A feature that is designed as part of Google’s Smart Bidding algorithm

A relatively new feature doing Google Shopping Campaigns is this ability to set Seasonality Adjusters. It’s a feature that is designed as part of Google’s Smart Bidding algorithm and was introduced back in November last year, 2019.

From January this year, available for all Shopping Campaigns

Google Seasonality Adjusters were only available for Search and Display Campaigns. It was touted as something that was going to be really useful for Black Friday promotions, but from January this year it’s been available for all Shopping Campaigns.

A period where you want to invest more or maybe a promotion where you don’t want to overspend will be the sort of thing that the AI will eventually pick up on, but you want to have some influence on that.

How does Seasonality Adjustment work?

So essentially what you do is say that from 9:00 AM on Wednesday, I’m expecting my conversion rate to increase by 25% and it’s going to stay like that for the next 72 hours or something. That’s the kind of thing that you can do.

So what’s been useful is we get to periods where maybe someone’s just come off sale, or they’re about to come off sale. For that last 24 hours you want to give it a bit more momentum, a bit more of a push, and then the day after you want to say actually I want to slow things down again.

Short bursts for sale periods

So you can say, for the last 24 hours, we expect our conversion rate to be 20% higher, but then the 24 hours after that maybe it will be 30% lower. Even for things like short bursts for sale periods, but the way that they talk about it in their literature and conversations with Google, you can potentially use it for an entire week.

So if you get into that point towards the end of the month, you’re wanting a bit more sale, perhaps you’ve got some budget leftover, that you can also use it for that. You can manipulate the situation a little bit.

Adjusting over 30 different ROAS targets

The main reason we like it is that I was adjusting over 30 different ROAS targets to try and get some momentum. Now, because I’ve set those up I don’t have to have to change all the time. This is a way of giving it a little bit of an adrenaline shot, if you like.

Google Ads Seasonality Adjusters is a really nice feature and it’s what the AI was kind of missing going through last Black Friday, Christmas period. We are really pleased that they’ve got that available now.

Information to the AI to improve your Google Campaign

It’s exclusively for Smart Bidding and it’s a great way of giving information to the AI to improve your Google Campaign. If you’re still on Manual Bidding and you want to recreate these situations that I’ve just been describing, you would still have to do that manually.

“learning mode”

We have experimented with it for a while now, going back about a month it seems to work well. Our Google Agency Representative said it was good to change it up, but if you make too many adjustments to your ROAS targets, it puts the AI back into what they call “learning mode.”

It’s kind of like Google’s message to sort of say, “Okay, just for the next seven days, don’t blame us if your performance goes a bit weird. We’re figuring out what you’ve just asked us to do.”

Seasonality will not put you back into the learning mode because it believes it’s only for a temporary period. It’s adapting what you’ve told it to do already and making a seasonal adjustment on top of it. So it’s a really nice way of avoiding going back into learning mode as well.

Credit to Rob Watson, Head of Google Marketing Platform Strategy at Supplyant. For interest on this please contact us

See the Loom video.

This is an issue that’s happened a couple of times in the last week for different clients. Essentially the conversion tracking in Google Ads stops working. This can happen for a number of reasons, either the tag on the website is being removed or altered in some way, or the access that’s been set up to link your Google Ads accounts together has been removed and that access had been previously used for setting up the conversion tracking.

So there’s a few steps to go through with this when you find yourself facing this issue. First and foremost is to just do some due diligence, make sure that if you see your conversions dropping that your website isn’t the problem, that the website is still functioning, and you are still receiving orders.

Once that’s done, and you know the site’s functioning, you’ll know the problem is with your conversion tracking. Presumably, at this point you’ve raised it with your technical support, and someone in your team is taking a look at it. What do you do next?

You can either wait for them to get it fixed – hoping they appreciate the priority and are treating it accordingly. But there could be factors outside their hands and your conversion tracking may not be working again for a few days. So, you need to find an alternative.

Now if your conversion tag was a Google Ads tag and say for example we’re talking about an ecommerce site, you will almost definitely have Google Analytics working as well. And this is the time where you want to make sure you’ve got your Google Analytics linked to your Google Ads because you will be able to start using the Google Analytics transaction conversion within your Google Ads data.

That should automatically come through with revenue figures associated with it. It won’t be backdated – but it will give you data from the moment you set it up.

The revenue figure will be less, it will not be as high as your Google Ads conversion for lots of reasons that are probably not worth going into now. Expect the revenue figure to be lower by around 10 or 20%, which isn’t great – but It’s going to be a lot better than having no data. So Google Analytics revenue tracking is your first choice for an alternative.

