Advertisers are constantly looking for innovative ways to maximize their return on advertising investment. Among the most powerful tools at their disposal are Google Local Inventory Ads.
These ads, designed to capture consumers' attention by suggesting products available in nearby stores, offer unrivalled conversion potential for e-tailers.
However, despite their potential, taking full advantage of Google Local Inventory Ads requires a thorough understanding of how they work, as well as a well-honed conversion strategy.
And therein lies the challenge for media buying managers in large companies: how to optimize these ads to guarantee outstanding results?
In this article, we'll dive into theworld of Google Local Inventory Ads, exploring best practices and proven strategies for maximizing conversion.
From practical tips to in-depth analysis, we'll reveal the secrets to turning your advertising campaigns into engines of growth for your business.
Today, consumer behavior is largely influenced by digital technology.
What is LIA? 🤔
Local Inventory Ads (LIAs) were invented precisely to bridge the gap between internet searches and in-store commerce.
This format has become a cornerstone for e-tailers seeking to bridge the gap between online browsing and in-store purchasing.
Local Inventory Ads is a dynamic feature provided by Google that allows businesses to promote their in-store products on Google Search and Maps, linking the physical and digital shopping experience.
To use Google Local Inventory Ads, several conditions must be met.
Firstly, you need to have an account with Google Merchant Center as well as a Google Ads account.
What's more, in order to launch a local Google ad, you need to own a physical business located in one of the countries where this type of ad is available. It is also essential to comply with Google's specific guidelines for these ads.
It's also essential to provide Google with detailed information about your company, your points of sale and your products.
To do this, you need to create and submit three categories of data feeds to the Google Merchant Center:
Finally, you need to activate the products you wish to promote in your Shopping campaign via Google Ads.
Think of Local Inventory Ads as a digital billboard for your store's products.
They tell people browsing online that, yes, you have what they need, and it's just around the corner. For companies that sell things both in physical stores and online, LIAs are a great opportunity to showcase their products.
They combine the best of both worlds, connecting the convenience of online shopping with the immediacy and tangibility of in-store purchases, making shopping easy for customers.
E-tailers are rushing to get featured on Google Local Inventory Ads. Here are some of the many reasons why LIA is so attractive.
First of all, it increases web-to-store traffic.
LIAs display your in-store inventory in real time to nearby searchers, directly influencing their decision to visit your physical store.
This is particularly effective for customers who prefer to inspect products in person before buying.
Secondly, LIAs develop enhanced online visibility.
By appearing in relevant search queries, LIAs increase the online presence of your physical stores, making it easier for customers to discover your products and store information.
Google's shopping tool enables higher conversion rates.
Shoppers who research products online and then visit a store to make a purchase tend to have higher intent. This leads to higher conversion rates compared to traditional online purchases.
What's more, the information presented enhances the customer experience
LIAs provide customers with information on product availability in nearby stores, saving them time and improving their shopping experience.
Finally, Google LIA offers a competitive advantage when used properly.
The use of LIAs enables companies to compete more effectively with online-only retailers by highlighting the immediate availability of products in local stores.
Innovative technologies are available to fine-tune your LIA strategies.
You can integrate Local Inventory Ads with a robust local marketing strategy to significantly amplify their effectiveness.
A platform like Partoo, designed to optimize the online visibility of local businesses, can be a game-changer in this context.
By optimizing your Google My Business listing, improve the effectiveness of your LIAs by providing complete store information, including hours, location and available services, this ensures that your business information is accurate, consistent and optimized across all online platforms. Partoo improves your visibility and attractiveness in local searches.
With LIA, you can put precise inventory data online.
Keep your inventory data up to date to ensure that your LIAs reflect actual stock levels in each store, reducing customer frustration and lost sales.
What's more, LIA makes it easy to create targeted campaigns.
Use geographic targeting to reach customers near your stores, and personalize your ads based on local trends and preferences to increase relevance and effectiveness.
We all know how important product information is in the purchasing decision process. With Google LIA, you can offer high-quality product information.
Don't hesitate to include high-quality images and detailed product descriptions in your LIAs to help customers make informed decisions and improve the overall appeal of your ads.
By 2023, nearly 75% of the traffic on France's biggest e-commerce sites will be on mobile. Optimizing UX for mobile is simply no longer an option.
Given that a significant portion of local searches come from mobile devices, make sure your ads and landing pages are optimized for mobile browsing, offering a seamless experience for shoppers on the go.
Finally, Google's shopping tool helps you track and analyze performance.
Analysis tools to track the performance of your LIAs, identifying which products and strategies are driving store visits and sales, and adjusting your campaigns accordingly.
