In May, Google announced that the UK would lose its free shopping channel. While this has angered many users, with some arguing this goes against Google’s previous statements regarding ’paid inclusion’, the fact remains that policyIS changing, and you need to make an informed decision about what to do next.
“On May 31, we announced a new initiative to improve our shopping experience over time. We designed this initiative to help shoppers better research purchases, compare different products and their features and prices, and then connect with merchants to make their purchase.”
If you want to continue to appear in the shopping results
If you want to continue to appear in the shopping results you will have to pay.
For the optimistic among us, this can be viewed as an opportunity. Your competitors very well may opt out of paying for Shopping, leaving you in a prime position to pick up more sales; or, you can decide to take the hit on traffic/sales and ramp up on your inbound marketing.
Your options as I see them:
Jump Ship: Let this channel slip
You can simply forget about this once-free channel and move onto other activities to generate sales and visibility. However, you need to know how much you are set to lose. To determine this, look at your stats package and see what sales/traffic you are currently getting from Google merchant/shopping.
Limp In: Spend a penny
Invest a little time and money into trying the the new paid-for system at the minimum cost. Bid 1p on for all your existing items to try to maintain visibility at the minimum cost. This way you can test the waters cheaply and get in on the action early and potentially see benefits over the people who jump ship.
Be bold: Jump in head first
There are people in business who are risk takers, sometimes risks pay off sometimes they don’t. You will find though, that the risk takers who win more often than they lose, are the ones who do there research and testing.
Work out your margins, calculate your customer life-time-value and an acceptable cost of acquisition, and enter the virgin market strong-armed with your data and analysis.
Nothing ventured nothing gained!
Of course this is just advice, and unfortunately we can neither take credit for your success, nor responsibility for any falters. We can however offer you expert advice, so don’t hesitate to contact us.
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