If that’s not an option, because maybe you were using Google Analytics and Google Analytics is the problem, then my recommendation would be to create a new Google Ads tag and get that installed in Tag Manager. And if you’ve never used Tag Manager before, it can be a little bit of a steep learning curve, but it’s a tool that you as a marketing guy, gal will be able to utilise without the need of a developer. So, hopefully that’s one option. But they kind of fit together. The idea is replacing it with something. Something’s better than nothing.

The final thing is once you or the developer has this working again and has got your original tag fixed, then please make sure that anything you pause whatever replacement you used. You don’t want a situation where two days later you realize that you’ve got revenue coming from your Google Ads tag and your analytics tag and all of a sudden you’re having the best weeks ever because your revenue is almost double. That’s as bad as it is having no data. That’s the final thing, make sure once you’ve fixed it you go and turn off and fix your replacement.

Rob Watson, Head of Digital Strategy for Google Ads at Supplyant

We often come into situations which aren’t so great, so where’s the first place that you tend to look, and what are the first stones that you look to turn over and have a look under before you move forward when improving PPC account performance?

It may surprise you, and in fact sometimes it surprises me, but the most common thing is conversion tracking. It’s so utterly fundamental to what we do with digital, to know that the effects of the advertising that we’re doing is getting results. But at the same time, it’s so prevalent that people haven’t set it up correctly.

Get a sense for if they have profit

That’s always the first thing I’ll do whenever I get hands on an account. And once I’ve looked to see how much they’re spending and versus how much they’re generating, get a sense for if they have profit, then it’s going on to see how the conversion tracking has been set up.

There are many, many different flavours to conversion tracking. And it may be in some ways that’s part of the problem. Okay, so perfect example. Pretty much all accounts that will come my way, will have Google Analytics set up. And you can run a Google Ads conversion tracking by importing the conversions that are seen by Google Analytics.

Use what’s already in Google Analytics

So instead of having a separate tag, instead of having a separate tracking code installed on your conversion page, you can just use what’s already in Google Analytics. And on the face of it that makes sense because it seems like yes, that way it’s consistent and you’re using the same tag for everything. But it’s so often flawed.

You’ve got two reasons why it’s often flawed…

One of them is because in a surprising amount of times Google Analytics, especially in an ecommerce or specifically on an ecommerce set up, will give credit to a payment processing service. So for example, PayPal or a certain 3D secure setup, if it’s not set up correctly, you’ll see that you have these 90% conversion rates from some Barclaycard, 3D secure URL, which looks weird and obviously very wrong.

But also what it does is if you’re then using conversion tracking from Google Analytics and importing it into Google Ads, it’s devaluing and you don’t get the full picture. The key thing with conversion tracking is you absolutely want to get the full picture. You really want to understand what of your keywords, ads, and all manner of different settings, are leading to conversions.

The second point as well is that Google Analytics will have to give credit to lots of different traffic sources, for example, organic, direct email. What you often find is that Google Ads is, if it isn’t the first click that people do, it’s generally one of the first clicks that people do to get them to the website. And then people may come back and convert from email or from an organic, or maybe they’ve bookmarked and they’ve come to the site directly.

In Google Analytics, those traffic sources will get full credit for that conversion and Google Ads won’t see any of that. The solution to this is, even though it takes a little bit more work, you always should be using the Google Ads conversion tracking within your Google Ads campaigns, within your Google ads accounts. That’s it fundamentally, but it surprises me how many people miss this point.

Rob Watson, Head of Digital Strategy for Google Marketing Platform at Supplyant

Having been full time working from home for the last 4 years, I’ve tweaked, tested and concluded there are 5 things that make working from home an absolute joy.

1 – Stand up
2 – Have more meetings
3 – Go for a walk
4 – Take a nap
5 – Start earlier

1 – Stand up

There’s something about the “flow” of an office environment that requires a lot more movement than you’ll have working from home.

For some reason, when working from home you simply don’t need to move as much.

Apart from the obvious back problems, you will also start to feel lethargic and slower.

Try working in different positions. If you have to make calls or video meetings, try doing them standing up.

Try working from the kitchen counter for a short while.

If you’re going to move your furniture around to create a space that’s better aligned for working, try placing a large board on top of a bookshelf to create a standing desk. That’s what I use as my work station, combined with a £30 bar stool, which I sit on for about 25% of the working day.

2 – Have more meetings

One of the reasons you can be more productive working from home is the huge reduction of interruptions.

However, you will still need human interaction.

I get all of my working day human interaction by spending 1/4 of my time in meetings.

This is really important – we are social creatures and human interaction is a key component to our happiness.

