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How to set up an effective SEA strategy for an e-commerce site?

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

In addition to a well-calibrated search engine optimization strategy, SEA (or paid search) campaigns can help you rapidly achieve the objectives you’ve set for your e-commerce site.

But just like a marketing plan, a SEA campaign needs to be properly organized beforehand, to get the best return on investment. Before you get started, here are a few things you need to know to put in place a well-informed, and above all personalized, SEA strategy for your e-commerce site.

Step one: identify your goals!

All paid search campaigns can serve different purposes:

  • Acquire new customers, by developing your website’s notoriety and thus its audience
  • Make your communication campaigns profitable
  • Introduce new products, promote a launch or an event
  • Follow-up prospects and customers
  • Increase your sales
  • Etc…

Before taking the first steps towards creating your campaign, you need to ask yourself which objectives are relevant to your company’s digital strategy.

Keep in mind that your campaign must take into account aspects that are specific to your organization. For example:

  • Which brands are your priorities?
  • What are the highest-margin products in your catalog?
  • What is your stock situation, and what are your supply forecasts?
  • What are your planned sales events and promotions?

Step two: consider the buying journey

An important phase, the conversion tunnel (also known as the purchase or sales funnel) represents the various stages a prospect goes through before becoming a customer. This may involve consulting mailings, visiting the website, social networks, physical stores, etc., right through to purchase.

Google recently renamed this phase the “messy middle”.
The “Messy Middle” is the more or less short period between the expression of need and a customer’s purchase.
This period contains a random path of exposure to your marketing messages and those of competitors, made up of various stages of inspiration, research and comparison before the final decision is made: the purchase.

Your mission is to guide and shorten this phase. That’s how you’ll improve your ecommerce site’s conversion rate.

That’s why it’s important to know your customers, the competition and the information available on the market: your SEA strategy will be all the more effective for it. Each stage of this process must be accompanied by specific actions to achieve your objectives.

Don’t forget: optimize your e-commerce site to improve the performance of your SEA campaign.

As part of your SEA strategy, it’s essential to optimize your e-commerce site. In fact, while many companies link their ads to existing pages on their websites, the proper organization of your account will also depend on the tree structure and categories of your site.

The prerequisite for successful campaigns is clear categorization (ordered by product category, brand, etc.) and the creation of optimized landing pages to serve your campaign objectives.

In particular, they must include a unique, well-defined call-to-action (CTA) to encourage your targeted visitors to take that action (request for quote, purchase, reservation…).

Step 3: Define your performance indicators

Once you’ve defined your sales objectives and categorized your site, it’s essential to quantify them to get a concrete view of your results, and optimize the profitability of your campaign.

At the end of this stage, you’ll need to set up a series of performance indicators (KPIs) that will enable you to measure your return on investment (ROI) and the real effect of your expenditure.

Here are the main KPIs to track and analyze to determine the specific performance of the SEA strategy implemented for your e-commerce site:

  • Cost-per-click (CPC): the average amount charged for a click on your ad. It is calculated by dividing the total cost of clicks by the total number of clicks.
  • Quality Score: this is a score between 0 and 10, assigned to your ad by Google as part of a Google Ads campaign. It is defined according to criteria of relevance, expected click-through rate and landing page quality.
  • Click-through rate (CTR): this indicator corresponds to the number of clicks obtained in relation to the number of impressions of your ad.
  • Average position: this is the position at which your ad is displayed on a page in relation to other ads.
  • Number of impressions: this is the frequency with which your ad is displayed. An impression is counted each time your ad is displayed on a search results page.
  • Conversion rate: this percentage corresponds to the average number of conversions carried out each time an ad is interacted with.

Finally, analyze the evolution of your sales and your site’s overall audience over the long term. Because a well-executed SEA campaign generally has a global impact on your business that cannot be immediately measured on a single channel.

Step 4: Choose the right strategy for each of your objectives

Once your objectives are clear and defined, taking into account the customer journey and integrated into a relevant overall acquisition strategy, you can launch targeted actions, step by step.

Develop brand and product awareness

The first step is to introduce your brand, products or services to potential prospects. At this stage, your mission is to generate visibility for your company.

One effective strategy is to set up a Display advertising campaign, which will initially enable you to reach a large audience. In particular, you can explore the solutions offered by Youtube Ads.

With over a billion videos viewed every day, YouTube represents a real opportunity to develop your brand image with specific targets (age range, geolocation, interests…) and promote your products.

From a wide choice of formats (True View, Discovery TrueView, Bumper, Masthead, Google Preferred…), choose the one that best suits your needs. True View, for example, displays an ad while the user is watching a video, and has the advantage of being billed only if the viewer watches at least 30 seconds of the ad.

Generate interest in your products

This involves convincing Internet users who already have a potential interest in the products you offer. To specifically target them and get them to visit your site, you can opt for a Search campaign via Google Ads.

This type of campaign allows you to display your ad alongside perfectly targeted Google search results, in affinity with the needs met by your products. In this way, you reach users at the precise moment they are looking for the type of products or services you offer.

Motivate purchases and drive traffic to your e-commerce site

When an Internet user is determined to buy a product you have in your catalog, your natural aim is to encourage them to buy it on your site.

You can then opt for a Google Shopping campaign, which will enable you to display a product listing in search results as well as in Google’s Shopping tab.

The advantage of this format is that it directly targets web surfers who are in the buying process. These people are actively researching and comparing similar products before making their choice.

Google’s results pages display products at the top of the page, when users’ queries are clearly related to a purchase: products sold on your e-commerce site are thus promoted.

Follow up with a potential customer or prospect

Despite the quality of the campaigns you’ve set up, it sometimes happens that web users don’t make a purchase when they first visit your site, or when they see your ad.

You can then use Google Ads’ remarketing tool to carry out a personalized commercial relaunch. This allows you to boost the performance of your campaigns by re-presenting your ads to targeted web users who have interacted with one of them.

