Growing Ecommerce – The Retail Growth Podcast (Smarter Ecommerce)

This episode looks at smec’s recent participation at NRF 2022,  Retail’s Big Show taking place in New York. 

How have companies coped with the disruptions in operating environment ? 
How are industry leaders keeping their pace with data collection?
What are the main differences in customer experience?

Listen to Ralph Mayr, smec's product manager, Michael Weichselbaumer, smec's director of client data strategy and one of our podcast hosts, Maria Holzinger as they discuss key NRF takeaways and its implications on changing retail environment.

Inflation is here, so is the rise in demand, disruption in the supply chain, and changes in the ecommerce universe. This podcast episode looks at the rise of inflation in the macroeconomic environment and its impact on consumers and online retailers. It aims to provide reasoning to decisions we can take now to deal with the changes in the macroeconomic environment.

How did we get here? Is inflation here to stay?
How are consumers handling the environment?
What is the effect on retailers?
What is the impact on durable consumer products?
How have companies coped with the disruptions in the operating environment?

These are only some of the questions we tackle in this episode. Listen to Ralph Mayr, smec's product manager, and our podcast host, Mike Ryan as they discuss the impact of inflation on online retailers and the ecommerce industry.

Performance Max campaigns are a new way of automatically purchasing Ad inventory across Google’s entire network. PMax will replace other campaign types such as Smart Shopping and Local Campaigns later this year – leaving advertisers in a scramble to experiment with and understand this new technology.
This podcast episode keeps you up to speed with the features, challenges and opportunities of PMax campaign implementation. Are you ready for Ad campaigns of tomorrow?

Competitive differentiation is key to marketing a diverse product portfolio, and it depends on the customer segment you target. It requires in-depth understanding of your customers’ concerns and behavior. Questions we had to ask: What are the jobs our customers do, how can our products support, and what are the competitive alternatives?  Here we look at how Sean McGinnis, KURU footwear President and Integrator, breaks the product portfolio down into its product categories, product lines, and added highly-faceted attributes.
This podcast episode takes you through customer-oriented micro funnels to understand how KURU increased its conversion rates.

In this episode, you will get all you need to stay on top of Meta & Google earning reports, DTC Media Buying, and Retail media and marketplace networks. Mike, smec’s portfolio strategist, keeps you up to date with all the changes in the online retail environment keeping the most common challenge of retailers in mind: traffic acquisition.

Looking at the direct-to-consumer business (DTC), the question to answer is: how to acquire customers in an online context? Retailers have to convince people to go to their brand website and view their product when the common perception is consumers are looking for a one-stop shopping experience ( read Amazon).

With changing retail media networks and marketplaces larger retailers explore new business models due to the increasing cost of traffic acquisition. You are essentially in pursuit of better targeting, performance, and clear metrics to drive your retail media network selection in the estimated 100 billion US dollars annual revenue retail media network space. These networks are often characterised by margins as high as 50% so we look at retail media networks and marketplace models, and identify what's happening there.

Meta & Google 2022 Q1  earning reports made available public last week reveal certain challenges and opportunities for the future. Youtube was a particularly interesting one, at least that’s what experts are saying. They faced slowdowns in video consumption from the pandemic due to the post-pandemic behavioral shift of users and increasing competition from TikTok.

Google on the other hand raises concerns about increasing traffic acquisition costs. But we also must look at their click growth, up 12% year over.

Retailers who are winning at acquisition right now are going to be the people who are winning in the longer term.

Welcome to episode 18. In this episode, you get a deep dive into the story of healthy ecommerce growth and everything from attribution to efficiency metrics like MER and ROAS through the prism of challenges modern brands and retailers face daily: 

the dense ecommerce playing field, the volatile media buying landscape, and the conundrum of profitable marketing efforts. 

Mike, smec’s portfolio strategist is joined by David Rekuc, VP of marketing at 4x400, holding company of the direct-to-consumer brand Bambu Earth. Dave is a forward thinking marketing professional with a great deal of knowledge about marketing measurement and the economics of marketing. Among other topics, he describes the detective story of attribution and shares a grounded but constructive take on the current economic conditions.

Welcome to episode 19. You can think of it as part 2 to the previous conversation with Christopher Rogl in episode 15 - Performance Max: One campaign to rule them all. In this episode, Mike Ryan gives you a brief context for the PMax, a framework for smarter PMax retail campaigns, and ideas for bringing that framework to life.
Mike, smec’s portfolio strategist keeps you up to date with:

1. What are Performance Max  campaigns?
2. Advantages and disadvantages of PMax
3. Moving forward with PMax
4. PMax Segmentation
5. PMax framework and practices
6. PMax optimisation

Welcome to episode 20. of Growing eccommerce.  

In this episode, Mike is lucky enough to speak with Max Hallerstede, CEO of Hallerstede gmbh, a long-running family business in Germany that Max helped bring online under the ecommerce trading brand Kofferworld. What's so special is that Max is a real pro in logistics, purchasing, and pricing and he talks to us about:
How years of consultancy helped him prepare for the disruptions of the last couple of years
How strong brand relationships have secured his business against new competitors 
How he has used forecasting and endurance to avoid losses and make profitable sales. 
Pricing tools and strategies 

It’s just a really great chance to reflect and learn. Particularly, in the current inflationary climate with ecommerce under pressure and everything else going on right now.

Dive deeper into:

00:00 Intro
01:33 TAKING OFFLINE RETAIL ONLINE: How to digitally transform a family-run business?
09:37 HOW TO MANAGE SUPPLY CHAIN? The right tools to measure your stock, sales, and supply
18:02 STEPS TO SETTING THE RIGHT PRICES: Pricing tools, profitability, and operational efficiency.
34:02 HOW TO STAY AHEAD OF PRICING REGULATIONS?

