This will be a live webcast hosted by Ethan Batraski, Adchemy’s VP Product & Experience.  In addition, we will be joined by industry expert Nikhil Raj, Walmart Lab’s Sr. Director, Advertising & Demand Generation.

Navigating the world of Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs) can be tricky. Google has created a new construct for marketers to wrestle with called product targets.  You’re supposed to associate SKUs/products to these product targets, and then associate these product targets to ad groups.

The question is, how many products or SKUs should you have per product target?  Is there an optimal number, and, if so, why?

Ethan Batraski, Adchemy’s VP of Product & Experience, will discuss:

- How product targets work
- Why there’s an optimal number of products/SKUs per product target
- What that optimal number is
- What happens when you deviate from that optimal number

Bring your questions, and we will have a LIVE Q&A with both Ethan and Nikhil at the end of the webinar.  Register Now!

Adchemy Products & User Experience VP Ethan Batraski demoed our newly released software, Adchemy for Products^TM, during lunch. And Adchemy CEO Murthy Nukala joined the Product Listing Ads panel with esteemed folks such as Google’s Jennifer Liu, who has developed Google product ads for several years.

Adchemy for Products Demo
We publicly launched Adchemy for Products at SIS! The overwhelming response? “We thought we were doing product ads well, but your product opened our eyes.” Thanks everyone!

Product Listing Ads: Learning From Commerce Sites As They Learn From Us
Moderator: Jeremy Kagan, Adjunct Associate Professor of Marketing, Columbia Business School
And a great group of panelists:

• Avish Dahiya, CTO, Munire Furniture
• Jennifer Liu, Senior Product Manager, Google
• Bill Mungovan, Director of Product Strategy, Advertising Solutions, Adobe
• Murthy Nukala, Founder and CEO, Adchemy
• Margot Herrman, Manager on Online Marketing, Revolve Clothing

If you missed SIS, or would like to see the PLA panel again, watch the replay!

Panel highlights:

• Murthy: Future of product ads will be simplified. The notion is to manage in your business language not publisher’s.
• Avish: You want to manage at the SKU level. But management of campaigns has to be a lot easier. Replay at minute 12:10.
• Avish reacts to @Adchemy demo with “Wow” and “Amazing.” Thanks for the plug!
• Avish says tech-savvy moms are mobile. Appealing product visuals are key. His tests show romance images work 10x better than silhouette!
• Murthy predicts that search marketers will develop traditional merchandising skills to compete in Product Ads digital storefront.
• Jennifer: Google’s mantra for product ads is “mobile, mobile, mobile”. Expect to see formats for touch screens and local targeting.

Williams-Sonoma’s Question: How does Google’s algorithm pick products to show?
Williams-Sonoma’s Senior eMarketing Planner Laura Landesman posed a great question concerning issues marketing All-Clad copper-core cookware. How does the algorithm pick products to show? See Jennifer Liu’s reply at minute 40. And check out Laurie Sullivan’s post Williams-Sonoma’s All-Clad PLA Mystery.

Some quick shout outs from the tweetstream and other posters.

Kami Patterson at The Home Depot  tweeted:

• “Manage PLAs: simplify, integrate, go mobile. They’re challenging for tech companies and advertisers.”
• “PLAs are a ‘digital shelf.’ Pricing, pictures and context matter.”

A really nice recap of the SIS buzz from Kenshoo’s CMO, @AaronGoldman. He puts Adchemy at number 7 of his top 10 buzz list! Thanks Aaron!

And lastly, a special thanks to the team at MediaPost for putting on a really great conference.

First, we’re excited to announce that our latest product, Adchemy for Products^TM, is available. Adchemy for Products software-as-a-service designed to help marketers grow their Product Listing Ads, or PLAs.  You can read more about our release here:  http://www.adchemy.com/new-product-for-retailers

We’ve heard from many of our customers that PLAs are both an important growth opportunity and a major source of frustration and confusion. In response, we’ve developed a stunningly easy-to-use application that makes managing PLAs intuitive, pain-free, and scalable. Early reaction to Adchemy for Products has been terrific thus far, and we’re excited to continue improving the product and helping our customers dominate PLAs.

Second, we’ve compiled a comprehensive set of PLA best practices.  Many marketers are focused on creating and maintaining their merchant data feed.  But having a good merchant data feed is just a start — you need to go well beyond the feed.  So we created this complementary eBook to help marketers get the most out of their PLA efforts:  “The Definitive Guide to PLA Best Practices:  Going Beyond the Merchant Feed.“  Click here to download it now for free.

And last, but not least, for those of you who don’t have the patience to read thru an entire eBook, we’ve created an infographic (below) that summarizes PLA best practices in one visual master guide.

