Since 2011, WordStream’s award-winning Google Ads Performance Grader has been helping time-crunched business owners and digital marketers figure out how to most efficiently optimize their paid search campaigns. Used by hundreds of thousands of advertisers to analyze over $3 billion in aggregate spend, the Grader is a free, fast, and effective tool.
But something’s been missing. Although good ol’ fashioned Search campaigns will remain integral to advertisers’ strategies for years to come, another type of Google Ads campaign has become incredibly important to the success of many small businesses: Shopping campaigns.
The ecommerce explosion we’ve witnessed in recent years is precisely why we launched WordStream Advisor for Ecommerce—a software solution built specifically for online retailers—this past spring. Today, I’m excited to announce that we’ve taken another big step to more effectively serve the needs of ecommerce advertisers.
As of now, the Google Ads Performance Grader provides detailed, actionable insights into both Search and Shopping campaigns!
Here’s how it works. When you connect your Google Ads account to the Grader—which, by the way, is completely safe and secure—it will automatically detect whether you’re spending money on Shopping campaigns. If you are, you’ll get two complete performance reports in one: one for your Search campaigns, and one for your Shopping campaigns. Of course, if you’re advertising solely on Shopping—not at all on Search—you’ll still get performance report.
Let’s get a sense of what your Google Shopping performance report will look like.
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A look at the new Google Shopping performance report
When your performance report is ready for review, you’re greeted with three high-level metrics. In the case of this example, those metrics are click-through rate, Shopping conversions, and impression share lost. Depending on which areas of your account need the most work, the metrics you see in this part of the report may vary.
Scroll down to the next section of the report and you get a more nuanced (and segmented) look at your Google Ads performance. Here, you can toggle between data from your account as a whole, data from your Search campaigns, and data from your Shopping campaigns. No matter which segment you choose, you’ll see:
- How much you’ve spent.
- How many impressions, clicks, and conversions you’ve driven.
- How much you’re spending (on average) to drive a single conversion.
- How much return you’re getting on your ad spend.
Next, you’re looking at a breakdown of your Google Ads account structure. Once again, you can toggle between Search and Shopping. This time, however, you’ll see different data depending on which segment you’re looking at—a consequence of Search and Shopping campaigns being fundamentally different. Here’s what you’ll learn on the Shopping side of things:
- How many campaigns, ad groups, product groups, and products you have active.
- How many ad groups (on average) you have within a single campaign.
- How many product groups (on average) you have within a single ad group.
In the final section of the new and improved report, you’ll find a breakdown of your overarching Google Ads performance grade divided across three segments: overall, Search, and Shopping. Within the Shopping segment, there are four main areas of concern: wasted spend, account structure, campaign rankings, and product data feed optimization. Let’s take a look at each one.
If you’re advertising on both Search and Shopping, your wasted spend will generate under the Overall section at the beginning of your report. If, however, you’re only advertising on Shopping, you’ll find your wasted spend data under the Shopping-specific section.
Want Google Shopping help now? Grade your account here!
Regarding your Shopping account structure, the report provides a side-by-side comparison of you and your top industry competitors across four metrics: number of campaigns, number of ad groups, number of product groups, and number of products.
As you can see, the area in which you’re furthest behind your competitors is highlighted in blue. Here, the idea is that mimicking the account structure strategies of your most successful rivals may yield a more efficient allocation of your Shopping spend (i.e., you’ll spend more money on high-performing products that translate into big returns for your business).
Next, we have your campaign rankings. Here, the report compares your Shopping campaigns to your competitors’ on the basis of two key metrics: impression share (visibility) and click-through rate (traffic). Obviously, the best campaigns—the ones you want to emulate—are those that boast both high visibility and high traffic. The goal of this section is to show you both how your individual Shopping campaigns are performing against those of your competitors as well as which specific lever—impression share or click-through rate—you should focus closely on.
The final segment of your Shopping performance breakdown is all about your product data feed. Because product data warnings and disapprovals can lead to a suspension of your Shopping advertising privileges, this part of the report is meant to let you know if there are problems that require your immediate attention. As you can see below, the most common sources of trouble are shipping information, product descriptions, and global trade item numbers (GTINs). To see which ones are affecting your account, start a free trial of WordStream Advisor for Ecommerce and check out the feed insights dashboard!
Again, the purpose of these final three segments—account structure, campaign rankings, and feed optimization—is to give you an idea as to why your Shopping performance is as strong (or as weak) as it is.
Get Google Shopping help & improve your campaigns today!
You can’t optimize your Google Shopping campaigns if you don’t know what’s keeping them from reaching their full potential. That’s why account audits are so crucial to your success.
Sure—you can conduct a manual audit. But that takes time, and therefore costs money.
With the new and improved Google Ads Performance Grader, you’ll get a free, comprehensive Google Shopping audit in just minutes. In the amount of time it takes you to make a cup of coffee, you’ll have the insights you need to take your ecommerce advertising campaigns to the next level—just in time for the holiday season.