More consumers are turning to the web to shop for and purchase products. As we head into the festive season online retail is expected to account for 20% of all Christmas sales this year [1]. Unfortunately many retail websites haven’t matched the increase in traffic with better site usability and speed. Recent research conducted by Forrester Consulting in the US found that a mere two seconds is the new threshold of an average online shopper’s patience with website loading times. While 40% of shoppers will wait no longer than three seconds before abandoning a retail or travel site [2].

More surprising perhaps than just how elusive online customer engagement has become is the fact that many pure play retailers, those with their bedrock firmly entrenched in the world of eCommerce, are now seen as lagging behind their multichannel counterparts in delivering good online performance. The eRetail Benchmark study conducted by eDigital Research identified traditional retailers as “consistently outperforming their pure play and catalogue rivals online, using multichannel technology and customer service expertise to their advantage” [3].

As reported by Internet Retailing, traditionalist retailer John Lewis was the study's top performing website followed by Marks & Spencer and Next with New Look moving into the top ten sites on account of its “best in class” shopping basket function [3]. The Retail Bulletin and specialist website testing company Sitemorse study of October’s top 50 Retail websites also confirmed similar findings. They noted the lack of pure plays at the upper end of their rankings and gave special recognition to traditional retailer, HMV for their newly overhauled website [4].

The message to all online retailers must surely be that regularly changing, testing and evolving their site is imperative. However, the scale of these changes need not be too drastic, on paper at least. Econsultancy and Red Eye found that relatively straightforward practices such as aligning keywords, calls to action and landing pages plus using compelling and effective calls to action are associated with high levels of customer satisfaction and conversion [5]. Good web analytics can also play its part with segmenting customers, removing bottlenecks and blockages to conversion and identifying key performance indicators being other beneficial actions for online retailers to take [5].

With Christmas just round the corner and for some eCommerce marketers regarding their current online stores with some slight concern, only minor modifications would seem prudent or potentially necessary. Meanwhile those looking to address specific pain points such as the effects of a poor onsite search facility for example, might read about products such as the newly announced Google Commerce Search with some interest. More details were posted by our colleagues in the US here

[1] NMA November 13, 2009
[2] Internet Retailing September 22, 2009
[3] Internet Retailing November 06, 2009
[4] The Retail Bulletin November 02, 2009
[5] Internet Retailing October 09, 2009

Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team

Internet Retailing recently posted a revealing interview with Peter Fitzgerald, Industry Leader at Google UK. View it here:



Posted by Brendan Patterson, UK Retail Team

October has often been a month of economic turmoil; it is the month when both the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987 took place. Last year, it looked like the global economy was on the precipice of financial meltdown. It was during October that various governments were forced to take shares in numerous large financial institutions.

Refreshingly, 12 months on and October appears to have passed without major incident. The banks look like they will survive, the FTSE 100 is up around 30%, and GDP is expected to be positive in the next quarter.

After a very tough year for retailers, the story seems the same. According to the CBI optimism from UK retailers is the most positive it has been in 2 years. High Street sales have grown modestly in the year to October[1].

However online retail presents a much stronger picture, and is the channel driving growth for a lot of retailers. Argos have reported that 'Check & Reserve' orders have grown 50% and represent 18% of all orders; 42% of orders are now 'multi-channel' [3]. John Lewis reports website sales growing at 29% vs 5% for the overall business for the 12 weeks ended 24th October[4]. It seems there is no stopping UK consumers embracing the internet to browse and shop for products. At Google, UK searches for popular categories such as clothing and Home Entertainment are up 36% and 26% respectively Y/Y. The charts below show how four popular categories are trending as we head into the seasonal peak. In some cases search activity is already greater than peak levels of Christmas 2008.





All this should provide some optimism for retailers on the verge of the busy Christmas trading period. As we look to the festive season, it is seems that ~30% Y/Y growth is the benchmark to set.

Amazon's recently reported third quarter results. International sales (which include UK, DE, FR & JP) were up 33% on the same period last year. The company has forecast growth next quarter to be between 21-36% compared to 2008[2].

