Are You Advertising on Google Shopping?

There’s no doubt that online shopping has increased in recent months and businesses that have got themselves online have benefited. But, as a customer, you may have realised just how hard it is to shop a variety of brands on the one website. Switching between eCommerce websites and the brand’s own website is time-consuming, and depending on your internet connection, quite slow at times.

Online marketplaces are growing in popularity and they are making it much easier to shop across a variety of brands on the one website. Amazon and Etsy are two of the biggest online platforms, while Google Shopping is another option. While not technically an online marketplace, it does allow people shopping online the ability to look at a range of brands and products simply based on their search query.

You may be wondering how exactly advertising or loading your products onto a marketplace will help your business, considering there are generally fees to pay. While this may be true for the more traditional marketplace sites, Google Shopping directs shoppers back to the retailer’s website to make the purchase. The benefit in this? There’s every chance the shopper will continue to look around your website and potentially purchase more products.

Are you missing out by not being on Google Shopping?

Let’s take a more in-depth look at what exactly Google Shopping is, and how it can help your business. Google Shopping is essentially a service provided by Google that allows shoppers to search, compare and purchase products across a range of retailers. Retailers have paid to advertise their products, and Google Shopping shows up results as a thumbnail image with the name of the retailer and the price. If you’ve heard the term “Comparison Shopping Engine” or CSE, this is exactly what Google Shopping is.

How Does Google Shopping Work?

There’s a good chance you’ve stumbled across the shopping tab while you’ve been browsing Google, and it is actually quite a simple concept. The consumer searches for a product they are looking for, let’s say a sleepover sofa. When they enter that into the search engine and click over to the shopping tab, sofas from a variety of retailers come up on the screen. A consumer can then filter these results by price, location and more. For retailers, you aren’t restricted to just one listing. If you happen to sell 10 varieties of sleepover sectional sofas, you can have 10 listings, all with images and the relevant prices. You also won’t just show up on Google Shopping; your listing will also show as a website result and as a text-based PPC result giving you multiple opportunities to get in front of consumers. If you are considering jumping on Google Shopping, this may sway you – the platform is proven to have 30% higher conversion rates than a standard text advertisement.

While there is a little bit of work involved in setting up your Google Shopping account and adding your products in, it is certainly worthwhile. Imagine a digital shopping centre where consumers can search for what they need, compare prices and shop directly with you.

While marketplace platforms are still popular with consumers, comparison shopping platforms are growing quickly, and if you aren’t on board, you risk losing sales and long term customers to your competitors.

If you aren’t sure how to implement Google Shopping into your digital marketing strategy, our team at FrogOnline can help you get started. Get in contact with us today.