When it comes to Google Shopping campaign optimization there are lots of knobs which could be turned to make it work better. In this post, we will focus on one called Stock fragmentation.
What does it mean?
Stock fragmentation happens when you have an item available in multiple variations e.g. shoes can be available in multiple sizes; and when that item has some of those variations not available.
Using shoe as an example, stock fragmentation can be observed when that shoe doesn't have all of its sizes available:
Why does it matter?
Stock fragmentation can have a negative impact on your Google Shopping campaign due to the following factors:
- Users might keep clicking on your ads thinking they will be able to buy given shoe size but if that size is not available they will simply bounce back. And yes, you could denote what size they have actually clicked on using product titles however due to restrictions applied on displayed title characters count which varies per ad layouts, users might never see size option they wanted to buy.
- You might end up promoting items which are nearly sold out instead of pushing new items more.
How to fix/optimize it?
With Feed Optimise its easy, our system can quickly create a custom_label for you which in return could provide you with relevant info so you can adjust your bids accordingly. Our system can also pause those items when their stock fragmentation reaches certain level ratio e.g. 25% - only 1 out of 4 sizes is available, all those settings could also be fine-tuned.
If you need any more info or help in regards setting it up under your Feed Optimise account feel free to get in touch.
P.S.
This technique can be applied to Google Shopping campaigns, but also works across Facebook Product Ads, Bing Shopping and all other channels.