 The United States could perhaps be nicknamed “The Land of Do-it-yourselfers.” With an entrepreneurial spirit predating the Mayflower, the citizens of the U.S. have zealously and repeatedly pulled on their overalls, strapped up their work boots, and trudged out into the fields, the mills, and the mines to earn their own way. Today’s citizens, be they American or otherwise, are donning that same spirit with a brand new bag of tricks. The workers of today don’t do their work by hand, but rather by digital assistance. Now the question is: which is best for which? Take Google’s new PLA advertising system for instance: To software, or not to software?

The Cost Equation

When considering what to do and what not to do, you probably want to consider the following factors:

• How much time will it take me to complete the task(s) I need done?
• What is the monetary value of my time?
• What is the cost of the possible supplements that could complete these tasks for me?
• How much active monitoring/maintenance will these tasks demand once they’re effectively in place?
• What is the complexity of the tasks that require tending?

Consider TurboTax for a moment. If your company houses 10 or fewer employees and you keep good records, TurboTax will probably work for you if you’re willing and able to give the time. Yet, a corporation with 50 employees or more, expense accounts, high dollar shipping and receiving, and a good deal of business travel, is definitely better off getting an accountant to handle their affairs.

This is not to say TurboTax software isn’t capable of handling such a load, but the software only produces results based on how you enter your financial information. Ultimately, TurboTax is a responsive tool, while a real accountant is theoretically proactive on your behalf. TurboTax also releases new versions annually because tax laws change from year to year. Good accountants, in like fashion, keep up-to-speed on those yearly tax changes because it’s their business to do so.

This is just one example of why the answer to the question: “To DIY, or not to DIY,” is more than just a simple matter of dollars and cents. It’s time, energy, ability, and risk/reward analysis.

Business at Digital Speed

Search Engine Marketing (SEM), especially in the wake of Google’s new algorithms and recently implemented paid shopping model, is the perfect example of an ever shifting business element that demands constant attention. Due to the rapidity of the changes and the sheer volume of competition, active monitoring of online marketing and promotions is absolutely mandatory if you want to stay at the front of the digital line.

With the arrival of this new shopping model, Product Listing Ads (PLAs) have become a particularly complex beast, requiring bidding and data management know-how, effective grouping techniques, and precise taxonomy to properly maximize campaign optimization.

As with nearly everything else in life, getting to the front of the line and staying there are two different things. To achieve both, either business owners or marketing personnel need to be eyeing, analyzing, and tweaking company PLAs like the survival of its online commerce depends on them, because, in many ways, it does. And while it may be quite possible for a marketing department to competently track a few hundred PLAs, a company that’s advertising thousands of products at a time has practically zero chance of keeping up with the minute-to-minute changes that can very much affect their product position and visibility.

Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? Yet, it is precisely this kind of marketing component that is so perfectly suited to software assistance. The SEM model, especially regarding PLAs, can shift so quickly it would be extremely difficult for an individual, or even a group of individuals to keep constant track of it. But because it’s all feeding into the same source, and can all be digitally tracked, this is where competent software can really separate the cans from the cannots.

If businesses can properly assess what needs to be done in-house, and what can be outsourced; what people need to do, and what software can do for people, they can significantly increase their revenue by shaving dollars off of their overhead. And that’s just for starters.

Many have argued that one of the fundamentally necessary qualities of a good leader is knowing what to delegate. If you do this effectively, you’ll always have the time you need to do the things you need to do yourself. Otherwise, you might find yourself losing money you never knew you had to begin with. Because when it comes to digital marketing, what you don’t see, truly can cost you.

For those paying attention, the rapidly rising trend of Product Listing Ads (PLAs) just stands to reason. In fact, it is only the latest chapter in an age-old rule that is as true today as it was the day it was uttered by some “famous Japanese philosopher”: a single picture does indeed trump a sizable smattering of vowels and consonants – or so the saying goes. A recent study conducted by Adobe drives the point home by finding PLAs yielded “a 34% higher click-through rate compared to text ads.”

The Eyes Have It

With text ads, the click-through is based mainly on SEO/SEM savvy marketing copy. However, limits on the amount of text permitted in each description severely hinders the ability of any business to describe a single product in adequate detail. This construct resulted in many a potential customer clicking on a search result, only to find an unpredictable product waiting on them at the other end of their digital rainbow. Unfortunately, because Google’s advertising model charges online advertisers “per click-through,” Google was paid for every click of the mouse, while businesses were often left footing the bill without securing the desired payoff.

