Google’s New Shopping Insights Tool: It Ain’t Just for Retailers

Today, Google announced their new Shopping Insights tool to help “retailers to gauge geographical differences in demand, then adjust marketing campaigns through the company’s AdWords search-advertising service and shift inventory of products in physical stores.” (Thanks, Wall Street Journal.) Well, I don’t care what Google says. If you’re a brand trying to optimize your product content, which you should be, this tool is for you.

Shopping Insights shows the products that consumers are searching for across 16,000 cities and towns. Initially, the data set covers over 5,000 products that are on sale through their Shopping ad service. It will be updated monthly. The data can be broken down by device, which can give you some insight on whether people are doing searches at home or at work on their desktops or searching on the go with their mobile devices.

Cool, right? But is it useful? Totally.

1. Microtargeting media spending: If you sell direct, it can totally drive your Adwords and even other media spend geographically for your products. If your product isn’t up there yet, you can enter competitive products and kidnap that data as your own.
2. Quick competitive research: see above. Enter competitive products and learn where they are penetrating and where they are not. It doesn’t replace your regular competitive research, but it can provide color.
3. Insightful consumer research: Shopping Insights gives you the ability understand the search terms that shoppers are using to discover your product. According to the WSJ, “for a pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers, Google will combine searches such as “nike air jordan,” “air Jordan” and “air jordans” to report overall demand for that specific item.” Having Google take care of aggregating that data for you means you get a more accurate view, quickly. You can use that data to further refine the keywords you use in your product content.

Besides, it’s super fun to play around with. Try it out today, and add it to your arsenal of quick research tools to optimize your merchandising.