The Rise of Google Shopping

Most paid search experts believe Google Shopping is a big opportunity for online retailers and it will continue to play an important role in years to come. According to Merkle’s Digital Marketing Report for Q4 2018, while text ad spending fell 9% Y/Y following three quarters of single-digit growth, spending on Google Shopping ads grew 42% Y/Y in Q4 2018. This was the highest growth rate for Google Shopping spend since mid-2016. For retailers, Google Shopping ads accounted for 63% of all Google search ad clicks–an all-time high as well.

Noticed anything different when setting up call-only ad campaigns in Google Ads? In December, Google made changes to their call-only ads policy. While the changes may appear relatively minor, they have implications for advertisers wishing to use this type of ad. These updates are in line with Google’s philosophy of providing a smooth customer journey and ensuring that people engaging with ads on their search engine are finding what they want.  

Buzzfeed published an article last week largely based on a study conducted by Adthena, a paid search competitive intelligence company. The main point of the story was that Amazon engaged in a targeted strategy to aggressively bid on competitors’ branded terms over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period.

We found the article and the supporting research to be misleading. Nothing in either piece supports the point of view that Amazon was doing anything intentionally aggressive or even differentiated. The purpose of this blog post is to provide more context as well as correct information on competitive brand bidding and Google’s trademark policy itself.

For the last couple of years, we have used BrandVerity’s Paid Search Monitoring tool to examine brand bidding during the busiest online shopping days of the year – Black Friday through Cyber Monday. We set up monitoring on some of the most anticipated gifts of the holiday season and see how advertisers take advantage of the holiday search volume surge to attract clicks. In many cases, we find ads that mislead customers and win commissions on unearned clicks.

For online retailers, Q4 is undeniably the busiest time of year. Everyone knows that. Less well known, however, is that this quarter is also a boon to third-party trademark infringers and affiliate abusers. For those interested in making some easy commission income, the temptation to divert branded traffic is great.

This is the first in a new series highlighting our employees! We talk a lot about how important and unique our culture is at BrandVerity. But to understand why its special, you need to meet the people that make the magic happen. Emily joined the Engineering team about two years ago, and here's how she answered my questions.

This is the last in our four-part series on protecting your trademark in paid search. The earlier pieces included a deep dive on Google Ads trademark rules, a step-by-step guide to submitting trademark infringements to Google, and a set of commonly asked questions regarding trademark policies. While this series focuses on Google, the techniques and considerations are similar across all search engines.

Keywords are the base variable between all channels, and they are how a user communicates with a search engine. A lot of organizations strive to attain PPC and SEO synergy, but sharing keyword data remains the most important aspect of maximizing the effectiveness of these two strategies. Usually PPC and SEO are handled by two different teams, so it is important to set a regular cadence for collaboration and communication. 

When competitors use your trademark in their Google Ads campaigns, there are many adverse effects including decreased clickthrough rate (CTR) and increased cost-per-click (CPC) for your ads as well as a poor customer experience for your customers. It’s also annoying for any digital marketer to see a competitor in the top spot on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) using your trademark! 

There has been a lot of buzz lately about Google's big changes across all advertising products.

The keynote address at last week’s Google Marketing Live conference was packed with announcements that will impact digital marketers for years to come. The presentation ran for over an hour, so there was a lot to digest. We put together a complete guide to help you quickly navigate all this new material.

Machine learning and assistance continue to be the overarching focus for Google. According to Sridhar Ramaswamy, Senior VP of Ads, Google wants to “be there and be useful” for consumers and advertisers by focusing on being valuable, transparent and trustworthy.

Google’s latest innovations help accomplish three things for advertisers: Better Results, Simpler Experiences, and Deeper Insights.