Here are a few optimization points to ponder when competing / advertising on Pricegrabber.com. Pricegrabber is an excellent specialty product search engine for consumer electronics (and now even some niche ecommerce product types like automotive).
Bidding
Pricegrabber doesn’t support product level bidding (only category level) so make sure you understand which of your products are mapped to a given Pricegrabber category and how those categories relate to the Pricegrabber category bidding roll-ups. I know it can be confusing but you want to avoid bidding on a category and having low price point low margin product listings getting high placement on the search results and driving down your ROAS (return on ad spend: sales / ad spend)
Relevancy / Matching
As with most search engines, the product title is king. Make sure that it’s got the product name surrounded by the most common keywords ([brand] & product name & model number & search term). The description field and attributes are also very important especially for consumer electronics. Pay attention to your product matching reports to know if you are matching to the best sellers items in a product category. Make sure you have accurate UPC codes!
It’s important that you don’t change your SKU numbers and fiddle with your part numbers. Get then accurate, get them matched and then stick with them to build your product and click history.
Logo options
You’ll pay at least 10 cents more (above your bid or minimum CPC) per click for logo placement. If you have a strong offer and lack a large number of positive customer reviews it may be well worth it. You’ll need to pay a $700 monthly minimum ad spend also. The minimum is tricky as it’s only on the extra $.10 you pay per click on the logo. So., that means that you’ll need a minimum of 7,000 clicks a month to meet the minimum and not have your effective CPC for logo placement rise above ten cents. If you can make your logo work for you from a direct marketing ROI perspective, there are real less tangible branding benefits. These product pages get a lot of impressions. You may only get a click for every 20 to 100 pages views… but your brand is seen every time.
Shipping & Tax info
Include your shipping rates in your data feed (per product). If you don’t include shipping info you’ll be disadvantaged (”see site” for shipping info is not acceptable in CSEs). If you change tax, take time select the states in which you do. It’s simple and will work to your advantage.
Comments? Let me know your thoughts below. We’d all benefit by a good discussion.