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Feed-Based Text Ads: Best Practices

Paweł Updated by Paweł

Best Practices

Why using parent products is better than Variants?

If you sell apparels (or other products with variants) it is better to advertise the parent product - not the variant. Example: There will be enough search volume for adidas Stan Smith tennis shoes white (parent), but not enough for adidas Stan Smith tennis shoes white size 10 (variant). If your source feed contains variants, it is often better to ‘merge’ all variants into a single parent product. You can achieve that by using Merge Variant option in DatafeedWatch.

Why is it important to create 3 different campaigns?

We strongly recommend having all 3 Campaign types since each of them serves a different purpose & target a different type of audience. You can see the difference between the 3 campaigns below:

3 different campaigns also make it easier to manage campaigns as keywords & products are divided into different campaigns & Ad Groups. Each campaign also requires a different ad copy which can be customized in the campaign settings.

When to have Branded & Non-Branded Campaigns?

It makes more sense to run a Branded campaign for a brand like adidas since it’s a popular brand & there is a lot of search volume as people all over the world are actively looking for adidas products.

But for a new or less known brand, it makes more sense to run a non-branded campaign since adding the brand in the keywords will make them longer while decreasing the search volume at the same time.

Since all campaigns are based on info like Brand, title & product type, it makes more sense to run non-branded product campaign as compared to non-branded group product campaign since there is still a lot of information left even after eliminating the brand, you can still generate keywords based on title & product type. Whereas Group campaigns rely heavily on info like Brand & Product type and therefore eliminating brand won’t leave much info behind to generate relevant keywords.

When to use BPT Campaigns?

Brand/Product Type campaigns are used to cover even more generic search terms which might not be possible in other campaigns. There is a lot of search volume for keywords consisting of just Brand + Product Type, for example, there will be lot more search volume for adidas shoes then adidas superstar sports shoe white. BPT campaigns add one more option to your strategy in case you don't have much success with other 3 campaigns.

Different Bidding Strategies

Focus on Clicks

Your bids will be adjusted to get as many clicks as possible within your budget. There are two options available :

  1. Manual CPC: You can set the maximum fee you want to pay for each click. Maximum CPC can be either fixed or a %age of your Max CPA. Similarly, your CPA can also be either fixed or a %age of your product price. Turning on eCPC will automatically adjust your bids for clicks which are more or less likely to convert into a conversion. eCPC should increase your conversion rate while trying to maintain the same Cost Per Conversion as Manual Bidding.
  2. Maximize Clicks: It will automatically optimize your bids to get the maximum amount of clicks within your budget. You should also have a Maximum CPC bid limit to avoid any surprises later.

Focus on Positions

It will try to set bids with the goal of showing your ad on the absolute top of the page or anywhere on the page depending on your selection.

Focus on Conversions

Your bids will be optimized to focus on conversions which can mean focus on number of conversions or value of conversion. There are two options available :

  1. Target CPA -> You can specify Cost Per Acquisition amount which then will automatically optimize your bids to get you as many conversions as possible for the Target CPA price. Your Target CPA can either be a fixed value or a %age of your maxCPA ( Gross Profit ). Similarly, you can either have a fixed maxCPA or a %age of your product price.
  2. Target ROAS -> ROAS is the average conversion value you receive for every dollar you spend on ads. Your bids will be automatically adjusted for the clicks which will bring you conversions with the highest value possible which doesn’t necessarily means you will see an increase in no of conversions. You can specify your product margin & your Target ROAS will be automatically selected. To use ROAS, you must have at least 25 conversions in last 45 days & for best results, we recommend you have at least 50 conversions in the last 30 days.
Automated Rules

Google allows you to create automated rules which can make your life much easier & save you a lot of time. You can create rules to schedule ads for specific time and day, pause low performing keywords, make changes to ad status, bids, keywords & more. In below example, we are creating a rule to pause keywords with less than 1% conversion.

After creating the rule, it is strongly recommended to see the preview to make sure the created rule is working in the same way as expected.

DataFeedWatch Scripts

DatafeedWatch provides automated scripts to improve campaign performance. You can use the scripts to pause or exclude low performing keywords, import search terms to the campaign or exclude them.

When to use different Match Types?

Product Campaign

Product campaigns are based on long tail narrow keywords which do not have a lot of search volume & many of the keywords will be ineligible as well due to low search volume. So it makes more sense to use Broad Modifier to target a large set of search terms. Broad match is almost never a good idea unless you have a very specific reason to do so, like in cases where keywords generated by Broad Modifier match type is also not generating enough search volume.

Group Campaign

Group Campaigns are based on short tail broader keywords which generally have plenty of search volume, therefore, it makes more sense to use Exact match type since using Broad or Broad Modifier match will invite a lot of unwanted clicks from irrelevant search terms.

DSA Campaign

Since the purpose of DSA campaigns is to advertise products with low search volume keywords, there is no point in using exact match type since that will not help in this case. Broad match is almost never a good idea so the recommend match type for DSA campaign is Broad Modifier.

It also makes sense in some cases to use more than 1 match type, especially in Product campaigns since Google always prefer Exact match terms even when keywords from broad or phrase matches from the same account may also qualify for the auction.

Negative Keywords

You can use negative keywords to make sure that your ad doesn’t show for irrelevant searches, saving you money from wasted clicks & your budget will better be spent on relevant search terms which are more likely to convert.

Since using negative keywords reduces irrelevant search terms, it can greatly improve CTR, Conversion Rate & Quality Score.

DatafeedWatch allows you to enter Negative Keywords during campaign setup :

Campaign Analysis

Eligible keywords 

  • After setting up the campaign, always check the number of eligible keywords each product has.
  • Remove the generic keywords which always cost a lot & might not have enough conversion.
  • Remove Per Partes if you are already using scripts or some sort of bid management.
  • Adding other types of campaigns is strongly recommended & might even be crucial if your product campaign has a lot of ineligible keywords.

Eligible Products

Check no of eligible products while setting up a campaign, a single ad template might not be able to cover 100% products in which case you can always add multiple add templates. You can also do A/B testing with multiple ad templates comparing their effectiveness with different settings.

Historical Analysis

Once the campaign is up & running for a few weeks, it’s always a good practice to compare the campaign results with historical data. Metrics like CTR, Avg CPC & Conversion Rate are good metrics, to begin with, but you can of course always do a detailed comparative analysis.

Ad Patterns

Your ad needs to be relevant, specific & attractive. There are few things to keep in mind while creating an ad template :

  1. Highlight what makes you unique
  2. Include Prices, Promotions & Exclusives
  3. Have a CTA like Order Now or Get a Quote
  4. Include keywords in the Title
  5. Optimize your ad for Mobile Customers
  6. Create multiple ads with a different message to compare their effectiveness
  7. Check for common text mistakes & forbidden words

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