After receiving the same question dozens of times over the last few years, «What is happening to my e-commerce, why I am not selling?«, at Studio Ideago we decided to design a quick and easy guide to understand the health of your online store.
With this document you will be able to orient yourself to where the problem is and how to solve it.
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What is and how to use the health guide for e-commerce?
This quick guide will help you understand through site traffic and different metrics of your online store, which areas you should strengthen in your strategy to get those sales that you want so much. The only thing you have to do is download the document (you can print it, if it is easier for you, but if you love the planet like us, just download your digital version).
Once you have the digital (or printed) document, all you have to do is start from the beginning and check the different steps mentioned in the guide. Take the time to find the right information and analyse your metrics. We know that sometimes working with data can be a bit heavy, but if you are going to manage an e-commerce, it is important that you understand the basic rules.
Consierations before using it
Having exposed all of the above, we feel obliged to make a very important clarification. In our extensive experience advising online businesses over the years, we have learned a very valuable lesson, each business is a world apart and should be treated as such.
With this, what we mean is, the guide that we have developed below is intended as a basic tool for those who wants to generally understand what happens in their e-commerce. Of course, there are many topics that are analysed within an e-commerce outside the scope of this guide. Therefore, if our guide does not solve your problem in your online store, we ask you to write to us with your particular case so that we can provide you with a more personalised consulting service.
Get your copy here
Just fill out the short form below with your information and you’ll get your copy of our quick health guide for online stores right away!
We hope this tool helps you improve your business performance.
Quick Guide to understand the new Google Ads Performance MAX campaigns
In the last months, Google Ads formally enabled the use of the new Performance MAX campaigns for all users who use the Google’s advertising platform. They timidly started with a beta version, but they quickly stablished as the new «toy» for Google Ads Specialists, showing great results in specific goal campaigns. Google continues to show that artificial intelligence and machine learning will be clearly the future for all advertisers.
With this brief guide you will be able to learn what these new campaigns are, how they work and when it is advisable to use them.
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What are the new Performance MAX campaigns?
In a nutshell, the new Performance MAX campaigns allow us to use the entire Google Ads inventory through a single campaign. When we mention all inventory we mean:
Search Campaigns
Display
Youtube
Discover
Gmail
Google Maps
Before the appearance of these campaigns, if we wanted to appear in the entire Google Ads inventory, we had to carry out campaigns separately in each channel, but thanks to these new campaigns this problem has been solved.
How does the new Google Ads Performance MAX campaign works?
These types of campaigns are easy to create and optimize since they mainly use machine learning and automation of our account and historical data to make the most of our budget and find customers in the right moment and place.
When creating a campaign with a sales, potential customers or visits goal, we can then choose the Performance Max campaign option. The next step is the usual, upload the headlines, descriptions, photos and videos (Don’t worry if you don’t have videos, the platform creates a collage with your images to show on YouTube for example). Once this basic data is loaded, all the rest is left to Google’s artificial intelligence, who will use that information (together with the historical data) to distribute our ads through the whole inventory and learn where and when it is best to push our ads.
When is recommended to use Performance MAX campaigns?
Creating and optimizing these campaigns is very simple as we have seen before, but the key part is understanding when it is convenient to use them.
Based on the experiences we have had with our clients from different industries and countries, these campaigns are recommended for those companies that want to sell a massive product or service. Of course, if we say that through a single campaign we will have the visibility of the entire Google inventory, this implies that it will reach many people through different formats. So if our product/service is something that fits the needs of most people, we recommend trying this type of campaign.
When is NOT recommended to use Performance MAX campaigns?
If you are just starting out with Google Ads, have a new account, and have not had any conversions, we do not advise you to use these campaigns. As we mentioned before, Google uses artificial intelligence and historical data to understand where and when to sell our product/service more efficiently.
Within this historical data we have the conversions of our account, which is a key part for the good use for these campaigns. If we don’t have around 30 conversions in the last 45 days it will be difficult for Google to use historical data and understand where to sell your products and services.
It is also not recommended to use this type of campaign for products or services that target a specific niche audience. As we have mentioned before, these types of campaigns are good for reaching a large part of the population. If you want to sell something very specific, it is best not to invest your budget in campaigns as massive as Performance MAX.