Welcome to episode 21. of growing ecommerce. 

In this episode, Mike is joined by Karin Schallauer, smec’s product marketing team lead who just came back from K5, one of the biggest ecommerce conferences overall in the German-speaking region. Tune in as Karin and Mike take you down the ecommerce landscape and discuss:

• Managing marketplace, supply chain, personalisation, and digital transformation
• Sustainability:  the footprint of your sales - 5:47
• Marketplaces: should I stay or should I go? - 11.25
• Social ecommerce: Trend or reality? - 17:34
• Pandemic playing field: disruptions, opportunities, and trends - 27:14
• What is healthy ecommerce growth? - 30.40

Welcome to episode 22 of Growing Ecommerce. In this episode, Mike was lucky enough to speak with Ginny Marvin, Google Ads product liaison. She supports communication and the working relationship between Google's product team on the one hand, and the advertisers and partners who use that platform on the other hand. In this episode you get introduced to Google’s latest resources to help you steer your retail business: your guide to  search automation, Google Ads best practice guide and  performance max best practices guide. 

With these resources and everything Mike and Ginny discuss in this episode you’ll dive deeper into:

1. From all search engine marketing to client interactions and product updates. How does Google connect with advertisers? 1:34
2. The future of Google Ads? Automation, maximized conversions and machine learning capabilities  8:36
3. Business or product Insights? Insights that marketers should really be looking to manage campaigns 18:16
4. Differentiation in an automated environment  31:00

Welcome to episode 23 of Growing Ecommerce.
In this episode, Mike is joined by his colleague from smec, Markus Harant. He is an online marketing expert who leads the Programmatic Advertising and Analytics team. Markus talks us through the technology behind programmatic, ecommerce use cases, how to view these campaigns, and What's going on with the dichotomy between brand and performance? If you wish to read about Programmatic Advertising instead of listening about it - have a look at the Programmatic Advertising ebook. And news of Microsoft and Xander winning Netflix's ad business

1. Technology behind Programmatic and its adoption? 
2. Top or bottom of the funnel? Programmatic Performance and how to measure it.  - 9:21
3. Programmatic Advertising budget: machine learning capabilities, cost, and value.  - 18:00
4. Microsoft to power Netflix’s advertising. What to expect?  - 31:18

Welcome to episode 24 of Growing Ecommerce. In this episode, Mike is joined by Kirk Williams - his own professional hero. Kirk is a PPC and digital advertising expert who runs his own PPC micro agency, ZATO Marketing. In this episode, Kirk and Mike ponder about the Google advertising space, both the challenges and opportunities moving forward, as well as the role of data collection and privacy in the ecommerce operating environment. This episode gives an interesting counter or companion perspective to the recent episode with Ginny Marvin -Google Ads liaison. Feel free to have a look at the article Kirk refers to or listen to Kirk host Mike in the podcast episode.

1. What is healthy ecommerce growth? - 08:34
2. Google Ads and how to optimise campaign performance - 19:12
3. Performance Max-Google’s automation concept - 28:02 
4. Compliant data collection and privacy moving forward - 42:34 

Welcome to Episode 25 of Growing Ecommerce. This time, Mike is joined by Katherine Munro, a data scientist at smec. If you have a stereotype in your mind that data scientists are brilliant, then Katherine will not disappoint you. She is a fountain of knowledge – disciplined and scientific as you might expect, and also incredibly creative in her thinking.
We catch up about some current projects she’s working on and then dive into CLV, or Customer Lifetime Value. What is CLV exactly, what are approaches to calculating or modelling it? How can we use it in an ecommerce setting? We talk cohorts, categories, and KPIs.

1. What is it? How to calculate or model it? - 04:19
2. How to use CLV in an e commerce setting? -17:13
3. The value of CLV for your business? -26:51
4. Beyond CLV - 36:31 

Welcome to episode 26. of Growing Ecommerce. In this episode, Mike is joined by Alex Greifeld. Alex has a long background in ecommerce and until recently she was a director at Tapestry, which collects brands you'll know from the luxury space like Coach and Kate Spade. Now, she's acting as an ecommerce growth advisor, so she's a really perfect fit for this podcast.

We talked through age-old debates like retention versus acquisition and newer ones like Return on Ad Spend versus Marketing Efficiency Ratio, as well as Customer Lifetime Value versus first-order profit.

Listen to the new Growing Ecommerce episode and learn more about:

1. Product, forgotten P of marketing - 02:39
2. Customer Retention Vs Acquisition - 04:19
3. ROAS vs MER? -17:13
4. CLV vs first-order profit? -26:51
5. What's next for ecommerce - 36:31 

You can hear more from Alex by subscribing to her very popular ecommerce newsletter, No Best Practices: https://nobestpractices.co/

Welcome to Episode 27 of Growing Ecommerce. In this episode, Mike is joined by Inderpaul Rai, Head of Acquisition at ufurnish.com. Indy has had a remarkable career spanning from small-scale SEO to award-winning paid work on the agency side, to enterprise in-house teams and all the way back to a startup environment. We discuss all that, and along the way we talk about what a modern partnership-driven affiliate model looks like, plus the importance of paid and organic search harmonisation – or in other words, taking a total SEM view. Also, culture is a topic that Indy radiates, and this gets a spotlight as well.

