Google recently introduced retail category reporting to make it easier to understand how both Search and Shopping campaigns are performing if they’re running concurrently. This can assist staying present and competitive on key categories, while also driving key performance metrics.
With this reporting it’s now possible to see performance for pre-defined product categories across both of those campaigns in one report.
Some of the metrics available for each retail category include:
- Traffic and spend metrics (clicks and cost)
- Campaign level information (campaign type and name)
- Performance metrics (conversions, conversion value, conversion cost)
- Competitive metrics (click share)
- Retail category reporting in the Google Ads UI
It’s important to review all factors that can contribute to performance differences between Search and Shopping campaigns, such as:
- Brand vs non-brand campaigns
- Campaigns targeting best sellers or specific products on Shopping campaigns
- Location targeting or ad scheduling
- Audience targeting
- Different bid strategies
For example, the return on ad spend (ROAS) across all campaigns for ‘Shirts & Tops’ may show that the Search campaign has a higher ROAS than the Shopping campaign. However, if filtered for brand Search campaigns, the ROAS may appear more similar across both campaign types.
This useful analysis enables the ability to distinguish which retail categories are performing well, so a shift in budget towards these categories can be considered. These products can also be split into their own campaign to set a different bidding target.
Category reports can be found either through Predefined Reports, or by customising which metrics you want to evaluate using the Report Editor.
If you’d like to know more about using Retail Category Reporting, please get in touch.