Get ready for peak season with the ‘Shopping Success Equation’

Smart plays for a compressed holiday period: maximising peak season 2024

This year’s holiday shopping season will be unusually short, as Black Friday and Cyber Monday fall later than normal, leaving fewer days between Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas sales. But this doesn’t have to mean fewer sales for you. By adopting a strategic approach – attracting the early birds already searching for deals and maintaining momentum to capture last-minute shoppers later in the year – you can set yourself up for success. And the data supports this strategy: 43% of people complete their holiday shopping by December, interest in major sales events like Black Friday starts picking up as early as October, and 58% of consumers plan their purchases in advance.¹ This presents a key window of opportunity to get your offerings out there, even if sales don't happen immediately.

To guide you through the peak season and into success, the ‘Shopping Success Equation’ below breaks down the three key levers you need to pull to make the most of peak season in 2024. Use the equation to build an effective, lasting strategy, stay top of mind for your target audience, and continue to capture sales.

Key lever 1: Product data

Why does it matter?

The more comprehensive and accurate your product information is, the better Google can showcase your products effectively. And the better your offer quality is, the better your auction performance should be.

Product data = feed hygiene + feed optimisation.

So what is feed hygiene? Put simply, it just means maximising your product offerings (including variants) while minimising disapprovals to boost your overall Shopping performance. To improve your feed hygiene, here’s a handy checklist:

Always use the minimum required product data specifications indicated by Google Policy. Turn on automatic item updates and image improvements to allow Google Merchant Center (GMC) to capture and remove any mismatches.
If you plan to add a lot of new SKUs for the holidays, check if you will need a quota increase.
Update your contacts in GMC for timely notifications.
Prevent and solve any suspension or item disapproval by reviewing the ‘Needs Attention’ tab in GMC.
And feed optimisation? That’s all about enriching your product data to boost impressions, clicks, and revenue by improving the match between your products and user search queries.

Alongside minimum required product specifications, leverage more advanced detailed product description feed attributes indicated by the Google Policy. To help, we created the examples below, along with a few best practices:

Best practice hacks

Titles: include important attributes like brand, product type, size, and colour, or see which titles are trending on trends.google.com.
Images: include multiple product angles and lifestyle images based on Google best practices. Follow vertical best practices where shared by Google. (You can view example clothing and accessories best practices here.)
Use attribute rules and supplemental feeds to quickly make changes to your feed.

Tip: Use cost of goods sold (COGS) in your feed to understand transaction profitability. Not sure how to upload COGS in the GMC feed? See here.

Key lever 2: Bidding

Why does it matter?

Accurately valuing your products is key to enhancing your campaign performance and maximising revenue potential.

Bidding for the right ad space at the right time is always going to be a major part of a successful campaign. But during this year’s compressed rush, it’s more important than ever before. Here’s what you need to be thinking about:

Make use of seasonal budget adjustments, a Google Ads feature that allows you to temporarily increase your campaign budgets.
Set adequate daily budgets and ROI targets, and tailor your bid and budget to best align with your business objectives.
Make changes early. Set budgets and relax tROAS to capture additional headroom during peak. We recommend a 30% increase in daily spend from the previous month.
Make budget/tROAS changes incrementally. Major changes to budget/tROAS (>30%) may lead to performance fluctuations for 1-2 conversion cycles. Leave a gap of at least 7 days between any major changes to let the campaign stabilise.
Create Performance Max (PMax) asset groups that reach early holiday shoppers with topics such as ‘gift ideas’ and ‘holiday decorations’.
Include holiday-related audience signals and search themes. Use at least four assets (including video assets) to improve your Ad strength to ‘Good’ or ‘Excellent’.
Use Performance Planner to plan budgets and bids, and forecast predicted performance. Reach out to your Google Shopping (CSS) Team for comprehensive training on Performance Planner.

Tip: Leverage past performance: Analyse sales data from similar events / previous years to anticipate peak shopping times and set optimal budgets to capture increased demand.

Key lever 3: Relevance

Why does it matter?

Ensuring your products align as much as possible with user search queries is key to standing out in the competitive advertising landscape. Relevant products are more likely to capture attention, earn clicks, and ultimately drive conversions.

Finding the right shopper is just as essential as honing the right message. Here’s how:

Offer the best deals and choose your promotional strategy: use either sale price (schedule in advance with effective date), price drop, automatic discounts, or merchant promotions (schedule 72 hrs in advance).
For maximum impact, Customer Match lists should be refreshed (via Manual Upload, API or with a 3P Upload Partner) frequently, especially during holidays. For Performance Max only: leverage promotion-related search themes and audience signals.
Enabling 'Final URL expansion' in your Performance Max campaign settings allows your campaign to replace your final URL with a more relevant landing page from the final URL domain, based on the user’s search intent. Advertisers who use final URL expansion with Performance Max campaigns see an average increase of over 9% in conversions or conversion value at a similar CPA or ROAS.²
Attract more shoppers by displaying relevant annotations (pop-ups) for your business. You can use the links below for details on how update this in your feed settings: • Free shipping and/or return • Product Ratings • Local inventory ads and/or pick up later • Fast and free Shipping

So, there you have it. We hope this playbook has armed you with strategies to thrive this holiday shopping season. By optimising your product data, fine-tuning your bidding strategy, and ensuring maximum relevance, you can seize control and ensure you and your business come out on top. From early shoppers, to last-minute purchases, there are plenty of opportunities for success – you just need to be proactive and plan strategically. Throughout this journey, Google Shopping (CSS) is here to support you – reach out to your point of contact if you have any questions.

Good luck!

Q: When should I use seasonal bid adjustments?

A: You should use seasonal bid adjustments in Google Shopping when you expect a significant, temporary change in conversion rates due to a major sale, holiday season, or product launch. Seasonal bid adjustments are designed for short-term events, ideally lasting 1-7 days. Avoid using them for extended periods (more than 14 days).

Q: Should I slow my spend down after the Black Friday / Christmas period?

A: We advise you not to make drastic changes to your budget overnight. Instead, we recommend you reduce your spending gradually over a few weeks to see how it impacts your performance. Look at your Google Shopping data from previous years to identify any trends in post-holiday performance to gain insights into how you might want to adjust your budget.

Q: Does 100% asset coverage (text, image, video) mean I'm fully optimised?

A: No. Always-on performance creative requires continuous attention, unlike campaign-based brand creative.

Q: How do you map assets to asset groups for better asset performance?

A: We recommend having assets map closely to the products in the asset group. This will lead to the assets being more relevant and also help in improving the asset performance rating.

Sources:

Think with Google (2024), Retail Guide: Understand customer mindsets to make every holiday connection count
Google Ads Help Center, Multiply conversions with Performance Max