Everyone knows what it means when you say, “You are what you eat.” Well, a product feed is (quite literally) what your ad campaigns are eating. This is the diet that’s fed into your campaign structure and eventually constitutes various ad types across the primary platforms (Google, Amazon, Facebook), as well as hundreds of others. World-class athletes don’t sustain themselves on the daily corn dog, Fritos, and frozen pizza diet—nor do top brands promote their inventory with error-ridden product catalogs.
Here are a couple concepts to keep in mind for ensuring the long-term health and vitality of your advertising efforts.
Your Feed is Your Friend
Managing product feeds was historically one of those Wizard of Oz “man behind the curtain” jobs that rarely took priority over campaign management tasks like bidding and keyword expansion. The error here is viewing these as mutually independent of each other.
In fact, the product feed and campaign relationship is a left hand / right hand one, in which synergy yields the most efficient and results-driven performance. If you don’t know who’s managing your product feed—reach out, make a friend (and vice versa, feed folks).
Work Together
As you implement best practices and consistently deliver clean, high-quality product data, the next step is understanding the performance effects and connecting more closely with your campaigns. Be sure to:
- Run a test. See which image (for example, landscape or portrait) generates the best click-through rate for a given product.
- Build analysis. For example, track a product’s price point over a period of time against that same product’s conversion rate.
- Integrate your feed with your campaigns. Declining inventory can immediately (and automatically) bring about a more conservative paid effort for a non-competitive product.
These strategies require investment in effort up front but yield good dividends for the brands that take the care to do it.
Learn More
At the end of the month, Marin and Feedonomics will partner together on a webinar to discuss product feeds and ad campaigns, and give some real-world scenarios with the help of Hero Digital. Sign up today to join us on Thursday, January 31st, 10 am PT.
Speaker Bios
Brian Roizen is the Cofounder and Chief Architect of Feedonomics where he oversees all of Feedonomics’ Automation Processes. He loves taking the most annoying manual tasks and automating them. Brian has previously created several artificial intelligence websites and mobile apps that reached tens of millions of users per month. Brian received both a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA, where he graduated summa cum laude.
Andrew Todd is a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Marin Software where he is tasked with building innovative digital advertising functionality that helps brands grow online. His voice at the company is largely that of the customer – helping ensure that Marin delivers what the market wants. Prior to his time at Marin, Andrew worked at independent agencies in New York and Austin, focused on eCommerce and lead generation. Andrew received a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Tennessee and enjoys traveling, listening to music, and spending time with family and friends.
Emma Welcher has 6+ years of experience driving paid media strategy and performance for clients across a variety of industries and channels. From strategic planning to optimizations, Emma helps drive continued growth for lead generation and e-commerce clients. She is excited by how fast everything can change in digital marketing and the opportunity to leverage platform updates to stay ahead of the competition.