1. Career highlights and lessons learned - 2:39
2. Modern partnership-driven affiliate model - 24:19
3. Paid and organic search harmonisation - 28:00
4. What is next in digital marketing? - 36:31

Welcome to Episode 28 of Growing Ecommerce. In this episode, Mike shares one of his monologues to reflect the changes in advertising, and tackles the ongoing need for modernization, including testing, and account structure. Mike looks at the recent changes in the google ads universe and talks about what it means for ecommerce experts as google becomes the merchant center of gravity.

Welcome to Episode 29. of Growing ecommerce. Today, Mike is joined by Mike Taylor, co-founder of Vex Power (vexpower.com) which offers courses for marketers who want to improve their technical skills. He also offers consultancy, growth and experimentation and he's a popular instructor on LinkedIn learning. Microsoft Excel for marketers and memetics (Marketingmemetics.com) are one of his big hits over there. They discuss Mike's stance on testing. When is it a waste of time? When isn't it? And his critiques of personalization. This time, you get walked through marketing, mix modeling, generative AI, and a broader definition of memes.

Welcome to Episode 30. of Growing ecommerce. Today is a special episode as we break the usual format. Long-time listeners will know we did a Q4 peak season panel back in 2021 and we did it again. Time Mike is in the hot seat joined by his colleague, Agnes Zottl. Many thanks to Maria Holzinger for stepping into the moderator rule. They discuss big-picture environmental trends, what it means to have the most automated Google Ads peak season ever, and how to profit this holiday season.  You can have a look at the full interview here.

1. Beating Bestseller bias - 03:32
2. PMax - the self-driving car - 09:07
3. Stock and non-stock challenge for retailers - 11:13
4. Holiday season advice for retailers -  15:21

Welcome to Episode 31. of  Growing ecommerce. Today, we are joined by Tim Aton, COO at Range Leather, where in a classic scale-up fashion, he wears a lot of hats. From paid, and owned media channels to product merchandising to managing shipping and wholesale teams. We discuss approaches to blended ROAS, meta advertising, Facebook in particular, and how is life looking post-iOS 14. Then we move on from marketing and discuss the interplay of marketing and operations.

1. Meta & Facebook advertising - 7:12
2. Life post-IOS 14 - 15:41
3. Blended ROAS in ecommerce - 18:48
4. Interplay of marketing and operations  - 28:59

Welcome to Episode 32. of  Growing ecommerce, the last episode of 2022. Today, we are joined by Philip, Ivelio Vellin who is an expert in analytics and tracking.

This time, Mike and Phillip talk about google analytics 4, the complaints, the benefits, and how to get it right. They discussed cardinality, data retention, migration strategy, consent mode, and model data plus server side tagging. 

It's a great introduction to the topic and now is actually an opportunity to update your data strategy as Philip explains why this is core to succeeding next year and beyond. 

1. What is GA4 and what makes it different? - 03:00
2. What is cardinality? -10:48
3. How do we benefit from GA4? -15:00
4. What is a consent mode? - 16:55
5. GA4 in ecommerce? - 22:25

Welcome to Episode 33. of  Growing ecommerce. Today, we are joined by Arend de Ruiter from bol.com,  a dutch retailer and retail platform generating over €5 billion in annual revenue.

Arend leads SEA measurement and data activation at this retail giant. We discuss what it's like to advertise 60 million products, how to approach segmentation in supersized accounts, and how to deploy automation in this huge oil tanker like organization.

1. Advertising 60 million products - 10:30
2. What is the right amount of segmentation - 14:32
3. SEO and SEA management - 16:32
4. Full funnel marketing and KPIs  - 24:59
5. What technology to focus on? -  39:00

Welcome to Episode 2. of  Growing ecommerce. Today, we are  joined by Scott Kennedy. He's a senior director at Franklin Sports where he's responsible for ecommerce analytics and tech capabilities. In the US, Franklin is synonymous with baseball and baseball for many is synonymous with stats. It is a numbers game, so it's only fitting that Franklin is a remarkably data driven organization and Scott is at the forefront of that. We discussed that data culture in quite some detail, getting into employee mentoring and we discussed Amazon advertising, the amazon data landscape, and the balance of retail and direct to consumer at franklin with advice for smaller brands too. 

1. Effective stock management- 12:30
2. How to build a data driven organization  - 15:05
3. Amazon for direct to consumer ecommerce businesses - 23:01
4. How to build competitive advantage in online retail  - 29:45

Welcome to Episode 3. of  Growing Ecommerce.
Today, Mike looks back at ecommerce in 2022. He reviewed the data and prepared a market report for 2022. He first looks at macroeconomic data like consumer confidence and inflation and then  talks about trends identified in channel data for Google Ads, Shopping and Performance Max in particular. The focus of the market report is on  Germany, Netherlands, UK, and France. 
Join Mike and learn what are the key trends to build on in 2023. 
  
Which ecommerce verticals grew in 2022?  -1:36 
Inflation and consumer confidence, what to make of it? -5:33 
Retail mobility vs. Covid stringency - 17:25 
Full funnel metrics - 19:31 
PMax adoption?  - 37:37

Welcome to Episode 4. of  Growing Ecommerce. Today Mike is joined by his colleague Mark Haupt, smec`s UK commercial director. He brings years of online retail experience in several different contexts to the table  as he talks to Mike about the Post Brexit, post - pandemic economic situation in the UK, how Google's Performance Max has landed with the UK market, the increasing allure of Microsoft ads and the agency in-house relationship.  

Join Mike and learn more about the paid marketing in the UK .

