Google is Now Speaking the Language of Retailers

Product Listing Ads (PLAs) have been a disruptive force on the retail landscape. They've fundamentally changed how consumers interact with paid search ads (with images, as opposed to with text only). However, and perhaps even more importantly, PLAs have fundamentally changed how retailers interact with paid search campaigns. Previously, in paid search, retailers had to "speak" in the language of search engines — that of keywords, match types and ad groups. Now with PLAs, retailers can speak in their own language — that of products and categories. They're quickly realizing that speaking in their own language is a whole lot easier.

Before diving into the various applications and benefits of retailers speaking in their own language vs. search language, it's important to demonstrate the drastic difference between the two. Given the crisper air the winter season brings, let's use the following sweater as an example:

We can see how this sweater is described by the retailer: brand, sleeve length, type of sweater, material, size, and color. The listing provides all the attributes associated with the product that we would expect to find in a product catalog.

In a traditional search campaign, retailers need to predict which queries consumers are going to enter that would be good matches for this sweater, and then list those queries as keywords in their campaign. Examples of possible keywords might include the following:

• blue sweater;
• turquoise sweater;
• sky blue sweater;
• warm sweater;
• blue cardigan;
• blue cardigan sweater;
• easy-to-wash sweater;
• pretty sweater;
• cheap sweater;
• sweater on sale;
• etc.

Here's how the campaign appears within an AdWords’ report:

Clearly, the keyword campaign must be designed by those in the organization who are familiar with paid search campaigns — people with experience generating keywords and match types that will generate a high volume of impressions, clicks and conversions. As a result, search marketers are highly trained specialists, a different breed from a typical marketer.

The shift to the language of retailers has in effect opened up the world of paid search. Less technical knowledge means a democratization of paid search. Practically anyone in a retail organization can now create PLA campaigns. And, more importantly, search marketers can think and behave more like merchandisers.

With search campaigns more in the language of retailers, search marketing campaign performance reports and insights can be expressed in product- and category-centric ways. This application of the product catalog provides more intuitive and actionable intelligence across the organization:

With more intuitive performance reports, retailers can be more nimble and adapt their search campaigns as quickly as they can change the clothes on a mannequin.

We've found that performance reports that are organized like a retailer's product catalog — i.e., focused on products and existing categories/departments of products rather than keywords, ad groups and campaigns — are accessed 200 percent more frequently. Retailers want to spend more time with reports because they offer actionable insights on products and categories they're familiar with, not on esoteric search campaign assets. Retailers feel empowered to make real-time, data-driven decisions. At the same time, search marketers are freed to operate more like merchandisers and less like highly specialized technicians.

While Google's move to PLAs represents a pivotal shift in search campaign language, it's the retailers that are latching on and extending the practice into their marketing efforts. This trend will continue to infiltrate retail as more and more companies start to realize the competitive advantage that comes with arming front-line employees with easily accessible and intuitive information. What seems like an ease-of-use factor today will quickly become a competitive advantage tomorrow.

Thi Thumasathit is the vice president of new business at Adchemy, a leading provider of advertising technology.