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What you need to know about coupon codes, why to use them, and how to apply them.
Here at Onefeed, we have focused on creating highly effective shopping campaigns for our clients, there are many ways in which we do this, but carefully using the features within Google’s Merchant Centre to maximise ROI is something we pride ourselves on.
Within this article, we will talk you through one feature specifically, and that is the Special Offers within Google Merchant Promotions which if used correctly can have a massive impact on improving both click through rates, but more importantly conversions.
What is a special offer when it comes to Google Merchant Promotions?
Many online retailers are already using Google Shopping Campaigns, as they allow the seller an opportunity to present an image, key product information and a direct link to buy straight on the Google results page. These ads are highly effective and perform incredibly well against text ads and organic search results.
There are many types of offers you can use, anything from a percentage discount, free shipping, to free gifts when spending over £x. The promotion is required to come into effect at the checkout, either through inputting a coupon code or an automatically added. Discounts cannot be applied before adding to the basket. An example of a special offer, could be that there is a 10% discount when spending over £100. For this to work and be accepted by Google, this discount can only be applied when the user has added over £100 of items to their basket and clicks through to checkout, at which point the discount can be applied.
To repeat, it is essential that no matter the promotion you are running, it must only be applied in the checkout process.
What do the special offer promotions do and what do they look like?
The chances are that as an online retailer you are already running website promotions or discounts, by utilising the Merchant Promotions, you get the opportunity to include these in your shopping ads.
The core goal of this is to stand out and distinguish your ad against those who are offering similar products, which in turn will encourage potential customers to visit your website.
In the example below, you will be able to see how the promotion is simple, yet eye catching, and although this offer is simple, and something likely already offered by many competitors, this gives Matches Fashion a competitive advantage.
How do you use this feature?
This is something which you can do yourself by using a couple of methods. You can either run this directly through the feed connected to the Merchant Centre, which is how we would typically work with our clients, as we can write custom rules to include, any number of options ranging from specific products, brands, to the entire product range.
The other option is to go directly into the Merchant Centre and follow the steps below. At this stage you will already need to have an account set up in the Merchant Centre and an active produce feed connected. Select products, then list. You will have the option to click on the + to create a new promotion.
The next step is to follow the instructions and complete the outlined fields.
If you require support setting up the your Merchant Centre account please see https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/4588748?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=7322211.
Almost there with this section, but to be clear the two options are:
- Adding the promotion directly into the live feed
This is what Onefeed usually does – using ID or SKU create custom rules to identify products promotion, adding a promotion id column to the feed
It is for this option we create the list bit which you’ve put instructions for
- Creating a separate promotional feed
As above but submit new feed with list of products in the promotion, only include the id and the promotion id and that’s underneath list where is says feeds. You can add all the promo info into the feed and there’s no need to do the add list part. You can see an example here:
What level of return can you expect?
When writing this post, I felt it was important to have something to back up why this type of offer can be so powerful.
At Onefeed we have been working with a number of clients helping improve their sales volumes and profitability, and one of these clients includes a leading online shoe retailer. Below are some stats pulled from a time period where no coupon codes were applied, as well as the differences by having coupon codes active. These figures were pulled from a 30 day period running with no coupon codes vs a 30 day period with the codes active.
As you can see these results speak for themselves, I have highlighted some key areas to look at, you can see a significant reduction in the cost of sale, and despite only a 0.97% increase in cost, there was a 109% increase in revenue and possible more importantly, an improved conversion rate of 117%
Want to know more?
As Google Shopping experts with over 10 years experience and an award-winning agency, we would love to speak to you about how we could support your digital growth. We work with businesses of all sizes so if you wanted to know more please call us on 0800 130 3140 or send an enquiry to hello@onefeed.co.uk[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
