got it. So, you know, do you think somebody spending, let鈥檚 say, somebody has an average, their products average, let鈥檚 say, $50. Do you think spending the $150, maybe over the two months, that would be enough to get a proper gauge? Is this going to work on Google Shopping, or do I need improvements? is there any life to this? Is that enough time?
Ricardo: Sure! I would say, like, I think eight weeks is definitely enough time to get you a good idea of what your conversion ratio is and then what鈥檚 your average orders are. And then you can adjust accordingly. I mean, if your converting higher than you thought, but your order volume is a little bit smaller, then, maybe you want to bundle products to increase your
David: You know, what are the interesting things about this program is goes back to broader digital marketing experiences. When you think about it, the ways to drive traffic efficiently what happens is, you find a tactic you like and then everybody starts betting on it and then you find at the efficiency starts to go away, and you got to find a new tactic.
What I like about Google Shopping right now is that there鈥檚 not a lot of, what I call “longer tail users”. There aren鈥檛 a lot of small merchants who really figured out how to use the system, because it鈥檚 always been too complex in the past. So what you鈥檝e got are the majority of major players out there, like larger brands that can take advantage of it. But right now with this tool we鈥檙e bringing this to smaller merchants. It鈥檚 an opportunity to be at the early onset of the larger swell of traffic, that will happen through visual shopping. So, my thought to merchants out there is to really take advantage of this now. It does come down to take an advantage of things while they鈥檙e efficient as possible as they may not always be forever. So, give it a shot!
Richard: Yeah. Just like in the beginning of the days of the web. If you were just there first, sometimes you would win, right. Or you had a better looking store. So, yeah, you now have the opportunity to look and effectively function, like an enterprise site with a combination of Kliken and 黑料门 now, it鈥檚 awesome. I was going to ask you, Ricardo, is this a hundred percent
Ricardo: So, it is pretty much
Richard: Got it. So, as soon as they鈥檝e said “this is the package I鈥檓 taking”, that鈥檚 the amount of spend and I don鈥檛 have to worry about all of a sudden getting some bill for a thousand extra dollars or anything like that. You鈥檙e just agree to $250 or you agree to $300, whatever the price that they choose on. That鈥檚 the extent of what that bill is going to be in they can kind of forget about it and get back to work.
Ricardo: That鈥檚 right. So, there鈥檚 no real risk. I mean, outside of obviously launching the campaign, make sure that something that you know converts itselves. So, you know exactly how much money you鈥檙e spending and it鈥檚 completely transparent. You also see exactly how it鈥檚 being deployed: how many clicks are getting, what鈥檚 the price and so forth.
Jesse: Yeah, that鈥檚 perfect. There are some stories out there: if you start an AdWords campaign or a Facebook advertising campaign, and you put your credit card in there, and walk away, you know, sometimes you could spend $1,000 really fast!
Ricardo: Yeah, it just takes care of that. We put together the daily spend, based on the budget, and that鈥檚 the maximum that you can spend.
Jesse: Perfect. For the merchants, they鈥檙e not changing bids, but what kind of visibility they get to what鈥檚 going on with the campaign?
Ricardo: Yes, they get to see exactly what鈥檚 happening. They get to see the clicks, where they are happening, impressions also, like they get to see what products in what categories are seeing impressions and clicks. They get to see any revenue coming in, so they can put two and two together. So, these categories generating so much revenue with so much costs, so it鈥檚 completely transparent. And then they can change for the campaign鈥檚 performance over time, change what categories of products going to the campaign or not. So, for example, they鈥檙e running 5 categories of products: they鈥檙e running
Jesse: Got it. Now what about “out of stocks”? So, you got one
Ricardo: So, the feed itself has the inventory items, right. That鈥檚 a part of the process, for the campaign and to sync the feed. The campaign is synced to the 黑料门 store, and we have a service that does that. It takes care of that automatically. So, as you run out of the inventory, our services pick that up and let the feeds change, that stops the campaign for that product. Same thing for new products. If you add a new product or a category, then automatically our service will pick it up and start advertising the product or category. There鈥檚 direct synchronization between the inventory and the Google feed used for the campaigns.
Jesse: Oh, that鈥檚 awesome! So, if you鈥檙e merchant that adds new products fairly often, that鈥檚 awesome. Once somebody鈥檚 feed ends
David: Does that include price changes?
Ricardo: Yeah, it鈥檚 the whole thing. So basically we sync anything, that you are in any categories, any products, you can advertising, it syncs it all. Syncs inventory, new products, prices changes, everything.
Jesse: And I assume the images are part of that as well?
Ricardo: Sure. Basically anything that鈥檚 on that product in the store.
Jesse: Okay. Now, for images. There鈥檚 kind of two ways of thinking about it, you know, with Google they have a white background. So, you know, we have the Amazon standard is there must be a white background for a product. Does Google Shopping have standards on best best practices for product photos?
