The Google ads ecosystem offers opportunities to grow your brand that you really can’t find anywhere else.
Google is the world’s most popular search engine and the number 1 most visited site on the planet.YouTube is the world’s 2nd most popular search engine (even though it’s really a video site) and the world’s 2nd most visited site.You can leverage both channels for both targeted growth and scale. But how?
We’ll show you in this episode. Matt Slaymaker is a Lead Google & YouTube Ads Specialist at OMG Commerce. Dubbed “Slaymaker the Playmaker” - Matt joins me to talk about top strategies and tactics to achieve Full Funnel Growth on Google Ads in 2022 and beyond.
Here’s a look at what we cover:
- Where to start with Search and why this is still super important even though it’s the true Google OG.
- What has changed with Google Shopping.
- What channels we recommend for remarketing and how to structure your audiences.
- What the best audiences are for YouTube Ads.
- And more!
Mentioned in This Episode:
Matt Slaymaker
- LinkedIn
eCommerce Evolution 184 Joseph Wilkins
eCommerce Evolution 70 Andrew Eckblad
Transcript:
Brett Curry:
Well, hello and welcome to another edition of the Ecommerce Evolution Podcast. I'm your host, Brett Curry, CEO of OMG Commerce. And today I have a treat for you, because you get to meet one of OMG's finest. And we get to talk about a topic that is one of my favorite all time topics when it comes to marketing, we're going to look at how to build full funnel growth using Google Ads. So using all that Google has to offer you, how do you create full funnel growth? We're going to get a little bit nerdy, but I also want to help make sure this is practical and applicable and easy to understand. So my guest today is a team member at team OMG that I actually get to work with almost on a daily basis, which I don't know if that's a privilege for this guy or if he dreads it. I really don't know. We'll find out right now on the podcast. I'll give more of an intro in just a minute. But welcome to the show, Matt Slaymaker. What's up, Matt? How are you doing?
Matt Slaymaker:
Absolutely. Thank you so much. I'm doing great.
Brett Curry:
Good. Well, thanks for coming on here. I know it's one of those things when your boss reaches out and says, "Hey, you want to be on the podcast?" Like, "Well, can I say no? Can I not say no?" You and I have done a few things together. We did a webinar, not too long ago with our Google reps. You did an amazing job. So, really excited to pick your brain and dive into this full funnel of growth topic for Google Ads. But before we do, all of you listening should know a couple things about Matt. Not only is Matt a rockstar and one of the best when it comes to Google Ads management. He also is the owner of quite the interesting nickname. Now, I call him Slaymaker a lot. But in football, growing up, I heard that Matt was called Slaymaker, the playmaker. Maybe we could even hear the quick story on that, Matt. How did you get dubbed the title Slaymaker, the playmaker.
Matt Slaymaker:
I'll tell you it did not come from making plays.
Brett Curry:
That's even better.
Matt Slaymaker:
I was by far the smallest member of the football team. So, I really didn't make any plays. But one of the moms just loved my last name. So anytime ...field, do anything, make one tackle throughout the whole game, I'd hear Slaymaker, the playmaker. That's how that started.
Brett Curry:
That makes that nickname way better. It's one of those things where it's like, yeah, thanks mom. Thanks for calling me the playmaker. Moms just have a way of making people feel good. So, that's awesome. Slaymaker, the playmaker, I remember that. But even if you weren't totally lighting up the football field, you were lighting up the Brazilian jujitsu mat. So tell people, Matt Slaymaker, what belt you achieved in Brazilian jujitsu. And if you don't know Brazilian jujitsu, this might not be as.. It'll be impressive regardless, but what belt did you achieve?
Matt Slaymaker:
Don't downplay Brazilian jujitsu, this is top level on martial arts.
Brett Curry:
This is top level.
Matt Slaymaker:
I eventually ended up at first degree black belt. If anyone doesn't know what Brazilian jujitsu is, it's like wrestling, but it has the submission component to it. So arm bars, chokes, all that kind of stuff.
Brett Curry:
I did not grow up doing martial arts. I played football, basketball, but I recently, my kids and I, took some BJJ classes. I know you know that, Matt, we talked about that. We had a couple friends that are amazing BJJ practitioners, Ezra Firestone is one of them. But I learned that it's the hardest martial art to get your black belt in. Not like it's easy to get a black belt in any other martial art, but takes the longest... It's the hardest to get your black belt.
Matt Slaymaker:
Yeah, it's that balance between the physical component, which is really hard. And I'm sure, as you've seen, it's a great workout.
Brett Curry:
It's an amazing workout.
Matt Slaymaker:
But then all that technique that you just have to memorize and download into your brain. Luckily, when I was younger going through it, it's easy to remember that kind of stuff. I can imagine, it's probably hard for you.
Brett Curry:
I don't know, was that an old joke, Matt? ... What are you trying to say? Yeah, it actually was hard, but I really enjoyed it. So, let's dive into this topic of Google Ads management. I want to preface this by saying... So Matt, is a Google specialist. Actually, do you want to tell people what you do, Matt? What does a Google specialist do? What's a day look like for you here at OMG?
Matt Slaymaker:
Google specialist at OMG and at any other agency really, we use Google Ads to do two things, really. Demand generation, so getting people interested in your brand, your products, what you do, building awareness and consideration for that kind of stuff. And then capturing demand that's already there. So people who are actively searching for that kind of stuff, people who are actively searching for you or have been to your website before. Getting those people to actually end up converting. So, our goal is to move people through what we call a funnel, starting at that awareness level, down to consideration, eventually get them to purchase. And then not just stop there. We want them to purchase again later on down the road, and we call that loyalty. Then a step below that's called advocacy, getting people to go share and tell their friends about that kind of stuff. So my goal is to use the tools available through Google Ads, which is Google Search, Google Shopping, YouTube, Display, and Discover to move people through that funnel.
