...
For example, if a customer searched for a specific color or motif of cloth and clicked on a specific picture in Google Shopping, it might be a good idea to preselect this variant on the landing page, without the customer having to select the right variant again.
4.
...
Typically your Google Shopping campaigns will be optimized based on target ROAS.
While this is a good start, the ROAS typically only considers the generated revenue.
In addition, other aspects could be used to influence the ROAS optimization:
Achieved Margin: not only the margin of the advertised products but the real margin generated
Customer Acquisition: the expected lifetime value of acquired customers (to which degree are products good at acquiring new customers versus getting existing customers again through a repetitively paid channel? And how much does the first product(s) this new customer buys indicate their future purchase potential?)
Promotion: strategic products which you want to promote
Zombie: products (products that have had no clicks recently in Google Shopping are likely to be demoted and simply circling them through another campaign can have a positive effect on their promotions) (as recommended by Google Best Practice: Targeting Low Volume SKUs)
%Sales Availability: Current variants availability according to their sales contribution (a product like a running shoe might be in stock only in sizes 10% of your customer's order, while this makes the product out-of-stock for most customers it would still be considered as active and in-stock by your systems and bring paid traffic)
Out: while Google Shopping avoids to some extent bidding on non-performing products, it is relevant to explicitly exclude segments of your products that are not possible to promote in a profitable way
Segmenting your products in different campaigns based on these performance factors allows you to set different target ROAS for each campaign and then go beyond the limitation of the simple ROAS optimization which only considers your revenue and nothing else.
| Tip |
|---|
Concrete steps: Validate the standard attribution of the products to the Margin, Customer, Zombie, Normal and Out Performance groups (tuning is possible if needed) Add a custom field in your Google Shopping feed with this new performance campaign groups Configure several Google Ads Campaign (one for each group) and associate different target ROAS with the following guideline 20%-30% lower target ROAS for the Margin and Customer Campaigns base-line target ROAS for the Normal and Zombie Campaigns filter out or at least put higher ROAS for the out campaign
|
5. Correct your Conversion Value
While segmenting your products in several performance campaigns (see point 4) is a good start, it is also interesting to modify the Conversion Value which is used by Google Ads to define your ROAS.
Indeed, while the definition of the cost is quite clear, the definition of the conversion value is not that simple and cost and conversion value are the only two components of the ROAS (e.g.: selling a product for 500.- for which you get only 1% margin is not the same value for your business as selling a product for 300.- on which you get 10%).
Therefore, returns and cancellations are often not considered, but they should be.
We can correct the conversion value if the order was canceled, or returned, or if another event reduced the revenue value for you.
| Tip |
|---|
Concrete steps: Define a corrected value for a conversion based on the effective ERP revenue (canceled value should be 0.- , returned article should lower the value accordingly, etc.) Integrate the updated conversion value in GAds with the following method: (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7686280?hl=en ) Look up the “Conversion action” name you use for the conversions that should be adjusted. Boxalino will prepare a datafeed. Use the feed to schedule uploads automatically. https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions/uploads/schedules  Image Removed
(optionally) implement an API real-time call to Boxalino in your Tracking Data Layer to send the adjusted conversion value right away when available to the Google Ads tracker.
|
Additionally we can use another metric then the revenue, like for example the margin of the transaction, as the definition of the conversion value. This gives you the following advantages:
More accurate bids for optimizing the profit.
Margin labels per product are a good start but will not work if the customers buys another item then he clicked in the Ads.
Profit tracking is the natural progression of revenue and ROAS tracking.
By optimizing directly the profit you don't need to guess what changes in ROAS/Revenue will lead to increased profitability.
...
Concrete steps:
...
Define a corrected value for a conversion based on the effective ERP margin (canceled value should be 0.- , returned article should lower the value accordingly, etc.)
Integrate the updated conversion value in GAds with the following method: New Conversions (per google click id) (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7014069?hl=en )
...
Create a new Conversion action in you Google Ads Account https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions
...