1. The big picture - 4:15
2. PMax in the UK - 13:20
3. Microsoft and AI content - 28:00
4. In House vs Agency  - 34:25

Welcome to Episode 5. of  Growing Ecommerce. Today, Mike is joined by Mike Taylor, who is making his second appearance on the show. He's the co-founder of Vex Power and author of the upcoming book marketing memetics. Last time we talked about testing, marketing, mix modeling and generative aAI,  but this time we are digging in:  we talk about the prospect for marketers in an age of AI, an interesting field called Prompt Engineering and so-called war of the search engines between the new BING experience powered by chat GPT and google's Bard.

1. AI Introduction  - 3:30
2. Is Ai coming after your job? - 16:40
3. Prompt engineering- 22:10
4. War of search engines - 28:08
5. How wrong are we dealing with AI  - 42:22

Welcome to Episode 6. of  Growing Ecommerce. Today Mike is joined by Sam Tomlinson, of Warshawski, a boutique marketing agency in the US. Sam is also teaching at Johns Hopkins, University and Georgetown. Mike caught him while he was attending SMX Munich and discussed the conference briefly before diving into Sam's views on forecasting and emphasizes that forecasting is not out of reach. Then, we switch gears and we discuss the intersection of large language models and search. It's not a new topic to this podcast, but here is a new perspective, Sam explains where he's not quite as convinced

1. The importance of forecasting, and its types -  8:53
2. Cohort base and Bayesian regression.  - 16:20
3.  How to determine forecast type?   - 26:30
4.  What is good growth to you?   - 29:34
5. AI in marketing. - 25:37

Welcome to Episode 7. of  Growing Ecommerce. 
Today, Mike is joined by Lucas Gordon, a solution specialist in native advertising at Microsoft. With 20 years of experience in digital media and advertising, working with brands like Revlon, Decathlon and many others, he's particularly strong in real-time bidding technology. Lucas walks us through Microsoft's ad tech offering. Why audience matters more than placement? Why he sees Microsoft as a low fraud environment? And we talk about partnerships including Xander Netflix and Open AI, We really enjoy this conversation and we hope you will too. 

Welcome to Episode 8. of  Growing Ecommerce. Today Mike is joined by two guests, Kirk Williams, owner of ZATO marketing making his second appearance on the show, and Ben Kruger who's a senior ecommerce growth consultant at Google.  In exchange for a packed agenda you get a stimulating conversation about the grand brand-non brand debate in Google ads, the ways in which PMax is like paid social and the discussion about whether or not CPCs matter anymore. 

With the introduction of the AI powered BING search, its an interesting time for the world as the advertisers are at an inflection point between learning, testing and generating results. Welcome to Episode 9. of  Growing Ecommerce. Today Mike is joined by Fabrice Canel, Principal Program Manager for Bing Search. As he is responsible for crawling and indexing at BING and ultimately for the product relevance and customer expectations, we discuss what's changing with the integration of AI chat into Bing search and what's staying the same? We talk about AI hallucinations, AI for e-commerce, and how search marketers should react to technology.

1. AI and search - 8:40
2. What is next for AI? - 22:40
3. AI questions no one wants to answer -  27:40
4. AI in ecommerce - 35:30

Welcome to growing e-commerce. This time, Mike is discussing Google marketing live, also known as GML. As the recording takes place between GML and IO (Google's big developer conference), it was a pivotal month probably in the history of the company. Most importantly, ecommerce was at the forefront of GML and it felt very much like an ecommerce event. Listen to the episode to learn  about the features coming to Google search and Google ads and what they mean for you. We'll cover conversational campaign creation, product, studio, Merchant Center next and more.

Overall direction of Google technology - 3:00

1. Ads are coming to SGE? - 7:20
2. How can AI in Google environment support advertisers - 13:10
3. Automatic asset generation -18:55
4. Product Studio - 23:10
5. Merchant Center Next - 29:16

What if artificial intelligence could revolutionize the e-commerce industry? Join us in our captivating conversation with Ralph Mayr, director of Product Management at Smarter Ecommerce, as we delve into the intriguing world of AI and its impact on ecommerce. From high-level concepts like philosophical zombies to current applications in performance marketing, Ralph shares his expert insight from both a consumer and product manager's perspective.

We tackle the moral implications of AI, including whether it should announce itself if it could be mistaken for a human being. Our discussion explores the state of Google search and its results, as well as the ads served alongside them. We examine the growing pains of new technologies like Google's Shopping Graph and conversational AI, and how these developments may improve search experiences for both consumers and advertisers.

Finally, we dive into the latest updates from Google Marketing Live, touching on conversational campaign creation, Product Studio, and more. Learn how chat-based assistance could revolutionize campaign creation and the implications of AI-assisted tools like Product Studio for product images. Don't miss our analysis of the potential long-term effects of these innovations and the trade-offs between time savings and performance. Tune in and elevate your understanding of the ever-evolving landscape of AI and ecommerce!

Ever wondered what it takes to navigate the world of performance marketing amidst a global pandemic? Join us as we chat with Stefan Huß, Head of Performance Marketing at Lampenwelt, a mid-to-top market lighting brand and part of the Luqom Group. Learn how Stefan's fascinating career journey, which began with Aldi Süd and led him to the world of performance marketing, prepared him for the unique challenges and opportunities he encountered when he joined Lampenwelt just one month before COVID-19 struck.

In this episode, we uncover the ins and outs of online lighting retail and marketing, from Lampenwelt's diverse product range to their advertising strategies and efforts to branch out into the B2B space. Stefan shares how Lampenwelt quickly adapted to the Ecommerce boom, implementing significant changes to their ecosystem, ERP, and management team to ensure the future success of the business. Discover the critical role data plays in driving these decisions and shaping the company's future direction.