What targets have you set for your website this Christmas? And how can you capitalise on the growth opportunity presented by online (eCommerce) over the festive period? For those new to online advertising a Google Adwords account can be set up in minutes and will allow you to place a targeted message alongside search results. Go to www.google.co.uk/Adwords to learn more.

For those already well versed in paid search advertising, Google tools such as Insights for Search can show what new terms users are searching for, and help you target your marketing activity. While the Search Based Keyword Tool can help identify gaps in your keyword coverage. Get in touch with your Google representative for more help.

[1] “UK retailers’ optimism at two-year high” Norma Cohen, FT.com, October 27 2009
[2] Amazon Investor Relations
[3] “Half-year results for the 26 weeks ended 29 August 2009” Home Retail Group, October 21 2009
[4[ John Lewis Partnership


Posted by Jonathan Marsh, UK Retail Team

As recent research has highlighted, there are increasing benefits from advertising discount vouchers and deals that you might offer. With 58% of consumers stating they are more likely to visit a retail site where discount vouchers or coupons are available[1], you can take advantage of this additional traffic and ensure your ads contain the most attractive offers to users in the run up to Christmas. According to Hitwise in the last year alone searches for discount vouchers have grown by 47.5%[2]. But what other benefits are there?

1) The potential to attract new customers: 31% of internet coupon users state that they have started only using them in the last 12 months, while 50% of the same respondents say coupons influence them to try new products[1]. 39% of the same respondents said they are more likely to click on an online ad where coupons are available[1].

2) Increased brand loyalty and repeat purchases: 57% of respondents say companies offering vouchers and coupons care about keeping them as a customer[3].

3) Increased customer acquisition: 70% of users say they are more likely to provide information such as names and email addresses for a discount coupon[3].

4) Increased sales at Christmas: According to a Deloitte 2008 survey, 62% of respondents planned to buy gift vouchers, making it the 6th most popular gift idea[4]. As highlighted in data for 2008 from Google Insights, searches on voucher related terms begin a steady rise in the lead up to Christmas from early November.



With user behaviour changing during the economic downturn, consumers are increasingly moving online to find the best deals. Providing any unique selling points in your ad texts is a key method for making your ads stand out from your competitors and attracting increased sales and traffic during the Christmas period. In the last year alone there has been significant growth in voucher searches for ever more specific deals and discounts. Last year UK internet users searched for 8,300 variations of search terms containing the words 'voucher' or 'vouchers', but in the first 6 months of this year the figure has risen to 34,200[2].

If you are offering any discount vouchers this year, then be sure to add in branded search terms such as ‘brand voucher’ into your account before the late November/early December peak. Such terms will typically have higher CTRs and conversion rates. Use your Analytics Ecommerce data to identify potential keywords that triggered your ads last year. By running a Non Paid Keywords report you can see which keywords converted for you previously that you don’t currently have in your account.

[1]"Internet-printable coupons significantly increase customer engagement" Internet Retailing, October 2, 2009
[2]"Voucher searches up 47.5% in a year" Robin Goad, Hitwise Intelligence, August, 2009
[3]"Online 'Coupon Clickers' Number 36 Million" Retailer Daily, July, 2008
[4]Top 15 Holiday Gift Items that UK Consumers Plan to Purchase eMarketer, November, 2008

Posted by Ewan Aparicio, Dublin Retail Team

With only three pay days left till Christmas and the economic recovery still at a fledgling stage, shoppers have already started to think about what to fill their Christmas stockings with. Christmas search queries tend to start early and with bargain hunting also driving interest this year, their frequency has started growing as early as September.

Retailers looking to get ahead of the curve and roll out their Christmas campaigns early shouldn’t overlook the opportunity presented by the Google Content Network (GCN). Using the Content Network can supplement your search campaigns and stimulate extra demand and awareness. Many of the thousands of shopping sites available on the network have CPCs lower than search, which can drive your conversions at a more desirable CPA.

GCN serves more than 6 billion impressions a day globally which provides fantastic volume for advertisers, but the key questions are how does GCN convert and how cost effective is it? Google’s study [1] indicates that the median content/search CPA ratio for advertisers in all sectors was 97.4% and for average advertiser, GCN clicks are 28% cheaper than search. The discount CPC effect is due to Smart Pricing which automatically reduces CPC bids for certain pages depending on how likely they are to convert.