Select Import > Other Datasources or CRMs > Track conversions from clicks
...
Select a Category and the conversion action name.⚠️ Select the “Secondary action not used for bidding optimisation“ first when setting up the conversion action. This allows you to see the impact in GAds before using it for the bidding and serves as a test.
...
...
Select different values for each conversion and set the default value to 0. For the count we want to have each conversion separately. The Click-through conversion window should be set to 90 days and the attribution should be data-driven.
...
Hit create and continue to confirm your settings.
...
Boxalino will prepare a datafeed.
...
Target your Google Ads with Audiences
Boxalino offers 3 out of the box Google Ads Audiences which you can use for your campaign and we can add many others upon request:
Customers who bought during the last year but not during the last month
25% percentile (top quartile) of customers with the best customer lifetime value (CLV) to promote
25% percentile (bottom quartile) of customers with the worst customer lifetime value to demote
| Info |
|---|
Check out the business impact of this measure for Lehner-Versand without solution!
https://www.deptagency.com/de-ch/case/daten-sei-dank-optimiertes-timing-bei-der-kundenreaktivierung-fuer-lehner-versand/ (article from our partner DEPT with whom we collaborated on this project) |
5. Create Google Shopping Performance Campaigns
Typically your Google Shopping campaigns will be optimized based on target ROAS.
While this is a good start, the ROAS typically only considers the generated revenue.
In addition, other aspects could be used to influence the ROAS optimization:
Achieved Margin: not only the margin of the advertised products but the real margin generated
Customer Acquisition: the expected lifetime value of acquired customers (to which degree are products good at acquiring new customers versus getting existing customers again through a repetitively paid channel? And how much does the first product(s) this new customer buys indicate their future purchase potential?)
Promotion: strategic products which you want to promote
Zombie: products (products that have had no clicks recently in Google Shopping are likely to be demoted and simply circling them through another campaign can have a positive effect on their promotions) (as recommended by Google Best Practice: Targeting Low Volume SKUs)
%Sales Availability: Current variants availability according to their sales contribution (a product like a running shoe might be in stock only in sizes 10% of your customer's order, while this makes the product out-of-stock for most customers it would still be considered as active and in-stock by your systems and bring paid traffic)
Out: while Google Shopping avoids to some extent bidding on non-performing products, it is relevant to explicitly exclude segments of your products that are not possible to promote in a profitable way
Segmenting your products in different campaigns based on these performance factors allows you to set different target ROAS for each campaign and then go beyond the limitation of the simple ROAS optimization which only considers your revenue and nothing else.
| Tip |
|---|
Concrete steps: Validate the standard attribution of the products to the Margin, Customer, Zombie, Normal and Out Performance groups (tuning is possible if needed) Add a custom field in your Google Shopping feed with this new performance campaign groups Configure several Google Ads Campaign (one for each group) and associate different target ROAS with the following guideline 20%-30% lower target ROAS for the Margin and Customer Campaigns base-line target ROAS for the Normal and Zombie Campaigns filter out or at least put higher ROAS for the out campaign
|
6. Correct your Conversion Value
While segmenting your products in several performance campaigns (see point 4) is a good start, it is also interesting to modify the Conversion Value which is used by Google Ads to define your ROAS.
Indeed, while the definition of the cost is quite clear, the definition of the conversion value is not that simple and cost and conversion value are the only two components of the ROAS (e.g.: selling a product for 500.- for which you get only 1% margin is not the same value for your business as selling a product for 300.- on which you get 10%).
Therefore, returns and cancellations are often not considered, but they should be.
We can correct the conversion value if the order was canceled, or returned, or if another event reduced the revenue value for you.
| Tip |
|---|
Concrete steps: Define a corrected value for a conversion based on the effective ERP revenue (canceled value should be 0.- , returned article should lower the value accordingly, etc.) Integrate the updated conversion value in GAds with the following method: (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7686280?hl=en ) Look up the “Conversion action” name you use for the conversions that should be adjusted. Boxalino will prepare a datafeed. Use the feed to schedule uploads automatically. https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions/uploads/schedules  Image Added
(optionally) implement an API real-time call to Boxalino in your Tracking Data Layer to send the adjusted conversion value right away when available to the Google Ads tracker.
|
Additionally we can use another metric then the revenue, like for example the margin of the transaction, as the definition of the conversion value. This gives you the following advantages:
More accurate bids for optimizing the profit.
