Using Google Base

I need to do a bit more testing, but it looks like Google Base listings are starting to have some conversion problems.

Way back during the Christmas buying season, Google Base, or Froogle, was just awesome! The conversion rate from a click from Froogle was 2 to 3 times that from a Google adword ad. Now that we’re in 2nd quarter and in the summer retail slump, “Google Product Search” (as they’re now calling it) is hitting the retail wall as well.

Google Product Search still delivers some clicks, but they are nowhere near as valuable as they were a few months ago. If you’re looking for more sales, it’s time to prospect on some of the other pay per click engines and shopping feed sites (which are essentially PPC) and work on your Google Product optimization to take advantage of that free traffic.

We’ll have to keep an eye on this in the fall, when we can compare similar timeframes and see if Google Product Search picks back up again.