Lastly, Stefan provides valuable insights into data-driven marketing strategies, such as Marketing Mix Modeling and profit bidding for paid media. We discuss the importance of automation and artificial intelligence in determining the best investment opportunities and delve into the challenges of using Performance Max to optimize profits in the UK and France. Don't miss this enlightening conversation with Stefan Huß, where we cover everything from data-driven marketing to the future of performance marketing in Ecommerce.

Get ready for a ride as senior product manager at adidas, Onur Polat, steps into the spotlight. His journey from launching a jobs portal in Albania to charting the intricacies of corporations and scale-ups like Criteo and Channable is nothing short of inspiring. We'll be picking his brain about the significance of feed-based advertising in product management, and we promise, his insights are a treasure trove of knowledge you won't want to miss.

We'll be demystifying the 'black box' concept as we explore how the quality of output is a direct reflection of what goes in. We'll also confront the challenging decision between buying and building when it comes to product feeds. Onur's  experiences underscore the importance of homegrown capabilities to generate raw feeds. And there's more! We'll be taking a closer look at Google's Product Studio and its potential to provide solutions to product feeds.

But that's not all. We'll be dwelling on the impact of AI tools on companies, with Onur sharing his experiences with the Bing image generator. You'll hear his take on why larger enterprises should approach AI with caution. Our journey with Onur extends to his role in adidas's Paid Traffic Product team, the distinction between the work of product and marketing teams, and the transformative role of CMOs in today's technology-driven business landscape. So, stay tuned. This is one episode that will leave you brimming with new insights and perspectives.

Visit adidas.com for more information about the brand. 

Ready to unlock the power of Amazon Ads? Join us for a fascinating deep dive into the world of Amazon advertising with our special guest, Stefan Bures, founder and CEO of metoda. Stefan is here to share his wealth of knowledge on Amazon Ads, offering a unique lens into its history, strengths, and how his company metoda is helping equip the retail industry to compete with Amazon. Expect to be enlightened on DSP linkout campaigns, product segmentation, and the concept of retail readiness.

We throw light on the unique selling propositions of Amazon Ads, its search ad, and demand-side platform (DSP). Stefan also shares insights into how Amazon Ads have impacted customer satisfaction and how it has contributed to Amazon's growth. We crack open the discussion on the differences between Google and Amazon Ads, providing a fresh perspective on the potential of DSP linkout campaigns as an audience targeting and customer acquisition channel. 

Our conversation doesn't end there, as we also explore the significance of setting apt budgets for Amazon Ads on peak days and how heat mapping past seasonal events can help. Stefan and Mike also touch upon the future of digital marketing, taking into account the power of DSP linkouts, the rise of social selling, and the influence of Amazon, Google, and social media channels. We wrap up by talking about the importance of online presence and networking, and how it can pave the way for more opportunities. Don't miss out on this enlightening episode with Stefan Bures. We promise you'll walk away with a new level of understanding for Amazon Ads like never before.

What if I told you that the elusive world of Performance Max campaigns could be demystified? That's right, after an exhaustive year-long investigation, analyzing over 3000 campaigns, I've begun to crack open the black box of Performance Max. Together with the help of data experts, we will shed light on the hidden facets of these campaigns and guide you through the labyrinth of mystery placements and estimations. We’ll even unpack the unique challenges faced by multi-brand retailers and reveal the surprising trend of PerformanceMax leaning heavily into mobile traffic.

Curious about how many campaigns are perfect for you? Wondering how different catalogs and products might affect your segmentation? We’ll answer that and more. We'll delve into popular frameworks around product segmentation and the most favored bid strategies. We'll reveal why maximizing revenue or conversion value is the most prevalent strategy. But that's not all. We're also going to dive deep into the PerformanceMax efficiency, analyzing how these campaigns are meeting the target return on ad spend, and what exactly happens when campaigns exceed the ROAS target.

Now, you might be thinking, can Performance Max truly be trusted? How can we verify its effectiveness? Well, we have got you covered. We'll discuss the potential pitfalls and verification process of Performance Max campaigns. By sharing insights from multi-brand retailers who have used Performance Max, we aim to help you make informed decisions about this campaign type. So, buckle up for an episode filled with rich insights, compelling analysis, and valuable takeaways. Let's crack the Performance Max code together!

Ever wondered how small advertisers navigate the labyrinth that is Google Ads? We dive into the thick of this challenge with Collin Slattery, founder of Taikun Digital, as we address the growing complexities of mid-funnel marketing. From Google's demand-gen campaigns and YouTube Shorts to the rise of Google's automation - we scrutinize it all. 

Discover the ins and outs of Google's automation platform, its pros and cons, and how it's changing the landscape for advertisers both big and small. Colin, a veteran in the industry, brings his unique insights to the table, as we explore the diminishing transparency and control stemming from increasing automation. We'll compare Google's demand-gen campaigns with Meta's and Facebook's ad-to-cart optimization, pitting the tech giants against one another.

In the final leg, we zoom out to the larger picture, examining the impact of VC-backed brands overspending on acquisition and the influx of Chinese investments. Brands like Allbirds and shopee are under the microscope as we assess their aggressive marketing strategies. As we round off, we'll also touch on the recovery of Facebook's attribution data through modeling, and the current attitudes towards Google and Facebook. So why wait? Tune in for an episode packed with insights from the ever-evolving world of digital marketing.

Ever wonder why Amazon seems to always be ahead of the curve while Google seems to be playing catch up? Join me and James Hercher from AdExchanger as we pull back the curtain on the lucrative yet often under-discussed world of e-commerce and D2C. We dive into the intersection of commerce, media, and advertising technology, highlighting why Amazon's risk-taking approach grants them the edge ahead of Google and how human input continues to be pivotal in automation-dominated platforms.

