Today I explain how to gain the most out of the new automated annoations feature in Google Shopping.
Which attributes are collected to create the automated annotations?
There are only two automated annotations, automated annotations means, you don’t need to do any extra tasks to set this up.
- Price Drop
- Currency Conversion
Do all features show at the same time?
Not all automated annotations will show at the same time and or in the same section. When we search on Google Shopping, only one annotation will be visible in the results. So it is vital to ensure your annotation is the most tempting compared to your competitor. More annotations might be visible once you click on view details. However, we need to gain that initial click. So what the customer sees first is the most critical factor.
The key to success is to calculate what the customer pays. However, if you can beat your competitor, choose for the latter; however, note that not every annotation, even if it is better, is necessarily better for the customer.
What if I have all of the features enabled? Which annotation is shown?
Providing all the information doesn’t guarantee that an annotation will be displayed for your products. Some annotations are only displayed on specific devices such as mobile and desktop, on specific surfaces like Google Search and the Shopping tab, or in specific countries.
Price Drop
The price drop feature is an exciting part of automated features. However, the requirements for getting this promotion listed are unknown, so I have collected some research and found the following.
A price drop is considered if the price has been stable for a long time. For example, if a product was selling at $40 for a long duration (60 days or more), it suddenly drops. Google will consider this as a price drop.
Another factor is the popularity of the product. Suppose the impressions during a month are only 100 impressions, then this would not be eligible for a price drop. As the requirements are not met again, my only recommendation would be to have a high CTR between 2 and 3% and high enough impressions.
The percentage at how much the price needs to be dropped to be eligible is unknown, so I have based this on what you must do with Google Merchant Promotions Feed. Here the requirement is 5% or more.
Let’s check what we need
- Stable price for a extended period before the price drop
- A historically popular product
- Price drop rate must be over 5%
Currency Conversion in Google Shopping
Another essential type of automated annotation is currency conversion. This occurs when you target a country using your store’s default currency rather than the local currency of the targeted country. For instance, if you are a UK-based merchant, your default currency is GBP. Still, you target the United States without converting prices to USD. In that case, your listings will display two different prices: your original GBP price and an automatically converted USD price.
I strongly recommend against submitting data feeds or targeting countries using non-native currencies. Listings displayed with currency conversions generally receive significantly less traffic and fewer conversions. To maximize your visibility and effectiveness, always localize your currency and language to match your target country.
