Can I Drive Google Shopping Growth With Only One Of Each Product?

Google Shopping is an incredibly powerful tool for digital advertisers, providing businesses with an opportunity to display their products directly in the search results. It’s a product from Google Ads that allows advertisers to serve feed-based ads in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), where users can view detailed product images, pricing, shipping details, and descriptions before even clicking on the ad. Unlike Google Text Ads, Google Shopping does not target keywords directly. Instead, it relies heavily on the product feed you submit, along with other factors like bidding strategy, segmentation, and targeting.

However, for businesses that have a unique model where they only stock one unit of each product, you may wonder if Google Shopping can still be leveraged effectively. Is it possible to drive growth and performance with a product inventory that constantly changes and is often limited? This article delves into the challenges and strategies to drive Google Shopping growth when dealing with such one-of-one product businesses.

Understanding the Basics of Google Shopping Ads

Before diving into the specifics of one-of-one product models, it is important to understand the fundamental workings of Google Shopping ads. These ads appear on the Google Search Engine Results Pages when users search for a product. Google Shopping is an auction-based system similar to Google Text Ads, but it doesn’t rely on keywords. Instead, Google Shopping uses the data within your product feed, combined with other factors such as historical performance, to determine when and where to display ads.

The key advantage of Google Shopping over traditional text-based ads is the ability to showcase your product with detailed images, descriptions, and other important information upfront. This has proven to generate better-qualified traffic because the user already knows what they are clicking on.

Now, let’s address the core question: Can you drive Google Shopping growth when you only have one of each product?

Challenges with One-of-One Product Models

The core issue with selling one-of-one products is that Google Shopping thrives on consistent data, but if you only have one of each product, you may face several challenges. The primary hurdle is that Google Shopping relies on the product feed, and when stock levels fluctuate regularly, it becomes harder to gather sufficient data for machine learning algorithms to work effectively.

Data Instability

Google’s machine learning models perform optimally when they have enough data to learn from. In a typical eCommerce model, advertisers have multiple units of each product, which allows Google to gather a significant amount of data over time to optimise the bidding and targeting. However, if you only have one of each product, once it sells out, it no longer appears in the feed, which means Google cannot collect any more data on that product.

The challenge here is that products may sell quickly, and some may remain in the feed longer, affecting the balance of data that Google’s algorithms need to make predictions and optimise bids. With this instability, Google may struggle to drive consistent results for individual products.

Reporting and Analytics Challenges

In traditional eCommerce setups, reporting is often done at the product level. For one-of-one businesses, however, reporting should be focused on broader categories or groupings rather than individual products. As products frequently come in and out of stock, tracking the performance of a single product is less useful because it may have sold out before any meaningful data could be gathered.

It becomes critical to analyse performance by category, designer, or other product groupings to understand trends and identify what is working. You’ll need a strategy for categorising your products based on performance data, which can be challenging when you have such limited stock.

Automation Limitations

Google Shopping often uses automation, such as Smart Bidding, to optimise bids based on factors like historical performance and sales data. However, with only one of each product, the automation becomes less effective. Google’s machine learning algorithms rely on a stable inventory to continuously refine bidding strategies and performance goals. With frequently changing stock, the system has less time to learn from each product, limiting its ability to optimise effectively.

Business Models That Use One-of-One Products

To understand whether you can still make Google Shopping work, it helps to look at businesses that already operate on a one-of-one product model.

Auctions

Online auction platforms like eBay are prime examples of businesses where products may only be available in single units. In these scenarios, a product may be sold to the highest bidder, meaning the product is available for only a short time. eBay, for instance, runs Google Shopping ads for products even if there is only one unit available, but it’s often more challenging to gather enough historical data for each product.

Marketplaces

Marketplaces like Etsy often feature unique, one-of-a-kind products from independent sellers. Similar to auction businesses, once a product sells, it disappears from the listings, creating similar challenges for gathering meaningful data. However, these marketplaces have managed to build effective Google Shopping campaigns by focusing on category-level data and optimising product listings with rich descriptions and accurate feeds.

Second-Hand/Pre-Loved Goods

Platforms like Vinted and Poshmark deal primarily in second-hand goods, where each item is unique. These businesses face similar challenges as auction and marketplace businesses in terms of stock management and data collection. Despite this, with the right strategies, even such businesses have been able to succeed on Google Shopping.

How to Tackle Google Shopping for One-of-One Products?

Despite the challenges, it is absolutely possible to drive Google Shopping growth with only one of each product. The key lies in approaching Google Shopping campaigns with a fresh perspective and carefully considering how to report, optimise, and manage your media budget. Here are some strategies to help you succeed:

Focus on Category-Level Data

When managing one-of-one products, it is essential to focus on broader data sets. You should track categories instead of individual products. For example, instead of tracking a specific product’s performance, track how well a particular category or brand is performing. This enables you to identify trends and adjust your campaigns accordingly.

By categorising products based on attributes like designers, styles, or types, you can group similar items and gain insights into which categories are trending. This aggregated data helps you better manage your Google Shopping campaigns.

Optimise Your Product Feed

The product feed is the heart of Google Shopping, and when dealing with one-of-one products, it’s even more important to keep it optimised. Since your inventory changes frequently, your feed must reflect real-time stock levels and product details. To ensure consistency, supplement your feed with additional data like product attributes, designers, and any relevant information that can help you group similar products together. The richer your feed, the more Google can optimise the campaigns.

Use Automation for Segmentation and Reporting

Even though automation may face some limitations with one-of-one products, it can still be valuable for segmentation and reporting. Focus on automating category-level reporting, which will allow you to see performance trends at a higher level. This way, you can set realistic budgets and performance targets based on product categories instead of individual products.

Use Manual Bidding

While Google’s Smart Bidding works best with stable data, using manual bidding strategies for specific categories or product groups can be a viable alternative. By manually adjusting bids based on category performance, you can ensure your campaigns remain optimised even when individual product performance fluctuates.

Improve Communication and Inventory Planning

With one-of-one products, you’ll need to have a clear communication strategy between the marketing team and the inventory team. Understanding product availability and stock fluctuations will help you plan more effectively and adjust your Google Shopping campaigns accordingly. Planning ahead ensures that you can react to changes in inventory and optimise your campaigns in real-time.

Conclusion

While managing Google Shopping campaigns for one-of-one products presents unique challenges, it is certainly possible to drive growth. By focusing on category-level reporting, optimising your product feed, leveraging manual bidding, and enhancing communication across teams, you can make the most of Google Shopping’s potential. Remember, the key lies in thinking on your feet, being agile with your strategies, and making the best use of the data you can gather. With the right approach, you can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth and success.