We work with ecommerce retainers who operate in both B2B and DTC environments. And business owners want their campaigns to work as efficiently and effectively as possible. Working with Google's new performance max shopping format we problem solved to drive a solid return.
What is performance max?
In 2022 Google released their new Performance Max campaigns to advertisers. These are a type of advertising campaign that utilizes machine learning to optimize ad placements across multiple Google channels such as search, shopping, display, and YouTube.
Performance Max campaigns use a single campaign structure and is designed to automate the advertising process, making it easier for advertisers to reach their business objectives.
However, there are major issues with visibility across where the ads are being placed and which channels, campaigns and ads are driving revenue.
What this means is we aren’t able to pull leavers as easily as we have been able to with traditional Search and Smart Shopping campaigns.
For example, we’re not as easily able to understand:
- What products are being sold at a higher frequency
- The ROAS (return on ad spend) of individual products, or product groups
- Which regions of the country are performing best to allocate budgets to specific high performing areas
With the obfuscation of the data we used to have, we have had to be creative with how to improve performance. And for one particular client we took a different approach.
We went on a data deep dive into analytics data and implemented a process to test a series of change to determin if wcould reach the objective of increasing ROAS from 4:1 upwards.
The data analysis we took
1. Analysed Google Analytics Data
- Reviewed when products are being sold at what time and on what days.
- Investigated what times the products are being sold the most
- Analysed the impact on result if we can group these times together
- The data told us that most products were being sold during business hours and a couple of hours on either side of that.
2. Analysed Conversion data / revenue
We dove into the conversion data and found these insights
- Approx 55% of revenue per month coming from Shopping/ Performance max.
- Weekend sales revenue was relatively low comparative to the spend
- The Search campaigns having a high spend with a low return
The impact of this was the bottom line of our ROAS was being driven down and could benefit from a more efficient structure to turn this around and build a more efficient campaign structure.
3. Analysed current Google Ads campaigns
- The ROAS for search ads was really low
- Some search campaigns had zero conversions historically but would still spend all the allocated budget
- Brand terms in a lot of the campaigns that were focused on products instead of the brand itself
Restructuring the Search and Performance max campaigns
With the data we uncovered in our initial research we made the decision to restructure the existing Search and Performance max campaigns so we could maximise revenue and budget. We wanted to ensure we were spending on days and times when users are guaranteed to make a transaction.
The restructure involved the following:
1. Created multiple Performance Max campaigns:
- 1 Campaign running on weekdays; all of assets and increased budget
- 1 Campaign running during business hours; minimal asset content to encourage more shopping feed
- 1 Campaign on the weekends
2. Rework Search Campaigns:
The Search campaigns had a myriad of keywords and there were multiple keywords that had never converted to a transaction. We took a look at historical data and reworked the Search campaigns and stripped them down to their bare minimum.
We took actions on the following:
- Basic best practice; removed underperforming keywords, cross-serving keywords
- Restructured the campaigns by product categories
- Reduced budget and moved this to higher-performing campaigns
- Added ad schedules, paused weekend campaigns
By doing this, we ensured that only keywords with a good track record of transactions would be represented.
3. Budget reallocation:
To ensure we had a chance of achieving a positive ROAS, we gave each campaign a restricted monthly budget.
We determined this by evaluating its performance and its spend potential with most of the budget being allocated to the Weekday and Business Hour campaigns- this was also paired with adding ad schedules to minimise wasted budget.
Revenue impact on the campaigns
Over the span of 3-4 months:
- 12.6% increase in average monthly revenue while retaining the same monthly advertising budget
- 40% increase on ROAS from $3.99 to $6.02
Key Takeaway
To optimise your Google shopping campaigns with the new performance max structure you want to be looking closely at the data you have. With access to data you can determine key areas for improvement and make changes to your campaign structure, you campaigns and your keywords. The combined effect of which you will see an increase in your ROAS and revenue over time. And you can continually test and measure this.
If you need immediate Google shopping ad optimization, leave it to Google shopping experts at Splash Digital for a more efficient, higher returning Google shopping campaign. Talk to us about your Google shopping ads and contact us now.