Can you imagine AI taking over creative tasks and producing original content? As our conversation evolves, we delve into the stagnating ad market and the rise of AI, specifically its influence on businesses. James shares intriguing insights on companies like Colgate-Palmolive, which are leveraging AI for dynamic product listings to shape future customer experiences. We explore the potential and limitations of AI in the creative space, igniting a stimulating debate on AI's capacity for originality. 

As we examine the future of advertising, we touch on the increasing role of cloud computing. We consider the impact of tech giants like Amazon and Google in developing services like identity resolution and data clean rooms. We also evaluate the implications of automation on customer service and the potential opportunities that companies like Google and Pinterest have in retail media. This episode offers an enlightening exploration of the ever-evolving world of e-commerce and advertising technology, packed with insights and observations that you won't want to miss!

Are you ready to peel back the curtain on Google's shadowy world of search auctions? Prepare for a shocking journey that will explore the murky details of Google's alleged auction manipulation, as revealed in the Department of Justice antitrust investigation. This is an absolute must-listen for anyone in the e-commerce space, as we navigate the mechanics of their reserve price increases, the mysterious RGSP system, and the controversial practice of 'squashing.' We'll dissect how these manipulations effectively push up the average Cost Per Click (CPC) and what this means for advertisers.

We're going to get up close and personal with the RGSP - Randomized, Generalized Second Price auction - system that Google uses to decide auction winners and runners up. It's a system that, on the surface, seems advantageous for consumers and advertisers alike. But as we dig deeper, we'll expose potential side effects and its anti-competitive implications. Through this episode, you'll gain a greater understanding of the 'squashing' system, its role in Google's revenue growth, and why these tactics might just paint a picture of greed. We'll explore the conflicts of interest and trust issues that arise when the auctioneer also plays bidder. This episode is all about the why, the how, and the what now – you won't want to miss it!

Wondering about the hidden potential of product segmentation in ecommerce? Join as we peel back the layers on this fascinating topic. We'll discuss the tension between efficiency and scale, and explore how product segmentation can help you navigate these opposing forces. Discover the relevance of the 1970s BCG Matrix in today's ecommerce world, learn about the role of algorithms in solving the fascinating "multi-armed bandit" problem, and get insights into Google's Shopping Graph and Audience Graph.

We'll dissect the intricacies of the modified BCG matrix ("heroes and zombies"), weighing its pros and cons. Get ready to see how a multi-dimensional approach, which considers a balance of performance data and off-channel data like margin, can offer potential benefits. We'll debate the limitations of two-dimensional models and the potential of AI in understanding multi-dimensional spaces. As we reach the end of our journey, we'll reflect on the challenging economic climate and its impact on marketing effectiveness. Let's challenge traditional best practices and consider the vast possibilities of product segmentation together. This episode promises to change the way you look at product segmentation!

Unveiling the hidden world of Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising and software development is none other than one of the founders of True Clicks, Wijnand Meijer. Meijer joins us to guide us down his unique path into PPC and software development - a journey sparked by a simple idea to bridge a gap in the market. This lightbulb moment led to the genesis of the PPC Survey, a community-led initiative that aims to share invaluable, up-to-the-minute data within the PPC industry. Since its May 2022 inception, this project has garnered an overwhelmingly positive response.

Fasten your seatbelts as we navigate the most recent findings from the PPC Survey, revealing the inner workings and sentiments within the industry. We bring to you the reality of job satisfaction in the PPC realm, where seeing the fruits of their labor is the highlight for as many as 62% of industry professionals. Don’t miss our discussion on the financial angles of PPC management, where we uncover that managing a single account leads to higher spend levels for in-house teams. We also shed light on the top pain points for PPC agencies, with the crown taken by unrealistic client expectations. And let’s not forget the future - we're talking scripts and AI in PPC!

Our deep dive doesn't stop there. We take you through the projections from the PPC Survey of 2024, laying bare key trends and forecasts. This data-heavy chat covers the rising trust in Microsoft compared to other platforms, such as Google, Twitter, and Amazon, and the average number of scripts running in each account. From the projected spend for major campaign types to satisfaction levels with Google Ads features, we've got it all. Whether you’re a seasoned PPC professional, or taking your first steps in the industry, this episode is packed with priceless insights into the current and future state of PPC. You don't want to miss it!

Are you ready to uncover the future of Google Ads? Brace yourself as we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Google's advertising platform, with a specific focus on the rising dominance of Performance Max (PMax), Demand Gen campaigns, and YouTube shorts. Mike dissects how PMax is transitioning from a mere extension of Smart Shopping campaigns to a possible replacement for all campaign types, and grapples with the changing nature of this technology.He dives into the prospect that PMax could replace keyword search campaigns, an idea that Google is at least flirting with, as evidenced by a recent survey. Mike further attempts to disentangle the relationship between PMax and Demand Gen campaigns, and predicts a sharp rise in YouTube Shorts ads throughout 2024. This future could be a mixed bag for different kinds of advertisers, presenting both challenges and benefits. So gear up and join us on this enlightening exploration as we decode what future holds for Google Ads!

Join us as we navigate the choppy waters of ecommerce remarketing with Phillip Ivellio-Vellin, exploring the ramifications of the impending Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Google Consent Mode's implementation deadline of March 6, 2024. This episode promises to equip you with the knowledge and strategies to t thrive in an environment where privacy regulations and tech giants' policies collide. 
 From the implications of user consent to the future of cookie tracking, our deep dive into the evolving digital landscape is a must-listen for every marketer and ecommerce professional seeking to maintain a competitive edge.Phillip offers his expert insights on the delicate balance between data compliance and business performance, shedding light on the industry's pivot towards prioritizing user privacy without sacrificing remarketing efficacy. Hang on as we dissect the future of ad campaigns and present an outlook on how these seismic shifts are poised to change digital advertising strategies.
 
