Product data is the foundation of a strong-performing ad. It is the fuel that allows Connexity to boost brands to maximise their reach and achieve results. Yet too often, poor-quality information hinders the success of an otherwise star product. We sat down with Nick Shelbourne, Senior Technical Account Manager, to discuss all things bad product data in the second of a two-part series. From its key causes to preventative measures, we dived into everything you need to know.
Performance Issues Alter Results
Once bad product data has been delivered, it leads to poor results for everyone involved. Noncompliant feeds are less than ideal to work with and are regularly deemed unusable. Even when they are able to be used, the lack of key information can really impact the overall user experience. If there is a lack of complete or correct information on a product’s advertisement, this in turn can lead to poor performance.
From Nick’s perspective the customer experience is key: “Providing the user with as much information as possible from the beginning builds trust. It enables them to make informed decisions early on if they are interested. If you don’t have that information there, then they have to also click through, and then they may decide not to make a purchase.”
Diversity in Effects on Merchants and Publishers
The exact ways in which bad product data impacts publishers and merchants evoke varying challenges that differ from each other. For publishers, putting the right product ads on the relevant content is typically a high priority. The more information they have about products, the easier it is for them to target those ads. Without the right information, this again affects performance and leads to poor engagement.
For merchants, search platforms like Google and Bing are sensitive to any issues with the data. What happens with Google is if your product data is worse, it affects your overall quality score. So when it comes to whether an ad shows or not for a particular query on Google Search, the higher your quality score of your offers, the more likely it is to show. So it has a direct impact on impressions, click-through rates, and all of the things that directly relate to our bottom line, which is making more money. Advertisements with items that have missing attributes are filtered out of the feed altogether.
“For Google, it’s normally like 5-10% of the feed (that is filtered out). While sometimes that’s because you can’t run PLA ads on sensitive materials like pharmaceuticals, it’s often because they’re missing certain titles or certain information. Particularly if hero or hot products are getting taken out, that can have a huge impact. Even if it’s just 10% being taken out, if it’s these really popular products, it can have a huge impact on performance.
Start As You Mean To Go On
When it comes to proactively dealing with poor-quality product data, arguably the most important step in working against its presence is to put the groundwork in at the very beginning. Nick has strong feelings about the subject, saying, “Take it seriously! Invest in it, even if it requires purchasing a licence with a platform or if it requires booking in time with your technical team. It’s better to get that in place from the beginning to ensure that it’s accurate. That it has all of the fields that are required, that it’s being delivered frequently and that it’s a good feed for this channel.”
“Generally, we would say that we want as many products as possible, but we as a minimum want to make sure we have your hot products so that we can really go to market against your competitors because that’s ultimately a big part of what we’re doing. Your competitors are getting those clicks, so giving us the right tools really helps us to be more competitive in the auctions. Whether it’s the quality score or just not having the offers disapproved, that work at the beginning really pays off to just get it right the first time. Also, if it fails, have an alert so that you know that it’s failed so that you can deliver it to us. All systems will eventually have a problem where the network might be down or something might mess up. It’s important to have automated tools that do that. Then on an ongoing basis, audit the feed. Ensure that the quality is high and ensure that we have the right products. I think the main thing I would say is, from the beginning, implement it as you mean to go on. It’s much better to, from the beginning, get the right feed in place and build the foundation for success.”
The true value of product data is unlocked when it’s high quality. Inaccurate information can hinder product visibility and ad performance, but this can be easily solved. By simply prioritising data completeness and accuracy, merchants and publishers can eliminate these hurdles and work with Connexity to achieve their best results.
