The Significance of Competitor Monitoring in Google Shopping Campaigns

What is google shopping?

Google Shopping is a Google service that allows customers to search for products and browse prices and reviews across retailers that sell them.

Google shopping works quite similarly to Google ads where you allow the service to list your products based on search keywords used by customers. The service also pulls product details from your catalogue. The service also allows customers to see the price range at which the product is being offered by different retailers with the “Typical prices across the web” feature.

The best part about Google Shopping is that it allows retailers with brick-and-mortar stores to list their products on google shopping and compete with online retailers. In this case, when clicked, the service will lead them to the local stores' location.

How does this service affect retailers?

In most ways, google shopping is a boon to retailers across the board, but especially for retailers whose primary channel of sales is online. For that matter, 76.4% of retail search ad spend is driven by google shopping ads. However, there are a few challenges that this google service poses to retailers including,

• Adjusting prices and promotions promptly based on competing products.

• Knowing when to bid and when to withdraw.

• When to increase bids to maximise conversion.

Competitor monitoring, especially competitor price monitoring, is the tool you need to tackle these challenges, whether you are a multi-brand or a D2C retailer.

How competitor intelligence helps you make the most of your campaigns?

The most effective way to optimise your google shopping campaigns is through competitor price monitoring. The various key data that a competitor price monitoring tool like Pricechecker tracks and collects include:

• Competitor prices, both past and current.

• Competitors' promotion details including promo codes and price after promotion.

• Competitors’ product stock status, both past and present.

So, how can you use this data to optimise your google shopping ads to see high conversion and get the best ROI on your bids?

Adjusting prices and promotions promptly based on competing products: a crucial aspect of retail sales is offering the best deals for your customers so you attract and retain them. To do this you must keep a constant eye on your competitor’s prices and promotions so you can adjust yours accordingly.

Knowing when to increase bids to maximise conversion: When you see a market advantage, you must make the best of it. For instance, if you notice that you are selling a product at a lower price compared to your competitors then this is a good time to increase your bid.

Similarly, if your competitor has run out of stock of a product similar to yours, you can increase your bid to increase your odds for impressions, clicks, and conversions.

Know when to bid and when to withdraw: As crucial as it is to know when to increase your bid to capture the market, it is just as important to know when to withdraw so you are spending only where you can get a return on your investment.

For instance, if you notice that a competitor is selling at a much lower price than you but matching your product’s price with theirs would mean compromising on your margins, then it’s smart for you to withdraw. While lowering your prices to beat the competition might seem like a good idea, compromising on your margins is not sustainable for a business in the long run.

Whether you are a retailer facing any of these challenges or you are just looking for more ways to make the most of your google shopping campaigns, you must be leveraging technology to monitor your competitors and make sure you are doing better than them in terms of price, promotion, and stocks without compromising on your margins.

Pricechecker is a competitor price monitoring software that leverages AI to constantly monitor your competitors and promptly fetch price, promotion, and stock data with 99% accuracy so you can respond to market opportunities quickly and increase revenue efficiently.