Shopping Showcase Ads have been around for just over a year now, but are you using them? They’re a great way to promote your products and brand through Shopping, at a low cost.
Shopping Showcase Ads are a part of shopping advertising that lets you group together a single product or a selection of related products, and present them in order to introduce your brand or business.
The ads are commonly used to capture users near the top of the funnel and Google has previously noted that 40% of product searches are for broad terms. For example, if a customer searches for ‘summer dresses’ the Showcase Ad will show relevant products with lifestyle images, which have been chosen to represent your brand.
When someone clicks on your Showcase Ad, it expands to reveal your products that are most relevant to the search term, based on your product groups. Customers will be able to click on either the product image, website link or descriptive text.
Showcase Ads work on a maximum cost per engagement (CPE), which means you set the highest amount you’re willing to pay for an engagement. An engagement is anyone who spends 10+ seconds within the ad, or clicks on a product or link in the ad.
What are the benefits of using Showcase Ads?
- Set-up is quick and easy with brand imagery (1080px x 566px)
- They show ads that help people decide where to buy – getting the customer thinking about your brand and products.
- You control what products you want to appear in the ad – you might choose to highlight your best sellers or seasonal favourites.
- Track engagements and conversions in real time – using Google report tools to track performance.
- Being a fairly new product means volumes are lower, meaning it is low investment activity – more and more retailers are catching on, so make sure you are one of them!
The set -up
The first thing to note is that Showcase Ads can only be set up in Google Ads (formerly known as AdWords).
First, create your shopping campaign and add a new ad group, ensuring that you choose ‘Showcase Shopping’ and fill in the required terms:
From here, choose your product group. You can choose either all products from your campaign or a selection of products. If you’re looking to promote only a certain style or item, choosing ‘selection’ will be the best option for you. Don’t forget you can go back to your product groups in order to break down the groups into a specific style or line later on.
From here you’ll be able to add in the images and descriptions you need and set your ad live. Make the most of the characters you have in your description – all 120 of them! We have found the ad text to be just as important as the products within the ad – with over half of sales attributed to the ad copy – so make sure that your text is compelling, with a clear call to action.
The finished product
Your ad will appear alongside other brands for customers to view. You can see here on the third image the header image and description text calling out general brand description and USPs.
If you would like to find out more about Shopping Showcase Ads, contact us.
