Negative keywords and ‘Brand Bidding’ on Google Shopping: Best practices for advertisers

Comparison Shopping Service (CSS partners) started joining the Daisycon network at the beginning of 2018. A CSS partner can boost advertiser’s incremental sales by strategically placing Shopping ads and product listings on Google. As an affiliate network, we would like to bring clarity to the often controversial practices of ‘brand bidding’ and the correct use of negative keywords. With our experience in managing both brand retailers and various resellers, we offer valuable insights to help our advertisers understand and effectively manage their negative keyword strategy.

Understanding CSS Partners and Their Role

What are CSS Partners?

CSS Partners are Google Shopping specialists who work with merchants (advertisers) to increase product visibility to more shoppers. They use their expertise and Google’s tools to display advertisers products in different sections of Google Shopping. Unlike traditional Google Shopping advertising, where you pay upfront, with CSS partners in the Daisycon network, advertisers only pay commission when a sale is made as a result of their advertising. This performance-based model ensures that CSS partners are incentivised to optimise campaigns for better sales results. For more insight into the benefits and strategies of partnering with CSS partners, read our blog post on partnering with CSS partners.

What is Brand Bidding?

Brand bidding is where publishers bid on a company’s brand name in search advertising. For Google Shopping, this would mean authorised resellers bidding directly on a partner’s brand name to appear in shopping ads. However, this is not how the Google Shopping auction works.

Bidding on keywords is not how Google Shopping works and therefore, ‘Brand Bidding’ is not practiced in Google Shopping. The auction process is complex and relies on many data points in a merchant’s product feed to deliver the most relevant results to users based on their search queries. This approach ensures that the best possible match for a user’s search is presented, rather than simply prioritising bids on brand names.

Understanding Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are a powerful functionality provided by Google to help campaign managers improve the quality of their traffic by avoiding irrelevant search results. For example, imagine a camera retailer whose ads are accidentally showing up in searches for security cameras. To prevent this, the retailer can use negative keywords such as ‘security’ and ‘surveillance’ to ensure that their ads only appear in relevant contexts, attracting the right audience and improving the overall effectiveness of their ad campaigns.

Negative Keywords and Brand Exclusion

Negative keywords can also be used to prevent your ads from appearing for searches that include your website name (brand) or common misspellings of it. This strategy helps you avoid showing ads to users who are already familiar with your brand and are likely to visit your website directly. Instead, you can focus on acquiring new customers through Google Shopping, maximising the efficiency and reach of your advertising efforts.

Negative keyword strategies for advertisers

Brand Stores: The Dilemma

Brand retailers face a challenge when working with CSS partners. To reduce costs and ensure incremental growth, advertisers often rely on their CSS partners to implement negative keywords that include their brand (store) names. However, adding the brand name as a negative keyword to their Google CSS campaigns can negatively impact performance and, in some cases, defeat the purpose of working with a CSS partner.

There are specific scenarios where it may be appropriate to exclude a brand name as a negative keyword:

• Brand exclusivity: If you’re the only seller of a particular branded product, and the brand name itself isn’t fully descriptive of the product (such as a unique product name with a branded component), then excluding the brand name as a negative keyword could be strategic. This will ensure that your products appear in relevant searches without unnecessary competition.
• Webshop name: If your webshop name is unique and well known, it may be beneficial to include it as a negative keyword. For example, if customers often search directly for your store name to visit your site, adding it as a negative keyword can prevent your ads from appearing in these searches. This strategy can help you save on advertising costs for users who are already familiar with your brand and are likely to visit your site directly, allowing you to focus on attracting new customers.

In both scenarios, the Google algorithm is likely to continue displaying product ads from competitors.

CSS partners and brand retailers can develop a more strategic negative keyword strategy by carefully considering these scenarios and adopting a data-driven approach (discussed later). This approach optimises both brand protection and campaign performance, ensuring the best possible results from their advertising efforts.

Effects of Using Branded Negative Keywords

Once implemented, branded negative keywords prevent the shopping ads from appearing in search results that include the specific keyword. As a result, resellers and competitors have more opportunities to gain visibility within the Google Shopping carousel and achieve a more competitive position in the Shopping auction. Larger marketplaces also benefit, as they often offer similar brands or products.

Recommendations for Brand Retailers

Brand retailers should carefully consider the consequences of providing branded negative keywords to their CSS partners. Google generally considers a retailer’s CSS campaign to be branded, giving priority to the retailer’s own campaigns. As bid costs cannot increase due to the inability to bid against oneself in the Google Shopping auction, maintaining branded keywords can be beneficial.

Leveraging CSS for Direct Traffic

One of the key benefits of working with CSS partners is the ability to drive traffic directly to your website without incurring CPC (cost per click) costs. Driving traffic to your own site is always more beneficial as it keeps potential customers within your ecommerce ecosystem and away from your competitors. This direct traffic gives you full control over the customer experience from first visit to final purchase, increasing brand loyalty and the likelihood of repeat business.

Reseller Strategies

As the Google Shopping and CSS platform becomes increasingly competitive, shoppers are exposed to a wider variety of products and offers on the platform. Research shows that consumers are becoming more price-conscious and less likely to buy based on brand recognition alone. This shift has increased the importance of market share and brand awareness. When resellers use negative keywords in their CSS campaigns, they limit their reach, giving an advantage to competitors who do not have such restrictions.

For resellers, it is critical to evaluate their negative keyword strategy by considering a few key questions;

• What is the market landscape for your products?
• Is there significant competition for your listings?
• Are users likely to find similar products from other resellers?

If the answers indicate high competition and alternative sources for your products, then implementing negative keywords may do more harm than good.

Implementing a Data-Driven Negative Keyword Strategy

As an advertiser, together with the CSS partner, managing the use of negative keywords requires a strategic approach that goes beyond simply avoiding traffic on your brand’s name. That’s where data becomes your best friend.

• Search Term Reports: Utilise Google Ads’ search term reports to gain valuable insight into the actual search queries that triggered your ad impressions. This report allows you to identify irrelevant searches or overly broad terms that may not be converting well.
• Focus on Performance: Analyse the search terms report to identify terms that are driving clicks but not resulting in sales. These could indicate irrelevant searches or user intent that does not match your offer.
• Regular Analysis: Don’t set your negative keyword strategy in stone. Regularly review search term reports and performance metrics to identify new opportunities for negative keyword optimisation. This ongoing process ensures that your campaigns are constantly refined to target the most relevant searches.

By adopting a data-driven approach that leverages search term data and performance metrics, resellers can make informed decisions about negative keywords. This helps strike a balance between protecting your brand and maximising the reach and performance of your CSS campaigns.

Final Recommendations and Future Outlook

As an advertiser, it’s important to develop a balanced strategy that meets your specific needs when promoting products through the Google Shopping channel. Using smart negative keywords that focus on products rather than just the brand name can be an effective approach. This strategy helps to refine ad placements and improve campaign efficiency. In addition, it’s important to stay alert to the evolving landscape of Google Shopping so that you can quickly adapt to new challenges and maintain a competitive edge.

Overall, the topic of ‘Brand Bidding’ on Google Shopping is complex and close collaboration between advertisers and CSS partners is essential to achieve the best results while protecting the long-term brand strategy.

Want to know more? Contact us now! Or would you like to read more about CSS? Read more of our articles:

• Partnering with Google CSS partners [3 key takeaways]
• Setting up a successful performance based Google Shopping campaign [tips & tricks]
• The power of good quality product feeds in Online Marketing