These solutions enable you not only to re-engage your audience, complete purchases or abandoned shopping baskets, but also to conclude your prospects’ conversion processes!

Do you have questions about your campaigns? Are you struggling to optimize your SEA strategy to maximize sales on your e-commerce site?

Get in touch with us! Our experts will help you build a customized strategy, fully parameterized to meet your specific objectives and evolve over time in line with your performance.

Part. 1 – Performance Max & Ecommerce v

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

Performance Max campaigns: will the future of ecommerce campaigns necessarily involve Performance Max?

Max. performance

This is a new advertising campaign format from Google Ads that promises maximum performance for advertisers, with greater ease of use.

Will it bury search or shopping campaigns? Only time will tell.

For now, let’s take a look at Google’s new advertising solution and the benefits it can offer e-tailers.

Performance Max: what's it all about?

Google presents it as a new Google Ads campaign format to maximize advertiser performance across all the channels offered by Google Ads. It’s a new way to buy Google ads on YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps from a single campaign.

Why this new offer?

Google starts from the premise that consumers consult an ever-increasing variety of sites and platforms on a daily basis, and especially when they want to make a purchase.

The figures put forward are as follows: for certain products, consumers have more than 500 points of contact before making a purchase!

We’re talking here about the famous “messy middle” described by Google in its newsletter “Think with Google: How intent is redefining the marketing funnel”.

We talk about the “Messy Middle” in the artilcles of SEA Strategies for Ecommerce.

The consumer’s procrastination and the wide variety of contact points before a purchase can be difficult for advertisers to keep up with.

That’s whyautomating and Machine Learning campaigns to engage customers effectively and at scale is an important expectation for e-retailers.

Google Ads Performance Max campaigns do just that, and here’s how.

The promise of Google Performance Max

The benefits promised by Google Performance Max to e-merchants are as follows:

💡
1. Reach the customers who convert best according to your objectives
The promise

More qualified traffic, more leads, more purchases
complementary traffic to that generated by search campaigns

Resources

Access the entire Google Ads inventory (YouTube, display, search, maps, Gmail…) from a single campaign to reach your specific objectives.

Use Google’s real-time consumer tracking to serve your ads at the right times

The plus

You can set the acquisition of new customers as your objective. Simply upload the list of your existing customers, define your criteria and after the campaign, you’ll receive a report on the conversion rate of new customers brought in by Performance Max.

💡
2. Improve your return on advertising investment (ROAS)
The promise

Your budget is optimized across all channels to seize the best opportunities

Resources

Performance Max campaigns use automated bidding and targeting technology, data-driven attribution* (DDA) and personalized ads to help you find more customers, wherever they are in the Google Ads inventory.

Data-Driven Attribution* (DDA) is still optional, but it enables campaigns to be optimized by activating them on the sites, networks and interactions that are most likely to convert, in real time.

The plus

Google claims that Performance Max campaigns are capable of generating 13% more conversions at the same or lower cost per conversion when run with comparable campaigns.

💡
3. High visibility for your campaigns (transparency and wealth of information)
The promise

Understand how automation works and how you can improve your campaign. See which criteria impact performance (audiences, formats, trends, etc.).

Resources

Performance Max integrates with the Insights page in your Google Ads account to help you streamline your feeds:

By identifying the performance factors of your campaigns from one period to the next

Helping you solve any problems you encounter

By sharing Google marketing information to help you adapt and develop your business and your ads

By integrating with recommendations to continually achieve better results for your Performance Max campaign, and allowing you to focus on the levers you can control

The plus

Advertisers will be able to learn about the main performance criteria for their campaigns, and gain a better understanding of their audiences.

💡
4. Benefit from the power of the Google Ads algorithm
The promise

Get better results faster, to accelerate the learning curve of campaigns.

Use exclusive functions such as Audience Signals

Resources

Performance Max combines Google Ads’ automation technology with all sales data and Google Ads bids to achieve optimal machine learning:

The algorithm has full visibility of bidding data across all Google media. Smart Shopping campaigns achieve on average + 20% higher conversion value than similar technologies.

The algorithm bids in real time on all channels. And real-time bidding offers an average 15-30% increase for the same CPA/ROAS.

Creation is automated based on your account data. On average, responsive search ads generated up to 10% more clicks and conversions.

Attribution is based on data analysis (Data Driven Attribution – DDA) to give you full funnel visibility. We’ve seen a 5% increase in conversions at a similar CPA for customers using DDA on Search.

Focus on... Audience signals

Introduced with Performance Max, Audience Signals is presented by Google as a more effective way of reaching your most important audiences.

When advertisers create Performance Max campaigns, Audience Signals enable them to influence automation by directly indicating the audiences most relevant to their business, those with the highest probability of conversion.

In this way, Audience Signals enables advertisers to accelerate the campaign learning curve.

Tips to avoid overdependence

While automated recommendations from Google Ads can be useful, it’s crucial to maintain control to avoid unnecessary expenditure. By combining automation with manual adjustments, you can balance smart bidding with your overall strategy.

NB: Regular performance monitoring and adjustment of ROAS targets are essential to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Conclusion

In the past, Google’s new solutions have often lived up to their promises and delivered excellent performance for advertisers.

But as always, be careful not to switch all your Google Ads campaigns at once.

Creating a schedule and identifying the most relevant categories in your catalog to activate as a priority is crucial to securing all the benefits and lessons learned needed to achieve your 2022 performance objectives.

However, if you need an expert to structure your Google Ads campaigns for your Ecommerce business and make the most of Google’s algorithms, we’re specialists in the field.
Don’t hesitate to ask a Google Ads agency such asAdenlab about the solutions to be applied, as there are different ones for each strategy.

We're here to advise you and develop your sales

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Part. 2 – Performance Max & Smart Shopping

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

Google Ads Smart Shopping campaigns, soon to be replaced by Performance Max : Planning

In 2021, Google announced that Performance Max would gradually replace Smart Shopping campaigns and Local Services ads in Google Ads. The migration is scheduled to start in April 2022.

