AdWords PLAs Product Listing Ads- Intro

Product Listing Ads (PLAs) by Google Adwords are cost per click (CPC) ads. Do not feel intimidated by PLAs. Consider them a tool to be played like game of strategy against your opponent, ie your competition. PLAs are only one type of Adwords ad. (The other is the text ad). PLAs stand out because, unlike text ads, PLAs feature a product image and highlight individual products or product groupings, ie Google's  product taxonomy / categories (not keyword). 

Setting up involves having both a 1) Google Shopping account (via the merchant center) and 2) an Adwords account.

Uses & Benefits

• Google advertising is significant in terms of how many potential customers it reaches. Specifically, it physically covers the vast majority of the screen of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and reaches a large number of potential customers who are already at the buying intent stage of your sales funnel. In many cases, the Google ad gives shoppers enough information (image, color, price) to make buying decisions even before clicking your ad. The ads are unmistakably, un-pretentiously an advertisement which translates into (as much as 30%) higher conversion rates over otherwise ambiguous ads or links.

Google PLAs / Product Listing Ads as seen by a US-based person doing a basic Google search for 'winter coat'. The PLAs appear on top of the page as the most prominent result. With a heading "Shop for ... on Google", they are clearly advertisements with no pretense. Consequently, people clicking your ads are less likely to cost you money by thinking that they will be lead to something else like information about winter coats.  

Google helps to send only people through the right sales funnel. For instance, Google detects when someone's search is for information versus a buying opportunity. In response, Google responds with appropriate SERPs.

• As you can see from the example above, Google PLAs allow you to present solutions to millions of people who are actively seeking those solutions. Ads can even target specific groups. For instance, the SERPs above appear for only US-based customers. Non-US shoppers in tropical Thailand using the same 'winter coat' search term will not see the advertisements because they are not the target market. Below, their SERPs show what the target market, ie US customers, sees only after scrolling down the page below the PLAs. In other words, you get to set all of these preferences.

You can do marketing with control. For instance, you control the ad details (ad type, audience demographic, re-targeting / re-marketing, lookalike audience targeting, broadcast location, dates and so on), you can track your expenses for each ad.

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• Since Google relies on AdWords for the majority of its revenue, it is designed to help your potential leads find you
• If you are new to keywords, PLAs are useful because you do not need to devote much time doing keyword research because Google decides which customer search terms will trigger the display of your PLAs on SERPs
• There is a Google support team of people that are contactable via toll free numbers
• Google PLAs contribute favorably to the profit margin. For instance, Google records highest conversion rates among paid shopping channels as well as the lowest cost of sale. (Pay per click (PPC) which is cost effective because you pay only when your leads actually click through your ads).

DOs

• Remain aligned with your lead's stage within the sales funnel. Your ad should match your lead's stage within the sales funnel. Examples. 

• If someone's non-commercial TOFU search relates to learning basic information and benefits (like 'What are the benefits of product X?', 'What is product X?'), the landing page should have pre-sale content that is non-commercial and informational and NOT product pages. For instance, pre-sale content discusses 'How product X is a solution for situation A'

• If someone's search is middle of the funnel, they make product comparisons, cost-benefit analyses, your responding landing page should be MOFU. Although informational and non-commercial, the landing page should give less general information than the TOFU landing page. You may even display some product reviews by previous customers.

