40:03
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
google, product, shopping, kevin, ad, attributes, data, image, manufacturer, question, talk, don, success, keywords, feed, platform, audience, search, space, pinterest
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Curt Anderson, Kevin Burrell
Damon Pistulka 00:00
restarted the recording. We’re going to get go live over here on LinkedIn and then we will get going. So let me get my stuff set up here.
Curt Anderson 00:10
Happy Friday, everybody.
Damon Pistulka 00:21
All right, everyone. Welcome once again to the manufacturing ecommerce Success Series. I’m your co host, Damon Pistulka. With me today we’ve got Kurt Anderson, the other co hosts of this show. So Kurt, how are things today?
Curt Anderson 00:37
Hey, dude, they are absolutely flawless. Perfect. Happy Friday, everybody. We’re already we’re past the midpoint of July believe or not. Yeah. So I know it’s summertime. Some of our faithful they’re traveling today. So I know it’s summertime, people are off playing. But hey, we’ve got business to take care of today. So Damon, we have an amazing, incredible guest. You guys everybody sitting down for this one done. Are you sitting down Jean Paul like, this is a rock star. We’re gonna get in why he’s a rock star.
But Kevin Burrell. Kevin. Happy Friday, my friend. Welcome. And thank you for joining us today. Yeah, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Absolutely. So guys, quick little backdrop on Kevin. He has built an amazing, incredible career. He is an alum of Google. He’s actually worked for Google. And that’s our topic. Today we’re going to talk about Google Shopping.
He is alum of Pinterest. I mean, you really Dude, you’re really built up like the who’s who list on that. Incredible resume. What a great career. Yeah, you’ve just transition to a brand new company. We’re going to talk about that. But you know what, for my big 10 roots, I think I saw on your LinkedIn profile, or are you a hot guy? Did I see that correctly? Yes, I am I Oh, he’s an he’s an Iowa Hawkeye. He has a Master’s from DePaul if I’m not mistaken. So again, a wonderful, illustrious career. Now, after college, what did you do, Kevin? To my understanding you were promoting the Little Rock Band is that do I have that right?
Kevin Burrell 02:01
Yeah, I mean, after graduation, kind of finding myself in your 20s like everybody else does. I spent a little bit time promoting a rock band, a couple friends of mine, they started did pretty well for themselves for a little bit. But then found my starting Mark marketing and digital advertising and took it from there. That’s,
Curt Anderson 02:18
you know, it always thinks when we have to grow up and get that, you know, quote, real job, right? We all want it. You know, you you loved it. We all wanted to work with rock bands. You loved it, so good for you. So let’s, let’s dig right into our program. Today, we want to talk about Google Shopping. And let’s just, you know, I hate to go back to the basics for anybody out there is not familiar with it. What is Google Shopping Kevin? Yeah, a little bit of Google ads and Google Shopping.
Kevin Burrell 02:42
Yep. So we’re Google ads are more text based ads that allow you to go in and like use a search query to retrieve a text based result, Google Shopping ads are a little bit more richer of an ad unit where you submit product data. And the end result is when somebody does a product search within the search platform, you get an ad result that focuses on a product, meaning a product image along with a title and a price with it, click on that ad, it redirects you to your online store where somebody can complete a purchase.
Curt Anderson 03:11
Nice, perfect. So guys, so just you know, in layman’s terms, you just when you do that Google shirt search and like daymond, I, we always use that example of just you know, what do we wear everyday shoes? Yeah, you do that Google search for shoes. And at the top, you’re seeing a whole list of shoots. You know, Kevin, so let’s dig in. So why would you know, we target manufacturers talk about the benefits of Google Shopping over just a plain text ad?
Kevin Burrell 03:36
Yeah. So I mean, I think the big benefits of Google Shopping over plain text ad is one, it puts the image in front of the user, as well as the price so really shows you what you’re looking to purchase and gives you that price, that kind of upfront information that consumers really look for, in order to help them make a more informed decision to finalize and transact on a purchase.
I also want to add in I think what really makes Google Shopping great is that the experience of like clicking to an ad and then driving to an e commerce platform, instead of like a closed or walled garden, like some of the marketplaces, you have, Google really empowers you to really direct to your website and drive traffic to your website versus have your products be contained within a marketplace.