Ricardo: So, actually, I鈥檓 that pretty sure that it鈥檚 the same thing, like Amazon. The quality of the pictures is incredibly important, especially on the visual search. As far as I got from the conversation that we had with them, they had not really gave us specific directions, whether it can be dark background, white backgrounds, things of that nature. But the quality of the pictures is definitely important. I definitely recommend the store owners to get the best pictures they can for their stores.
Jesse: Yeah. This is a good time to get a reminder for everybody.
Ricardo: Sure. But you don鈥檛 have to have it. The nuance of seeing that picture, I just saw the searchers having discussion about this. It鈥檚 funny, how your brain looks at it: when pictures come on the white background, the product pops up, right, as a single product. But when pictures have a background or some sort, like a room or things of that nature, it鈥檚 difficult to distinguish the actual product from the rest of that picture. So I definitely recommend white background.
Jesse: Yeah. And for merchants that are listening and saying: “How do I get the white background”? There鈥檚 a lot of ways you can take your picture that way, that鈥檚 the easiest way. If you鈥檙e a Photoshop person you can remove backgrounds, but there鈥檚 services that I鈥檝e used in the past. You send them a photo that has at least a standard background, and for a dollar per photo they鈥檒l remove the back and make it white. So, you know, for buck per photo it鈥檚 kind of a worthwhile investment on that.
So, Ricardo. I mean, you鈥檝e seen a ton of clients, people have more success or others. What category of merchants are having the best success with Google Shopping right now?
Ricardo: I would say that, I mean, across the board, I don鈥檛 think, it鈥檚 not so much a specific category or categories. I mean, if you have a good store and you鈥檙e selling products that make sense for the category of your store, you鈥檙e going to see success.
And we have seen that across the board from people, selling from cakes and baking utensils and things of that nature to fishing rods, to pretty much anything. So, I would say obviously, sorting categories that probably have more competition than others.
But the great thing about Google is that the sophistication of the searches is there, right. I mean, if you are a hobbyist and you鈥檙e into something, regardless whether it鈥檚 fishing, baking, skiing, and you鈥檙e searching on Google for things around that hobby of yours. The ability of Google to match things very effectively, that鈥檚 unbelievable. So, if you鈥檙e selling any type of products that make sense for those hobbies, like baking, skiing, and things of that nature, the campaigns will be very effective, because Google is very effective at matching people based on where they are and their interests in the purchase process.
David: Interesting. Ricardo, let me ask you a question. We have other products with you obviously, we worked with you on the AdWords tools as well. When you talk about Google Shopping, do you find that the Kliken tool is best standalone, or do you need to layer on other products with it? Do you need to be on AdWords? I鈥檇 love your thoughts on that.
Ricardo: That鈥檚 actually a great question. The more sophisticated the store is, the more compound benefits you get from doing almost all the major types of
Jesse: Now, and I don鈥檛 mean to cut you off, I just want to get some clarity. It doesn鈥檛 really mean you have to do it that way, you don鈥檛 need to do everything all at once, you can kind of step into pieces at a time?
Ricardo: Sure. No, no, absolutely! Stepping into pieces makes ton of sense. Again, if you don鈥檛 have a lot of traffic on your website, my recommendation will be to start with Google Shopping, because that鈥檚 probably the most effective way to drive traffic and sales to the website.
If you already have a pretty good amount of traffic, so you鈥檙e running Google Shopping, then adding retargeting, it will make ton of sense, because you a going to maximize the return investment, because now people are seeing your ads after they leave website, they get reminded it and they鈥檙e purchasing more. And then Google AdWords itself — the actual text ads engine. It鈥檚 fantastic for top of the funnel searches. So, I mean, going back to skiing. So let鈥檚 say that you鈥檝e done some homework and you want a specific type of gloves. When you search on that level, Google Shopping is very effective because you already know what type of gloves you want, so you are actually almost ready to buy it.
But, let鈥檚 say, that you don鈥檛 know what you want. You鈥檙e at the much higher level in the funnel. You鈥檙e doing research and you don鈥檛 really know what you want. And you search, like “warm ski gloves that go over my jacket”. You are really discovering a glove, but in your head you still don鈥檛 know what that keyword specifically is, right. Because you haven鈥檛 received that information yet. So, a text add at that level will guide you directly into the store and it can actually be very effective at catching searchers of that nature. I think all of them together complement each other very, very well, to drive traffic at the research level, the purchase level, and then with retargeting to reinforce purchase.
Jesse: Great! Ricardo, so, we talked about the Google Shopping integration, but you also have an AdWords integration with 黑料门 as well. Is that going to be through the same location or is going to be a separate app in the 黑料门 platform?
Ricardo: So, right now it鈥檚 going to be probably the same app. It鈥檚 the same platform, so you are going to be able to run Google Shopping, retargeting, and SEM ads from the same app.
Jesse: So the Google Shopping pulls mostly image, price and the product description on AdWords side. What does it use as the base information?
