The growth of ecommerce has been widely publicized as one of the most impactful business outcomes from COVID-19. By some accounts, ecommerce adoption doubled in the US in 2020 compared to the previous decade of growth. While the rise of online shopping has been inevitable, before the pandemic, most brands figured they had 2-3 years before it reached critical mass.
But now, as consumers rapidly shift more of their shopping behavior to ecommerce, marketers are following their customers online with increased investments in digital advertising.
And one of the key channels that product companies are prioritizing is Paid Search shopping ads. They are incredibly efficient and are targeted to consumers as they search for products across sites like Google, Microsoft Bing, and Amazon.
An example of shopping ads on Microsoft Bing
Over the last five years, online shopping campaigns have increasingly become an important part of search engine marketing. According to the Skai Q4 2020 Quarterly Trends Report, SEM shopping campaigns grew a whopping 75% year-over-year versus Q4 2019. This more than doubled the growth of the entire Paid Search channel which increased by 32% during the same time period.
The increased level of investment indicates that search marketers are finding success with shopping ads as they most likely reach consumers towards the end of a purchase journey and closer to the bottom of the funnel. This makes them an extremely attractive ad type for CPGs and other consumer-facing product companies.
Managing Microsoft Advertising shopping campaigns efficiently with Skai
Most manufacturers engaged in digital advertising now run shopping campaigns across Microsoft, Google, and Amazon. To run these programs effectively requires a deep understanding of the products being advertised. To stay on top of these campaigns can be extremely time-consuming because some shopping campaign feeds can contain millions of SKUs.
Although Skai has supported Microsoft Advertising shopping campaigns for years, recently, the integration received an upgrade as Skai Search clients can now view their programs at the SKU level side-by-side with other publishers.
Skai Search offers side-by-side analysis of all of a marketer’s shopping ads programs
Marketers can analyze trends within the product grid and then optimize the performance of their shopping campaigns with confidence. Skai clients can see the granular details of all of their products including common options like sizes, colors, and models as well as critical campaign details like impressions, clicks, costs, and conversions.
The Skai Search product grid enables rapid analysis of granular details
The key value here for marketers running shopping campaigns across publishers is to be able to see a side-by-side comparison of their entire product catalog at a glance. Without this functionality, marketers would need to download their multi-publisher shopping campaigns and then aggregate them into a single spreadsheet or analytics software. This is slow and inefficient which limits a search marketer’s ability to manage and improve their shopping campaign performance.
“Being able to view the granular details of Microsoft Advertising shopping campaigns, at the product level, side-by-side on one screen with other key publishers is an incredibly important component for search marketers to maximize their total shopping ads program ROI,” says Skai’s Sr. Director of Product, Jerome Crochat.
Microsoft Advertising + Skai Search
Skai Search is a three-time winner of the Microsoft Advertising Global Technology Partner of the Year award and has cutting-edge features and functionality that help search marketers save time, reduce errors, and drive the best performance of their Microsoft Advertising campaigns.
For more information or to see for yourself how Skai’s innovation can help take your Microsoft Advertising campaigns to the next level, reach out today to schedule a quick demo.
powered by Borlabs Cookie