Damon Pistulka 04:23
Yeah, that’s one of the things that I really, I really liked about the Google Shopping platform when you’re when you’re using a lot, a lot of the if you own your platform, a lot of those platforms will integrate with Google Shopping directly and upload the product data almost automatically through the feeds. And you can you can instantly put 1000s of products in that Google Shopping feed overnight. Really?
Kevin Burrell 04:47
Yeah. I mean, I think that’s a great segue to some of the topics that I really want to like help explore with your audience today, especially like that data piece, right? Yeah, that data and data feed pieces like really integral to success on Google. Like your bids and budget, but if you want to, like get established on the Google platform, it really comes down to like strong data. Like if you can provide that high quality data, that’s what really helps translate to success. And I really want to start there. It’s like, what is high quality data?
And where does it start, right. And for any sort of like manufacturer, creating a data feed, that high quality data is going to come from the content that is either contained on your website, or contained within some sort of like, Alright, so really, when you’re thinking about like a feed and a product feed, those attributes that Google’s asking for, compare it to the content that you have, and start asking yourself, like, what are the consumers of your product really looking for?
What do they need to know? And that can help inform which attributes that you really hone in on to find success on Google, I think one thing I’d love to give to your audiences that not only are the required attributes, very useful, but there are some optional attributes that kind of control like where your ad shelf, the Google Shopping website, the actual shopping site that you hit on Google that actually takes you to the Google marketplace, or if it is on, like Google Images, or YouTube. Not only the campaign settings that you up, allow your ads to appear in multiple spaces. So it gives you the opportunity to get in front of more eyeballs, and potentially more consumers.
Curt Anderson 06:31
Yeah, that’s. So Kevin, let’s dig deep into that. So you know, so if anybody’s familiar with Google ads, again, think about the text ads. So you know, for years, you know, and Kevin, you’ve been doing this for a long time. You know, for those those those been around a while, you remember, in the 2000s, when Google was a very clean slate, there was never an image on a Google search result, it was all type space.
Well, what changed? Pinterest, you know, Amazon, shop on online shopping, markets, you know, the shot, social media platforms, now started blasting images everywhere. And so now Google is facing fierce competition from a search standpoint, so they had to get into the image game.
Thus, they really started going aggressive with Google Shopping. So on Google ads, I’m going to do a text ad, I’m trying to capture somebody’s attention, almost like a newspaper, a little headline, you know, hey, click my ad, you’re gonna love my product, X percent off or some some type of a call to action? Right. Yeah. With with a, and I had the, I have the ability to use my keywords in my Google ads. Right. So I’ll talk a little bit deeper on how how can you have a good effective strategy? You know, when I can’t put all my keywords into that Google Shopping feed? How does that work?
Kevin Burrell 07:44
Yeah, that is a great question. And I think it’s also a myth that we could potentially bust. Right. Awesome. Good. I think that there’s a lack of understanding that I’m so used to text ads, that when I try to apply the same strategy, so text ads, Google Shopping, it doesn’t work. And to be honest, it’s kind of a yes and no, I think where I want to focus the audience on thinking about is, yes, you can use those keywords, except when you think about Google Shopping, don’t think about as keywords.
Think about it. As product metadata, specifically, a good example is product titles, right? Those are the places where I’m going to really load up on my important key, having the most important, the product title, specifically, like brand, what the actual product title is, and any other additional attributes that help really describe the data, I’d say you want to include about maybe 75 characters is a good length for a product title.
And then if you don’t have additional room to add those keywords into the product title, you can always default to two other attributes, which is primarily product description. And then the last one is product type, which is a kind of like free text field that most retailers use to kind of like, demonstrate or show their product taxonomy. Um, so those are the places where I really like focus on those keywords, the most important keywords, not only to your audience, first and foremost, those people who are shopping for it, but then the keywords that are important to you, in order to be able to show in the spaces that you want to.
Damon Pistulka 09:18
Yeah. So when you talk about attributes, the what are some of that you said the title, obviously, to get the keywords in, but you said there were other product attributes they should be talking about? Is it appropriate for us to kind of dive into that a little bit now or wait?