• Use negative keywords as a means of segmenting high vs low ROI keyword. This segmentation allows you to specify which terms should or should not trigger PLAs. Remember that you need not master keywords for PLAs. However, types of keyword are still noteworthy as they relate to how much you should spend. Broad terms like 'coats' or even 'winter coats' do not suggest very strong buying intent. We do not know what type of (winter) coats the person is searching for, whether the coat applies to women's, children, plus-sized individuals, up-scale and so on. Conversely, longtail keywords like 'BrandX women's winter coats with featureX' do and therefore have higher conversion rates. Consequently, spend higher amounts on longtail keywords. In other words, even if the average is $1 for a generic term, bid less, let's say $0.50 because we already know these generic terms convert poorly giving a relatively low ROI. So invest less in them. Conversely, spend $1.50, ie above the average for the long tailed keyword. To segment generic vs longtail. 
• Note the keywords that your target market uses as the basis for your campaigns
• Copy and paste the product listing ad / PLA campaign so you have 2 identical campaigns, the second of which you will differentiate
• In the 1st campaign (for long tail keywords called something like 'branded campaign'), use negative terms to block generic keywords from triggering PLAs. Types of negative terms include broad, phrases and or negative exact terms. Examples include 'coat', 'coats', 'winter coat', 'winter coats' (negative broad); "winter coat" (negative phrases); [winter coat](negative exact).

     

Negative phrases. Ticks mean that your PLAs will appear for the search term. Negative broad phrases are therefore the  most exclusive.

• Set a high bid for the 1st campaign
• In the 2nd campaign (for generic keywords, called something like 'Generic campaign'), list negative phrases that suggest high buying intent (like 'brandnameX', 'SKU_123') to block the long tailed keywords from triggering PLAs. 
• Set a low bid for the 2nd campaign
• If you have a limited budget and are starting out with a new project, target buyers who already have buying intent. This approach ensures faster profit. For ideas on how to do this, consult the note above regarding negative search keywords.

• Simultaneously use as many advertising methods as possible to cover space on the SERPs and, in turn, remove the competition and increase the chance of attracting leads.

• text ads
• PLAs
• SEO / organize links 

Place long tailed keywords inside of product titles and descriptions. Optimizing these elements improves your conversion rate because they improve the specificity of your listings and therefore make it easier for Google to match you with someone searching for the solution you offer. Do not copy details from manufacturers in a mindless fashion. Research whether the SKU appears in your target market's search terms for clues as to whether it should be included in titles and descriptions. After all, remember that all of your earliest characters are important to search engines. 

• If you are new to PLAs, start with Google (over Facebook) since Google PLAs is easier. For instance, Google click through cases are usually based on keen interest, even buying intent. Conversely, Facebook click through cases are often more costly because the click through was accidental and interruptive of users' social activities like looking at friends' photos. Since PLAs provide a clear display of their nature by showing product images and prices, they are potentially cheaper because they deter accidental clicks from people who lack buying intent.
• Keep your product feed updated to reflect your latest changes to details like pricing, stock levels and so on. This is important to maintain favor with Google. After all, Google earns revenue from providing shoppers with a good experience and would mark you down if you advertise one price in the ad but another on your website. Your lead is likely to bounce quickly to a noticeable extent. 
• Know the attributes required for the product feed. See the summary of attribute requirements. See a small sample view of the guide immediately below. Essentially, this guide helps to know the fields to be completed and the permitted attributes for each field.

Note that you should even enter data for new products whose codes (like the GTIN and or MPN) are not yet established by using the otherwise optional field 'identifier_exists'. Since the default (when you opt to not show this field) always implies 'yes', you will need to set it at 'no' because you do not have an identifier.

Consider your industry and the fields that apply. For instance, more heavy duty, industrial products require the product weight field while lighter products do not. In short, spend time going through the list of fields beforehand.

There are several other optional fields that generally help you to organize your ad campaigns. They help you to recognize product segments to be turned on and off at the appropriate time. For instance, you can add as many as 5 label fields from 'custom_label_0' to 'custom_label_4' to help you run ads for specific segments like 0) gift ideas for 1) Christmas and 0) gift ideas for 1) wedding registry and so on as pictured below. 

Manual Product Feed in MS Excel. Manually creating your product feed is acceptable and often preferable if you have a handful of products whose details (price, title, description and so on) never change. However, it is very time consuming and may be replaced by automatic methods like Shopify's free 'Google Shopping' app. You can download this app to your store from within Shopify's app store. The app connects with Google Merchant Center, automatically syncs your store and all or some of its products and or collections with Google Merchant center.

