TPE #102: The key to dominate Google Shopping: Competitiveness

Read time: 6 minutes

Hey, Miles here with The PPC Edge!

Google Shopping is highly competitive.

This is the key to success, and almost nobody is talking about it:

Competitiveness (I know that's broad, so let me explain).

Sure, you need an optimized feed, a strong campaign structure, and the right bid strategy…

But the Shopping battle is won outside of the Google Ads interface.

You must be better than your competition on all fronts.

You need:

• The best products and competitive prices.
• The best seller ratings and reviews.
• The best shipping and return policy.
• The best browsing experience.
• The best purchase experience.

 

Do these right, and you will be rewarded in 2 ways:

1️⃣ You'll get better Shopping Ads rankings.

2️⃣ You'll get more conversions.

Today, I’m giving you a practical rundown on how to improve the competitiveness of your (client’s) brand, so you can win the highly competitive Google Shopping battle.

All of these insights relate to the Google Shopping ecosystem. It doesn’t matter whether you run Standard Shopping or Performance Max campaigns — the principles are the same!

Let’s dive in!

 

Understand the most important Google Shopping Ranking Factors.

For our new Shopping Mastery course (exclusively available in The PPC Hub), we created a framework with the most important Google Shopping Ranking Factors.

It’s a combination of:

1. Your Bids.
2. The Competitiveness of your offers and store.
3. The Context of your product information (via your feed).

 

 

Do those right, and you’ll get more visibility in the Shopping results (and ultimately drive more conversions).

Today, I will highlight the most underrated, and highly impactful ranking factor: Competitiveness.

Get better than your competition and you will be rewarded.

Let’s look at how you can win the Shopping battle with:

1. Competitive (sale) prices.
2. An “exceptional” Shopping Experience (Scorecard).

 

1. Get better rankings with competitive (sale) prices.

Google Shopping is a comparison platform that wants to give its users the best UX and deals.

Pricing is the most important ranking factor, especially in niches with homogeneous products or retailers selling popular brands in competitive markets (think about supplements, electronics, fashion, and books).

Products in these categories are easily comparable (apples with apples).

So Google compares the (sale) price of your products vs. those of other merchants.

Besides price, Google also factors in other things like shipping and return policies, store ratings, browsing experience, and more.

 

🧠 Quick quiz: who would get the click?

 

I don’t know about you, but I would click on the top store (Megekko). They have the best listing with the lowest price, free delivery, the longest return window, and a lot of shop reviews.

 

As you can see here, competitive prices are extremely important to get better rankings, clicks, and conversions.

But how do you set competitive prices? Here are 3 options:

1. Real-time price monitoring.
2. Dynamic pricing tools.
3. Promotions and discounts.

Let’s dive in on each of these.

 

1.1: Real-time price monitoring.

Regularly check the prices of similar products sold by your competitors. This includes not only direct competitors but also larger marketplaces and platforms.

You can do that by:

• Using third-party tools (paid).
• Building your own price monitoring tool (complex).
• Using price competitiveness insights in GMC Next (free).

 

 

You can use real-time price data to:

• Monitor competitor prices.
• Set alerts when prices change.
• Dynamically adjust your prices.

Image source: Pricefy.io

 

And you can also use this data to adjust your campaign tactics:

 

1.2: Dynamic pricing tools.

Adjust prices in real-time based on demand, competition, and market conditions. This ensures your prices are always competitive while respecting your margins.

This is a powerful way to make your prices competitive, but it could also become a race to the bottom if you and your competitors keep undercutting each other. So beware of that!

 

1.3: Promotions and discounts.

Run promotions such as discounts, coupons, or bundles to make your prices more attractive temporarily during high-traffic periods (holidays/sale events).

You can leverage multiple types of promotions like:

 

Need help setting these up in Google Merchant Center Next? Check out this free guide!

 

Here’s an example of how promotions can improve your Shopping listings:

 

 

Next to the price of your products, your shipping costs also impact your total price, ranking, and clicks.