Kevin Burrell 09:33
Yeah, no, let’s dive into that. Now. I mean, first and foremost, you always want to give the required attributes, the required attributes are there in order to make sure that you kind of the entry point to getting your product to show required attributes and really nailing down those required attributes first, because that’s going to constitute your success and allow you to get past the Google policies. Secondly, you want to look at the optional attributes, the optional attributes, if you Use those optional attributes.
When you’re on the Google Shopping page, you’ll notice that on the right hand rail, there are those navigational buttons to help you not only as you do a product search, narrow down your product search, yeah, especially for b2b and kind of manufacturers who are using that, those options, give you those options, and those filters on the right hand side to help shoppers who are on the Google Shopping page, really narrow down and find the product that they’re looking for. So keep that in mind as well, especially as you try and like open up and try and get your products distributed across the whole Google Platform.
Damon Pistulka 10:40
Yeah, great. Great. So yeah, I’m gonna ask one more question. Yeah, I’m making something. So your optional attributes, I didn’t really realize this, because it’s always been kind of a fixed product that I’ve worked with, or products. So your optional attributes will allow you. So if I made something in three different sizes, I would show them all, but you can sort by size or sort by whatever, you know, the different attributes of that product, color, something like that, to be able to help it. Exactly. Ah, okay,
Kevin Burrell 11:12
cool. Um, that’s a good point about attributes. Specifically, when you have or when you Google Make sure to include, right, so I think a good example might be like a craftsman a craftsman wrench, right? And let’s say that Craftsman wrench comes in like four different colors. We’re just using this as a hypothetical example. Make sure that you include all this, like the color variants in there, to be able to like really help users who are looking for maybe a red variation, find that red variation, why versus the black variation.
Curt Anderson 11:49
Awesome. Awesome. Wow, this is man, this is juicy, isn’t it? This is great information. So and everyone if you have any questions, please drop in the chat box. Paul. Thank you, Paul job, his LinkedIn profile, we have Kevin’s LinkedIn profile in the chat box, I encourage everybody dropped out Hello, put your LinkedIn profile in there. That’s all connect. So Kevin, we have a couple folks on online today is mere fact we’re standing each each coast. So we have done up in Alaska, he manufactures this amazing, incredible fishing lure, we have our dear friend Corey Stern, Jeffrey owns a company called voice Express.
And he does if you’ve ever been to build a bear, or if you’ve ever purchased a bear for a child, that little recording device that goes inside that bear that comes from Jeffrey stern voice Express. He also does like audio brochures that are speaking brochures, that type of thing. So for folks like that this is a great tool and a great resource, where conversions I found are typically much much higher on Google Shopping than they are on your text ads. You know, sometimes somebody might they don’t read the entire ad, they don’t pay attention.
They’re curious, or there’s, and they’re just going to click on a case. So like, David, you’re very familiar with my ground strap guy, right? So I have a client that use ground straps. Well, there’s different types. There’s like a ground strap that can go into the heel, for if you’re if you’re doing electrical work, and you want to be grounded. And it’s a totally different product. Well, we don’t want those clicks. So by having that picture, and that visual helps those conversion rates. As far as Kevin as far as like increasing conversion rates for either like Don or a friend Jeffrey, what are other some other tactics that you would recommend for them in their Google Shopping initiative?
Kevin Burrell 13:26
Yeah, I think one of the things that I’ve seen success with is visuals and testing visuals. Um, one thing that I would really encourage manufacturers and retailers that think about is not just providing a product image, but also thinking about maybe a lifestyle image. And what we carry out as a lifestyle image, as is a image that actually shows the product in action or, and specifically, like by showing uses, it kind of gives users that context about what the products main intention is and how others might use it.
So definitely, like think about that. And then your content strategy. Just having a product shot well is great. I’ve got to shows users what they’re buying, like those lifestyle images, and leading with those lifestyle images really helps to show how the product is being used. Yeah,
Curt Anderson 14:20
yeah, like we’re in class right now.
Damon Pistulka 14:22
That was Dallas key right there because because, you know, we talk about the ground straps, we talk about tennis shoes, we talk about all these other things, but when you when you talk about marketing in general, and you talk about you know, your homepage, everything else the lifestyle images are seeing people using the product or service is so important. And as I was reading the other day, it’s just happy people using your stuff is what they what what gets that first curiosity to get people to click so I can see why that that lifestyle image of product certainly will help.