Brett Curry:
Love that. And great breakdown there. Just want to mention, and this is probably very obvious to everyone listening, but really Google touches essentially every online user. If you're going to search for something, you're looking for a product, you're researching for reviews, or you're actually looking to make a purchase, you're probably going to touch Google at some point in time. Maybe you buy on Amazon eventually, but you're probably going to touch Google along the way. If you are looking to learn or research or do or buy or something, and you want to look at video first, you're probably going to YouTube. So those are the two most trafficked websites on the planet. Google number one, YouTube number two. You have access to both of those through Google Ads.
Brett Curry:
And then through the Google Display Network, we were just talking about in a minute. You can access like 80 something percent of the web that way too. So whoever you're trying to target, you could reach through Google Ads. So, let's dive in a little bit, Matt Slaymaker, the playmaker. Let's talk about the foundation. So if we're looking at how to build a full funnel on YouTube, I like to really start more at the bottom, mid and bottom of funnel before we go higher than that. But let's break this down by channel a little bit. Let's talk search ads first. So eCommerce store, where should they start? What should they consider when it comes to search ads? And maybe talk a bit about what search ads are, just to make sure we're all really clear.
Matt Slaymaker:
It'll sound obvious once I explain it, but search ads are those ads that appear at the top of Google Search. So if you've got to do a search for ...
Brett Curry:
These are text ads.
Matt Slaymaker:
Yeah. So we'll talk about shopping ads a little bit later, but these are those text ads that only have the text elements to it. Usually you'll get two or three up at the very top of Google, and then you'll see a few down at the bottom. So when it comes to Google Search ads, there's a couple key components there to what you've got to piece together for those campaigns. Where you typically are going to start, are going to be at your keywords. And with keywords, typically we break these down into three categories. You've got your branded keywords, which we'll talk about a little bit more in a minute. Non-branded keywords, so these are people doing that kind of hats online for sale search. And then competitor keywords. So any of your competitors out there who we want to bid on, we want to steal some traffic from, we can target those types of keywords.
Matt Slaymaker:
The other component of this are the ads themselves. In piecing together those ads, determining which keywords we want to show for, got to get an ad in front of them. And with those ads, can't just put up an ad and say who we are and expect people to click on it and convert. We've got to usually address three main things. Who we are, what are we selling and why should somebody buy from us? I think that third one, the why is really the most important part. Because when somebody does do that search, hats for sale, they're going to see three ads there, that why is really what gets them to click on us as opposed to those other ones there.
Brett Curry:
I love that. And it's also really important that you have to put the ad in the context of that keyword. This is what makes Google unique to really any other advertising type is that, it's intent-based. What we're talking about now is query-based, it's search-based. You know exactly what someone is searching for, Google knows that. Then you can tailor your ad to answer that question or that query that someone's typing in. And then address that, what we're offering, why you should click on our ad. You could address those things. It's just super powerful. And I want to talk about something you hit on in the beginning, Matt, which is really important to underscore. We classify eCommerce brands in two categories, and most brands straddle the two categories a little bit, but they lean more one way or the other.
Brett Curry:
And those two categories are demand capture or demand generation. Demand generation is more... These are products you're maybe not thinking about, maybe you've got a problem you're thinking about, but you're not thinking about a product. So we have to generate that demand. Think about some of the, as seen on TV products that you've seen, like the George Foreman grill back when that was introduced. No one's sitting around thinking, "Man, I wish I had a more convenient grill." I don't know. But if they saw it, they're like, "Well, that's pretty cool. I'd like to have that." And be like Michael Scott in the office and cook bedside with the George Foreman grill. But that's demand generation. Or there's demand capture where this is something you're maybe only going to look for when you have a specific need. One example I would use is auto parts. If I am shopping for new breaks for my truck... First of all, I could just go to the dealership.
Brett Curry:
But if I were doing it on my own, I'm not going to be persuaded by YouTube ad or a Facebook ad. "Hey, upgrade your breaks, because it's really great." No. But if I had a need, a specific need, I would go out and I would search for it on Google. That's more of a demand capture business. Most businesses straddle or lean one way or the other, but a little bit of both. To give another example, BOOM by Cindy Joseph, a friend of the show. Shout out to Ezra Firestone. They sell pro-age cosmetics. So cosmetics that are really good for you, but for women who want to embrace where they are in life. Maybe stop coloring their hair and let it stay gray and things like that. So they're more demand capture with a little bit of demand generation. So, as we look at that, search really falls into that demand capture space and it does it quite well. Let's talk about two things. Let's talk branded search first, because this is a hot topic. Why, Matt Slaymaker, would somebody bid on their own name? Why would you run branded search?
Matt Slaymaker:
This is one of the most common questions we get from clients all the time. They always ask, wouldn't it be easy... Aren't we going to get that traffic anyway? Aren't they just going to click on our organic listing there? So aren't we wasting money by bidding on branded traffic? And really there's three main reasons I say, "No, absolutely, you need to be bidding on your brand." One is simply competition. If you're not bidding on your brand name, your competitors likely are. And even if they are not, there might be vendors who are bidding on your brand name, whether that's Amazon, Ace hardware, Walmart. It's almost always...
Brett Curry:
Somebody else who's reselling your products, they maybe bidding on your name.
Matt Slaymaker:
Yeah. And it's almost always going to be a lot more profitable to have the user click on your branded ad, buy through your website, then go through one of those vendors. But in addition to both the competition and the vendor, say none of them were there at all. What I've seen really strong impact from branded campaigns comes down to the improved clickthrough rates and the control over messaging that you can really have. So a lot of the research out there shows that, if you do have those branded ads active, you see a 10, 20% boost in your overall clickthroughs, combined organic and paid.
Matt Slaymaker:
A lot of people think if I just have organic there, I'll still get a 100% of those clickthroughs, but really you won't because there's all sorts of other options for somebody to choose from. In addition, you also have a lot of control over your messaging there. So, say, you have a promotion that's happening at the moment. If somebody did that branded search and saw your branded ad had that promotional messaging in it. Gives them all that more urgency to go ahead and click your ad and buy right then and there. So, all sorts of reasons. I think competition is probably the number one, make sure you're pushing those guys down the page and not losing any traffic to anyone who's out there.
Brett Curry:
I love that. I'm so glad you underscored the controlling the messaging aspect, because if you don't control that, then you're really leaving it all up to Google. Google picks what they display in the organic results. Yes, you may have a title tag and a meta description that Google could pull in. They could also pull in something else random, if they wanted to, if they felt like that was more relevant to the user. So when you run that ad, you control that message. Then in terms of the competition piece, I think this is really interesting. We have some clients, I'm thinking of one client in particular, where they just dominate the search results page if you search their brand name. They've got YouTube videos, they've got the infograph, it's just loaded with their stuff. And no one's bidding on their name.
Brett Curry:
So, they would be okay to slow down a little bit on branded search. But most of the clients we look at and most of the accounts we audit, you look at their brand name, they've got two, three, four competitors bidding on them. You've got other things popping up. I guarantee you there'll be some people that search for you by name, click on a competitor. And don't know that it's a competitor, if you're not there. So you've got to get there. Then I'll throw in one fourth reason, Matt, is tracking. As we're looking at... You've got search console, you got Google Analytics, but a lot of the keyword data has been stripped from Google analytics. So getting data to see how people are converting, and then as we do more top funnel stuff we'll talk about in a minute. Then being able to see those people convert through branded search, really powerful. Because most people, if they see them on YouTube or Facebook and they don't buy, the next step later is to search for it on Google. And we'll capture that.
Matt Slaymaker:
That's where I love branded ads in particular, is being able to see two things. One, as you really level up and up your scale in terms of those non-branded efforts, those top of funnel efforts, what happens to the branded searches? Do they go up? Do they stay stagnant? Great way to track that. But then in addition, you can layer audiences, whether they're remarketing audiences, viewed video audiences onto your branded campaigns and see exactly how are YouTube users who see that YouTube ad then going and searching for our name. So on top of those other things, competition, visibility, messaging, all that kind of stuff, the tracking that you just mentioned, all really cool stuff.
Brett Curry:
Watching the brand lift as you engage in top of funnel activities.
Matt Slaymaker:
Totally.
Brett Curry:
Really smart. And we'll touch on that a little bit more too, when we talk top of funnel. What are a few things, Matt, that have changed recently with Google Search ads?
Matt Slaymaker:
I'll throw at you two things. One from a keyword perspective and then one from an ad perspective. Back in the day, really there were three match types that you could work with with Google. There was exact match, there was phrase match and there was broad match. A little later on, they introduced broad match modifier, which is somewhere in between phrase match and exact match. And for those who might not know what the difference between each of those are.
Matt Slaymaker:
Exact match, the idea behind it is, it's only going to show exactly for the keyword that you bid on or some close variant, misspelling, stuff like that. So if you bid on hats for sale, it really should only show for hats for sale, if somebody searches for that. Phrase match is a little bit broader. In the past, could take that hats for sale and then show for anything that came before or after that. If someone searched for cheap hats for sale or hats for sale online, then phrase match would capture that. Broad match would take one, maybe two of the keywords in that keyword. So if it was just hats for sale, maybe it's just going to show for when somebody searches for hats or ...
Brett Curry:
Or how to make a hat? Or ...
Matt Slaymaker:
How to make a hat, exactly.
Brett Curry:
... crazy stuff. Free hats, whatever ...
Matt Slaymaker:
So almost always, we tend to steer away from broad match, even to this day. Broad match modifier though was something where it was a little bit more in between phrase match and broad match. It was actually a good option for a lot of people, that however recently got deprecated. So that is no longer an option for targeting. Now we're back to the phrase match, exact match and broad match. Except now phrase match is a little bit broader than it used to be, so now it's going to capture a few more of those loosely related keywords there. Something to watch out for. And even exact match is a little bit more expansive than it used to be. Instead of just capturing misspellings or adding an S to the end-
Brett Curry:
Plurals.
Matt Slaymaker:
... hat instead of hats. It's now showing for a few other more loosely connected things. So, another thing to watch out for there.
Brett Curry:
Google's on this definite trend where they're like, "Hey, trust us a little bit. Let's ease this up a little bit, trust the algorithm, trust that we get your best interest at heart to grow your business." And I don't think that's untrue, they're definitely always trying to get users to trust them a little bit. And this match type discussion is important, because we're trying to line up our ad with shopper intent and searcher intent. A really interesting stuff that a lot of people don't know is that, every day 15% of searches conducted on Google, Google has never seen before.
Brett Curry:
That's shocking when you think about the millions and millions of searches conducted every day, 15% are brand new to Google. And that's just because as population we're searching more, we're searching for more things. We're using voice search, we're making up queries. It's not just the same thing as hat for sale, it's all kinds of random hats or random, whatever. So broadening the match type of, "Hey, we want people that are searching these types of keywords." That allows us to hopefully get in front of more people. Awesome. So keywords have changed a little bit or keyword targeting has changed a little bit. What else has changed in terms of Google Search ads?
Matt Slaymaker:
On the ads themselves, if anyone was in Google Ads a couple years ago, you might remember that they used to have what was called text ads. And these gave you two headlines and one description. They were very simple, and pretty short. There wasn't much to say or do there. You had your 30 character limit for headlines, 90 character limit for descriptions. None of that's changed.
Brett Curry:
That was it.
Matt Slaymaker:
Couple of years later, what they introduced was expanded text ads. So these now gave you three headlines to work with and then two descriptions. And not always with that...
Brett Curry:
Let me say, for Google Search nerd like us, like other agencies, it was like, "Are you kidding me? Expanded text ads, more real estate, 50% more real estate or whatever." We went nuts on expanded text ads.
Matt Slaymaker:
Just that extra headline, that extra description to give you something to put out there and say to try to pull that user in, huge difference. So that was a big change and a great change. But now, they're actually starting to get rid of expanded text ads as well. And now, what is the default ad type for Google Search are called responsive search ads. And these give you up to 15 different headlines that you could throw in there. Same character limits of 30 characters, and then four descriptions. And Google will rotate these out based on the user's search intent, the historical performance of those headlines and descriptions.
Matt Slaymaker:
So if it sees that, hey, description one does way better than description four, when a user searches for this, we're going to show one at a more often rate than we would show for. And then same with a lot of those headlines. That said, you can still have control over a lot of those things. So if you don't want your headline number 10, which says free shipping for US orders, to show as your headline one, you could still pin that to the position three or position two, wherever you want it to show in terms of that order of operations. But now there's a little bit more liberty on Google's end to swap that stuff out and optimize based on the user's behavior.
Brett Curry:
Again, Google is saying, "Hey, trust us." But in a lot of ways, it does make sense. In this case, Google is saying, "Hey, we're going to watch the data here. So you give us more headlines, give us more descriptions. We're going to mix and match. We're going to find the perfect combos, we're going to be able to line up this combination of headline and description with this type of keyword, this type of user. And over time, it really can work. You still have to put thought into writing those headlines and those descriptions. But over time between, if you're a smart marketer and you leverage Google's algorithm, you can see pretty magical results over time.
Matt Slaymaker:
Absolutely.
Brett Curry:
Awesome. One question we get a lot is, how should we budget for this? Right. How much of my budget should go to search? There's no exact answer here, but a good rule of thumb that we found is, for search anywhere... This is looking at your Google budget, not your total marketing budget. But the amount of money you're spending with Google for eCommerce stores, typically your search ads are going to be in the 15 to 30% range, sometimes a little bit more. So, that's what we typically look at. Any final thoughts on search, Matt, before we move on to the next channel?
Matt Slaymaker:
Yeah. Just on the, how much of your budget should go to search? It really just depends on what your goal is. If your goal is growth and you do have a more robust full funnel strategy, where top of funnel plays a really big part. Then that 15, 30% probably sounds about right. But if you're maybe more conservative and short-term, immediate term profitability is your goal and you really just want to launch with search, shopping and some remarketing. Then maybe search could end up being more like 30 to 50%, and then shopping 30 to 50% and display, remarketing, et cetera, another 20%. So it really just depends on what your goal is. There's no set rule of thumb there. But if you're doing a full funnel strategy, which we think you should, then that 15 to 30% is most likely where you'll fall.
Brett Curry:
Awesome. Totally agree. Let's now move to Google shopping. And this is a topic that I've been speaking about forever. Love it. But Matt, for those at home that do not know what Google Shopping is, what is it and why is it so important to eCommerce brands?
Matt Slaymaker:
For the most part, Google Shopping's going to show in the same places as Google Search, with some additional placements like YouTube, Gmail, Discover, places like that. But the shopping ads are the ones up at the top of Google and then on the side of Google, right side you'll usually see it. Where you see the product itself, you see the price of the product, the number of reviews, all that good stuff. So in terms of behavior, it operates a lot the same way as search ads do, but you get a lot of qualifying information there, which is why I typically see that non-branded traffic. We'll go back to that hats for sale example. I actually see that almost always perform better on the shopping side of things than I do for search. And the reason I think that's the case is because-
Brett Curry:
What kind of hat are we shopping here for, Matt? This is an important side note. I just want to know. I've never actually seen you wear a hat. I don't wear hats much either. If you were to wear a hat, what would you go with? We're talking like a cowboy hat, we're talking about a baseball cap? We're talking about...
Matt Slaymaker:
I was thinking sombrero, specifically.
Brett Curry:
Sombrero.
Matt Slaymaker:
Brett, you don't see me wear hats often, but when I do, that's what you'll catch me.
Brett Curry:
I'd love that, man.
Matt Slaymaker:
Or fedora. Fedora as well.
Brett Curry:
The fedora. Can't go wrong with the fedora or the sombrero. Okay, good. I'm glad we got... So now, every time Matt mentions hat, you picture sombrero.
Matt Slaymaker:
...
Brett Curry:
Good. Sorry, I derailed you. So back to shopping ads.
Matt Slaymaker:
The reason I think that those sombrero for sale searches are going to do better on Shopping than they typically do for Search, is because you do see a lot of that qualifier information. Prices, reviews. And then what does the product look like before you ever even click on it? Because Search ads and Shopping ads as well, they are going on a pay-per-click basis. So you only get charged when somebody actually clicks on the ad. If that price point is a deterrent for a lot of people, then they're not even going to click on the ad, which saves you some money there.
Matt Slaymaker:
If you only have a certain number of reviews and they only want to shop for somebody who has a 100 five-star reviews, then they're not even going to click on your ad. So for those reasons, I typically see... People who come through on those non-branded searches for shopping, convert at higher rates than Search. Because with Search, they might still see those differentiators, and we can give them an idea of pricing with things like price extensions and other extensions that we can talk about some other time. But for the most part, I think Shopping is really powerful in giving a lot of those important information details to ...
Brett Curry:
Shopping is really the workhorse for eCommerce. Google Shopping is the number one comparison shopping engine outside of Amazon. So seeing that image, the price, the title, the brand, reviews, hopefully a good picture. Seeing all of that is pretty compelling. So yeah, you're a 100% right. The leads that come through Google Shopping are more likely to convert than almost any other click, other than branded search. So we've found... Some of our clients, we have auto parts clients and others, where Shopping's 60% of the total Google budget because it just converts and there's a lot of search volume there. So it's pretty powerful.
Matt Slaymaker:
Another quick note there, just imagine from your own user behavior, whenever you do any search out there, looking for barbecue rubs for sale, anything like that. And you see a search ad up at the top of Google and then you see that same company shopping ads scattered out there as well. That is such a big credibility boost and it's such a great way to establish yourself as the name for that product. So, I think they can boost each other just by running alongside.
Brett Curry:
Totally. There have been studies done there, when you have a Search ad and a Shopping ad together, it boosts your overall clickthrough, just like you were talking about before with organic and paid. Same happens. And think about the ultimate trifecta. You've got the search ad, you've got hopefully an organic listing, and you've got a Shopping ad. You are now super credible and people want to click. And maybe even someone just understands the way the search universe works and they click on your organic listing anyway. But having those ads there help to drive that organic click, which is pretty powerful. Now, a couple of quick notes that we'll talk about, and I'll mention these and then chime in with anything you have, Matt. You've probably heard people talk about Smart Shopping. So Smart Shopping is a newer thing in the last several years.
Brett Curry:
We admittedly were not fans when... At least I was not a fan of Smart Shopping when it first launched. But in recent years it has gotten way better. Google really emphasizes Smart Shopping. I'll have you chime in on our approach in a minute map. But one thing to think about Smart Shopping is, Google has opened up more inventory. So not only do your ads show up in the search results like you talked about, your ads can show up on YouTube. That's why, if you've ever been on YouTube watching a video about how to fix your lawn mower and you see lawn mower ads or lawn mower parts ads. And those shopping ads that's part of the reason why Google's open that up with Smart Shopping. It also has a component of remarketing built in and a few other things, but pretty powerful. How do we like to approach it though, Matt? Because people are always asking us, hey, smart versus standard shopping, which do you prefer? How do we usually approach that?
Matt Slaymaker:
I think you've got to run them together, because while Smart Shopping has a lot of advantages in the sense that, like Brett mentioned that expanded inventory that isn't fully present with standard shopping. It does have a downside. And the one critical downside to me for Smart Shopping campaigns is that there's really a lack of visibility. You can't see any search terms at all. So if your campaign has a 3X ROAS, you make $3 for every $1 you spent, you don't really know what led to that. Was it all branded searches, was it all non-branded searches? You can't fully know.
Matt Slaymaker:
And that's where standard shopping running alongside of that can help clarify a lot of that stuff. Because with standard shopping, you do still have the ability to see those search terms. It also enables you to get an idea of, are the non-branded searches that are coming through actually relevant to us? We had a client recently where we took over and their Smart Shopping was doing okay. But then we launched standard shopping along with it, and we saw that the search terms that were coming through were completely irrelevant. There were some good ones, but a lot of irrelevant search terms. So that gave us the idea to go back to that feed-
Brett Curry:
Was this the one, Matt, that was... It's health related, so like supplements. And one of the cures was like a boot or something like this.
Matt Slaymaker:
The example was they make health tests and gut tests, where you can test your microbiome and gut health, stuff like that. And what was coming through were pregnancy tests or COVID tests. And things like that, where they're converting really well for the relevant stuff that comes through. But all that irrelevant stuff, that's just a waste of money. So, I think you do have to run them alongside each other. And then within your standard shopping campaigns, have a system of AB testing where you do make some changes to your feed item, the product title, the description, stuff like that. And AB test it and see, how does that affect the searches that are actually coming through? Ideally you can try to run them alongside. And then once you do feel like you're at a point where the shopping feed is really well optimized, you can phase out one and give more budgets to the one that's doing best.
Brett Curry:
It really is owning that digital shelf. If we think about this like a physical shelf in a retail store, how does a product stand out and why do you pay attention to one product versus another? Some of it is price, some of it is packaging. So the way we work on merchandising through Google Shopping is through the feed. And just like Matt talked about, title, image, maybe we're playing with price in a few different areas. But you've got to work on that test set. A lot of times people just say, "Here's my feed, Google go nuts." And then they never look at it again. Where you've got to think merchandising here to optimize that and really own more real estate. Because what's cool is, the more people click on your ads, the more Google will reward you by showing your ad more. If Google determines, hey, for these keywords, people love these products and they click on them. They're going to show your ad more, and then you're going to get cheaper CPCs and likely more conversions. So optimizing that is super important.
Matt Slaymaker:
What Brett is referring to is a component of what's called quality score, and quality score... And this is especially important when it comes to your search campaigns. Looks at three main things, your ad relevance. So does the ad talk about the keyword that just got searched for? The landing page relevance, does the page that you're sending them to talk about what somebody just searched for? And then your historical expected clickthrough rate. That's exactly what Brett just talked about. If your ads are getting clicked on more than other people's ads, Google's going to reward that.
Brett Curry:
It was a brilliant innovation, quality score, that I really think it was the magic ingredient that helped Google become what it is today. Because it incentivized advertisers to make great ads. And it incentivized them by charging them lower rates. If they had a good quality score that just led to... It led to advertisers getting smarter and then it led to users getting what they want. Then it led to Google making bazillions of dollars ... So everyone's happy, I think. Awesome. We've got Search, we've got Shopping. Let's talk remarketing now. So, we're building the foundation of our full funnel growth. I'm watching the clock, Matt, we've been getting excited and I'm going to blame myself for being long-winded. We're not going to leave ourselves very much time for top of funnel. That's okay. We can always circle back to top of funnel and go deeper later, we will touch on it. So we've got Search and Shopping, those are foundational. Let's talk remarketing now as well. What channels do we recommend for remarketing? What are some of your top remarketing tips?
Matt Slaymaker:
That's going to be a tough one to be brief on, because I love remarketing. This is my favorite ... of advertising, honestly. First, just want to break down what's different about each of these channels. So Display Network, what is that? That's about 90% of the websites out there and it also covers mobile apps. You've probably seen Display ads there. Discovery ads, they look just like Display ads, you have a little bit more characters to work with, but these show exclusively on YouTube, Gmail and the Discover Network, which is like a personalized feed through Google. And then YouTube is YouTube. You get your YouTube ads in feed or in the YouTube home page as well.
Brett Curry:
That's awesome. Why do you love remarketing so much, Matt?
Matt Slaymaker:
I love remarketing so much, because I look at the funnel... I related this recently as like pouring water into a cup. And without remarketing, it's as if you have holes at the bottom of the cup. Where you're pouring all this top of funnel traffic and this non-branded traffic in, but so much water is just leaking out through the bottom and you're not actually retaining anything. I look at remarketing as a way to patch up those holes and make sure you're keeping more of the water that you're pulling in. Without remarketing, I think there's a lot of waste out there. And this is our opportunity to follow up with people who have initially made contact with our business, or have already purchased from our business. And we know that they know us and they love us. And to get more out of those users.
Brett Curry:
That's awesome.
Matt Slaymaker:
...
Brett Curry:
Love it. We can all think of scenarios where we've seen a cool ad, we've clicked on it. We visited the site, we think, "Oh, that's really neat, I might try to check that out." Then we get distracted or we don't want to spend the money right then. And then we forget about it. We need those reminders, we need that remarketing ad to get us back. So, let's talk audiences really quickly here. What audiences are we typically building to be able to effectively remarket?
Matt Slaymaker:
There's a lot that you can do. My absolute favorite is starting with your purchasers. These are the people, like I said earlier, we know that they like us because they've already purchased from us before. Especially if we can find a way to target repeat purchasers. So within purchasers, three main categories. There's the opportunity to cross-sell users. These are people who bought product A, but they have not yet bought product B. Maybe that's, they bought barbecue rubs from your company, but not the sauces. And we know those would pair really great together. Then the other option would be an upsell opportunity. So they bought product A, but they didn't buy the bundle. Maybe they bought a single barbecue rub, but we have a combo pack of eight different barbecue rubs that we know you would like. So, getting in front of them with something like that.
Matt Slaymaker:
And then the last one within purchasers is replenishment/reordering. People who bought product A, but haven't done so recently. And getting back in front of them with that, because we know they know and love it. And just getting them to try it again. After that... That's just the purchaser component of it. From there you could... And this is what most people think of when they think of remarketing, is targeting all of the visitors who've come to your website at all. That's by far going to be your highest volume remarketing list, but it might see the lower ROAS, because this is simply all visitors, regardless of their level of engagement. A step below that in terms of them showing a little bit more engagement, would be product page viewers or service page viewers. People who visited a particular product on your page and have expressed a particular interest. From there, another one of my favorite ones is called car abandoners. This one typically will see the best efficiency on it.
Matt Slaymaker:
You'd be surprised, about 80% of people actually abandon their cart. Maybe it's more like 70%, but it's a really high rate of people that adds something to their cart and end up not purchasing. But if we get back in front of them, almost always, I see cart abandoners see the highest efficiency in terms of ROAS and really low CPAs. The reason somebody abandons their cart can vary. Most of the time, they just forgot. They were that close, now we just get back in front of them and have them finish their purchase. And the last one that I think you would love to talk about a little bit more are viewed video audiences. This is where those top of funnel efforts that you're doing on YouTube really come full circle. Maybe they never visited your website before, but we have made that initial impression on them from these YouTube ads that we're running for top funnel. So, getting back in front of them with the Display, Discovery or even YouTube ad, just from them viewing the video is also really powerful.
Brett Curry:
Really I believe any eCommerce brand needs to consider what we just talked about, Search, Shopping, remarketing. I think it's a must for everybody for the reasons you mentioned. To get more repeat purchases, to close more of the purchases that you almost got. And what's really interesting, Matt, is we audited a lot of Google Ads accounts. And we audited a lot of Google Ads accounts of people that are spending 3, 4, 5, 6, 700,000 a month on ads across Facebook and other channels. Some more than a million. And you'd be surprised... We're not anymore, but you'd probably be surprised how weak the remarketing structure is. It's like one remarketing campaign, all visitors, where we're looking at breaking it down. PDP viewers and cart abandoners and different recency windows and replenishment and cross-sell and upsell. And you bought this, but you didn't buy that. So you build that out. And now, you can be more aggressive with your top of funnel Facebook and your top of funnel YouTube.
Brett Curry:
Because you're closing more of the people that you get to check out your site and check out your products. I don't disagree with you about remarketing, because it is really valuable and super fun. But man, I like the juice of top of funnel. So, let's talk top of funnel really quickly. And we're going to have to do this a grave disservice. We're going to talk about top of funnel here for a few minutes, and then... I know what you did, Matt, you're trying to get part two. You're trying to get round two. You want to be on the podcast again, you're like, "Let me just drag this out a little bit and then Brett will invite me on for round two." Okay, fine. You got what you want. So let's talk top of funnel marketing now. Now, what are our opportunities... And this will actually be... Tie this in a little bit to remarketing too. But what are the channels for top of funnel? And you mention them for bottom of funnel as well. But why is it important to consider all the channels, basically?
Matt Slaymaker:
The channels are the same three ones that we just mentioned, so there's Display, there's Discovery and then there's YouTube. Every channel has its advantages and their disadvantages. What I really love about YouTube and Discovery in particular is that, really only one ad is showing at a time. So when it comes to YouTube ads, that's your moment in the spotlight. There's nobody else there. Somebody's watching their video, you get in front of them with an ad and it's just you there. And Discovery actually works a lot the same way, say, you're scrolling-
Brett Curry:
And what are Discovery ads, for those that don't know?
Matt Slaymaker:
Again, it looks exactly like a Display ad. It's an image based ad with some headlines and descriptions, but it shows up on Gmail, shows up on YouTube. So if you ever see an image ad on YouTube, that's a Discovery ad.
Brett Curry:
And the Google app supposedly, but I don't ever see them there. I only see them on Gmail and on YouTube. But really great placements.
Matt Slaymaker:
And each of these has its advantages and disadvantages. Frankly, Discovery and YouTube see the best conversion rates in terms of... And it depends on your creative. If you have really strong YouTube creative, and maybe more weak images, then YouTube might be your very best top of funnel platform. And then vice versa, if you have really weak YouTube creative, but really strong images, then Discovery might be your best. But usually... The other flip side component of this, there's the direct performance aspect of it, which we measure by conversion rates, ROAS and CPA.
Matt Slaymaker:
But then there's the awareness side of it. How many people can we reach with $1 with $2, a $100. And that's where Display is really powerful. Display almost always will see CPMs, which is cost per 1000 impressions of, two to $4. Discovery, it's more like eight to $10. YouTube, it can be more like 15 to $30. And it corresponds with what you see with conversion rates. Where conversion rates are a little bit stronger, the cost per impression is a little bit higher. So, I would say test out every single one of them based on the creative and the images that you do have available to you. And then just see what works the best, given your goal of driving awareness and direct conversions.
Brett Curry:
100% agree. I tend to lean towards YouTube just because I love it, I've always loved video marketing and I started in TV a long time ago. Love YouTube. But it does depend on what you're selling. If you're selling something that's really straightforward and simple. I'm a Chiefs fan, I see your Tony Romo Jersey in the background there, Matt, but I'm going to one up you here. I'm a Chiefs fan, Patrick Mahomes. If I'm selling Patrick Mahomes jerseys, I don't need a lot of explanation. I don't need a full video to tell you what a Patrick Mahomes' Jersey is. If you see the Jersey and you see NFL logo, you know what it is. So Discovery, display, perfect for that.
Brett Curry:
If there's a cool offer, I'm going to click, I might buy. If it's something more complex. So, it's a new protein shake that doesn't taste like chalk, or this is a unique tool to fix your car. Something that I need to see explained, video's going to be better for that. And the more you can tell and explain and show, if it needs to be demonstrated, then obviously nothing beats video for that. Let's talk about audiences really quickly. These audiences can be the same across channel, across YouTube, Discovery, Display. But what are the best audiences that we usually start with, Matt, when we're going top of funnel?
Matt Slaymaker:
I have a bit of a power ranking system, and the power rankings have changed a little bit in the last year. But number one is still undefeated, for me personally, and that's custom intent audiences. What custom intent audiences are, if you're familiar with in-market audiences, they are very similar to that in the sense that these are people who are actively in the market for something. They're actively searching for something. But with custom intent, we can tell Google exactly what we want to be those inputs. So instead of in-market, which are predefined, maybe we loosely fit into one category, but not really all that much. Custom intent allows us to drill into it a lot, on a more detailed level. So, that still is my favorite audience. I recommend testing that out first. From there, I would say number two of my power rankings are demo only audiences, actually.
Matt Slaymaker:
The reason demo only is good... What that means is just demographics only, so no audiences, no content, anything like that. It's just, what do you know about your target market in terms of their demographics? Maybe it's women in between 25 and 34 who are in the top 30% of incomes. And just target that. The reason demo only can do really well is because compared to any of these other audiences, it's going to have the lowest CPMs, CPCs and allow you to reach a wide variety of people at a relatively low cost. So if you can see good conversion rates from demo only, by having creative that resonates with that audience, then they typically work really well. A few other ones, but the only other one I'll mention is custom affinity audiences. Which are similar to custom intent audiences in the way that you set them up and everything. But it's more based on their long-term interest rather than necessarily what they're searching for in the moment.
Brett Curry:
Love it. The input's changed. So for custom intent, you're giving Google keywords and you're saying, "Hey, target for me people who have searched for these keywords on Google or on YouTube." And customer affinity is more, "Google check out these URLs or these videos or these things, and build an audience for me of people like those that visit these." So really powerful audiences. I like your power ranking there, I think that's just pretty awesome.
Matt Slaymaker:
And each of those really just talk about the audience targeting side of it. That's one way that you can target on Google, is by targeting people based on what they have been doing, who they are, what demographics that they fit into. The other way that you can target on Google is by targeting the content of the video that they're watching. There's a few different ways to do that. There's what's called keywords, which allow you to target the actual video itself. So somebody's watching a video about female hair thinning, and you get in front of them with a product about hair replenishment. Then that could work really well. Placements is another option there, where you can target specific channels, specific videos. So there's two sides of the coin. There's the audience side of it, where you're targeting people and what they're interested in. And then the content side of it, where they are, what are they actively watching on YouTube?
Brett Curry:
Love it. Let's talk briefly about the creative aspect. And I will mention a couple of other episodes, I've done several now on creatives. But one recent episode, episode 184 with Joseph Wilkins from funnysalesvideos.com. Also did an episode with Andrew Eckblad, which I'm going to mention in a minute. But basically you want to really think about the creatives, because YouTube ads are different than Facebook ads, or even TV ads or other video ads. They're just different. We don't have much time to talk about this, Matt, but any tips or suggestions or things you've noticed about videos that work well as YouTube ads?
Matt Slaymaker:
Like you said, it'll be a disservice to try to cram it all in about a minute here, so I definitely recommend going and watching some of those other podcasts that Brett's done as well as some previous webinars as well. I think there's a few main components you can't miss out on when it comes to those creatives. You've got to hook them in those first five seconds. As we know with most YouTube ads, you have five seconds before that big skip ad button pops up. And most people are very eager to click that as soon as they possibly can. But if you manage to hook them in the first five seconds where they do want to keep watching, that is really powerful. So, that's the first part. Then you've got to lead with that strongest differentiator. Don't save your strongest bullet point, the strongest part of your business for the end of the video.
Brett Curry:
Don't bury the lead, to use a journalism quote.
Matt Slaymaker:
Exponentially people are dropping off on that video, so if you can lead with the strongest thing that you think is going to resonate with them, absolutely do that. And provide social proof. That's another big thing. I think a lot of times people think of social proof of, oh, I need a celebrity endorsement, I need to be mentioned in Forbes or NBC or something like that. It doesn't need to be like that. It can be as simple as user-generated testimonials. And a lot of times, that converts even better than a celebrity endorsement might ever. I was talking with some of our other specialists today and I talk to customers all the time. But a lot of times, the user testimonials relate more to them and are more powerful because they resonate, they can relate to that. That's me as a user-
Brett Curry:
And believable too. We need to be able to believe and trust what we're seeing and hearing. And the right type of user generated content really creates trust and believability.
Matt Slaymaker:
Then the last component there is just have a strong call to action. After they've watched that video, give them something to do. Don't just say it in a way that is, "Hey, click the link below." Create some sense of urgency, whether that's with an offer or just more unique messaging. Have a strong call to action there at the end, that gives them that next step.
Brett Curry:
Love it. So the other podcast to check out is with Andrew Eckblad, episode 70, that was the first interview I did with Andrew. Depending on when you're listening to this, I'm about to record another episode with Andrew. He's brilliant with video marketing, and that's E-C-K-B-L-A-D, Eckblad. So search for that Ecommerce Evolution and Eckblad. Check that out. But Matt Slaymaker, this has been fantastic, thoroughly enjoyed it.
Matt Slaymaker:
Awesome.
Brett Curry:
A couple of the resources I'll mention, if you want to learn and really dig deep into Google Ads and YouTube ads go to omgcommerce.com. Under resources, we have some guides that are designed to really help you level up here. There's a Google Shopping guide. I just refreshed that, it's also published with Shopify, so you can find that at Shopify as well. There's the top YouTube ad examples guide, that really shows some of our favorite and most successful YouTube ads. You can learn from some of the best there, that's all free. Then there's also a guide on creating authentic customer testimonials. So, how do you collect those? How do you get those? How do you identify a winner? We map that out in that free guide as well. Matt, any final words of wisdom, anything you want to say as we wrap up? Then finish part one of your episodes here.
Matt Slaymaker:
I'll go ahead and plug myself a little bit as well.
Brett Curry:
Please.
Matt Slaymaker:
If you guys are wondering anything about how iOS updates impacted Google Ads in 2021, go to omgcommerce.com, check out our blogs. Recently wrote an article there talking about what are some of the big things that changed. Also, if you're curious about what's the difference between dynamic remarketing and standard remarketing, maybe you've never heard of those at all. Go check that out on the OMG Blog as well. Currently, our featured blog at the moment might not be for long, so go check that out when you get the chance.
Brett Curry:
Matt-
Matt Slaymaker:
Brett, assuming I dragged this out long enough, I'll see you for part two.
Brett Curry:
Exactly. Check it out. Matt is in the spotlight all over the place, his blog is featured. Killer episode here, Matt. Awesome job, man. Thank you so much for taking the time.
Matt Slaymaker:
Thank you. Appreciate it.
Brett Curry:
Awesome. And as always, thank you for tuning in. We'd love to hear from you. What would you like to hear more of on the show? Do you have feedback for us? Leave that review on iTunes if you've not done so, that would mean the world to me. Give Matt some love online as well. With that, until next time, thank you for listening.
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