Strengthen your data discipline and enhance your ad performance by using precise data to optimise your campaigns and target your customers more effectively.
Martin Langborg Hansen
Do you have data discipline? If you don’t, you’re probably not getting the most out of your ad spend.
In a digital world where Google is getting better and better at managing its algorithms, it’s becoming even more important to be disciplined with your own data – and especially your product data. Google – and other platforms – are continuously improving in areas like machine learning, big data, and automation. That’s why it’s crucial to feed Google’s algorithms with the right data so you get the most out of your advertising budget.
After reading this post, you’ll understand why product data is important for your webshop and the consequences of not being on top of your product data!
Table of Contents
Product data is the information you assign to your products in your webshop. This includes the product title, description, price, and even the image. But you can go much deeper with your data than just filling in what customers immediately see on your website. It’s also important to add backend parameters, which can, for example, help Google or Facebook better understand your product. This might include information like brand, gender (for example, for clothing), or GTIN numbers.
There can be big differences in what options you have, depending on which CMS you use. That’s why we often see missing relevant data on products if those fields aren’t available as standard.
One platform where it’s important to have your product data in order is Google Shopping. Through a product feed and Google Merchant Center, you create ads directly in Google’s shopping feature, where the product image, title, price, and even reviews are displayed. The product feed is pulled directly from your CMS, which means you need to have as much information linked to your products as possible in your backend.
The product title is one of the most important indicators for Google to match the product with a search. Depending on what’s relevant, it can be an advantage to include brand, function, material, size, color, and possibly serial number in your titles. Product titles and descriptions should also closely match the search terms users are using.
Example:
Search term: Nike Air Max 270
Poor title: “Nike Air Shoes”
Good title: “Nike Air Max 270 Women’s Sneakers – white”
In addition, there will be backend values such as brand (Nike), gender (Men), and color (White). These values can be used to build dynamic titles across your feed, so the correct titles are automatically generated for each product. This way, the feed will automatically insert the right brand, gender, or color in the title. The title on your webshop doesn’t necessarily need to be the same as the title shown on the platform. On Google and Facebook, you can easily include more information in the title than is necessary on your website.
For example, see how Zalando builds their titles:
In the feed, this title has all the necessary information matching the product (though there’s a display error on gender):
This doesn’t mean you need to have the same level of data control as Zalando – that may be impossible. It’s just to show what’s possible in structuring your data.
Your product feed is made up of a series of data fields that send the necessary information to the platform where you want to sell your products. There are 3 types of fields:
Depending on the platform you’re using the feed for, the required fields may vary. Typically, the plugin you use will automatically assemble the required fields when you select a platform.
Title, description, price, and image_link are examples of fields that are usually required.
Recommended fields aren’t mandatory to upload your feed, but it’s advised to use them. These are often where you can make a difference compared to competitors.
Fields like brand and product_type are important for segmenting your campaigns by brands or category level. These are two fields we always recommend setting up. If you have these, you can, for example, bid differently on the brands or categories where you have the highest margins. Another option is to target products where you know you are price competitive.
By adding these fields, you also give Google another indication of what the product is, putting you in a stronger position to compete for visibility in search results.
GTIN is another important field. In Google Shopping, it used to be required, but now it’s only recommended. GTIN is essentially an EAN number (the number you might see below barcodes), which uniquely identifies a product. Adding this data tells Google exactly which product it is. This is a huge advantage in search results and can get your products into price comparison modules, etc.
In some industries, GTIN can be an important factor for better performance. Not having GTIN in your feed may mean falling behind competitors, but there are several reasons why a business might not have it. Your backend needs to be set up to attach a GTIN value to products, and you need to have the numbers available. Don’t panic if you don’t have GTIN in your feed—your ads will still run, but we recommend using it if possible. Google may reject products if they know for sure that a GTIN number exists but it’s not included, which often happens for well-known brands.
It can also be valuable for some product feeds to include parameters like gender or size so the platform can better distinguish whether the product is intended for men or women. Size, for example, is relevant for clothing. But again, this requires you to have configured the data correctly in your shop system.
Custom fields are typically used only when you have very specific segmentation criteria. For example, you might want different budgets for certain price ranges on your products or want to bid differently based on your shipping costs. If so, you can create a custom field and configure your own filters.
This is often a more technical solution and is not recommended for beginners. In some cases, you’ll need a third-party system to set up the necessary filters.
All in all, the more data you can provide in your product feed, the better your chances of being visible on Google, Facebook, Pricerunner, or wherever you want to be. The most important fields to manage are:
And if possible:
Falling behind with your product data can have a big impact on your online marketing performance across several channels. Here are some of the consequences you might face:
These are just some of the issues we see with poor data discipline. And until they’re fixed, all of the above ultimately lead to lost revenue.
When setting up your product feed, there are some standard things you can do to ensure the best efficiency. These may seem obvious, but we often see mistakes or omissions.
By following these tips, you have a solid foundation for good performance on your platforms. There are many more things you can do with your product feed, but the above is the best starting point and relatively easy to implement.
Besides giving the right inputs to your product feed, you also need to follow the guidelines for the platform you’re using.
Generally, this means using common sense. For example, you must not advertise counterfeit goods, dangerous products, inappropriate content, etc.
There may also be specific industries where visibility is limited, or you need to go through certain approval processes to advertise.
This can include products containing alcohol, +18 content, health-related products, political content, or trademarks.
As mentioned in this post, your webshop may not be set up to configure your feeds with the right data. Fortunately, there are third-party systems to help with this in various forms. The list is long, but if you need advice on how to get your product feed running smoothly, don’t hesitate to contact us at Wemarket on 70 44 42 90 or via the form here: Contact us.
You can also enhance your data with price monitoring or profit monitoring systems, so you’re always competitive in certain product groups in your business – while ensuring profitability.
In Google Ads, the past year has been heavily influenced by automatic recommendations, automated bidding, and smart campaigns. Google is developing its systems to be smarter than what humans can manually control, thanks to the large amounts of data they have. This has both advantages and disadvantages, and Google’s recommendations are not always the right ones to follow. The fact is, Google’s solutions have become so advanced that it’s difficult to outperform them manually.
This development also means that the more you feed these algorithms, the better performance you’ll see. And you do that with data, images, remarketing lists, and so on.
That doesn’t mean automation and smart campaigns are always the right choice. But when you use them, it’s about giving Google the best conditions to perform—and that’s where good data discipline is essential.
I hope this post has given you a clear idea of how important it is to be structured with your product data. There may be a lot of work involved in enriching your products with large amounts of information, but in the long run, it’s extremely important for ensuring your business performs as well as possible.
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