Kevin Burrell 14:54
Yeah, definitely. I mean, Google does have guidelines to like say, hey, show the product No white background. Yeah, yeah. If you do include that lifestyle image, and you have the opportunity to lead with that lifestyle image, especially on other platforms as well, like your Facebook’s or Pinterest, etc, that can really help from a content perspective. Help your product stand out versus all the others in the crowd.
Damon Pistulka 15:18
Yeah, well,
Curt Anderson 15:19
this is this is powerful. And so guy teach teachers and classes and session teachers in the house right now. Right, Kevin, this is why we had you on so I want to give a shout out and hello to Jean Jean. Hello, my friend. JOHN, thank you for joining us hope everything’s great in Jersey. My friend Don up in Alaska has a question for us. Yes. And this is perfect. Because Kevin, I didn’t know I didn’t know about the lifestyle images. And this is and I’m glad Dan is chiming in. So Don has this amazing fishing lewerke. It’s a scented fishing Lord that he produces. So his question to you is, are there limits to motion images on Google?
Kevin Burrell 15:55
Yeah, I mean, I think right now, like motion images, they did have a test where they did 3d images that was not seen as successful as some of the other things that we talked about, like like, images, and including the images in terms of like motion and motion images. Right now, I would hold off on that, unless there’s a way to test it. My understanding is like on the on the platform, especially on the ads, there’s no way to include that kind of like motion image on there. Make sure the really like drive that home on your product detail webpage. Yeah. exclude that from the product feed for now.
Damon Pistulka 16:30
Yeah. And real quick, I was gonna chat. We got a lot of action going on here on LinkedIn. I got I don’t know, there’s 3030 comments or something already. So awesome. Awesome discussion here. Dave. We got April Kelly, join us. We got Ahmed. Joining us we got Let’s see who else? cipher Seifer. And then who else Jennifer. So thanks a lot for commenting on LinkedIn, we got a lot going on there. Keep the comments rolling. I’m putting them up as we can. Thanks.
Curt Anderson 17:03
So Kevin, let’s see. If we could I’m in this is this is more for me. Like let’s talk a little bit more in these lifestyle images. So again, oh, hitting our audience here. So like Don are efficient or or Jeffrey, who does audio brochures, what would be some examples that would be that you thought that you have found with, you know, over your experience that would be powerful for those folks who use?
Kevin Burrell 17:25
Yeah, I mean, lifestyle images, I mean, especially if we’re talking about Loris probably like close up images of the lores with probably a background in terms of like, where or how it can be used. Maybe an action shot of somebody using the law with the emphasis being on the lore. So maybe guys in the background do on the cast, but up closer in your picture is actual, like the lore starting to fly into the water. So just kind of think about like your when you’re developing content, how you want your product to be seen and the light that you want it to be seen.
But also on top of that, right? Like if you’re trying to enhance the image, again, like going back to those optional attributes, like, like all the attributes in combination in terms of how you want to highlight your product. And like take advantage of that. I think one attribute that I saw success with while I was at my time working with a big box retailer at Google is there was a, I believe a bullet image attribute that we’re trying to test.
It’s been renamed it’s the name is escaping me on the top of my head right now. But you could add those bullet or list features within your product feed. And while you’re not only like using that lifestyle image, like really cast and show prominence of the product that you’re having, you can now include like bullet points to highlight key feature though that so called out like scented lore, right? You could use that bullet point attribute to call out like, sure, or how many inches of line that comes with that. Or what scent does the scented Lord come in, etc. Then,
Curt Anderson 18:56
man, Paul in Jersey, is this just amazing or what? So anyway, so let’s keep this party rolling. Guys, I’m gonna I’m gonna put Kevin’s LinkedIn profile if you’re coming in late. Kevin is an alum from he actually worked at Google. He’s worked at Pinterest. I mean, we’ve really brought in a high level of authority on this topic. Kevin, in your experience, what are some of the negatives? What are some of the challenge rising negatives? What are some of the challenges that you’ve seen with retailers or with Google customers with Google Shopping what are some like common problems and mistakes that you see?
Kevin Burrell 19:29
Yeah, so common problems and mistakes that I was exposed to global trade identification number or GTIN. What that is is the barcode that comes with the product when it gets scanned through on most big box retail stores. I’ve seen that most. Not most most of the big box retailers that I had if they weren’t being supplied to a G 10.