You may omit some fields like 'tax' if all products have the same setting. In such cases, your settings for this field will be completed at the account level settings. However, if such a general rule does not apply, enter this field to override the general rule. 

• Re-target leads through Google Adwords RLSA / Re-targeting Lists for Search Ads. Google allows you to re-target visitors who bounce and continue with comparison shopping, in other words, they have strong buying intent. You can target such interested people specially by serving them special advertisements after they leave your website. 

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RLSA often involves serving that market with coupons and tweaked ads that say something like 'returning visitors get _% off'. (Facebook also has a re-targeting pixel that you may consider later when you have already mastered Google RLSA.)

• Do not limit yourself. Use Bing also. Although Google enjoys a large market share, Bing can account for as much as 30% of searches. To ignore Bing would be like leaving money on the table. In fact, Bing's PLAs use precisely the same format to the extent that Bing even allows you to import your product feed directly from your Google account.
• Do not overextend yourself with many traffic sources. Do not try to jump onto every band wagon you hear about for getting traffic. Focus on truly mastering PLAs before considering other forms of traffic from Facebook and other forms of social media. In fact, some traffic sources are even detrimental. Thoughtfully consider the suitability of other approaches for your particular market.
• Geo-target. Some niches are seasonal. For instance, air-conditioning is not in high demand during winter months in the northern US. In such cases, turn off the PLAs during the cold winter period just for those non-applicable northern states.

If you ever wanted to hire Adwords professionals, consider Google-certified professionals.

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RELATED CONTENT

• Product categories / 'Google Products Taxonomy'. Download in MS Excel format direct from Google
• Long tail keywords are better suited for PLAs
• Live Chat triggers can specifically target leads from Google PLAs
• Craigslist advertising
• SEO
• Promotional Strategies for brand awareness

Tawk.to Triggers to Automate Target Marketing Efficiently

Tawk.to triggers automatically initiate your chat engagement with your customers, especially those further through the sales funnel with clear buying intent landing from Google PLA campaigns. This is comparable with how brick and mortar store sales assistants approach a customers perhaps with a general question like 'how can I help you' or even something specifically related to what the person is looking at like 'Would you like me to show you the water proof version for that coat?' (... essentially an upsell).

In many cases, initiating the chat is automated. However, if the lead responds with a request, you will receive the audio notification that usually alerts you that a lead wants to initiate a call. I usually also include a chat rescuer (explained below) just in case I am unavailable to respond on time. 

In short, automate the process of monitoring your visitors by letting Tawk.to find select only your target market to get them talking.

This post illustrates the steps for setting up Tawk.to triggers. Although the basic triggers are discussed, much emphasis is placed on the advanced settings because they allow automation and strategic communication marketing with a target market.

• Go to 'Admin' in the top menu of the dashboard
• If you have several properties, use the 'Property' dropdown menu to select the property
• Click 'Triggers'
• Click 'Add Trigger' button (in the top right region of the screen)
• Select the type
• Chat rescuer. If none of your agents respond to a visitor’s question within x seconds, Chat Rescuer would automatically reply to the visitor by politely apologizing and requesting that he or she leave a message and email address. If you have a lot of agents who pick up calls in a queue, you can check in with the lead at intervals. For instance, after 30 seconds, you may explain that you someone will respond as soon as possible. After 60 seconds, you may reassure leads that you have not forgotten them and that they are still in a queue.

• Page notification (basic). This Tawk.to trigger initiates a chat when a visitor has been on a particular page for x time. The creative possibilities are endless. For instance, you can use this page for cross selling, up selling and so on. Beware however; upsell and cross sell only when your lead is in the purchase intent stage of your sales funnel, otherwise using live chat to cross sell and upsell prematurely can seem too pushy. Avoid upselling and cross selling  when the lead just lands on a page. If this page notification is inadequate, use the advanced notification (below) to target visitors most suitable for the upsell or cross sell (like those who are repeat site visitors or otherwise loyal customers).