Don’t have any need for meetings? Then schedule one with a colleague that you usually chat with while in the office.

What will the meeting be about? It doesn’t matter. Schedule a 5 minute chat to ask what they watched on TV last night.

Don’t just do this over Messenger or Slack – that won’t do – you need to hear their voice.

3 – Go for a walk

It’s not good for our mental health to be indoors all day.

That time you hate spending commuting actually does you some good and will need to be replaced.

The good news is now you can walk somewhere more pleasant – or just to the corner and back. Don’t allow yourself to forget what a fresh breeze feels like.
(though I appreciate this might not be possible soon)

4 – Take a nap

If you’re an entrepreneurial, super-motivated type, you might find this hard to accept – but taking a 10 minute nap early afternoon can help you get more done.

This is another outcome of not being in an office environment, full of people working alongside you. Without that atmosphere, when working from home, it’s a lot more likely that 30 minutes after lunch, you’ll find yourself staring at the screen, re-reading the same sentence you’ve just read.

Don’t feel bad about this – it doesn’t mean you’ve suddenly become lazy – it’s an effect of working from home that I’ve become very familiar with.

What I’ve come to learn is this – don’t fight it!

Set your alarm for 10 minutes, lie down, close your eyes and go with it.

Do I nap every day? No.

Is 10 minutes enough? Absolutely – and it’s way more effective than coffee.

Amendment – after 1 day of homeschooling my kids, I think this might not be so applicable to parents!

5 – Start work early

The single biggest benefit to working from home is the time you’ll save not having to commute.

But don’t give that time away.

Still get up at the same time & get started on your work earlier.

If you can finish work earlier, then do it. Otherwise take a longer lunch break (for that walk or nap!).

Then when you’ve finished work and you don’t have to commute to get home, go find your loved ones, give them a hug and enjoy spending the whole evening together.

After 4 years I’m still loving the lifestyle improvements I’ve gained from working from home. I see way more of my wife and kids than I did when I had a 2 hour daily commute & I’m a happier person because of it. I don’t get stressed by traffic and I don’t get lonely when working from home.

I hope at least one of these tips helps you get some joy from working from home.

Rob Watson is Google Marketing Platform Expert at Supplyant 

We’ve found that there’s been a drop in confidence from our ecommerce retailers during this pandemic and wanted to touch on that.

The number-one topic for digital retailers

Across all weekly calls and meetings with clients this week, it’s been the number-one topic we’ve talked about, Coronavirus. How it’s affecting ecommerce imports and stock. And then when you get the stock into the country, are people actually going to buy it? 

It will get a lot of worse too, if the country goes into a lockdown. The second is that the ecommerce logistic companies are going to stop delivering parcels, and we could see an impact in terms of sales. I think there’s another aspect as well. If we look at our B2B clients, if people are no longer in the office, if we do go into lockdown, are those orders still going to happen, and are people still going to order for their business?

It takes for us to understand what aspects are affecting that performance.

It’s the lack of confidence that is multiplied when you’ve got things like new web development projects going live, and not only is there the concern about any retailing platform, and the impact on that when you’ve got to make sure you’ve got smooth transition on SEO and making sure that there’s been not been a drop off in ecommerce conversion rate, but when you put on top of the added layer of people not wanting to buy, is that it makes for a really hair-raising time when you’re trying to get something new out there, and there’s an an increased level of fear in terms of is it right, and actually the time it takes for us to understand what aspects are affecting that performance.

Not only noticed on web builds, but we noticed it in managing PPC campaigns. We manage it in people making decisions over what would be regular pieces of work, actually deciding what’s the impact on that, when you’ve got all these other external factors?

Increasing your marketing activity to be at the front of the queue

Definitely I think now is the time not to cut down on your marketing, but actually to increase it. When sales are down, the one thing you don’t want to do is make yourself less visible. I think you should be increasing your marketing activity, particularly as we come out of this slump and consumer confidence picks back up again, you want to be at the front of your queue in your industry. 

Paid search campaigns may not be converting. 

They’re not converting because they are looking but they don’t want to buy it because they don’t want to answer the door to somebody who’s potentially going to be bringing a disease into the house, because then they’re in lockdown. And even, do they want a workman in the house? I spoke to a guy today who works on site, and he’s saying, “Well I don’t know if I want to work on site with another 15 unwell guys.” That you know, aren’t particularly healthy looking at the best of times.

Online shopping takes a lot of mind space

Any form of online shopping takes a lot of mind space. You know? When people would be talking about, “Oh, we’re going to buy a new sofa,” or “We’re going to buy something for the car,” or anything like that. You don’t get a chance to have those conversations. `Those conversations don’t materialize because everyone’s too busy talking about the next update on Covid. And so, then all it does is just pushes back the decision making.