Through their supply chain after purchasing from the manufacturer often struggled with Google policies in terms of providing a GTIN. So if you’re a manufacturer It’s really important to not only have that global trade identification number for your product, especially if it’s being sold in retail stores across the country, but also be able to supply that to your supplier. So not only for you to list it, but data listed as well. So really like trying to find those Google policies by just providing high quality and accurate data.
Not only that, the second thing that I saw as a challenge is pricing, right? I think with a lot of smaller outfits and even manufacturers providing a data feed at times is a challenge. Because your product data might not update on a day to day basis, like some of the big box retailers or more established boutique brands that are out there.
What I would encourage is like try and figure out some way to automate your product data and get that data feed in there every day with accurate pricing and availability, information. Pricing and availability information is really key because especially as a business owner, or like a consumer searching for that like that product is available and ready to go and at the price. And if I can’t get it with you, then that bounces me to somebody else who might be able to provide that service. So don’t miss out on a sale. Really try and like push that accurate and comprehensive product data out there to Google on a daily basis and that will definitely help with some of your long term results.
Curt Anderson 21:24
awesome awesome. And I like what you’re saying you know so as far as like you know, we have small manufacturers boutique was a word you use our dear friend Daisy up in Alaska, she makes amazing dog treats easy, my dog thanks you and loves your dog treats. But that’s I love that tip. So is there selling direct to consumers, you know, they have their own UPC or like that GTI n number. However, if they’re going after resellers, this is very valuable information to make sure that they’re providing that correct information to their resellers that might be using Google Shopping for those products. Yeah, right. That’s what you’re that’s definitely,
Kevin Burrell 21:58
definitely excellent. And I love the fact that you called out like a manufacturer that might have resellers, right, because I think, in the Google Shopping space, there might be a concern that Oh, if I’m giving out this information to a reseller, and that reseller is also bidding on the same things that I am, that reseller is going to Trump me in the Google Ad auction space, and I’m not gonna have an opportunity to drive sales to my website,
I think one area that businesses can focus on is a lot less of like that bidding component like, let those other resellers like Trump you within the auction unless you really feel like you need to have that first level slot, and let them kind of like drive the bulk of your business and continue to bring that into you. And I think one thing that you could do as a retailer, if you’re in that spot, and facing that is, um, you want to be able to help control or influence the product data that’s going out, because you don’t know what kind of information that reseller is going to push out there. In order to kind of get that attention from Google.
And where one solution that I was exposed to before and during my time at Google was something called Google manufacturer center. For those who are not familiar with Google manufacturer center, it kind of functions the same as Google Merchant Center, it is a repository in which you can add a product feed or product data in order to get that product data into Google.
But what manufacturer Center does is it allows a mechanism for manufacturers who want to be able to provide product data and like lead with their product data, to be able to submit that data through Google manufacturer center and have some measure of control versus the resellers out there. And really like the spec and attributes are, I’d say vastly different because what Google’s trying to do is get more manufacturer specific information, and let that lead or be the source of truth within the Google Shopping platform that they have.
So for those that don’t understand it, you could just do a quick shirts for Google manufacturer center. really sit down, use the Help Center like this, anything like use the Google Help Center the information is well documented it out there spending maybe like 1015 minutes just going through it really helps save time and questions. But think about using Google manufacturer center, developing a product suite specifically for manufacturer center, and submitting that to use that to kind of provide a measure or of safety and guardrails for you and your product that the way you want it to be presented.
Curt Anderson 24:27
This is fantastic. And I have to admit, Kevin, you introduce something new to me. And I guys, I dropped the link in the chat box. And so check out the Google manufacturer center. What an incredible resource. Kevin, thank you for introducing us to that one. So what are some of the, you know, homeruns like you had wonderful success at Google, I believe, 85% year over year growth made monster numbers again, you know, we’re a bunch of small entrepreneurs, you know, that we don’t hit those types of numbers. But what are some of the best practices that you saw are like Were any like real specific success stories that you saw that you want to share with everybody?
