Question

I just find it kind of frustrating that no matter how good you set up the shopping campaigns, the Smart shopping campaign will always do it better. And you dont have control over it, you dont know how or why it does it better. And you cant really analyze the result and data from it either. What are your thoughts on this?  

Answer 1

Can you define “good”? Can you list everything you tried?  

Comments

The point is that the smart campaign does it better. Have you succeeded in a manual set up that does it better?  

---

Yes. But I don’t see how this information without context helps you at all

---

You could start with implementing all best practices and after a while of manual management choose a portfolio roa bid strategy. Also exclude display and set up a separate dda campaign for that. This way you have the pros of automated bidding without all the cons, no?  

---

Thank you. So how do you do, do you run smart campaigns or "manual" campaigns for shopping?  

---

@merrimerriam5503 thank you!  

---

Also I forget: I use ad groups to filter either on brand or category and within the ad groups I filter on product groups which also are (sub)categories, brands or even 'margin groups'. This way you can direct certain keywords to specific ad groups.  

---

Would the management be the same for small accounts with lower budgets? You guys give great advice but I also feel like you are handling way bigger accounts than me.  

---

@tussle4 Especially smaller accounts often have too little data to use smart shopping and outfperform manual management. Also: one way to grow accounts is to find 'edge', which can come from smarter management (which ironically isn't using "smart shopping" campaigns)

---

Thank you, can you please explain what you mean when you say find edge?  

---

@tussle4 Quoting a definition "Competitive advantage is defined as the ability to stay ahead of present or potential competition. Companies develop a competitive edge when they produce attributes that allow them to outperform their competitors. " If everyone sells the same products on the same website using the same marketing tactics, noone has edge.  

Answer 2

It can do better (for some time) in terms of ROAS, but the revenue (volume) is also important. The main question is: If now the things are perfect what you can do without data for analysis, if the things go wrong ?  

Comments

Like I just dont get it, when the negative keyword lists are strong and there are only relevant search terms, most of them long tailed terms well, still no sales. Then activating a smart campaign instead and have 5 sales/day. How?  

---

@tussle4 How long this happiness :) continues ?  

---

@tussle4 bid adjustments for audiences (combined with analytics data), location, time of day, day of week, mobile, etc etc

---

So what do you guys suggest, smart or manual campaigns? I mean, why would I do all that work if the system can do it for me?  

---

@tussle4 Again my eternal question: If NOW the things are perfect what you can do without data for analysis, if TOMORROW the things go wrong ?  

---

Hopefully they dont  

---

@tussle4 The hope dies last :)

---

@tussle4 I hope that you next post will not be: "HELP! My Smart Shopping campaign has just sunk. What I should do? " :)

---

@raynell9 And if so, I know you guys will be there to send me your lifeboats  

Answer 3

What do want to check? Maybe I can help you!  

Answer 4

Just ride the happy train as much as you can. Keep in mind that eventually one day your smart campaign will go to hell (been there with smart display). Just make sure that your dependency on smart campaigns is minimal.