Here’s how this change will work over the coming months, and what it means for your Google Ads campaigns.

Performance Max: what's it all about?

Launching in November 2021, Google Performance Max is a new type of automated campaign that promises to maximize advertisers’ performance across all Google channels (Shopping, YouTube, Display, Search, Discovery, Gmail and Maps) in a single campaign.

After a successful launch, Performance Max will soon become the only campaign type for companies running Google Ads Smart Shopping campaigns and Local Services Ads.

Planning & Updates

Smart Shopping campaign updates from April 2022

What are the stages in the migration to performances max? What tools will advertisers have at their disposal for this migration?

The migration to Performance Max campaigns will take place in stages.
Advertisers will be able to switch their Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max from April 2022.

To help advertisers make the switch quickly and easily, Google has announced a “one-click” upgrade tool.

This tool will enable one-click upgrades on specific campaigns, or on all campaigns.

When should you migrate to Google Performance Max?

Here are Google’s tips for choosing the right time to implement PMax:

💡
Warning: if you do nothing, your campaigns will switch over automatically!

Indeed, if no action is taken on Smart Shopping or Local Campaigns on your accounts by July, the old campaigns will be automatically upgraded. This should be effective by September 2022.

Changes to be expected with Performance Max upgrades

How will Google set up your campaigns without your intervention?
Thanks to its algorithm and the millions of data it processes!

The new Performance Max campaigns will be based on existing Smart Shopping and Local Campaigns.

This means that most existing parameters will be retained.
A relative relief for advertisers.

After the automatic switchover to Performance Max, campaigns will benefit from new functionalities, so they should also become more effective:

New ad inventory available (which will also be added to YouTube, Search and Discovery)
New perspectives in automation
Advice

Scaling your schedule: some tips for switching to Performance Max

How do I switch my Google Ads campaigns to Performance Max?

For advertisers who don’t want to use the Google Ads one-click tool, it’s possible to create new Performance Max campaigns right now, and we even recommend that you do so, to carry out tests ahead of the migration.

We explain this in more detail in our article on launching your Google Ads Performance Max campaigns.

Performance Max and Google Ads: the future of e-commerce campaigns?

Conclusion

The automation of advertising campaigns is rapidly gaining ground.

Advertisers are well advised to turn to Performance Max, if only to understand and better master this new solution, in particular by testing several variants that enable them to retain a degree of control over their campaigns (message, budget or target audiences).

Need help with the transition to Performance Max upgrades? We’re here to help.

Adenlab specializes in managing Google Ads campaigns for e-commerce sites, and we’ll be delighted to guide you in maximizing your performance.

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Part. 3 – Performance Max & Google Ads

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

How do you get started and set up your campaigns? We tell you all about it!

A reminder about Performance Max: what is it and how does it work? Performance Max is a new tool created by Google to centrally manage online advertising campaigns.

Its goal

Its aim: to generate high-performance results across multiple channels (Search, Display, YouTube…), all from a single platform, in a single campaign. The stated aim is to facilitate the management of advertising campaigns for all advertisers.

His secret

Its secret: automation and the power of its algorithm, designed to achieve conversion objectives and not just be visible on keywords.

Deployment schedule
Deployment schedule: we have dedicated an article to this subject, which can be consulted here:Performance Max deployment schedule on Google Ads

So how do you go about migrating your Smart Shopping campaigns? First of all, you’ll need to clarify your conversion objectives by product or service, rather than thinking in terms of keywords, which people would search for in order to buy them. Here’s why:

Conversion goals at the heart of Performance Max's Google Ads campaign strategy

These are the first elements you’ll be asked for when you launch a campaign on Google Performance Max, and they’re essential. Each campaign will be designed and automated according to your conversion objectives. These can take the form oflead acquisition via phone calls or form filling, or even purchases on your ecommerce site.

We’ll explain below how to optimize them, but first, here are the main elements to prepare and the steps to follow to successfully migrate your Smart Shopping campaigns to Performance Max.

What you need to launch a Perfomance Max campaign

Your marketing and conversion objectives
Your feeds

Google My Business (optional) ○ Google Merchant Center (optional) ○ Dynamic ad feed (optional) ○ Business data feed (optional)

The resources you'll be using

Text, image, video (optional as it can be generated automatically)

Your audiences

Primary audiences, including remarketing lists (optional) ○ Google Audiences, including custom audiences (optional)

Your geographical targets
The desired budget

On this basis, ads will be automatically served on search engines, Maps, Display, Gmail, Discovery and YouTube.

Getting started: how do I create a Google Ads campaign with Performance Max?

Step 1: Select your objectives

Step 2: Choose Performance Max campaigns Step 3: Determine a strategic bid and budget Step 4: Add as many campaign parameters as you need Step 5: Create an asset group and assign it/them an ad group and assign them an audience Step 6: Add extensions, if relevant to you

Start your migration: when and how to launch your first Performance Max campaign with Google Ads?

○ First of all, you don’t need to pause your current campaigns to test Performance Max.

○ You should also know that the sooner you get started, the more you’ll benefit, because from the 2nd half of 2022 you’ll automatically be redirected to this type of campaign as far as Google Shopping is concerned. ○ But for now, you can go step by step, and it’s even recommended.

💡
Here are the main points to bear in mind:

○ Google Ads Performance Max campaigns are complementary to your existing campaigns. However, Performance Max campaigns will take priority over existing Shopping campaigns that use the same products in the same account. ○ Don’t launch a Shopping campaign (standard or Smart Shopping) and a Google Performance Max campaign at the same time and for the same product references ○ Test a campaign first to tame the tool and do some “test and learn”. ○ Refine your campaigns and deploy them on more offers or products, depending on the results obtained in the test phase (we explain the recommended timing below).

Test & learn: our recommendations

Don't switch all your campaigns at once to Performance Max

As we’ve just seen, it’s advisable to test Performance Max alongside your existing campaigns, whatever the channel. Indeed, even though Performance Max delivers ads across the entire Google inventory, it’s important to use it alongside your existing campaigns as a complementary strategy. This is because existing campaigns often have additional features and tools (such as keyword research), which can help maintain your brand’s presence on different platforms and conversion volume, while Performance Max enables you to seize additional opportunities.