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• Site notification (basic). This notification is similar to the page-specific notification, except that it applies more broadly to include the entire website.
• Advanced notification. This allows you to select from a set of variables to determine the appropriate behavior (message, ban, etc)

The image immediately below displays the 3 types of trigger condition from which you can choose when creating advanced notifications.

1. When a visitor has loaded the chat widget = This refers to when a visitor lands onto page where the widget automatically appears, ie loads. It does not refer to the visitor's action

2. When a visitor requests a chat = This refers to when a visitor clicks on the live chat widget. The visitor may not necessarily already begin to write or send a message

3. When a visitor sends a chat message = This refers to when the visitor has written and sent a message. 

Example: You can create mid-chat automatic responses to common questions, the most common of which relates to pricing. For this pricing example, you may set the conditions as follows with synonyms. The action will be an automatic response with the pricing information. 

Notice that the 'run trigger' field is set at 'when visitor sends a chat message'. This means that the visitor manually clicked on and activated the widget. (The alternative to this, ie where the visitor does not even click on the widget before the message appears to initiate the live chat. In this latter case, the settings must be set to 'When a visitor has loaded a chat widget'. 'Load' in this context refers to when the page loaded, as well as the widget.

Example: Advanced notifications allow you to combine the page-specific functionality of page notifications (above) with marketing considerations like loyalty and reference source. You may be particularly keen on targeting those who landed on a page from Google PLAs. Perhaps, you can cross sell and upsell in a way that will use your limited live chat human resources for leads with greater purchase intent and therefore at a farther stage of your sales funnel. With better targeting, you can even include discount codes in your message. If you have the human resources, initiate a chat using the trigger condition 'when a visitor has loaded a chat widget' (see above regarding the 3 trigger conditions). 

Below is an example of how you can set the Tawk.to trigger conditions so that leads landing on your site from Google PLAs will get a special notification.

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The sky is the limit. Combine the ideas on this page for several other purposes. For instance, initiate customers with abandoned carts after the were inactive on the cart's URL for a specified time period. The triggered message will say something like, 'Is there anything I can help you with?'   

Abandoned carts can be saved by engaging customers with live chat

Advanced trigger conditions should also be prevented if your customer is already being served. This setting enables the trigger only if the visitor is not yet served.

Below is an example of geo marketing where the marketer wants to enable chat for only leads from Spain. In other words, the widget will be hidden for all other visitors.

• Prepare for situations in which you can not get to the computer in time to answer a call. In the example below, the system automatically picks up the call, requesting patience while assuring the customer that the customer service department is trying to get an agent. When no one hears and answers the call, another note apologizes, requests the customer's email address and promises that someone will be contact. Below are screen shots of the settings for these messages.

This required 2 separate triggers. The settings for the first of the two are as follows.

Here are the settings for the second of the two triggers featured above.

• You can plan to end a live chat session in a welcoming way. When thanked, UpWork says, 'you're most welcome ...' and provides a link within the message. The link displays an image that illustrates how you could contact them easily in the future if you need help.

Below is the image to which an UpWork link sends customers when they are inviting that customer's return. 

• Remember however that less is more! Avoid bombarding your leads with too many notifications. Select only the best among your messages. Remember to focus your messages on adding value to your customer.

CONTENT RELATED TO TAWK.TO APP

• Create a new Tawk.to alias
• An intro & interview to Tawk.to
• Abanadoned Cart: Why it happens and how to prevent and or remedy it
• Third party video tutorial beginner intro
• Leads landing from Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) are easier to convert with the help of live chat triggers. Get your PLAs right to maximize your conversion!
• Automating your live chat target marketing contributes favorably to customer experience. Now learn how to master customer experience.