🔍 Will Google's "Popular Products" listings help it compete against Amazon and other marketplaces?

Jan 16, 2020

Good morning search marketers, are your products showing up on Google's new organic "Popular Products" listings?

Yesterday, Google began rolling out organic "Popular Products" listings in mobile search results. As you might've already guessed, the section is powered by product schema and retailer feeds submitted through Google Merchant Center. The listings link to retailers' websites and are presumably part of its broader strategy to compete against Amazon and other marketplaces. This new feature follows on the heels of Google's acquisition of Pointy, which will also help it compete in product search by feeding the search engine with more structured, local inventory data.

Last summer, Microsoft Advertising announced a slew of position-based impression share metrics, but maintained that it would keep average position reporting. Now, the company has announced plans to deprecate average position reporting starting in April. We can't say we're surprised: Google announced that it was sunsetting the metric nearly a year ago and, since right-rail ads went away, it just doesn't indicate much about where on the page ads are actually appearing.

John Morabito, director of SEO at Stella Rising, sat down with our own Barry Schwartz to discuss branded search; an area that Morabito says gets overlooked, leaving room for resellers, affiliates and competitors to outrank brands on their own keywords. Watch the full interview here to find out what Morabito looks for when conducting a branded search audit.

Keep on reading for a Pro Tip on how to get around data limitations for smart bidding, along with your daily Search Shorts and more.

George Nguyen,
Associate Editor

Pro Tip

Use micro-conversions as directional data, but check back often

"Can you go around the data limitation for smart bidding by adding micro-conversions along the purchasing funnel with fixed values?" This was a question asked during SMX East's roundtable about PPC automation, so SMX speaker Aaron Levy of Tinuiti shared his insights. "Absolutely! Going higher in the funnel has worked well for a number of our clients. Use micro-conversions as directional data. Check your assumptions often to ensure that you're not putting too much weight in a certain area. Additionally, make sure whatever actions you choose are unique. Don't add weight to both time on site and page views (they're one and the same) and don't double up on different information capture points."

More from SMX »

How retail brands can survive---and thrive--in 2020

Consumers everywhere now favor online marketplaces, not Google, when beginning a product search. Amazon recently overtook its rival when it comes to where shoppers start their customer journey. With so much change afoot, what exactly is the state of retail media in 2020? Don't miss this live webinar with Crealytics CEO Andreas Reiffen and Search Engine Land's Editor-in-Chief Ginny Marvin where they discuss how leading retail brands can survive – and thrive – in the era of online marketplaces.

There's still time to register!

Read more »

Search Shorts

Google algorithm changes happen all the time.

Google algorithm changes. Danny Sullivan from Google said on Twitter: We do make small changes each day to search. It's a continual process of improvement. Our core updates only happen 2-4 times per year.

404. 404s won't hurt you Google said but "it's good to clean up for your users though, obviously," said John Mueller.

Google supporting Googler. This is funny. Google My Business responded to a Googler offering them support when that Googler was only asking for help for someone else.

Ready For Actionable Search Marketing Tactics?

Make this the year you take your search marketing campaigns — and career — to new heights. Attend Search Marketing Expo – February 19-20 in San Jose – for the actionable tactics you need to drive more awareness, traffic, conversions, and sales. The all-new agenda features 85+ sessions organized into three lanes with no limits: SEO, SEM/PPC, and digital commerce marketing. Choose your ideal pass and book by THIS Saturday, January 18, to save up to $450 off on-site rates!

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