Tracking and analysis of Performace Max campaigns from Google Ads

In order to be able to track and analyze your campaign, you need to use Google Analytics Conversion Tracking for a more precise measurement of conversions, or alternatively, Google Ads Conversion Tracking.

Launch: Sample campaign schedule

1 . Analysis of a typical period before the campaign 2 . Conversion measurement phase for this sample period 3 . Implementation of the Performance Max solution, start-up phase 4 . Performance Max campaign acceleration phase 5 . Evaluation of campaign results

💡
Test analysis tips
To be set up BEFORE the campaign

Include: Campaigns optimized for the same purpose as Performance Max. Exclude: Existing campaigns that are not optimized for the same objective, such as branding campaigns like YouTube Instream and CPM Display.

To be examined AFTER the campaign

Change in global conversions. Change in conversion value to a similar CPA/ROAS*.

Please note

Examining the breakdown of performance by objective can also be useful! But wait a minute … Before we know how to examine your campaigns, let’s answer a key question: “How do you determine your conversion goals on Performance Max?”

Focus on... Google Ads and Performance Max conversion targets

Set relevant objectives

The Performance Max algorithm attempts to capture the most qualified conversions according to a desired ROI. If you want to optimize it, it’s advisable to aim for the lowest conversions in your funnel (i.e. the purpose of your campaign: call, form, purchase…), but also to choose a reasonable volume, closely aligned with the desired objective!

In brief

Take the time to prepare your campaigns before getting started, and migrate your campaigns. Test different product verticals to get the most out of Google Performance Max. Because even if the promise is campaign automation, there are still a good number of optimization points to improve your conversions. Would you like to talk to our experts? Contact us now! We help a large number of ecommerce sites manage their Google Ads campaigns.

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Interview : Natalya Donnat – Director of Operations & General Manager, Adenlab

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

Following the changes to Google Ads and the Performance Max solution, we interviewed Natalya Donnat, Director of Operations at Adenlab. She answered our questions, giving us a clearer picture of the Performance Max issues.

🤓
What do you think of Google Ads’ max performance campaigns?
So far, initial tests have been encouraging. The Performance Max campaign type has been in Beta since May 2021, and following positive results at Google, this Beta has been whitelisted for all accounts. Several tests have also been launched at Adenlab on several different business sectors. Some business sectors are responding better than others, but the tests are still being finalized.
🤓
Does automating this format benefit advertisers?
For the moment, I can’t say that automation is beneficial. The Performance Max format gives us very little information to analyze performance by diffusion (search, display or shopping). *It is currently impossible to understand where our ads are broadcast. * During our tests, we remain very vigilant about the distribution of our campaigns.

🤓
Does automating this format benefit advertisers?
We find that the Performance Max format cannibalizes our other Search, Shopping, Video or Display campaigns. And therefore take precedence and are prioritized by Google. That’s why we’ve developed Adenlab’s own methodology for setting up campaigns, reading performance and applying optimizations.
🤓
What are the advantages/disadvantages of Google Ads Performance Max campaigns?
=> The benefits Distribution across the entire Google inventory (YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps) from a single campaign Initial results are encouraging Increase in new customers Richer audience information => Disadvantages No information on the distribution of activated levers within the campaign Few possible optimizations Cannibalization with existing campaigns

We would be delighted to discuss the subject with you.

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The ultimate guide to Local Services Ads from Google Ads

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

simulate the results of your Google Ads campaigns:

Our performance simulator gives you the results you can expect from your Google Ads campaigns …

Google’s reach may extend to the whole world, but for some searches, and especially searches for local services near you, you need a solution in our own neighborhood (and fast)!

People who have an overflowing sink can’t wait for a plumber to come from the other side of France…

Yet companies offering local services often find it hard to convert these potential customers with simple text ads on Google.

That’s why these same companies should be delighted with the solutions offered by Google Ads: Local Services ads:

Google Ads’ Local Services ads are an excellent complement to local SEO strategies if you offer local services(locksmiths, plumbers, garage door professionals, electricians and HVAC services).

With Local Services from Google Ads, when a surfer enters a local search query (such as the one below), several professionals are displayed, just above the traditional paid search ads.

These ads display the company number, opening hours, ratings and reviews left by customers.

These local Google Ads campaigns are displayed on computers, tablets and mobiles.

These ads will also be offered in the Google Assistant response to voice searches!

Who can benefit from Google Ads Local Services?

Today, Google offers Local Services Ads for the following sectors:

  •   Aide ménagère

  •   Aménagement paysager

  •   Bardage

  •   Clôtures

  •   Collecte de déchets

  •   Constructeurs de piscines

  •   Couverture

  •   CVC

  •   Déménagement

  •   Diagnostics immobiliers

  •   Entreprise générale

  •   Entretien de pelouses

  •   Entretien de piscine

  •   Extermination des nuisibles

  •   Fondations

  •   Homme à tout faire

  •   Menuiserie

  •   Nettoyage de tapis/moquettes

  •   Nettoyage de vitres

  •   Plomberie

  •   Réparation d'appareils électroménagers

  •   Revêtement de sol

  •   Services d'arboriculture

  •   Services de déneigement

  •   Services de restauration après un dégât des eaux

  •   Services électriques

  •   Services liés aux fenêtres

  •   Services liés aux plans de travail

  •   Services liés aux portes de garage

Not all services are supported in all markets
To find out if you are eligible, visit theGoogle Local Services help pagesand sign up for the program here.

What are the advantages of Google Ads Local Services ads?

Advertisers who use traditional Google Ads campaigns know that it’s expensive to pay for a click that isn’t appropriate or doesn’t convert (indeed, local service advertisers often pay Cost per Click sometimes more than 5 times the average cost per click in Google Ads).