Kevin Burrell 25:05
Yeah. Um, before getting into the success stories? Yeah. That’s why I asked the question. And I want to make sure to address that quick question for Don, and then come back on. So yeah, my bad. Yeah, that’s right. I’ll come back to those some of those wins. So I believe Don’s question is like, is there software, even free software to help Automate Pricing and pricing data? From what I’m seeing? There are systems and solutions out there. I mean, most of them are coming from like e commerce and e commerce platforms.
Shopify is big, you can like getting bigger out there in the space there, through those ecommerce platforms, that are available for businesses who are on those platforms to be able to, like help submit that Google product data into them. Those as sorry, as far as like, like free software to help automate that pricing data. I mean, it’s kind of dependent on the again, the platform you use what the technology you have, there are a lot of asins solutions out there to help out with that. Have one I’d recommend over the other.
Curt Anderson 26:08
Yeah, and indein? That’s an excellent question. And Kevin, thank you for tackling that. And so a lot of our folks are using WordPress or WooCommerce. And so and I know like Don, we’ve we’ve talked with Jason, Jeffrey, you’ve worked with our friend Jason. And so we have those data feeds, you know, coming rate from your comments that go right into Google Shopping, so we can keep that live automated, so you’re not babysitting it. So there’s a lot of great tools and resources that you can add.
Kevin Burrell 26:33
Yep, perfect. So you haven’t expand? You got my back? I’m supposed to be reading the chat box for you. And you reverse roles. So thank you. No, no worries, again, here to help. And I mean, going back to your question, right, like water runs that I’ve seen, just different partners use a couple of home runs that I’ve seen is one margin data. I know everybody’s afraid or doesn’t want to share out what their margins are.
But I have worked with two retailers in the past that have provided margin data and use that for like bidding and bidding components within Google. And what they did is instead of providing like the margin numbers, what they did is they broke it out into kind of generic buckets like high medium and low margin. And then kind of grouped their products together to be able to bid up on those high margin products, and bid down those low margin products.
So consider margin data, especially if you have like a more robust catalog, like robust catalog to me means like, over 1000 products. Plus, if you have a catalog that big, then you could probably segment it into a lot of different buckets for that margin, to profitability. And not just like bid on product visibility.
Damon Pistulka 27:46
Yeah, that’s a great point. Because, you know, I’ve got a client where we were feeding about 100k skews into it. And that thing that was very helpful for us, and we didn’t do segment and margin, that’s a good idea, because we will do that. But the some of the stuff is amazing what you can figure out what using Google Shopping and getting into the technical and into the, the, my world, the Geek stuff, to be able to really go that it doesn’t sell well, or I don’t want to be placing ads in New York City, I’m better in the rural areas around the city.
So I can go by zip code or go by, you know, just, there’s so much of that. So I’m thinking of like Don with a fishing lure, you know, you may want to exclude certain parts of the country in where you’re covering. And the times a day, it’s got a lot of the same features that Google Ads does to be able to control the way you spend your money on the shopping ads and do that which which really is like it is in the ads, it’s very, very applicable in shopping as well.
Kevin Burrell 28:51
Yes, definitely, you should definitely like really considered those like location targets. Definitely. Also, think about who your audience is, like, if you want to market more towards men versus women that are both like, I would say in regards to that, like, don’t be afraid to market to both women buy items for men just as much as men buy items for women, um, and kind of like that broad targeting start broad first and then start to narrow down like where your audiences based on the success of your campaigns.
Damon Pistulka 29:23
Yeah, and just like with Google ads, as your campaigns are running, you can see where you’re getting the best return on your ad spend. And then take those areas out if a certain geographical area certain demographic isn’t really giving you the return you want. You can remove them from the campaigns and and optimize your ad spend.
Kevin Burrell 29:43
Yes, definitely. I think one other point to call out on that, too, is like audiences and uploading audiences into the platform based on users who are on your website, right? Yeah. You already know who’s coming to your website and who’s completing purchases like you can now use that on To try and find like, look alike are active like audience who might also be interested in your platform and are also doing kind of like same sites, types of behavior online.
Damon Pistulka 30:10
Yeah, that’s a great point. And that, especially for people that have you know, if you had 10,000 users that have been on your site, the upload that audience and, and, you know, try to target users like that on Google, it’s very beneficial. Yes. Yeah. That’s a great point. Cool.