Conversions and volumes in retail subcategories differ. These metrics, however, are often augmented as shoppers start to browse for gifts and visit sites devoted to key Christmas product areas such as toys, games, music and jewellery.
With GCN’s targeting modus operandi being fundamentally different to search, and with GCN awareness being lower than that of search, here are our top tips for advertising on the Google Content Network - an opportunity to expose your brand to 29 million unique UK users:

1. Build a common theme in each ad group. With contextual targeting, we analyse all of your keywords and ad text in an ad group, then match the ad to sites in our network. Having very specific keyword lists in your ad groups avoids targeting ambiguity. You should also ensure that your ad text closely matches the theme that you have outlined in your keyword list.

2. Create direct and complementary ad groups. If you are selling glasses your direct ad group could contain keywords such as glasses or frames while your complementary ad groups could target related sites about glasses cases or other accessories. Many ad groups ensure that you target larger pools of potential buyers.

When brainstorming for complementary ad groups the new Wonder Wheel tool can help you discover other related themes. This tool is available in the left sidebar on Google Search.

3. Include negative keywords at set up to ensure that your ads are not showing on irrelevant sites. This will ensure high quality of traffic and good CTR, which is critical for achieving good performance history and building your GCN Quality score.

4. Exclude sites and categories that you do not want your ads to appear on.
Categories would be groups of websites with a common theme such as ‘Crime & Emergency’.

5. Bidding is a crucial factor in GCN. In order to enable our system to work out which sites are the most suitable for your ads, set bids relatively high to begin with and then lower them after history has been accrued. Most content sites and products display only two or three contextual ads per page, so monitor your CPC and average position as it has an impact on CTR. If you set bids too low on the Content Network, it will take a long time for your ads to reach the right sites.

6. As a rule of thumb allow at least 2 weeks before checking results as the system needs time to accrue performance data. The first few days of data may not reflect the campaign’s full potential and may provide you with misleading data.

7. After the initial few weeks of your campaign, pull a Placement Performance Report which will give you data on the sites where your ads are appearing. This report can help you to identify sites which are performing well and those which perform poorly or are irrelevant. Exclude sites where you do not want your ads to show with the Site Exclusion tool.

Once you find your high-performing sites, you can control and adjust your bids on them directly. Test if by increasing volume on these sites (i.e. increasing bids), the corresponding increase in conversions justifies a proportionately higher CPC.

8. If you do not use a bid management solution to manage your bids, consider testing Conversion Optimiser, a CPA bid management solution enabling advertisers to maximise their ROI. Although its entry threshold is 15 conversions in 30 days, launch it on a campaign which has accrued a high volume of conversions. Higher volume gives the system more substance and room to manoeuvre.

Whichever retail category is your focus, a GCN campaign can be a cost effective way to drive incremental conversions. GCN targeting is also fundamentally different from that of search. As an auction model, the system requires time to accrue the relevant data needed to optimise your campaign. Implementing these suggestions is the first step to making your GCN campaign a success. Not unlike other digital media outlets, GCN campaigns require testing. We recommend starting your GCN campaign early, so that you can begin testing and have a well-optimised campaign prepared for the peak Christmas season. Starting soon will ensure your brand’s exposure as people are likely to browse and spread their shopping between now and Christmas.

We hope that you found these tips useful. Please email us if you have any questions or feedback.

[1]Google Whitepaper November 2008


Posted by Anna Prolejko, UK Retail Team

As legend has it over 2,200 years ago Archimedes was challenged by King Hiero II to discover whether his new crown had been made from pure gold or mixed with lesser metals. Figuring out how to measure the volume of the crown with its irregular shape presented Archimedes with a major task.

Today's PPC managers face a similar measurement challenge. Namely, how do you model exactly how much each keyword contributes to each of your conversions? And given that PPC drives nearly 1 in 5 visits to UK retail websites [1], such models are more and more likely to find their way onto CFO and CEO desks.

At one end of the spectrum is 'last click' attribution. Simple and straightforward, the only keywords that count are those that lead directly to a conversion.