Google Ads local campaigns connect potential customers with the right advertiser, and avoid the mismatches that often occur when a user searches for general terms for a very specific service, or for a location outside a company’s service area.

With Les Annonce Local Services, local service advertisers are billed only for valid leads.

If you receive a fraudulent lead, spam or bad correspondence, you can even dispute the billing to obtain a credit.

How can you earn the trust of Internet users with the "Google Protection" badge?

💡 Local Services ads appear with a green tick next to “Google Protection”.

As well as attracting the attention of users, this allows companies to benefit from Google’s guarantee.

Users trust Google, and its recommendation is not limited to its reputation.

And yes … The “Google Protection” guarantee protects dissatisfied customers up to €1,500 in France on work carried out via local service listings. Find out more about this guarantee offered and insured by Google here

💡 Your positive reviews and comments are highlighted

Every Local Services ad includes ratings and reviews from past customers to help you earn the trust of Internet users.

Currently, Local Services ads are one of the few ways to get your reviews featured in search engines.

💡 Extend the reach of your paid search ads

You’ll notice that Google Ads’ Local Services ads are positioned above traditional paid ads and organic results.

This is because Google’s Local Services ads are not intended to replace your traditional search ads, or even your local search engine optimization.

💡 Be included in voice search responses

With over 20% of all searches coming from voice search, local service ads represent one of the few ways to ensure you’re going to be found on the multiple devices powered by Google Assistant.

💡 No ads or keywords to manage

Paid search advertisers know that keyword research and ad testing can be time-consuming tasks. Google Ads’ Local Servies campaigns require neither!

These campaigns are automatically triggered when a customer searches for one of thousands of relevant search terms, from as broad as “plumber” to as specific as “leaky faucet under the sink”.

The ad format will be automatically created using the information contained in your company profile.

How to launch your Google Ads Local Services campaigns and ads?

💡 Confirm your eligibility :

Local Services campaigns are only available in certain sectors and markets.

To find out if you can deploy Local Services Ads, first confirm your business type and location.

If you qualify, you’ll be guided through the process of creating an account to manage your local service listings.

These ads are managed separately from the ads you create in Google Ads or Google Ads Express, so you’ll need to create a new account.

💡 Create your company profile

Your Google profile for Local Services Ads is different from your Google My Business account, which is linked to your local listing on Google (if you haven’t already done so, note that you need to create and optimize this account too).

Your company profile for these ads will determine which service offers will be associated with your local service ads.

Be clear about the type of services you are able to offer and the areas in which you want to obtain leads.

From your company profile, you can edit

  •   Votre budget hebdomadaire

  •   Vos heures d'ouverture

  •   Vos domaines de service

  •   Vos types de services

You also have the option of adding highlights to your company profile, which will eventually be displayed alongside your ads and on your company details page.

How do you manage your inbound leads and business opportunities?

Once your company profile is complete, you can launch your ads and start collecting new leads.

From your dashboard, you can access the “lead” tab via the drop-down menu in the top right-hand corner.

Don’t forget that leads (potential customers) are not necessarily confirmed customers! So make sure you follow up your incoming leads.

Once you’ve selected a prospect, you can view their details, including job type and location, and listen to a recording of the call.

After reviewing these leads, you have three options for follow-up:

  • Reply to the customer by sending your message in the form of an e-mail or SMS to the customer.
  • Call the customer on the telephone number they have provided.
  • Decline the request. If you decline the request, it will be deleted and the potential customer will be informed. You can send a reply with further information on why the request was declined. Once declined, requests can be retrieved in the event of a change.

Managing your budget

From your company profile, you can adjust your ad budget. You can manage the amount you wish to spend on your ads by increasing or decreasing your average weekly budget.

Since you’re charged on a cost-per-lead basis – not per-click – with Google Ads Local Services campaigns, increasing or decreasing your budget will have a direct impact on the number of inbound leads you generate.

Remember that your ad budget is separate from your Google Ads budget.

Classifying ads

Even with these new Local Services ads, space is still limited on the search engine!

However, unlike your search ads where you have to worry about your ad’s quality score – formulated by a combination of your ad’s CTR, relevance and landing page, you don’t have to worry about these ranking factors.

Instead, Google calculates the ranking of your local service ads by taking the following factors into account:

  • Votre proximité par rapport aux emplacements des clients potentiels
  • Votre score d'évaluation et le nombre d'évaluations que vous recevez
  • Votre réactivité aux demandes de renseignements et aux requêtes des clients
  • Vos heures d'ouverture.
  • L'existence ou non de plaintes sérieuses ou répétées concernant votre entreprise.

Get reviews

Reviews play an important role in the ranking of your ads, so it’s especially important to collect reviews from satisfied customers.

Fortunately, Google makes it easy for you to contact customers who book appointments through your ads and ask them for feedback.

In the “Reviews” tab of your local service listings manager, you can review the work you’ve done for your customers and ask them directly to leave a Google review about you.

Be sure to personalize the message for your customers to increase the likelihood that they’ll leave a review about you!

All you have to do is get started now and acquire new customers, close to your establishments!
To find out more about our digital marketing agency, please contact us to set up a local strategy for your business.

Google Analytics 4 (GA4): what you need to know and what new features does GA4 offer?

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab

Since 2005, Google Analytics has been the benchmark for website and marketing performance tracking. Over time, Google has made additions and improvements to the platform, announcing last week that it would be discontinuing :

Optimize your analytics accounts and branding plan: ask for a diagnosis

One of the most common instances of Google Analytics (Universal Analytics) will disappear on July 1, 2023

What's new in Google Analytics?

The simple version: Universal Analytics will be replaced by Google Analytics 4 from July 1, 2023.

The official announcement: Google has announced that “on July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will no longer process data. You will be able to see your Universal Analytics reports for some time after July 1, 2023.

However, the new data will only be transmitted to your GA4 properties.

What is a Google Analytics property?

This is the website or application you are tracking with Google Analytics.