Curt Anderson 30:28
Yeah. This so let’s let’s do it. Let’s shoot man, we’ve covered No, man, let’s, let’s do like a little recap here. So Kevin, so best practices, I just want to run through things that we’ve covered in this short period of time. attributes you wouldn’t date you dug deep into, you know, how to fill out how to optimize keywords, proper language, how to maximize those opportunities. Were a bombshell I love was, you know, those lifestyle pictures, right?
Not us the product pitcher, those lifestyle pitchers. So let’s think about those. You talked about pricing, how to maximize those pricing opportunities, margins, any other audiences. I love that so guys, so folks, we work with Daisy dad, we talked about, you know, that buyer persona, we call them our soulmates?
How do we speak to that right soulmate. And like you’re, you’re introducing a great strategy of how we can apply an audience to our Google Shopping strategy to pull in more of those ideal buyers. So this is phenomenal. Kevin, where do you see Google Shopping? You know, any predictions? But like, Where’s the future? Like, what do you see like right now? Or what do you see six months or a year from now versus Google Shopping heading?
Kevin Burrell 31:39
Yeah, um, that’s always hard to predict, because like my experience there, Google Google’s voice testing and trying out new features. And I mean, even over this, like last year, from the pandemic, when we saw Google open up, and now they’re able to accept Amazon feeds.
We’ve also seen like the newest kind of roll out on YouTube, like they’re starting to kind of move into that kind of like, tick tock space with YouTube shorts, but also within the shopping space, they’re also like trying to explore live streaming, live streaming is where I think a lot of the future is going to be at, I mean, of course, you have things bialetti, and like virtual reality, but kind of like short term. For me, it’s video. And I think what you’re going to start to see is like, more and more influencers, use that video space to promote the products they love, maybe not like receiving a payment.
But then once they start to get bigger and bigger, then that’s when brands come through with those influencer marketing, on like live streaming platforms in order to get products out there and open. So I’m Crystal Ball, like looking at it next five to 10 years, again, that live streaming, live streaming shopping, more seamless payments and payment integrations, as we saw, expanded by the pandemic that we have, people don’t want to touch things people want to have, like touchless payments, and you’re gonna start to see kind of like payments and pay that payment start to grow as well.
So a lot to look at and think about, ultimately, really what it will come down to is like, for you as a retailer, like really trying to own your site, as well as like making sure that you use the data that you have and captured on your industry distribute to these advertising platforms like like Google, specifically, which is the largest out there. But also like the Facebook’s the beings, the Pinterest, etc. Get your product data out there and try and like, think of it as phishing, you cast a wide net, and bring the customers to you.
Damon Pistulka 33:37
Yeah, yep, that’s where those datafeeds I can’t, I can’t say those datafeeds are so useful. Because if you can get a good data, some sort of nucleus, that’ll put the data out to Facebook and Google and even being in other places like that, where you can hit the different platforms easy. It makes it so much easier.
Kevin Burrell 33:58
Yep. And the great thing about those data feeds is, for the most part that Google feeds back is kind of the industry standard across all the platforms. So make sure you definitely set set one feet up for success, maybe have like a master product data feed. Yeah. And then use that to aggregate across all the platforms. Yeah.
Curt Anderson 34:18
You know, this is phenomenal, because you know, like, again, our friend Jeffrey Stern, he does a great job. He promotes his product on Amazon, you do a lot of product searches. And so what we preach is like, hey, how can we dominate search and by parlaying our strategies with those online marketplaces with Google Shopping, you can come up multiple times, you know, and like really kind of own some certain niche keywords. So it’s an excellent opportunity. I love what you’re saying about Tick tock, I know daymond and I know Bonnie’s with us.
She would love hearing that, you know, tick tock is a she’s a tick tock queen. Yeah. person out there. Kevin, last question for you because I could keep you all day, dude. I want to be mindful of your time and everybody’s time service space company. So we do a lot of custom manufactures. They have processes. They’re not OEMs, meaning original equipment manufacturers where they have that finished good. Maybe could be accounting or other services? Are you seeing service based companies using Google Shopping as a tool?
Kevin Burrell 35:14
Yeah, that’s a great question. Um, as far as like service based companies like Google Shopping right now at this point is not built for that. It’s more built for like hard products and being able to, like, promote those products on their service based companies.
