Google Shopping is now free globally
In April this year, Google announced that free product listings were going to be available for Google Shopping. With Covid-19 contributing to an e-commerce boom, Google fast-forwarded its plans to introduce these free listings. This update would enable more merchants to advertise in the space and those who would like to show in premium positions can still take advantage of the paid ad slots. Organic clicks’ performance can now also be reviewed in the performance report for surfaces across Google in the Merchant Center.
The free listings were initially only available in the U.S. and at the end of September 2020, Google announced that these will be available globally by the end of October.
To get this live, all you would have to do is set up your product feed in your Google Merchant Center account and opt into Surfaces on Google. You do not need a Google Ads account to be eligible for the free listings. Once set up, you will be eligible to show against relevant search results across Google Search, Google Shopping, and Google Images.
All Response Media viewpoint.
For any e-commerce advertisers, this is a no-brainer. Regardless of your marketing budgets and regardless of whether paid shopping ads were part of your previous strategy if you are selling a product for a fixed price, free shopping listings is an offering that you should consider. Similar to Google’s organic search results, it is key to ensure that we follow best practices and focus on product search optimisations to put us in a favourable position.
If this is something that you would consider for your business, then please do get in touch so that we can help you get set up.
Facebook is removing its 20% text rule on images
Facebook has confirmed that it has removed its 20% text rule on images as of September. Although Facebook still recommends having less than 20% text in your ad images, however, this will no longer restrict your ad delivery.
All Response Media viewpoint.
Similar to Facebook’s stance, we believe that ad images should not be covered in text however it is good to know that there is now a little bit more flex. Split testing ads with and without text in images would help understand whether the text in creatives impacts your account performance positively or negatively.
Read more information on our digital services.