If you currently use Universal Analytics to track your website, this will be called your “Universal Analytics property”.

Once you’ve set up GA4, you’ll have a Google Analytics 4 property for that same website. Since Universal Analytics (UA) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4) are different, several reports are available for each property.

What is Google Analytics 4?

To understand exactly what GA4 is, a quick lesson in the history of Google Analytics is in order.

Google Analytics: The very first instance of Google Analytics was released in 2005.

Universal Analytics (UA): The new, improved version of Google Analytics was released in 2012 and has become the default property type.

Google Analytics 360: this is a software suite that, in addition to Universal Analytics, provides Tag Manager, Optimize, Data Studio, Surveys, Attribution and Audience Center. Released in 2016.

Google Analytics 4: This is the latest version of Google Analytics, released on October 14, 2020.

What's the difference between Universal Analytics (UA) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4)?

In addition to offering more features than Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 is built differently to align with current and future reporting and privacy needs.

Here are just a few of the benefits of Google Analytics:

Event-based

Universal Analytics is session-based, while GA4 is event-based. In other words, the ability to track events such as button clicks, video plays, etc. is built into GA4, whereas it requires advanced configurations in UA. This means that page views are not the only important metric.

Multi-device tracking

Universal Analytics was designed around desktop web traffic, while GA4 gives companies visibility into customer journeys across their entire website and applications.

Automatic learning

GA4 uses machine learning technology to share information and make predictions.

Respectful of privacy

Universal Analytics (UA) data is highly dependent on cookies, which is not the case with Google Analytics 4.

How do I know if I'm using Google Analytics?

Google Analytics 4 was released on October 14, 2020 and has become the default version, so if you created your property after this date, you’ll probably be using GA4.

If you’re using analytics before this date, you’ll probably be using Unnversal Analytics (UA).

If you’re not sure, you can check your property type by clicking on the down arrow at the top left of your account, next to your property name :

Next, look at your property ID:

🤓
UA property IDs start with UA and end with a number.
🤓
GA4 properties have numbers only.

What do I have to do?

If you are currently using Universal Analytics, there are three actions to prioritize:

Switch to GA4 as soon as possible

Although you have more than a year before this change takes place, it’s best to make the change now so that your GA4 account can collect the data needed for automated information.

If you’re currently using UA, and want to set up a GA4 property alongside your existing UA property, use Google’s GA4 configuration wizard, which gives you the option of configuring it with your markup.

If you use Google Ads, organize personalized events or use other advanced features.

See Google’s page on how to upgrade to Google Analytics 4, which breaks the process down into 12 steps with effort levels indicated for each step.

Adjust your Google Ads conversion tracking

Once your GA4 property is set up, you’ll be able to view Analytics data in your Google Ads account If you’ve set up conversion tracking, you can import Analytics conversions into Google Ads and delete any targets you’ve imported from Universal Analytics (UA) to avoid duplicates. To import your Analytics conversions, in your Google Ads account, go to :

Tools & Settings > Conversions > Add a new conversion action
then select Import:

Here you can select each conversion event you wish to import into your Google Ads account.

Exporting historical reports

Google will allow access to your Universal Analytics data for at least six months after July 1, 2023, during which time you will need to export the data that is important to you. There are three ways to export:

  • Exporting individual reports
  • Using the Google Analytics Reporting API
  • Export to BigQuery

Conclusion

Don’t wait any longer to upgrade to Google Analytics 4! The sooner you start, the more historical data you’ll have in your account.

What’s more, Google’s machine learning will be able to start earlier and predict interesting information in your GA4 account.

Don’t hesitate to contact us to set up your GA4 accounts and parameters. Our Analytics experts will be with you every step of the way.

Optimize your analytics accounts and tagging plan: Ask for a diagnosis

Conversion tracking with Google Ads

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab
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Why integrate conversion tracking with shopping cart data when running an ecommerce business?

Google Ads conversion tracking is essential for measuring the performance of your campaigns.

There are several categories of conversion on Google Ads, but the one we’re most interested in for Ecommerce is the value and therefore the purchases made following an interaction with your Shopping or Search campaigns.

Today, Google Ads offers tracking elements in addition to the conversion value, and these include Shopping Cart information!

And yes, Google has set up an improved tracking system that allows you to track not only the conversion value, but also information on the products that have been sold: this is conversion tracking with shopping cart data.

Here we’ll give you a quick reminder of Google Ads conversion tracking, and then give you the information on this Google Ads tracking with the basket data as well!

What is Google Ads conversion tracking?

Google Ads conversion tracking refers to all the procedures and devices used to record conversions or transactions carried out on your website, and to bring back information that is important for your profitability measurements.

With Google Ads conversions, you can track the transactions generated by your Search or Google Shopping campaigns, as well as Display and Youtube.

It’s thanks to this code snippet that you’ll be able to track transaction values in Google Ads and measure the return on investment (ROAS) of your campaigns.

Google Ads conversion tracking is therefore essential and must be functional before embarking on any major expenditure on Google Ads.

There are several types of conversion you can measure, such as :

  1. Sending a form
  2. One call
  3. Request a quote
  4. …

The above actions measure lead acquisition strategies

For Ecommerce, it is common to measure business objectives such as :

  1. Purchasing
  2. Add to basket
  3. Initiated payments

In fact, the device most frequently used by Ecommerces is the one tracking transaction information generated by Google Ads campaigns.

This is the “Purchase” tag, which allows you to track the value of the transaction attributed to your campaign.

This is of course very interesting and extremely useful, but it lacks information on the products that were actually sold in this transaction.

Usually, it’s in Google Analytics and in the E-Commerce part of the reports that you’ll find data on the products that have been purchased by your customers.

Google Ads tracking with Shopping Cart data lets you know directly in Google Ads which products have been purchased, without having to go into Google Analytics.

When it comes to analyzing the performance of campaigns and your catalog, this functionality is more refined, enabling you to better distribute your products and prioritize the distribution of your catalog in relation to sales.