Margin labels per product are a good start but will not work if the customers buys another item then he clicked in the Ads.
Profit tracking is the natural progression of revenue and ROAS tracking.
By optimizing directly the profit you don't need to guess what changes in ROAS/Revenue will lead to increased profitability.
| Tip |
|---|
| Tip |
|---|
Concrete steps: Define a corrected value for a conversion based on the effective ERP margin (canceled value should be 0.- , returned article should lower the value accordingly, etc.) Integrate the updated conversion value in GAds with the following method: New Conversions (per google click id) (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7014069?hl=en ) Create a new Conversion action in your Google Ads Account. https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions/uploads/schedules Image RemovedSet up custom columns to show profit and POAS. The metric “All Conversion Value” must be selected or else it will not work. Then, choose the conversion action that you created for the formula Set up custom columns to show revenue and ROAS. The reason is that once you change your primary conversion action in the account, then you can’t really use historical data to compare year-over-year. Observe the POAS performance and define a good starting point for the new Smart Bidding portfolio. Switch the profit action to “primary“ and the revenue action to “secondary“ conversion actions. Once you’ve changed your conversion action to profit, you need to immediately make changes to your Smart Bidding setup. Set up a new Smart Bidding portfolio based on the current POAS performance. (optionally): You can do the same thing with just a single campaign by changing the conversion action at the campaign level and creating a portfolio bid strategy only for that campaign. This way, you can get a sense of what happens when you switch the conversion action.
(optionally) implement an API real-time call to Boxalino in your Tracking Data Layer to send the adjusted conversion value right away when available to the Google Ads tracker.
|
6. Extend your Conversion Value
We can add additional values when a new customer is acquired and an even higher value when the new customer is expected to have a high future customer lifetime value based on the first product(s) bought.
Select Import > Manual Import using API or uplaods > Track conversions from clicks  Image AddedSelect a Category and the conversion action name.⚠️ Select the “Secondary action not used for bidding optimisation“ first when setting up the conversion action. This allows you to see the impact in GAds before using it for the bidding and serves as a test.  Image AddedSelect different values for each conversion and set the default value to 0. For the count we want to have each conversion separately. The Click-through conversion window should be set to 90 days and the attribution should be data-driven.  Image AddedHit create and continue to confirm your settings. Let Boxalino know the name of the conversion action and we will prepare a datafeed. Use the feed to schedule uploads automatically. https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions/uploads/schedules  Image AddedSet up custom columns in the campaign reports to show margin and MOAS. The metric “All Conversion Value” must be selected or else it will not work. Then, choose the conversion action that you created for the formula.  Image Added Image Added
Set up custom columns in the campaign reports to show revenue and MOAS. The reason is that once you change your primary conversion action in the account, then you can’t really use historical data to compare year-over-year.  Image Added Image AddedWe recommend to observe the MOAS performance over a week and define a good starting point for the new Smart Bidding portfolio. Set up a new Custom Goal at the bottom of the conversions summary page.  Image AddedAdd the newly created “Margenwert“ conversion action to your goal and save it. Select a campaign you would like to compare the performance and create the exact same but with the new custom goal and the evaluated MOAS target. Also allocate only half of your budget for each. ⚠️Do not continue before reviewing the results from the above test with an expert from Boxalino first! Switch the profit action to “primary“ and the revenue action to “secondary“ conversion actions. Once you’ve changed your conversion action to margin, you need to immediately make changes to your Smart Bidding setup. Set up a new Smart Bidding portfolio based on the current POAS performance.