I think one of the best players that I’ve seen out there trying to do this is like, Best Buy, which is kind of like, one not only showing like that hard product, but to offering the services alongside of it, like the Geek Squad, or Warren’s real, while it’s not promoted on Google Shopping for that, they’re trying to figure out ways where they’re using kind of what I’d call like ancillary ads, or ancillary spaces, to really like not only pair that information, through paid search, text ads, but also with the shopping ads there.
Curt Anderson 35:56
Yeah, I would think like, I don’t know, if universities but like, courses, classes, you know, so, like, some of those types of products? Those would be, I think they would be applicable, when would they not? Like if you if you had like a company did like training sessions? or what have you that you could sell a training sessions just as much as on a pair of shoes, right?
Kevin Burrell 36:17
not there yet. But where that is, is those subscription based software services. So for instance, if you’re doing like, my, I think Microsoft and Microsoft technology is a good one. Like, if you’re like doing, like an online, like selling of it, right?
Google does support that. I think the other kind of incidents that I’ve seen it also within the telecom space, where it’s like, you sell the phone, but if you have a contract, then there’s the phone, Google’s kind of like, given retailers an opportunity to kind of communicate that out. So they do really good with like, understanding the space and space of shopping service base. like kind of like offerings might not be there yet, but I wouldn’t put anything past their like business and business development teams to like, really look at that space in the future.
Curt Anderson 37:06
I agree. It’s gonna, you’ve really opened my eyes up to a lot of different be interesting, like SAS products, or QuickBooks or, you know, software accounting and be interesting to see how many people start taking advantage of Google Shopping, and even what we talked about with our custom manufacturers, where they’re like, you know, hey, we sell a process or, you know, we make things for other people. daymond, I’ve talked about, well, you know, what, if you just created that finish, good use Google Shopping as a lead source.
And then, you know, get into the conversation of offering an RF cue, or, you know, request for proposal, that type of thing. So I want to I want to be mindful of everybody’s time. I know we’re 10 after we could talk all day, Kevin, I want to give everybody a chance. I’m sure folks are dying to talk to you at the tables. Diane says it up a notch phishing loves casting the net to real customers. So Dan, dude, you’re just like Google right? casting those nets. Kevin, any parting words any last thoughts that you want to share with with our crowd?
Kevin Burrell 38:00
I just want to say thank you, everyone, for allowing me to kind of like come here and be in this space and have this discussion of shopping is something of a passion of mine. And want to see everybody from like the biggest corporations to the smallest ones be successful.
Curt Anderson 38:13
Wow, this, this just phenomenal Daisy Don gal. Jean, john paul, dude. Ladies, love you guys. Thank you for joining us. It’s always an honor. When you’re with us on our Fridays, Dave and I love doing this. Just you know, Kevin, just like Kevin, dude, you just you’re just such a gift. What a what an absolute honor to hear you share your expertise with us. We appreciate it. We’re honored. Thank you for taking your time. Damon, my
Damon Pistulka 38:40
brother. All right. Well, that’s great cabinet. Like like said, I get into this stuff too. And this fun talking about about it. And I won’t get too technical with people. But you know, Google Shopping is something that I’ll tell you what, if you’re using ads, you’re selling products, and you’re not using Google Shopping, you’re missing out. And I feel very fortunate have talked to Kevin today.
And I want to thank everyone for listening to us on LinkedIn. I also want to remind everyone, something we got coming up that we are pretty jacked about for August, we’re starting our digital success programs we were running them in in June, we got another group of them going on in August. If you anyone wants to start their digital journey, we’ve got some people that have been in it with Daisy and Dawn and some others that are on here. They’ve been in it, but they got any questions about that.
I can drop that in Actually, I can drop it in the chat. I’m gonna play a current role here and I’m gonna drop you can see what we got going on for August here. And I’m gonna do that also on LinkedIn. But I want to thank everyone for watching us on LinkedIn. April, Jennifer, everyone else that was commenting like crazy on your thanks so much. But we are going to go back to the tables now. I’m dropping off the LinkedIn live. We’re going back to the table so people can talk with Kevin.
Curt Anderson 39:56
Thanks, guys. happy weekend. God bless. Thank you,
39:59
Kevin. Awesome