 Google's guidance on consent management requirements in the EEA and UK:

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/14505993

Unravel the complexities of the ecommerce universe as we sit down with Stefan Wenzel, veteran leader from eBay Germany, Otto Netherlands, and McLaren Automotive. This episode holds a wealth of insights, from understanding Otto's metamorphosis into a leading marketplace to examining the undercurrents that differentiate established goliaths like Amazon and eBay from emerging powerhouses Temu and SHEIN. Stefan's seasoned perspective guides us through the convoluted terrain of marketplace dynamics, acquisition strategies, and customer experience nuances that only a true expert can decode.
The swift ascent of SHEIN and Temu in western markets is dissected, revealing how these juggernauts are attempting to overcome the classic chicken-and-egg marketplace conundrum through futuristic logistical and manufacturing strategies. Oh, and ads. Lots of ads.

Get a heap of ecommerce & marketplace insights from Vinnie O'Brien, whose expertise from eBay to DTC brands sets the stage for a riveting discussion. Together with host Mike Ryan, he tackles the contrasting marketplace ecosystems across the US and EU, dissecting how these differences influence business tactics, and debates whether retail media networks are now indispensable in today's digital economy. For up-and-coming brands, Vinnie gives his seasoned perspective on navigating Amazon's platform and the discipline required to succeed. He also addresses the contentious emergence of marketplace software providers like Miracle. This episode is a must-listen for anyone in the e-commerce space looking to refine their strategy and understand the broader industry landscape.
We delve into the pivotal role operational excellence plays in the infancy of a brand, the cost of negative customer experiences on repeat business, and the strategic decisions that new brands face in an increasingly competitive digital arena. Whether you're a retailer, a brand owner, or an e-commerce enthusiast, these stories reveal the crucial elements of scaling and sustaining a profitable online presence.

Mike shares updates about two trending areas to watch this year. First is the rise of marketing mix modelling. He digs into Google's new Meridian model, including a refresher on Marketing Mix Modelling, a reminder of Meta's competing offer (Robyn), and Meridian's USPs. Then he shares a big change in the marketing activity of fan favorite Temu. We'll leave you in suspense on that one – listen to find out!
Discussed in this episode:
A recording of Mike's webinar, "What's IN and what's OUT in 2024 ecommerce?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HF27Tjm4po 

Temu's advertising has been at the center of countless headlines in recent months. However, journalists don't know advertising well enough and don't have the data necessary to tell the full story. Mike has monitoring Temu for months – and mega-advertisers like Amazon, Wish, and eBay for years. He ties together all of his research on Temu so far into a single story exploring their dramatic rise, and their performance impact on other advertisers. This episode isn't Wall Street analysts or regular consumers, it's for ecommerce advertisers and operators, and it's a story that no one else can tell.Please note there is a lot of data in this episode and you might want to watch the video feed for the best experience.

Learn about the future of marketing from Daniel Smulevich of Jellyfish, as he guides us through the MarTech revolution in a landscape brimming with change. This episode isn't about chasing shiny new tech; it's about strategic problem-solving and making tech work for your marketing needs.We dissect the tech FOMO that grips the industry, using platforms like Roblox as cautionary tales, and emphasize the importance of thoughtful tech adoption. Daniel describes the imperative for realignment of data and analytics roles, which need to shift from mere tech support to strategic business advisors. We also discuss choosing between creating your own technology or investing in off-the-shelf solutions. either way, you must ensure that your decisions are informed by deep industry knowledge and the right balance of manual and automated processes.This episode is a must-listen for any marketer looking to stay ahead in a dynamic, data-driven world.

Join Mike Ryan for a discussion of his highlights from GML 2024. Was the event overshadowed by Google I/O? Do advertisers need to worry about the biggest shake-up ever to Google's SERP? He answers these questions and unpacks the news around core ecommerce feature announcements like profit bidding, interactive Shopping ads, and improvements to asset and video reporting in Performance Max campaigns. All in all it was a good GML for paid teams, but a worrying one for organic teams and publishers. Mike explains it all in this episode.

(Recorded live at IRX Birmingham)
Rob Davis is Acquisition Marketing Director at THG Beauty, a division which is responsible for £1.2B of THG's total revenues, and which includes brands such as LOOKFANTASTIC, Cult Beauty, and Dermstore. Rob tells how growth in the Beauty ecomm sector is shaping up, and which tech and consumer trends he's watching now. Plus, we get Rob's take on economic trends including the resilience of the luxury market and mythbusting the Lipstick Effect. Lastly we get Rob's take on Google's automation and new AI features. It's a great conversation that might just change the way you view Health & Beauty.

Can a new low-price, slow-shipping strategy from Amazon truly rival Temu's direct-from-China model? On this episode of Growing ecommerce, host Mike Ryan dissects some of the biggest headlines from Q2 including Amazon's attempt to fight back against Temu, and Netflix's advertising woes, which led to another VP dismissal just one day after earnings were reported. He also discusses how Pinterest's ad deal with Google is shaping up, changes to Meta's remarketing mix, first reactions to Prime Day, and more.Tune in for an episode packed with insights and strategies that are shaping the future of the industry.

