Google Shopping Campaigns

Great news (depending on your perspective) for local retailers is that Google have released Shopping Campaigns, which are a new form of Google PLA (Product List ads). For any new advertisers (agencies or merchants) to Google shopping, lets start with a little history.

A quick history so far:

• Formerly called Froogle, Google Product Search and Google Products, the service allowed users to search for products on online retail websites as well as being able to compare prices.
• Renamed as Google Shopping in 2012, the service changed to a paid listing model. Merchants would have to pay to list their products within Google Shopping. This service was only rolled out in Spain early 2013.

And so here we are in 2013. The new paid model prompted lots of angry shouting and foot stamping from retailers and online marketers, however the paid model has been a success for Google and continues to grow and evolve.

Google Shopping in Spain

Paid listings for Google Shopping in Spain only went live in February this year. On a local level, a quick search for "camisetas" (t-shirts) on Google.es and then shopping (location Malaga) gives me a lot of products but the majority seem to be from the large online retailers rather than local merchants.

Results were from merchants such as SurfStitch.com, Nike.com, Spartoo.es, Zalando.es and keller-sports.es. Interestingly, the Adwords listings through Search came from many different retailers. Reading through some available results, the numbers look interesting and are expected to increase, especially in relation to Google Shopping through mobile devices on a local level.

Latest Update:
This month (Oct 2013), Google announced Shopping Campaigns, designed to make it easier for advertisers to manage PLAs (Product Listing Ads).

Several important features of the new update:

• Feed data will now be visible from within AdWords
• Advertisers will be able to see attributes (product category, product type, brand, condition, Adwords item id) within their Google Merchant feed
• Updated reporting features will allow advertisers to view performance by product or product attribute

Future Changes?
According to Google, Impression share columns and a bid simulator will be added soon. All the new features are being rolled out in the US this year and internationally next year. Interesting times ahead. 

Here's Google's latest video to explain the service: