PPC advertisers running Google Shopping ads typically choose a brand, margin, or category-based structure for their campaigns. These approaches are effective for broader advertising across a large inventory. Managing tens or hundreds of thousands of SKUs is a challenge for advertisers as it makes it difficult to focus on individual products.
Still, drilling down to SKU-level detail is crucial to uncovering hidden potential, addressing lost budget, or identifying specific products that are impacting overall category performance. To deal with product data at scale, consider implementing product scoring.
What is product rating?
Product scoring involves assigning numerical values to products based on various performance indicators. This rating reflects a product’s potential or current market success.
Using product scoring, you can systematically choose which products to highlight in your marketing and sales efforts, focusing on those with the strongest potential for advertising success.
For an effective product scoring system, several metrics play a critical role:
Speed of sales
This parameter measures the rate at which a product is purchased over a given duration. Products that sell quickly tend to score higher, indicating the attractiveness of the market.
Customer insights
Valuable data gathered from customer reviews and ratings is indispensable. Products that receive positive feedback are rated higher, indicating their appeal to potential buyers.
Profit margins
Product scoring places a heavy emphasis on products with lucrative profit margins because they contribute more to the advertiser’s bottom line.
Conversion rates
It measures how effectively customer interest is converted into sales. High-scoring products tend to be those that achieve robust conversion rates.
Alignment with market trends and demand
Advertisers who align their product offerings with market trends and consumer demands are likely to achieve higher product ratings.
Inventory rotation
This measures the sales and replenishment cycle of a product. Products that are in steady demand and are quickly replenished tend to score higher, indicating sustained market desire.
In addition, any product scoring model can be extended with numerous metrics, including:
Add to cart Pricing information, such as average price or price competitiveness. Marked products Pre-order list.
This additional information can help fine-tune the scoring model.
Dig deeper: Margin-based tracking: 3 advanced strategies for Google Shopping profitability
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Integrating Product Scoring into Your Marketing Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide
Incorporating product scoring into your marketing strategy is a step toward more accurate and effective Shopping campaigns.
Below are the essential steps and considerations for adding product scoring to your marketing efforts.
Step 1: Set your product scoring criteria
Identify key metrics
Identify the metrics from the list above that are most important to your products and market. Consider sales velocity, customer ratings, profit margins, conversion rates, market trends, and inventory turnover.
Create a scoring model
Build a method to assign scores to your products based on these identified metrics. This model can range from a simple numerical scale to a more nuanced weighted algorithm. A basic model might be a 1-5 scoring system; a product’s score is determined by adding the score of each product metric. You can implement a basic scoring system quickly, but it lacks the sophistication that can be achieved with a more advanced model. A more advanced model could be based on this formula: product score = sales volume (share) x price competitiveness x demand x profit margins
Advertisers should test models. Some models can lead to more accurate decision-making results depending on the quality of the data.
There are almost no limits to the composition of metrics that contribute to the score. The biggest challenge may be aggregating data from multiple sources for analysis. This leads to step 2.
Step 2: Integrate data analytics
Use diverse data sources
Leverage multiple data sources, including sales records, customer feedback, market research, and fingerprints of online interactions.
Implement analysis tools
Deploy sophisticated analytics tools capable of processing and interpreting this data for accurate product scores. Opt for solutions that handle a lot of data and offer real-time analytics for adaptive scoring. On a small scale, the information could be stored in a spreadsheet, which can be converted into a Business Resource Planning Analytical database based on ERP. Larger companies can start with a cloud-based system data warehouse to aggregate all product rating data. Make sure you develop the required plugins or have an existing configuration. For example, analytics or advertising data can be easily integrated. In contrast, Google Trends or ERP data may need an automated process to ensure timely and accurate data.
Step 3: Apply the product score to your marketing campaigns
Prioritize products with the highest score
Allocate your marketing investments to the products with the highest ratings. This may mean increased advertising budgets, strategic placement in promotional materials or special offers. Create automations to remove lower-scoring products or bring non-scoring products into a test cycle.
Step 4: Maintain and refine your product score
Dynamic score updates
Keep your product ratings fluid, allowing them to evolve with changing market trends, consumer preferences, and incoming data.
Continuous score optimization
Continually evaluate and adjust your scoring criteria and methods to ensure they remain relevant and yield the most beneficial results. Also, be sure to refine your scoring model and the metrics you use.
Step 5: Monitor results and gain insights
Tracking the effectiveness of the campaign
Diligently monitor the performance of campaigns featuring high-rated products, comparing their effectiveness to other campaigns. Use the insights gained from these campaigns to inform and shape your future marketing strategies and product development decisions.
Challenges in implementing product scoring
Implementing product scoring involves navigating several challenges and adhering to best practices for maximum effectiveness.
The biggest challenge is probably data collection and management. As data accumulates, new tools and additional storage may be required.
The selection of product score metrics you capture and store should be well thought out. Adding a new data source to the model means you’ll lose historical context.
The product score must be aligned and updated frequently and reliably to provide quality data for marketing. This approach can only work if the data is correct.
Leverage product scoring for more effective campaigns
Although developing and integrating a scoring system requires a concerted effort, the rewards make it worth it. Product Score provides a compass to guide your marketing dollars, advertising campaigns, and product development.
It is important to balance the focus between high and low goals. While it is essential to prioritize high-scoring products, lower-scoring products should not be overlooked, as targeted efforts can sometimes change these products.
Leveraging technology and automation for data processing and scoring reduces human error and increases efficiency.
Learn more: Google Merchant Center: Use product data to boost your retail efforts
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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