Most people would concede however, that this method is not the ideal way to measure keyword conversions as it doesn’t consider how much of their previous search activity led to the final purchase. The 'consumer journey' has already been the subject of much discussion. But what then is the other end of the spectrum? How do you attribute important metrics like new customers and lifetime value to a keyword? A 90 or 180 day cookie, tracking everything and anything? The data could be overwhelming.

Research commissioned by Google indicates that as many as 40% of conversions occur after 4 weeks from when a shopper first performed a search related to the goods or services they purchased. Yet no one wakes up in the morning and says to themselves: “Today I will start my journey to buy a new coat, it will take 18 days for me to finally get there and buy it”. You make a start by seeing what products are available; take ideas from various sources and then when you think you have found the best item and deal, you make your purchase.

Is this because we all love browsing, or because it can be difficult sometimes to find exactly what you want? Like many things, it is probably a combination of the two. The Consumer Decision Journey recently published in the McKinsey Quarterly [2] discusses these moments of influence and how the 'purchase funnel' may be a different shape from what was once thought.

One thing that should gain the consensus of agreement though is that the consumer journey is path dependant. That is, each subsequent step is dependent on the experience from the previous point.

Accepting this, how much can each of these prior steps claim to have led to the final conversion? Not an easy answer given the total number of steps, the media involved and the time taken. Within the overall context of search however, comScore can shed some light on the path dependant nature of conversions within three major consumer categories [3]:

Metric	Clothing	Computers	Mobile Phones
No. of searches per conversion	5.7	5.0	4.7
No. of site visits per conversion	11.9	12.6	9.4

So how do individual Retailers start to better understand and act on the challenges posed by accurately measuring their own conversions?

You don’t necessarily need another Archimedes, but certainly someone who will take responsibility for devising how you go about measuring your conversions. In this case, using data from your web analytics package to discover exactly how each keyword pays it way. There are numerous bid management programs on the market too that can make life easier; not to mention third party consultants who can help install and make sense of analytics. Today, retailers of any scale just have too many keywords to do this manually and hope to achieve their own “Eureka!” moment.

[1] Hitwise UK, Shopping and Classifieds category, August 2009
[2] http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Marketing/The_consumer_decision_journey_2373

[3] comScore custom analysis- UK Population, 15+ Home and Work, Q4-2007 activity

Posted by Jonathan Marsh, UK Retail Team

With the summer now over and Autumn here to stay, the next upcoming event in the social calendar is Halloween. As outlined by Google’s Insights For Search queries for Halloween related terms are already on the rise as people begin searching for products and costumes. In the last business week alone, the number of search queries for the term ‘Halloween costumes’ rose by 60% alone. Retailers in the Apparel and Gifts and Greetings industries will likely see an increase in traffic during this time of year as users begin their search for costumes, decorations and greetings cards.



With this in mind, we’d like to provide you with some quick tips on how to get the most from this rise in traffic.

1) Create separate campaigns for all your Halloween product ranges with relevant themed keywords and ad texts. Google’s Search Based Keyword Tool will help you identify more long tail keyword opportunities based on your site’s content.

2) Be sure to use language in your ad texts specifically referring to Halloween as well as using any USPs to highlight any promotions or competitive advantages you might have. If you are selling a range of different costumes then trial an ad text using the Keyword Insertion formula thus ensuring your ads as relevant as possible to a user’s search query.

3) Deep link to all your product pages. If you have a particularly large inventory for Halloween then try running Keyword Destination URLs. Searches that bring the user to most relevant landing page are more likely to convert to sales.

4) Be prepared to increase your bids, particularly on popular products at this time of increased auction intensity. Raising bids on your well performing keywords will result in higher positions ensuring you don’t miss out on potential traffic.

5) If you’re bidding on more general keyword terms then be sure to update your negative keywords to protect your Click Through Rate. You can use the Keyword Tool to identify any terms that aren’t relevant to your site, or if you ran campaigns before then now is the time to review a Search Query report for last year and filter out any unwanted traffic.

We hope you found these tips useful! Please email us if you have any feedback.

Posted by Ewan Aparicio, Dublin Retail Team