(optionally) implement an API real-time call to Boxalino in your Tracking Data Layer to send the adjusted conversion value right away when available to the Google Ads tracker.
|
7. Extend your Conversion Value
We can add additional values when a new customer is acquired and an even higher value when the new customer is expected to have a high future customer lifetime value e.g. based on the first product(s) bought. There are two ways to adjust the conversion value. Either directly modify it when sending the Google Ads event or adjust it by uploading the extended value with the order identifier at a later point.
Use Case:
Additional value for new customers based on their predicted CLV.
| Tip |
|---|
Online Concrete steps: Request the adjusted Conversion Value from the Boxalino API by providing the information that should be used in the Calculation. | Code Block |
|---|
curl --location 'https://track.bx-cloud.com/narrative/renovero_api/api/1' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
"username": "your_eshop",
"apiKey": "***",
"apiSecret": "***",
"dev": false,
"test": false,
"language": "de",
"sessionId": "value of cems cookie",
"profileId": "value of cemv cookie",
"widget": "search",
"hitCount": 1,
"filters": [
{
"field": "id",
"values": [
"$$$"
]
}
],
"correlations": [
{
"origin": "boxalino_std_bq_custom",
"type": "conversion-value-new-customers",
"source": "26-1474"
}
]
}' |
The type needs to be configured by Boxalino. In this example we expect a category_id and the zip code concatenated by “-“ to be in the source. Ensure you modify the conversion value and currency dynamically in your event snippet. Depending on the setup it might be necessary to adjust the GA4 event to ensure the correct data. Make sure to set the currency and the correct dynamic value you receive from Boxalino for the value.  Image Added
|
| Tip |
|---|
Offline Concrete steps: Define an additional conversion value for new customers (e.g.: +20% of AOV) and an even higher value for customers predicted to have a high customer lifetime value (e.g.: +50% of AOV) Integrate the updated conversion value in GAds with the following method: New Conversions (per google click id) (https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7014069?hl=en ) ) Go to your Conversions Overview and add a new Custom Goal at the bottom of the page.  Image AddedCreate a new Conversion action in you Google Ads Account https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions Select Import > Other Datasources or CRMs > Track conversions from clicks  Image RemovedSelect a Category and the conversion action name.💡 We highly recommend to select the “Secondary action not used for bidding optimisation“ first when setting up the conversion action. This allows you to see the impact in GAds before using it for the bidding and serves as a test.  Image RemovedSelect different values for each conversion and set the default value to 0. For the count we want to have each conversion separately. The Click-through conversion window should be set to 90 days and the attribution should be data-driven. Image RemovedHit create and continue to confirm your settings. Boxalino will prepare a datafeed. Use the feed to schedule uploads automatically. https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions/uploads/schedules Image Removed
(optionally) implement an API real-time call to Boxalino in your Tracking Data Layer to send the adjusted conversion value right away when available to the Google Ads tracker.
|
7. Target your Google Ads with Audiences
Boxalino offers 3 out of the box Google Ads Audiences which you can use for your campaign and we can add many others upon request:
...
Customers who bought during the last year but not during the last month
...
25% percentile (top quartile) of customers with the best customer lifetime value (CLV) to promote
...
.com/aw/conversions Select Import > Manual Import using API or uploads > Track conversions from clicks  Image AddedSelect a Category and the conversion action name.💡 We highly recommend to select the “Secondary action not used for bidding optimization“ first when setting up the conversion action. This allows you to see the impact in GAds before using it for the bidding and serves as a test. Image AddedSelect different values for each conversion and set the default value to 0. For the count we want to have each conversion separately. The Click-through conversion window should be set to 90 days and the attribution should be data-driven. Image AddedHit create and continue to confirm your settings. Boxalino will prepare a datafeed. Use the feed to schedule uploads automatically. https://ads.google.com/aw/conversions/uploads/schedules  Image Added
(optionally) implement an API real-time call to Boxalino in your Tracking Data Layer to send the adjusted conversion value right away when available to the Google Ads tracker.
|
8. Extend your Search Ads Keywords
...