If you find our recommendations a little too basic, we've got good news for you.
Optimizing the effectiveness of Local Inventory Ads (LIAs) now goes beyond simply presenting in-store inventory online. It's about creating a seamless connection between the ad and the subsequent customer journey.
It doesn't end with a click on your ad, it's just the beginning.
Once a potential customer interacts with google local ads, the quality and relevance of the experience they encounter can significantly influence their likelihood of visiting the store and making a purchase.
This process is greatly enhanced by focusing on the post-click experience, a concept where technologies like Dataïads are leading the way.
E-tailers can personalize the post-click experience by using first- and third-party data to ensure that potential customers land on highly relevant, personalized and purchase-friendly pages.
Depending on each marketing context: interaction with inventory, promotional offers or each product category, visitor behavior.
If a customer clicks on an advert for a specific product, in addition to simplified product details, the landing page will also suggest similar and complementary items available in the same store, and present current promotions, just like a real customer advisor. What's more, the consumer can also reserve or purchase the item in-store with Click & Collect or Drive.
Everything is done to ensure a fast, relevant and enjoyable online shopping experience right from the start.
It's like rolling out a red carpet for your customers as soon as they arrive at the store, pointing them in the direction of the product they're looking for as they walk through the aisles that may be of interest to them, digitally.
This level of personalization makes the shopping experience more engaging and tailored, increasing web-to-store traffic.
This approach significantly maximizes e-commerce conversion rates, via drive or in-store pick-up options, and therefore improves the efficiency of your Google Shopping ad spend.
Echoing what we mentioned earlier, integrating real-time inventory data into the post-click experience to ensure that the information presented is accurate and up to date is essential to maintaining customer trust and satisfaction.
Dataïads enables merchants to dynamically update their landing pages according to current stock levels in the product feed, thus avoiding customer frustration when the item offered and the items recommended online are not available in store.
Another key aspect of improving LIA effectiveness mentioned above is mobile optimization. Ensuring that the post-click experience is mobile-friendly is crucial, given that many local searches are carried out on mobile devices.
This means fast-loading pages, easy navigation and optimized calls-to-action that are easily accessible on smaller screens. Through a number of use cases, Dataiads has demonstrated its ability to create fast, lightweight and pixel-perfect smart landing pages.
By focusing on these tips, e-tailers can ensure that every euro spent on LIA will be even more profitable, attracting more engaged traffic and converting more ad clicks into customers.
Incorporating these tips and innovations into your LIA strategy not only improves the effectiveness of your campaigns, but also offers a more consistent and satisfying customer journey, bridging the gap between online interest and in-store purchases.
To monitor and evaluate the performance of your ads, we recommend using the analytics tools offered by Google.
🎯 Measuring campaign effectiveness with Google Ads
Track key marketing performance indicators such as clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), as well as conversions resulting from your local inventory ads.
It also lets you compare the performance of these ads with that of other Google Shopping ad formats or your Performance Max campaigns.
🎯 Measure effectiveness on Google Analytics
Indispensable for analyzing the traffic, behavior and loyalty of visitors to your site or local store page following a click on your ads. It tracks bounce rate, average session duration, number of pages viewed per session, and conversion rate.
🎯 Measuring campaign effectiveness with Google Store Visits
This specific tool gives you an estimate of the number of visitors who have reached your physical point of sale after interacting with your local inventory ads.
Based on aggregated, anonymized mobile location data, this indicator is not available to all advertisers.
Using these tools, you can judge the effectiveness of your LIA campaigns and calculate ROAS. At Dataïads, we use our customers' own measurement tools, with strict and solid measurement protocols, approved and validated by the best teams in the market(as in the case of Darty).
Thanks to these, we are able to measure the impact of post-click experiences on LIA and non-LIA campaigns, in order to deliver the best performance reading.
Selling today means being where your customers are, in both the digital and real worlds.
Local Inventory Ads are a smart way to connect the dots between online browsing and in-store shopping.
By fine-tuning how these ads work for your business and ensuring that every click leads to a great online experience, you're not just spending money on advertisers.
You invest to offer the best choice of purchases at home, on your e-commerce site and/or in your stores.
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In conclusion, Google Local Inventory Ads or LIA ads offer e-tailers a valuable opportunity to link the digital and physical worlds, increasing in-store traffic and improving the customer experience.
By following optimization best practices, using accurate inventory data and ensuring a smooth, mobile-friendly post-click experience, you can maximize the ROI of your LIA campaigns.
Ultimately, integrating LIA google ads into your overall marketing strategy will enable you to better meet consumer expectations and strengthen your market position.
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