What’s more, the integration of tracking with shopping cart data will enable you to go even further in your analyses, and automatically calculate the margins generated by your campaigns.

To create a conversion action, you will find all the information on the Google Ads page: Create a conversion action
and in your Google Ads tab: Tools and settings > Measurement > Conversion

Why install conversion tracking with shopping cart data?

As mentioned above, Google Ads conversion tracking, and more specifically the “Purchase” tag, will enable you to track conversions and conversion values: the value of the transaction attributed to your campaign.

This information is essential for estimating the profitability of your campaigns and the return on investment.

However, if you set your Google Ads tracking parameters to bring up Shopping Cart data, your analyses, and ultimately your optimizations, will be more relevant and effective.

Not only will you be able to analyze the value of conversions, you’ll also know which products were sold during these same transactions.

Conversion tracking with Shopping Cart data will also enable you to measure the revenues and profits generated by your Shopping and Search Network ads.

And yes, you'll be able to measure the profits (margins) made on your campaigns.

To track margins, you’ll need to add costing information. This will enable Google Ads to **automatically calculate product margins. **

Advantages of this tracking mode :

  • precise measurement of revenues and profits generated by Google Ads (Shopping and Search ads)
  • Detailed reports on basket size and average value
  • Detailed reports on items sold

How do I set up conversion tracking with shopping cart data?

To get Shopping Cart data into Google Ads conversion reports, you’ll need to set up conversion tracking using Google’s global site tag or Google Tag Manager (GTM).

However, we recommend that you go through your Tag Manager and add the data parameters using your Data layers;

Here is the example provided by Google Ads Help:

To transfer basket data to the conversion tools, proceed as follows:

  1. Select the conversion tag to which you wish to send the shopping cart data.
  2. Check the “Provide sales data at product level” box.
  3. Select data layer or JavaScript variables as data source.
  4. You must add the parameters below to the payment page to reference them.

Find out more in the article: “Configuring and testing conversion reporting with shopping cart data“.

Do you have more questions about Google Ads conversion tracking? Do you need to set up an appropriate tagging plan for your Google Analytics and GA4 analyses?

Contact our Analytics and Tag Management team. We will certainly be able to help you.

Consult our Data & RGPD experts

Google replaces FLoC with the Topics API: What you need to know!

Posted on by Adenlab Adenlab


With the deprecation of third-party cookies, Google has struggled to find a way to preserve privacy while delivering relevant ads – a win-win solution for advertisers and consumers alike.

Its initial solution was FLoC, but the Topics API will now take over as the new star of cookie-free targeting.

Article translated and interpreted from “Google Replaces FLoC with Topics API: What You Need to Know” by Susie Marino

The TL;DR

  • FLoC is being replaced by the Topics API as a better solution for interest-based but privacy-friendly advertising.
  • Instead of assigning cohorts to users, it will assign them subjects, which they can view and modify.
  • Advertisers see it as a compromise, but are concerned about the diversity of subjects.

What is interest-based advertising?

To understand what’s going on, you first need to know what interest-based advertising (IBA) is.

Interest-targeted advertising consists in serving ads to a user based on his or her interests, which are deduced from the sites he or she visits.

This enables advertisers to reach the right audiences and users to see relevant ads.

However, this information is often collected by third-party cookies which, as we all know, do not respect privacy and are on the way out.

What is FLoC?

FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts) was Google’s initial solution for interest-based targeting without third-party cookies.

We’ll give you all the details of FLoC here, but basically it involved dividing users into cohorts each week based on their browsing history, then sending these anonymous cohorts back to websites for advertising purposes.

But FLoC had its shortcomings, such as a lack of clarity and transparency from the user’s point of view, and several serious security risks.

The Topics API aims to eliminate most of these problems.

What is the Topics API?

On January 25, 2022, Google announced that FLoC was being replaced by Topics API, which is a better solution for interest-based advertising, based on information and community feedback from previous FLoC trials.

The main difference between FLoC and Topics API is that instead of assigning users cohort IDs every week, it will assign them three to five possible topics of interest every three weeks, based on their browsing history.

The API will then communicate three of these topics to participating sites, which can then use them for advertising purposes.

For example, a site dealing with skiing and snowboarding would be placed in the “Sports” category.

Subjects are defined to exclude potentially sensitive categories (race, sexual orientation, religion, etc.).

There are currently 350 themes, but this number is set to rise to hundreds, if not thousands.

Sites can decline to be assigned a theme, and users will be able to view the themes assigned to them.

What the PPC community has to say about the Topics API

The Topics API can definitely be a challenge to digest, and PPC experts already have plenty to say.

Here are a few comments gathered from the ppc community:

Encouraging, but more information is still needed

Aaron Levy, Head of Paid Search at Tinuiti, praises Google for trying to find a happy compromise between user and advertiser, even if the platform didn’t give us all the answers.

TLDR: There’s still a lot of vagueness out there, but it’s encouraging to see that Google is working with wider industry feedback and working towards stability.

In the Search Engine Land article, Aaron continues:

It’s strange to call it an advantage, but I consider anything launched with a higher probability of stability and a lower probability of mass opt-out to be a win.

Indeed, there’s no way around the extinction of third-party cookies. At this stage, the PPC community will take what it can get.

No great surprise

A more neutral sentiment here, by Simon Harris, Trade Desk Director at DPG Media, is not surprised, given the history of these efforts, and finds it :

A common-sense approach

Here's what he says in his Tweets:

People were talking about this approach (a long time ago, before the OG), so much so that I initially thought, wrongly, that this was the path Google would take. I assumed they wouldn’t, because it would have been seen as anti-competitive for anyone who could make sense and money out of a cohort ID and Bidstream data.

It’s interesting to see that Google has come full circle, since the pre-canalized topics were discussed before the first OG. From the consumer’s point of view, it’s good to see that they’re taking a common-sense approach here.

Google was already talking about it back in August, and the rumors have been building up for weeks. So it’s not really a surprise.

The full tweet is here

This is in line with Aaron’s earlier comment that an intermediate solution had to be found.

