How Lists Are Reshaping the Landscape of Ecommerce Advertising

Traditional attribute management in ecommerce usually involves rigid product data structures. You’re confined to the attributes and categories dictated by the channel you want to advertise on or the platform that hosts your catalog.

The result? A one-size-fits-all approach that lacks the nuances performance marketers require. 

GoDataFeed’s Lists feature challenges this status quo. With Lists, you’re not just managing product data; you’re curating it. 

How Lists Break the Mold

Lists frees your products from the cookie-cutter constraints set by sales channels and platforms. 

With Lists, you can modify product information and target SKUs with unprecedented efficiency, flexibility, and accuracy.

With Lists, you can…

1. Apply dynamic changes to your product feeds based on your own set of values. 
2. Target products based on criteria set by you, not the channel or the platform. 

Some use cases for Lists:

• Attribute Modifiers: No set of product data is perfect, but now you replace and supplement values with attributes from your Lists. 
• Missing Values: Incomplete product profiles plague sellers of all sizes. Now you can fill in empty fields by pulling List values into your feed. 
• Sale Campaigns: Lists enable you to quickly group products for use in your feeds’ custom labels, allowing you to pivot your advertising strategy in real-time. This adaptability is crucial for high-stakes events like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, where every click counts.
• Attribute Extraction: Imagine being able to automatically extract SEO-friendly attributes from narrative product descriptions. This isn’t just a neat trick; it’s a game-changer for visibility on platforms like Google Shopping.
• Inventory Segmentation: In an industry where 34% of businesses cite stock-outs as a significant challenge, according to the Wasp Barcode State of Small Business Report, Lists can help you manage low-stock SKUs to optimize ad spend and visibility.
• Seasonal Promotions: Preparing for seasonal spikes in demand? Lists can make your campaign rollout as smooth as your customer’s checkout experience.
• A/B Testing: In a world where data-driven decisions reign supreme, Lists facilitate nuanced A/B tests, helping you glean valuable insights into consumer behavior.

Let’s take a closer look at how you can benefit from GoDataFeed’s Lists.

Custom Attributes for Enhanced Visibility

The information contained in each of your products is not a coincidence. Platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, etc., all come with their own set of predefined attributes that will ultimately determine how your product information is “packaged” and presented to the world.

When you send a product feed to Google Merchant Center or TikTok Shop or Amazon Seller Central, the channel takes in that data and parses it to create product listings that are served in ads and other marketing to shoppers.

Unless you modify it, your ad content is limited to what’s in your product’s listing. 

GoDataFeed Lists break down these walls, enabling you to generate internal attribute values based on your own criteria, not theirs.

Leveraging Attribute-Based Lists for Value Extraction

With GoDataFeed’s Lists, users can create an attribute-based List that can be used to look up and extract values from other fields in their imported data, allowing them to use any bit of data in any way they choose. 

I know that sounds too good to be true, so let’s look at real examples from our Power Users.

How a Shoe Retailer Found His Colors

Mike, a shoe retailer with multiple brick and mortar locations and a niche online presence, has a deep and complex catalog. His product descriptions are rich narratives, detailing not just the size and color, but also the material and type of shoe and other details unique to his shop like how each shoe is used and why people love it. 

But his vendors use different systems and not all of them provide neat, usable product information. 

Some vendors bury details like Color, Material, Usage Notes, Seasonal Tags, Key Product Features (Bullet Points), and Keywords inside the product description instead of providing neat table columns for each. 

So what’s he to do? Manually copy and paste those values where they belong? Woof.

Here's where GoDataFeed's Lists and Rules can help:

1. Create Attribute-Based Lists: Every GoDataFeed store comes with pre-built Colors and Sizes Lists. He can use the List as is, or he can edit and add to it to customize his color library.
2. Set Up Rules for Value Extraction: Next, he created a Rule in GoDataFeed that says, For every SKU extract the (FIRST, LAST, or ALL) value(s) from the COLORS list, and populate in the Color field.
3. Automate Feed Updates: Once the Rule is activated, GoDataFeed will automatically scan every product description to look for a match from the Colors List. If a match is found, it will populate the desired value in the product feed for the Color field as specified in the rule. 