Let’s see some examples of good practices
Example 1
If you want to sell life insurance or shoes, for example, this type of campaign can be very beneficial since the vast majority of people need these services or products.
Example 2
If you want to sell spare parts for a specific industrial machine, then we do not recommend using these types of campaigns. The niche you are targeting is very narrow, and this type of campaign just plasters the internet with your ads, which will generate many impressions, clicks and waste your budget.
Conclusions
Google will continue using artificial intelligence, machine learning and automations in its platform and campaigns. This is the future for advertisers. On one hand, it is beneficial because it will not require great skills to publish on your platforms and get results, but on the other hand, it will not allow the Google Ads specialist to be granular with modifications or changes within their campaigns.
Beyond this quick guide to understand the new Performance MAX campaigns, we always advise you to initially test the new campaigns with a low budget and measure the results such as the cost per click, or the cost per conversion. Once you have certain results you will be able to know if it is a campaign that fits your objectives or not. Remember, in marketing the key is always to test and measure!
If you do not have much experience and want to try these campaigns or if you have any questions, contact us here or use the form below. We are delighted to hear your challenge and help you get the most out of your business and budget.
Universal Analytics will be replaced in 2023 for Google Analytics 4
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Google Analytics is the central data platform that every marketing team relies on these days to control and understand basically traffic, campaign ROIs and user acquisition & engagement, for example.
For more than 10 years we have been using Google Analytics Universal product and interface to read and process our business data, take decisions and measure our results. But in 2023 all companies will be forced by google to transition to their brand new interface, Google Analytics 4.
Keep reading and learn how can you make this transition for your business data simple and smooth.
What is this change all about?
Google announced officially that on July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new data and Google Analytics 4 will replace it.
This means that if you are still using Universal Analytics properties, we recommend your company prepares to use Google Analytics 4. A brand new interface very different than the one we are used to, although with much better data structure.
This change will mostly affect marketing and IT departments because they are the ones who are use to manage and process data in Google Analytics platform.
How will this affect my business?
First things first, until July 1, 2023, you can continue to use and collect new data in your Universal Analytics properties but after this date, you’ll be only able to access your previously processed data in your Universal Analytics property for at least six months. Because we know how important data is today for every company, we strongly suggest and encourage you to export all your historical reports before July 1, 2023. If you want to know how to export your data from Google Analytics Universal check this link.
Google said that in the next few months, they will provide dates when existing data in universal properties will no longer be available. After this date, your data is gone, so this is why exporting everything before next year is so important.
In the end, is the old story of learning a new tool. It is important that your team can be ahead of this and starts right now doing some changes, so next year, while you do the transition from one to another, it wont impact your business.
How can I know if my business is using GA4 or Google Analytics Universal properties?
To see what kind of properties your Google Analytics is using, you simply need to:
Click the breadcrumb at the top of any Analytics page to see the organizations, accounts, properties, and views to which you have access. This will show your accounts, permissions and properties.
If the properties shown use a tracking code starting with “UA-xxxxxx” like the image shown above then that is a Universal Analytics property and soon next year will be gone forever.
The GA4 properties are simply a number with no “UA-” in the tracking code, just a simple number like the first case in the image above «MY GA4 Property».
When you create a new GA account, they will take you now directly to create a GA4 property because it is what Google is pushing right now. But don’t worry, you still can create an old property of Universal Analytics if you need more time to do the transition. Actually you con have both running simultaneously. Just bear in mind it will be gone last year.
If you still don’t understand how to check your properties in GA follow the instructions on this link.
Conclusions
If you are currently using a GA4 property for your business, then you are on the right path. Many companies have already started adapting to all these changes.
Perhaps you have both properties on your GA account, that is good also because once GA Universal is gone you can continue with your GA4 property. But if you are the case where you only have Universal properties to process your data, then we strongly suggest you start thinking on using GA4 and adapting your marketing team to the new ecosystem, it will take some time but as always we will adapt.
Need help?
At Studio Ideago, we have the best big data and marketers professionals that can help and assist your business to make this important transition easy for next year.
We are experts in helping companies be ahead of problems, so feel free to reach out to see in further details your particular case. Drop us an email here or just complete the form below and one of our experts will get in touch very soon.