Ricardo: Sure. So it鈥檚 actually quite straightforward. What we do is, we crawl the website, so we have a good idea of what the store is about. And the process is a little bit different, because with text ads, you have keywords, you have to select these keywords for the campaign, so it鈥檚 a visual process that allows you to select your keywords, that you want to use in your campaign. And then we also guide through the building of the ads, so we provide ad text and suggestions. So, there is no need to go to AdWords, because we generate the AdWords account, we make and bid campaigns, and then the tracking works in the exact same way: we are tracking conversions use that for optimization. Almost very similar process, just a little bit different. On Google Shopping, you select the categories that you want to advertise, on Google AdWords, and you select keywords that you want to advertise.
Richard: It鈥檚 very cool. It鈥檚 awesome you can do that both of those in the same app too. One quick question I had, regarding that. Since you have so many things tied together and so integrated with Google and it鈥檚
Ricardo: Sure. So, we have on the campaign side of things, we provide all the most important campaign statistics, right. Where the traffic is coming from, what are the keywords that are driving the traffic and what ads are driving the traffic. What conversions they are having on Google Shopping, we do the same by products and categories. So what categories are driving the traffic and what products are driving the traffic. And then also we have a deep integration with you guys, with 黑料门 on the store stats. So we have a store stats platform that uses our own analytics to show the store鈥檚 website traffic sources. So, it tells you what are the main sources of traffic for the store, what鈥檚 the average time to purchase, what鈥檚 the conversion ratio by type, direct traffic, organic traffic, paid traffic. And what products are performing the best, or what categories are performing the best, as far as sales and so forth. So we have a ton of analytics on the app, both on the store stats level and the campaign level.
Jesse: Oh, that鈥檚 awesome! I also caught something there about the remarketing. It鈥檚 using the same sort of technology, you essentially have the conversion pixels and now all the tracking available. So, if a new merchant wanted to set up remarketing with you guys, how do I go about this? Remarketing is all about display — do they need to upload images and things for the campaign? How does that work?
Ricardo: So, it鈥檚 actually fully automated. So we integrate into the 黑料门 platform, so the images for the adds come directly from the inventory, so they don鈥檛 have to upload anything.
They just have to select the geolocation for the ads, where they want the adds to run. And then just edit ads a little bit, just to change the defaults. We give them the defaults, but if they want to change, the name of the store, for example, and things of that nature鈥� And then they get a template of the ad, they can pick it, and they launch the campaigns. So, it鈥檚 a very automated process, super easy, and it uses the images from the 黑料门 store already, so they don鈥檛 have to upload anything.
Jesse: Oh, perfect. So, the images it takes, those are the product images or similar to Google Shopping, takes those images?
Ricardo: Yeah.
Jesse: Awesome. So, there is a little template. Now, does that mean that, you know, people are seeing the products that they were looking at or do they see a general mix of all the products from the store?
Ricardo: So, it鈥檚 a general mix of the products from the store, at this point. Probably the next iteration down the Google Shopping product, is to also do retargeting and that would be the products that they put on the shopping cart also. So that鈥檚 coming soon.
Jesse: Stay tune for that, awesome. Regarding the retargeting鈥� What sort of budget鈥� Oh, I probably know the answer — it depends on how much traffic you get to your site and how much is spent for retargeting, but what鈥檚 a good way to start with retargeting for small merchants?
Ricardo: Sure. And the beautiful thing about the retargeting, is that the deployment of remarketing is so much cheaper than searching itself. Because the inventory in the displaying AdWords is very supply based. So you can actually deploy an effective budget, setting a $50 per month and, if you have a ton of traffic you could go all the way to hundred or thousands of dollars, depending on the traffic. Our entry level package is $50 per month, it鈥檚 really effective for entry level stores, that, are driving traffic to the website. And then, you know, we have the bumps of $100
Jesse: Got it, that鈥檚 perfect! And you don鈥檛 have to deal with the creative, so, those are done automatically. So, this is awesome for a small merchant. You got to get your products ready, you do have to take a photo of a product at some point, get your prices in there. But, you could maybe take a Friday afternoon, sit down with your product list and launch Google Shopping in 20 minutes. You can launch remarketing. How long you think that would take, another 20 minutes and or so?
Ricardo: Yeah, that鈥檚 pretty easy.
Jesse: And then you could also launch a more top of a funnel campaign with Google Adwords. This is like, you could do this in the afternoon, if you are a merchant that is looking to kickstart your business.
Ricardo: Sure. Yeah, it鈥檚 actually a pretty simple.
Jesse: Awesome. Dave, I鈥檓 glad to brought you to the podcast today to get a taste of what we talked about here. What do you think about this Google Shopping integration?
David: Well, I appreciate the time. It鈥檚 actually very interesting to hear, and it gives us an opportunity to talk a little bit more, always so busy working and I鈥檓 sure everybody out there is too.
What I love about, this is really the future direction of where 黑料门 is going for merchants. Bringing the tool sets that are going to help to grow. Where we鈥檝e been in the past is really building an
Jesse: Absolutely. So, Ricardo, thanks for sharing your expertise for the show, for all merchants are listening. By the time you listen to this, this is going to be live inside the 黑料门 Control panel. So, please check it out, it鈥檚 an automated Google Shopping. Really excited to have you on the 黑料门