How long can people continue?

We’ve not experienced anything like it before. And it’d be interesting to see how it plays out, because at the moment it seems like if campaigns are not profitable, how long can people continue to run those campaigns without actually deciding they’re going to pull the plug on those campaigns?

At what point do they start to decide that they’re not going to order as much stock? And then how long is it before they then choose to reorder that stock? And then the kind of the yo-yo effect of that stock not then being available. I mean, this could go on for months and months and months, couldn’t it? 

When you come out of this crisis

It may be a question that people reallocate where the budget’s been spent, and if you don’t want to do so much paid search, maybe you can fix some areas on website so you improve that conversion rate, so when you do come out of this crisis, you can convert more of that traffic with a good ecommerce strategy.

Stay focused on the most important accounts and be mindful of that. Remember these things often are blips and don’t react too swiftly, and things can kick into shape really, really quickly.

An established eBay seller wanted to establish a website to reduce the risk of trading on eBay alone. At any moment, a change in the performance rules could close the store and leave him in the cold. A website had been created three times before, each time failing to sell.

The objective was to build a website that could deliver the vision once and for all.

Create a growth plan that would align everyone’s expectations on the journey

The first step is to create a growth plan that would align everyone’s expectations on the journey. We agreed on the vision, the sales targets and timescales.

First we needed to get the product data together. We established an ERP to manage all the stock and product information and would feed this via channel manager software. This was more work, but the accuracy of data was critical so we didn’t let customers down. We knew data can take time, so we started early.

Requested extra stock to ensure as we scaled via new platforms that we could fulfil the orders

Using sales and margin analysis, we compiled a list of the best performing products and margins and requested extra stock to ensure as we scaled via new platforms that we could fulfill the orders. Funding was provided by a Capital Partner to enable this investment allowing free cashflow and business as usual. Shipping can take 120 days.

The growth plan researched competitors selling like for like products. A niche was identified to enter competitively and profitably before building a wider offer out. We needed free shipping, 30 day returns and a fitment guarantee from the get go.

Future proofed with features if we needed them as we scale.

The business had a low number of SKU’s, with relatively simple search criteria so we chose a platform that had a low monthly cost / basic functionality but was future proofed with features if we needed them as we scale.

The site was live in under 2 months, and took its first order in the first week from an email marketing campaign. Google came next, prioritising Shopping with the task being to drive the cost of sale down and the search position up. Google Ads and Remarketing, along with Paid Social channels saw the business going from startup to daily trades in 90 days.

The business is forecasting sales to be selling the same as eBay within 19 months.

The site now accounts for 23% of total business, and hasn’t affected sales via eBay. The business is forecasting sales to be selling the same as eBay within 19 months. Customer service has been improved via the ERP data and feed system, reducing man hours in the business and also opening up more sales channels and territories.

To establish your own ecommerce channel, contact Supplyant.

Paid advertising in some markets is uber-competitive, can be very expensive and margins, well, skin-tight.

“Outbid on the terms you want, based on the fact you can afford to”

The only way to succeed is to outbid on the terms you want, based on the fact you can afford to. This doesn’t mean the person with the deepest product margins wins. It means the best all-round performance will succeed.

Paid advertising is an auction after all and bids come at a premium, so getting this to be profitable will be challenging. We needed multiple tactics to make this work.

“Merchandise to ensure the offer will convert visitors into sales”

First we need to go back and tidy up the site before paying for any ads. This means working on the site merchandising to ensure the offer will convert visitors into sales. Poor conversion can kill a campaign very quickly.

Products need detailed technical guides so installers can specify them correctly. We added pdf downloads and added extensive detail to the page with alternative products too.

Every product had clear energy ratings. The dimensions, light colour, materials and quality assurances all added to this too.

“Assure them personally the product wouldn’t let them down.”

Previous customer reviews were added so we built confidence in the prospect and included our own sound bites to assure them personally the product wouldn’t let them down.

We added clear stock levels so they knew it was available and gave despatch guarantees. We told them how much delivery was, depending on the area code and a choice of carriers.

New images were added that could be scaled, with various angles and packaging.

We included bulk pricing discounts and special, flash-sale offers if they completed in the next 30 minutes. We even added a free gift to each and every order.

Campaigns went to landing pages that directly related to the search. This means the customer gets what they expect and the journey wasn’t interrupted.

“The offer was set. We ran the ads.”

We started testing ad options relentlessly to start the campaign. We removed negative keywords and products that were not converting. We doubled down the budget into the best performing ads and pushed to the highest converting pages.