By using attribute-based Lists in conjunction with Rules, you can automatically extract valuable data from your product descriptions or any other text fields to be used anywhere else in your listing. 

This not only saves you time but also ensures that your product feeds are as detailed and accurate as possible regardless of how rich – or poor – your product data is.

Achieving Limitless Granularity in Targeting

Whether you’re using Google Ads, Meta, TikTok, or any other platform, you’re often confined to their predefined buckets for targeting, limiting your ability to trigger ad impressions to specific audiences.

GoDataFeed’s Lists transcend these limitations. With Lists, you’re not confined to broad categories. Instead, you can populate Custom Labels and ad targets based on criteria that make sense for your business and your customers.

When you create a SKU List, you're not just lumping products together; you're setting the stage for advanced targeting strategies tailored to your catalog, your audience, and your specific needs.

• Lists can be used to optimize ad budgets. You could have a SKU List of items that are overstocked and another list for items that are running low. Using an inventory group List, you could dynamically adjust your advertising targets to move surplus inventory or to spend less on low-stock items, thereby optimizing your ad budget.
• Lists can be used for seasonal campaigns. You could create SKU Lists for seasonal product groups like Back-to-School, Holiday Specials, or Summer Clearance. When the time is right, activate your lists and use them to fine-tuned targeting.

In essence, Lists give you the freedom to define your own targeting parameters, allowing you to reach your audience with unparalleled precision.

Use Case Examples for Lists

Whether you’re gearing up for the holiday season or launching a new collection of products, Lists can help you tailor your feeds for maximum impact. 

Here are some real-world examples to show you how Lists can make a difference in your ad campaigns.

Seasonal Campaigns 

A fashion retailer can create a List of attributes specific to seasonal trends, such as “Summer Collection,” “Winter Essentials,” or “Spring Florals.” By populating these attributes in their feeds, they can run targeted ad campaigns that resonate with consumers looking for seasonal items. This ensures that the right products get visibility at the right time, enhancing both click-through rates and conversions.

Handcrafted Ad Text

A handcrafted home goods shop selling artisanal furniture creates Specialty Lists for products with unique attributes like “Handcrafted Products,” “Sustainably Sourced Products,” or “Limited Edition Products.” This merchant can then designate a Custom Field to take on values from the List, or match values from the list to trigger content rules. For example, this merchant could have a rule to Add Keywords — such as Handcrafted — to Descriptions if SKU is found in the Handcrafted Products List.

Highlight Features and Benefits

An outdoor gear shop creates a List that includes attributes such as “Weather-Resistant,” “Multi-Day Hikes,” or “Quick-Dry.” These attributes can be included in ad titles, descriptions, and bullet points, providing potential customers with immediate insights into the product’s durability and suitability for specific outdoor activities. Including usage phrasing can play a role in convincing a customer to click through and make a purchase.

Multi-Brand Management

If you're selling products from multiple brands, each may have its own set of rules — minimum advertised prices, specific language, or even restrictions on how their products are bundled in promotions. Manually ensuring that each product listing is in compliance can be a tedious task. With Lists, you can create a separate List for each brand's unique guidelines. For instance, you could have a List that identifies products that cannot be discounted below a certain price point. Once this List is in place, you can set up a rule that automatically excludes these products from any promotional feeds.

Categorize Based on Audience Interests

Say you’re an eco-friendly home-and-garden retailer. You have a variety of items, but you want to specifically highlight your “organic” offerings. Easy. Simply create a specialized “Organic Products” List, then create a category rule to automatically categorize any product in this List under the “Home & Garden > Organic” category in your feeds.

Using Lists in Your Product Feeds

‍

Lists aren't just an add-on; they're a transformative in-app tool that amplifies your control over product data. No need to build, structure, or import additional merge files; Just copy, paste, and edit — all within GoDataFeed.

By letting you define, extract, and manipulate attributes based on your own criteria, Lists enable you to fine-tune campaigns with a level of granularity that was previously unheard of. The outcome? Precise targeting, optimized ad spend, and more meaningful impressions.

Ready to take your product data feeds to the next level? Dive into the details and start implementing Lists today. Our comprehensive help article walks you through the process, step-by-step. 

Don't just adapt to the ecommerce landscape — reshape it with Lists.