3 Strategies for Google Shopping's Product Listing Ads

Google Shopping Strategies
Here are three tips for small online retailers to take advantage of Google's new PLAs:

1. Adapt quickly. Smart small business owners should sign up now so as not to miss out on these early opportunities to refine their strategies and experiment with these new ads. Timing is everything, and the max cost-per-click bids in a merchant's category might currently be lower than they'll be later in the year.
2. Get educated. The learning curve will be steep for some merchants who have little experience with online marketing, but the risks of not getting started are too great to be ignored. Several resources abound for self-starters. Check out how-to videos and more online. For those who aren't sure if they can make the leap alone, professional marketing agencies and services who offer shopping feeds and other web-based advertising services are a possible solution.
3. Take advantage of Google's other programs. As Google strives to compete with Amazon.com to become the default destination of online shoppers, sellers would be smart to take advantage of incentives to join Google's other programs like Google Trusted Stores and Google Wallet. Being early adopters of Google's newest offerings could help some sellers win big in this highly competitive space.

There's no doubt this move on Google's part will have a big effect on e-commerce in the coming months. Whether it's an e-commerce boom or bust has everything to do with how individual sellers react to this change in the near term.