How to sell health & beauty products on Google Shopping

The health & beauty industry is shifting towards e-commerce, which, in 2022, accounted for nearly 19% of retail sales worldwide. That is why in this article, we dive deeper into the way of selling health & beauty products via Google Shopping and how you can make the most of your Shopping Ads by taking into account the main challenges of this industry and implementing strategies to increase your customer lifetime value (CLTV). Additionally, we give specific recommendations to optimize the titles of your health & beauty products and we provide insights from experts in this industry, like Danone and Freshly Cosmetics.

To define what we mean when we discuss the health & beauty market, this mainly includes fragrances, male toiletries, makeup, skincare, nutrition, haircare, cosmetic, nail, and feminine hygiene products.

Most common challenges of selling health & beauty products:

1. High cart abandonment rate

According to Oberlo, the beauty & personal care sector stands out as the industry with the highest abandonment rate reaching a significant (82.87%). This high rate makes it even more challenging for businesses to improve their conversion rate. However, this is when retargeting campaigns can make a real difference. 

When running a retargeting campaign the main focus is on reengaging the users who abandoned the chart without completing a purchase. Nevertheless, we have to bear in mind that investing in customer lifetime value (CLV) is crucial, as recurring purchases thought a period of time are characteristic for beauty and health care products.

For instance, if a customer has just purchased a foundation, you might want to consider showcasing complementary products, such as a new concealer or setting powder (called as cross-selling). Also, another effective example of upselling would be showcasing a perfume advertisement to a customer who just purchased an eau de toilette from the same brand.

Retargeting in Google Ads can be done in multiple ways, for example using data segments (previously known as remarketing) in Shopping Ads, dynamic remarketing in Performance Max campaigns (using the product ID from the Google Merchant Center to run automatically), or display dynamic remarketing campaign (showing customers personalized ads based on their search on the website).

To summarize, remarketing allows you to showcase your ads to audiences that have visited your website or app but dynamic remarketing goes one step further, containing products/services that they have already searched for on the website. With a more customized content for the audience, dynamic remarketing can help in acquiring previous visitors back to the website and completing new purchases.

2. Customer disloyalty 

While some consumers are loyal to their preferred health & beauty products, it is more common for them to want to constantly try new products, which leads to a low customer retention rate. Additionally, the quick pace of change in the beauty, health, and personal care industry contributes to this desire to test new products. 

One of the most effective ways of improving customer retention rates in the beauty and health industry is through loyalty programs. These programs allow customers to get access to additional benefits and exclusive rewards. 

A great example of this is Freshly Cosmetics’ loyalty program, which is based on earning “Freshly drops” through purchases and other desired actions like sharing your experience with their products. The brand presents customers with different levels of loyalty depending on the amount of “Freshly drops” they have. As a result, they can access discounts, samples, and exclusive services like invitations to their events and cosmetic consultations with a skin coach.

The desire to obtain these exclusive rewards fosters client loyalty, encouraging them to stay devoted to the brand and continue purchasing its products. This ultimately results in a significant increase in profits.

3. Lots of competitors

In the health & beauty industry, many products are launched every day and new brands are constantly entering the market. Having so many competitors makes it vital to have insights on price benchmark data to make informed decisions. 

Producthero’s Price Benchmark allows you to compare your product’s price to the benchmark price.

4. Lots of Zombies 

Cosmetics often come in different shades, sizes, scents, and textures. For example, a foundation or a concealer might be available in a variety of shades to match different skin tones (see image below). 

Additionally, you can find the same shadow or lipstick in many different colours and not all of them sell equally well. Some shades are more popular than others, depending on the current beauty trends, the demographics of the target market, and even the season.

As happens when selling electronics or apparel, this often leads to having lots of Zombies. That is, products that are “sleeping” and barely get any clicks or conversions. 

To reduce the number of Zombies in your Google Ads campaigns, we recommend creating a separate campaign for them. This will “force” Google’s algorithm to show your Zombies to relevant users.

Check this article on how applying the Producthero Labelizer Strategy helps you force Google Shopping/ Performance Max campaigns to be more efficient by segmenting your products based on their performance.

5. Changing industry

According to Freshly Cosmetics’ team, whose products are well known for their natural ingredients, “more and more brands are raising awareness of sustainable and responsible consumption. As a result, the consumption of such products is increasing in all sectors”.

This growing interest in natural, plant-based, vegan, and cruelty-free cosmetics products (see the image below) can be a great challenge for cosmetic manufacturers, as traditional cosmetics products often contain synthetic ingredients.

In light of this, it is crucial to clearly label products with specifications like “vegan”, “cruelty-free” or “natural ingredients” to reassure consumers of product integrity. 

Additionally, considering creating new lines of products that meet the increasing desire for ethical products, focusing on sustainable packaging materials, and continuously assessing and improving formulations based on consumer expectations and demands are examples of great practices to face this specific challenge.

OPTIMIZE THE TITLES OF YOUR HEALTH AND BEAUTY PRODUCTS 

To optimize the titles of your products, you can read the Ultimate guide: Product Title Optimization for Google Shopping Campaigns. However, in this blog, we want to provide you with specific advice for optimizing the titles of your health & beauty products. 