“We did it!”

Our cost of sale started at 25% of sale, quickly reducing to 19% after 2 months. We continued to optimise to reach 12% after.4 months. We now have an allowable cost of sale of 9%, with 5% extra on agreed on ‘special events’.

“Win customers using Google, and pay them for that.”

Once they are a customer, market to them directly via email and messenger and focus on repeatable number of transactions.

Your customer will keep buying if you get it right, first time, everytime. Then you’re ready for an ecommerce referral programme.

If you want to talk about profitable eCommerce, contact Supplyant.

Even the most traditional businesses in the world are moving online. The benefits of saving time, money and resources by automating processes using the internet is difficult to ignore.

Northampton has been famous for footwear around the world since WW1. The businesses that serve this tradition have followed a manual process that has been used for generations. Change doesn’t come easy, to say the least.

“The administrative nightmare involved daily one-off factory samples with students, hobbyists and enthusiasts”

This ecommerce scenario involved addressing the administrative nightmare involved daily one-off factory samples with students, hobbyists and enthusiasts. Customers would email or phone in with their list of requirements and ask for clarity around exactly what could be fulfilled. Processing these orders was time-consuming and very unprofitable.

“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”

As Henry Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Customers can easily describe a problem they’re having — in this case, wanting to get somewhere faster — but not the best solution.

Adding a range of models to an ecommerce site wasn’t requested, but it became apparent once the problem had been identified. eCommerce was perfect for people to specify online, and process a quick and easy transaction around the world.

“Phone calls stopped. Hours of time were recovered”

We added a comprehensive list of FAQs, agreed to prior to ordering and added all the options available (and not available). Phone calls stopped. Hours of time were recovered back into the business and the customer experience was better.

The order used to be scribbled on a pad. Now it arrives, pre-paid, with all the factory specifications required and directly enters the factory without further administration.

The profit isn’t found in the product. It’s found in the reduction of administration waste.

The next step is to add more designs, hosted in an online library as assets, that becomes an online destination and an interesting experience for any shoemaker. And if people want to order, well, go ahead and fill your boots.

“Look at things a little differently.”

People didn’t ask for cars. They wanted faster horses, but sometimes you have to look at things a little differently.

For more information about simplifying your business by utilising ecommerce, call Supplyant.

Operating for 5 years manufacturing lingerie in the UK with a small but very dedicated team this company design, source, cut and create lingerie that is a premium high impact offer that has created a strong set of followers worldwide.

The objective was to scale the business online.

The first step was to get accurate reporting from Google Analytics

The first step was to get accurate reporting from Google Analytics which wasn’t setup correctly to attribute sales to the right source. For example, we corrected Paypal, which was showing as a referrer for over 40% of the business. Once we could see where the business was coming from we could start to address where to look first for the fastest improvement.

Within the analytics study, we could see that the product pages had a high bounce rate. We added heat maps and mouse tracking to establish the customer experience. We could see that prospects scanned the pages and had to click to see more every time. By extending the number of products to show all on one page gave a faster delivery. This simple fix alone increased the time on site by 120%.

The business must get parity with their most admired competitor

We always suggest that the business must get parity with their most admired competitor. We identified many areas for improvement merchandising the pages based on best-in-sector research. Once identified, we pursue them relentlessly.

Returning to the data revealed the sizing pop-up page was the most viewed on the whole site. Supplyant and the client worked together to make this clear with international sizing and making the ‘how to measure’ a simple and intuitive experience.

We recycled a carousel feature integrated into the theme used for ‘have you considered’ items

Mobile traffic was increasing year and now accounted for 68% of all traffic. Limited by budget, we couldn’t completely change the mobile site, so we recycled a carousel feature integrated into the theme used for ‘have you considered’ items. We pulled this to the homepage and made a super-simple one touch operation for browsing on mobile. The customers showed their love by spending more time on the site and increasing mobile purchases.

Paid ads via mobile can be bought cheaper than desktop, although not many know this. Optimising this aspect makes these campaigns affordable, whereas on desktop they are out of reach, as too expensive. Another win.

Now we wanted to address the global market

We partnered with a global payment and shipping 3PL to integrate their checkout. This managed currency exchange rate, pricing on site, shipping rates and complex delivery and tax requirement. International sales jumped 4 fold.

Order value is one of our growth fundamentals. We created high value lingerie sets for each collection rather than single items. We promoted accessories that complemented the sets. Making this customer experience fun and engaging makes all the difference.

We’ve only just started…

The site has just recorded it’s best quarter online sales in history and we’ve only just started.

For more information about growing an online business, call Supplyant