FLoC was already notorious for its problems, so it was only a matter of time before Google published another proposal, like Topics.

Concerns about the accuracy of subject targeting

Many advertisers feel that the list of topics is not nearly as precise as they would like.

To be fair, Google could only create a limited number of topics before its list became too specific.

If advertisers want more precise topic category choices, this could lead to Google getting deeper into the trap of catering to the needs of each niche market.

That said, Jayesh Easwaramony, founder of Spectra Global, says targeting will get worse, and gives this example.

While it’s fun to laugh at this comic strip that shows the breadth of the fitness subject category, the concern is valid.

A person browsing a fitness website on New Year’s Day is completely different from a person working as a personal trainer.

Chances are, they’re also customers of various businesses.

What you can do

Wondering what all this means for your own advertising strategy?

Try the following steps:

  • Collect your own data. There are many ways to collect first-party data and even zero-party data (this is number four on our list of 2022 marketing trends).
  • Stay tuned for updates to the Topics API. Google has a page dedicated to the Privacy Sandbox, and we’ll keep you posted too!

Google Topics API: TBD

The value of the Topics project is in the making, but I’m not sure it’s the future. There are essentially three points to remember here:

Are we surprised? No.
Are the topics too broad? Yes.
Do we have any choice but to try it out? No.

While the Topics initiative is necessary on Google’s part, it’s still too early to tell how beneficial it will be for advertisers.

When will the Topics API be launched?

In its announcement, Google said it would be launching a trial version of Topics and user controls in Chrome “soon”, so that “developers and the advertising industry can try it out”.

The final design of the user controls and other technical aspects of Topics’ operation will be decided on the basis of your feedback and what we learn from the trial.

How many topics will there be?

Google currently estimates that there will be around 350 to start with, but expects the final number of subjects to reach a few hundred or thousands.

Can users see what their subjects are?

Yes, you’ll have total control over this feature, as you’ll be able to view topics, delete those you don’t like and even disable them altogether.

Chrome also shares a complete list of available topics.

What are “participating websites”?

These are websites that end up using the rubric API, i.e. that authorize Google to assign them a rubric.

Sites can decline to be assigned a theme, but they won’t receive theme data either.

What data are used to determine the headings?

In fact, Google assigns themes to websites, and assigns you a theme based on the sites you visit most often.

Google writes: “The calculation of the most frequent topics is carried out entirely within the browser, without sharing data with external servers. The resulting topics may be sent to servers anonymously for sensitivity and abuse analysis.”

Google Analytics: end of GA3, how to prepare for GA4?

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The old version of Google Analytics, GA3, will disappear for good in 2023, to be replaced by Google Analytics 4. Why this sudden switch to GA4? And what changes can you expect?

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The end of Google Analytics (Universal Analytics - GA3) in 2023

On March 16, Google caused a stir by announcing the phasing-out of its web traffic analysis tool, Google Analytics 3. The standard version will disappear completely on July 1, 2023, and the 360 version in October 2023. GA4 will take over.

A sudden decision that hasn’t made many analytics and SEO professionals very happy.

The tight schedule is a cause for some concern, as is the complete change compared to previous versions (new technology, interface, jargon…).

Finally, there are still questions to be answered about data transition, given that Google has yet to propose a dedicated tool.

Google Analytics in the crosshairs of the CNIL

So why the rush? The CNIL, the French Data Protection Authority, may have precipitated this decision. Last February, the CNIL issued formal notices to various website operators for their use of Google Analytics, deeming the transfer of data to be non-compliant. These formal notices followed a series of similar complaints (101 to be exact), lodged by the None of Your Business association.

(NOYB) in various countries affected by the RGPD.

We can assume that Google preferred to keep up with the CNIL’s recommendations by offering a new version of GA, and avoid a flight of its customers to more RGPD-friendly solutions.

What are the RGPD-related developments with GA4?

In order to comply with the French and European authorities, Google had to rethink its data management model. Previous versions of Google Analytics, including GA3, were unable to anonymize users’ IP addresses without first hosting them outside the EU. This is exactly what the CNIL pointed out last February.

With GA4, available since October 2020, Google is making a profound change to the data collection model and proudly announces it on its blog:

“Google Analytics 4 will no longer store IP addresses. These solutions and controls are particularly necessary in today’s international data privacy landscape, where users increasingly expect more privacy and control over their data.”

New features in Google Analytics 4 (GA4)

In addition to greater respect for data confidentiality, GA4 also offers its users new functionalities

Smarter insights

using machine learning to better understand the customer journey across all platforms and devices.

Seamless integration of Google's advertising platforms

a feature that will optimize the performance of your campaigns and boost your marketing ROI.

Improved measurement

GA4 implements automatic and native tracking that you can activate on your site’s functionalities such as external links, search, scroll, data download, video interactions.
We strongly recommend that you activate scroll natively, as you’ll see in the last point.

Engagement rate replaces bounce rate

With GA4, we’ve gone from a disappointing metric to a positive one, with an engagement rate inversely proportional to the bounce rate.
Remember, the main problem with the bounce rate was that it didn’t take into account the time spent when there was no interaction on the page. Now, GA4 is able to detect scroll activation on a page and count the time spent by the surfer on your site’s pages.

Conclusion

The future will be Google Analytics 4, or it won’t be!

Unless you’ve given up on Google Analytics, you should make the switch as soon as possible, if you haven’t already done so.

Points to remember about the switch to GA4

GA3 will disappear completely on July 1, 2023 for the standard version and in October 2023 for the 360 version.

Historical data will remain available until December 31, 2023, after which they will be permanently deleted.

To date, no dedicated data transition tool has been proposed by Google Analytics for making the switch. To be continued…

Don’t wait any longer, start complying with Google Analytics 4 right now.
If you need experts to help you through this transition, contact us!

As specialists in e-commerce site support, we know just how effective analysis can be in optimizing the performance of an e-commerce site. We’d be delighted to support you in this upgrade.

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