As the Freshly Cosmetics team states, “When advertising on the shopping network, the difficulty lies in making consumers fall in love with products with such limited creative resources.”

For this reason, it is especially important to make the most of every character used in the product title. Here are some tips to take into consideration when optimizing your health & beauty product titles: 

1) Include the brand: 

When customers search for a specific brand of cosmetics or perfume, they are more likely to click on a product listing that includes the brand name in the title, as this makes them believe that the product is of good quality and that they can trust the manufacturer.

Additionally, every time customers see your brand name in the title of a product listing, they are more likely to remember and recognize your brand when they are ready to make a purchase.

2) Keep in mind truncation:

When writing your product titles, keep in mind that the optimal length is between 70 and 150 characters. However, you also need to take into account that only the first 20-30 characters (70 characters if you mouse over) will be shown, so start with the most important keywords.

The title “Matte Finish Long-Lasting Liquid Lipstick in Ruby Red – Vegan and Cruelty-Free – 6 ml – Special Collection” serves as a good example of effective product title, as it starts with the most important keywords, which include the product type (“Matte Finish Liquid Lipstick”), the specific shade (“Ruby Red”), and key selling points (“Vegan and Cruelty-Free”) within approximately 70 characters to ensure that these essential details are visible in search results or on product listings.

3) Highlight their benefits and include their main specifications: 

Consumers buy health & cosmetics products for specific reasons, for example, concealers are normally bought to hide spots or pimples, and conditioners to moisturize the hair. Moreover, users often take into account additional features like texture, coverage, finish or if a product has solar protection (SPF).

Thus, if, for example, you are selling foundations, a title like “ Brand + liquid foundation + SPF 15, light coverage, matte finish” allows users to quickly decide if the product is right for them.

4) Include trends

In addition to relevant keywords, you can also use trending keywords in your product titles, especially those that are especially popular at a certain moment. For example, if the product you are selling is organic, natural, vegan, cruelty-free or it’s Korean cosmetic, including the keyword among the first characters of the title will give it more visibility.

OPTIMIZE YOUR LANDING PAGES: INSIGHTS FROM DANONE

To learn more about effective strategies in this competitive market, we also asked our partner Dentsu, who helps e-commerce companies like Danone with their digital marketing, to share valuable insights about advertising their health-related products. You can read the insights from SEO specialist Mary Rodriguez here:

Leveraging Landing Page Optimization to Increase the Impact of Your Shopping Ads

Optimizing your healthcare product page might sound like a scary or complicated task, but fear not; it’s actually quite straightforward! Think of it like cooking –as long you have the right ingredients and the correct recipe, creating a wonderful dish is not all that difficult. Curious about what this landing page optimization recipe is all about? Let’s dive right in below!

Incorporate the Fundamental Optimization Techniques

It all starts with keywords

Much like any other aspect of search engine marketing, the optimization of your product’s landing page should be founded on thorough keyword research. Here, the objective isn’t just to determine if your product’s name attracts search traffic, as that should be present on your page regardless, but also to identify broader search queries that accurately represent your product so that you can target a non-branded audience.

Your product’s name alongside the relevant keywords you uncover should be strategically incorporated in a variety of elements of your product page, including the meta-data, headings, product descriptions (bonus points if you make it comprehensive and informative!), and the URL structure.

The above example displays how the main heading of this page (also known as the H1) not only contains the brand name “Aptamil”, but also the keyword “toddler milk”, which has an average volume of 1,000 searches a month in the UK market.

Don’t forget about product attributes & images

Though often overlooked if product descriptions are in place, product attributes also deserve a spot on your landing page. Listing the tangible characteristics of your product not only allows you to appeal to potential buyers but also enriches your page with valuable context, something which is highly valued by search engines.

It goes without saying that it’s crucial that your landing page contains high-quality images of your product accompanied by well-optimized alt-tags. Incorporating a descriptive alt-tag that contains your product’s name alongside a relevant keyword not only contributes to your page’s optimization but also improves the accessibility of your page –double win!

The example above shows the list of product attributes of Aptamil Toddler Milk, which in this case, are its ingredients.

Show Your Expertise and Incorporate Schema Markup

In the healthcare industry, showcasing expertise and authority plays an important role in how search engines perceive your site –and it’s no secret that this perception directly influences your site’s performance. To target this, you can consider, for example, highlighting the medical experts behind your product, or emphasizing customer reviews.

Last, but certainly not least, making use of product and review Schema Markups is a fantastic way to provide search engines with additional context on your product and how it’s perceived by its buyers. And as we said before, the more context, the better!

The example above highlights the availability of experts within the field to assist potential buyers when it comes to feeding their toddler, which now only serves as an example of authority and expertise, but can also provide additional reassurance to the buyer.

Conclusion

In conclusion, selling health & beauty products via Google Shopping can be a very effective way to reach a large audience of potential customers. However, it is important to be aware of the challenges that this industry faces, such as high cart abandonment rates, customer disloyalty, and a lot of competition. By taking steps to address these challenges, such as implementing retargeting ads and loyalty programs, you can increase your chances of success.

In addition, it is important to optimize the titles of your health & beauty products to make them as relevant and informative as possible. Equally vital is to properly manage and optimize your landing pages. By following the tips mentioned in this article, you can increase the chances that your products will be seen and clicked on by potential customers.