Why Your Data Feed Matters

An accurate product data feed is a critical component of any ecommerce business. While product feed management doesn’t exactly stretch the bounds of creativity like some of the more innovative components of digital advertising, accurate feeds are the foundation upon which all other marketing activities are built.

The reason is pretty simple: without abundant (and up to date!) product information, your marketing channels are left guessing which audiences might find your ads relevant. When product data is sparse, search engines and ad platforms have no way to gauge the value your brand provides a potential customer, and as such fail to recognize your ads as a priority on the results page.

Here’s why optimal product feed management matters to every brand’s marketing goals, and how you can apply these principles to existing data feeds for improved performance:

Search Engines Prioritize Accurate Images (So Make Yours a Good One)

The need for ads to feature clean (and accurate) creative assets in order to perform probably won’t come as a shock to anyone. One study found 63% of users considered product images to be more relevant to their purchasing decisions than any written description of the products, and 67% judged the product image’s quality when deciding to buy.

Considering the number of social platforms geared entirely toward stunning visuals, it makes sense that a high-quality image on a search results page can sometimes do more for your bottom-line results than any amount of clever ad copy or strategic targeting.

The significance of a good image goes beyond simply harnessing users’ limited attention spans — to a customer new to your brand, a great product shot conveys the value of your business as a whole. Playing around with attractive color combinations, lighting, and the general aesthetic of your product images can keep things fresh and convey a sense of your product’s quality before a customer even lands on your homepage.

Optimize Your Product Titles & Descriptions for Search

More data is always advantageous when it comes to helping search engines place your ads. After all, the more product information your feed provides, the better those complex algorithms behind Google and Amazon can pair your products with users most likely to benefit from your ad placement.

Aside from the product image itself, accurate, descriptive product titles are the most important front-facing information you can give these algorithms. It’s the first piece of written information Google prioritizes when pulling data from your page, which is why titles should be developed with search algorithms in mind. Try to avoid copying product titles and descriptions from your website meant for human readers — promotional copy won’t do you much good here.

Instead, use your most current search data to determine how users typically discover your products. If branded searches tend to be your best performers, place your brand at the title’s beginning. When branded searches don’t apply or your products are unbranded, front load descriptions with your best-performing keywords — and keep in mind you’ve only got about 70 characters’ worth of space before your title runs out of room on the average mobile device.

Knowing how your target demographic tends to shop will streamline this process considerably. Include your brand, color, size, style and model in product titles and descriptions wherever possible to take advantage of low-funnel searches from users most likely to be prepared for a purchase.

In addition to keyword-rich and finely-detailed product descriptions, accurate categorization of your product feed gives search engines a wealth of additional information when populating results pages. Utilize as many subcategories as possible when setting up your catalog to help algorithms identify a wider range of potentially relevant search queries.

Keep Product Info Current with Dynamic Feeds for a Positive Customer Experience

Customers need to be able to trust the results of their search queries to reflect items that are in stock and priced correctly before engaging with an ad — few things undermine your marketing efforts faster than interested would-be shoppers discovering their selected product is unavailable or misrepresented just before checkout.

Dynamic feeds are an efficient solution to keeping your data feed accurate. Product availability, pricing, sale items and seasonal promotions can all be updated quickly through dynamic product feeds without needing to update creative assets. Whether your website sells one specific item or a catalog of thousands, up-to-date information on what’s in stock and items that are temporarily unavailable is critical to maintaining a positive experience with users.

Most major platforms have refined the implementation of a dynamic feed down to a relatively straightforward draft feed spreadsheet, which means no expert coding experience is required to maintain your active catalog — simply replace any outdated product information with new details in the proper column.