Discover the forces reshaping the ecommerce landscape leading into 2025 as host Mike Ryan guides us through a labyrinth of game-changing developments and strategic maneuvers. From the Department of Justice's legal challenges against Google to the emerging battleground between Amazon and Temu, Mike gives insight into how these seismic shifts might just redefine what we know about monopolies, market dynamics, and consumer engagement. Could the verdicts against Google have unintended consequences? How are AI shopping assistants poised to shake the platforms? What is going on with Temu and Amazon's I-hate-you-so-much-that-I'm-going-to-copy-you-exactly strategies?Prepare for a year-end review like no other, as Mike tracks the tectonic movements of e-commerce titans and advertisers. Witness Pinterest’s alliance with Google as it seeks to unlock new monetization avenues, and get a glimpse into Meta's latest updates aimed at refining attribution and take over account structures. With AppLovin's unexpected rise in digital advertising and Microsoft's steady pursuit of relevance, this episode brims with expert analysis and provocative questions about what lies ahead. Whether it's the AI evolution or the competitive dynamics between industry giants, Mike Ryan unpacks the strategies and potential pitfalls in this ever-evolving landscape.

Big changes on Growing Ecommerce! Chris Scharmueller joins Mike Ryan for a fresh, unscripted take on the latest in online retail. In this episode:

• Amazon vs. Temu: What Amazon’s “Haul” launch says about their playbook and profit risks
• Perplexity AI: Can it challenge Google by fusing search and shopping?
• Nike’s DTC misstep: When cutting out retail partners backfires
• Marketing strategy: Are you spending where influence occurs?

All that and more, plus a hot take or two. Hit play.

Digital ads in 2025 are anything but boring. In this episode, Mike and Chris unpack:

• Mark Zuckerberg’s eyebrow-raising claim that ads aren’t important (despite 98% of Meta’s revenue coming from ads)
• Amazon’s move to sell its ad tech to other retailers—friend or Trojan horse?

Plus details from our comprehensive new PMax research:

• How Google’s Performance Max is finally shedding its “black box” label, with fresh data from 500+ accounts
• Why your PMax campaigns need 30–60 conversions a month, no matter what Google says
• Why campaign segmentation should follow business logic, not default categories

Grab the State of PMax 2025 report—free on the blog or as a downloadable PDF:
https://shorturl.at/ali5A

Steve Sheinkopf, CEO at Yale Appliance since 1986, on the advantages of a strong online presence as offline retailer, digital marketing processes, growth and a whole lot more.

Birgit de Vries, Owner of Golfbreker Consulting, has led quite a lot of digital transformation projects and an expertise in digital marketing strategy and change management.

Christopher Gutknecht, Lead Acquisition & Optimization at Bergzeit, is an expert practitioner and leader in digital maturity including topics like profit based campaigns, attribution modelling and marketing data warehousing.

Polle van Elsacker, independent Marketing Tech Consultant with 11+ years of PPC experience shares his view on current industry developments. Additionally, he sheds light on how to transform businesses in a fast-paced environment into leaders by unlocking unused potential which allows for healthy growth.

Larissa Walker brings a fascinating academic background and years of practical experience scaling startups to her current role as Commercial Optimisation Program Leader at RS Components, a FTSE250 business. Startups that Larissa has helped to grow have flourished, including 1 IPO and 3 acquisitions. Learn about everything from how to launch new products to how to lead digital turnarounds with Larissa.

Patrick Gilbert, Chief Operating Officer at AdVenture Media and author of the book "Join or Die: Digital Advertising in the Age of Automation", explains how you can harness the power of machine learning and automation to drive healthy growth.

With a background in retail, the digital marketing and data science, Patrick gained invaluable insights into the evolution of ecommerce and is now a renowned thought leader, keynote speaker at Google Partner events and listed among the “Top 50 Most Influential PPC Experts of 2020” by PPC Hero. 

Marika Baltscheffsky is CMO at MEDS, an ambitious online shop that is disrupting Sweden’s highly-concentrated pharmacy retail vertical with differentiated branding and strong value propositions. Marika combines her background in psychology with experience both at agencies and platform-side at Google and YouTube. Learn how she leverages a small team to get big attention for MEDS.

Mihai Popescu, Head of Digital Marketing at Esprit, shares lessons learned from building teams and driving growth in four fascinating business models: hotel comparison, product comparison, a B2B marketplace, and an iconic apparel brand. Along the way, he offers advice on hiring and OKRs, in-housing and partnerships, and marketing measurement. 

Matthew Strelitz, Director of Performance Marketing at the Miami HEAT, explains how the HEAT’S ecommerce model differs from other sports franchises. Their DTC approach has scored big in terms of securing a robust revenue stream in the face of a pandemic-induced sales slump, as well as rewarding internal innovation, enabling agile product launches to capture the latest on-court heroics, strengthening a commitment to inclusivity, and allowing a lifestyle brand expansion. 

Join pricing expert Ralph Mayr, data scientist Katherine Munro, and campaign strategist Stefan Stopper for a discussion of holiday promotional strategy, tools, and tactics. This panel discusses challenges and opportunities to profitability including supply & fulfillment, promotion timing & discounting, and the role of automation in marketing campaigns.

What does the future of ecommerce hold? How can retailers thrive in 2022 and beyond?
Listen to Brian McBride, former chairman of ASOS & CEO of Amazon UK, Tristan Horx, futurist at zukunftsInstitut, Jan Radanitsch, CEO at smec and podcast host Mike Ryan, Head of Retail Insights at smec, as they talk about how to prevail as an online retailer in the ever changing world of ecommerce.

ROAS is a seemingly mundane marketing metric, calculated as the ratio of revenue to advertising costs. And yet it is so much more than that.

In this episode Mike Ryan will talk about ROAS, it's alternatives and why you should consider ditching this metric for something more effective.

Read more in this article: https://bit.ly/3KbV3zz