It is for this reason that PLA click-throughs far outweigh the value of standard text ad click-throughs. A potential customer who clicks through based on a PLA has already been given a basic idea of the following:

- What the product looks like
- The value or purpose of the product
- The cost of the product

Now Picture This

Today’s search marketers are entering a whole new world – a visual one. In the visual world small differences matter (ask anyone who has worked in display advertising).

Here’s some fun facts that just might open your eyes to the visual medium:

Consider the following conclusion as stated by Don Norman following a 2005 study titled, “Attractive Things Work Better”:

“Research holds that aesthetic judgments are related to usability judgments prior to the use of a system and this association persists after the use of a system occurs.”

Norman, the author of the book Emotion and Design, concluded that aesthetically appealing elements promote a more calm and confident response. In short, pretty things make people feel good.

The same argument has been made since the 70’s regarding voters and elections. In a recent New York Times article titled, “The Facial Theory of Politics,” journalist Leonard Mlodinaw recalls this telling scenario:

“You probably know about the famous 1960 presidential debate between an unshaven and tired Richard Nixon and a tanned and rested John F. Kennedy: those who watched on television generally thought Kennedy won the debate, while those who listened over the radio overwhelmingly favored Nixon.”

Mlodinaw’s article goes on to report that recent research may indicate that it is the appearance of competence rather than beauty that sways the voter. Apparently, according to scientists, competence not only has an appearance, but an appearance we all seem to subconsciously recognize.

Beyond image appeal, a PLA shows people exactly what they can expect when they click on your ad. Even if someone is shopping for a muffler or an air conditioning unit, the presence of an image guarantees that there are no surprises at the other end of that link. They are clearly shown their potential purchase and how much that item is going to cost when they arrive. Be it a stylish shirt, or a drywall screw; whether it is beauty or competence they’re looking for, image has value…period.

It is for this reason that PLAs surpassed standard text ads on click-throughs in Q4 of 2012. It can further be safely assumed that if people know more before they commit to the click-through, they are more likely to continue on with their purchase. With a PLA, if the price or product image puts them off, they probably will not click-through at all. In that scenario, though you may not have won the customer, you also were not billed for the click-through.

So, yes indeed, a picture is worth a thousand words. But more importantly, the PLA model significantly diminishes the risk factor within the confines of Google’s new “pay per click-through” advertising model. More information, means less uncertainty before the click-through, which translates to a greater conversion rate following the click-through.

Still not convinced? Consider the following findings of a PLA performance study of 270 million global impressions and clicks, as reported by Online Media Daily in November, 2012:

“…Google PLAs outperformed text search ads. Click-through rate (CTR) rose 73% higher; conversion rate (CVR) came in 35% higher; average cost-per-click (CPC) was 36% lower; and return on ad spend (ROAS) was 46% higher.”

In short, PLAs are where it’s at when considering where to place your new batch of marketing dollars. Now, if I could just remember where I put those.

Check out the very cool infographic which ModCloth released with its news.

ModCloth ended 2012 with over 1,200 featured designers sharing and selling their designs to consumers. From a mobile standpoint, the company saw its traffic from smartphones at least double, while those coming from tablet devices tripled from those that shopped in 2011.

ModCloth offers a broad range of clothing, accessories and décor from independent designers that is curated to a specific vintage inspired aesthetic for customers who tend to want to set themselves apart. As part of its business strategy ModCloth has tens of thousands of products carried in limited supply, and the company’s inventory is constantly growing and changing. The news release mentions that 40 products are added daily. Products include recognized brands and Indie labels and carry very creative product names, for example, “Go-go about your day” dress, which is actually blue with a pink stripe. With such creative product names, their product names aren’t typically going to match to the way people search. Adchemy is proud to be providing Modcloth with innovative approaches in search to ensure its very unique products are found by consumers, no matter how they search.

In the meantime here are some blog posts we’ve recently read and liked:

http://www.ppcassociates.com/blog/google/master-product-listing-ads-plas/
Joey Muller provides an excellent overview of PLAs and the steps to set them up. He highlights the importance of ad group structure: Decide on an Ad Group structure that makes sense for you—making this decision is probably worth another blog post all by itself….

http://searchengineland.com/9-tips-for-using-product-listing-ads-70434
George Mitchie shared 9 tips, starting with: Set up a separate Ad Group for each product category. This will provide more controls for bidding, offer copy and targeting. While this post is from April 2011, the content is still fresh.

http://www.ppchero.com/dont-be-afraid-to-exclude-pla-search-queries/
Matthew Umbro provides the advice: the secret to producing ‘out-of-this-world’ results lies within the exclusions you make. By adding exact match negative search terms at the ad group level, you cut the unqualified traffic in order to focus more on what I deem the search query potential… PLAs can’t be left unattended. Closely monitor the terms triggering PLAs and exclude in order to better showcase your search query potential!