You now understand why price is one of the most important Google Shopping Ranking Factors.

Let’s look at something else that’s incredibly important, but often overlooked: the “Shopping Experience”.

 

2. Get better rankings with an “exceptional” Shopping Experience.

Next to the price, sale price, and GMC promotions, Google also factors in your Shopping Experience Scorecard to determine your rankings.

Your products can rank higher in the Shopping results if you enroll in the Shopping Experience Scorecard program and have an “Exceptional” rating.

 

 

💡 Pro-tip: Is the Shopping Experience Scorecard not available in your country? Optimize these areas nonetheless.

They might not influence your ranking now but they might in the future. Also, by optimizing for a higher Shopping Experience Scorecard, you might become a better choice than your direct competitors in terms of shipping policies, return policies, et cetera! This will result in more clicks and conversions, regardless of the score Google might give you or not.

 

How the Top Quality Store Badge shows up in the SERPs:

 

The Shopping Experience Scorecard consists of the following elements:

1. Shipping Experience.
2. Return Experience.
3. Browsing Experience.
4. Purchase Experience.

Keyword: Experience!

Google wants to make the Shopping experience as good as possible, so they can compete with other price comparison platforms and marketplaces like Amazon.

The better your Shopping Experience, the better your AdRank (and the more compelling your Shopping Ad will be).

Let’s zoom in on the components of the Shopping Experience Scorecard.

 

2.1: Shipping Experience.

This measures the shipping and delivery experience you provide to customers. Here’s how to optimize it:

• Delivery time: Lower the number of days it takes for customers to receive their orders.
• Delivery cost: Lower the cost for customers to receive orders excluding item costs.

 

2.2: Return Experience.

This measures the return experience you provide to customers. Here’s how to optimize it:

• Return window: Increase the number of days customers can return an item.
• Return cost: Lower the cost for customers to return an item.

 

2.3: Browsing Experience.

This measures the customer’s experience when visiting your website. Here’s how to optimize it:

• High-resolution images: Increase the percentage of product images on your website that are more than 1048 px.
• Images per item: Increase the average number of product images per unique item.

 

2.4: Purchase Experience.

This measures the customer’s experience while purchasing a product from your website. Here’s how to optimize it:

• Promotion disapproval rate: Decrease the percentage of your Google Merchant Center promotions that are disapproved.
• e-Wallet types accepted: Increase the number of payment methods that you accept: PayPal, Google Wallet, Apple Pay and Amazon Pay.

 

Bonus: Store Ratings.

Besides these four key areas, your store rating also plays a role.

 

Your store ratings (and product reviews) are incredibly important to not only get better rankings, but also to show customers your shop is trustworthy. This is always good for more clicks and conversions!

 

 

Your action step for this week: dominate Google Shopping with competitive prices and an optimized Shopping Experience.

The Google Shopping landscape is highly competitive.

You win the battle with competitive prices, and an optimized Shopping Experience.

So start by auditing your own Shopping ads and check:

• Can you offer more competitive prices?
• Where can you optimize your Shopping Experience Scorecard?

Doing this will lead to better rankings, and more clicks and conversions.

Keep track of your performance, and let me know how it goes!

 

And if you want a proven framework to properly launch, optimize, and scale Shopping campaigns, you will love our new Shopping Mastery Course.

This 20-hour course is basically a Google Shopping MBA, and contains many golden nuggets on:

• Advanced Google Shopping Rankings (Bids x Competitiveness x Context).
• Advanced feed management with our Product Feed Blueprint.
• Hidden insights in Google Merchant Center Next.
• Advanced campaign structures for maximum scale.
• … And so much more!

 

 

You can unlock instant access by joining The PPC Hub.

Or join the interest list for an exclusive one-time launch in September.

(If you want max value, The PPC Hub is the best option).

And that’s all for today.

Thank you for reading, and have a fantastic week.

See you next next week!

Cheers,

Miles (& Bob)