Google Shopping officially came upon us in October 2012. We’re now well into February 2013. What are the overall results? They’re fantastic. I look at my numbers everyday and I’m thrilled.

Google started handing out free consultations for AdWords accounts last month, so I took advantage of the opportunity. Sat down with my boss in a speaker call with our Google rep to get our free consult. We gained two insights that changed the way I look at my Google Shopping Campaigns.

Number 1: You May Be Bidding Up Product Targets Higher Than You Should Be

When online shoppers come to a product page through Google Shopping, they see this:

They see a sortable list of merchants who all sell the desired product. You can sort merchants by price, find the best deal, and pick your poison.

From the Google Shopping account manager’s perspective, this is an odd situation — and Google hasn’t piped up voluntarily to lay out details – especially regarding the way AdWords is charging us for clicks in this area.

Go on a brief journey with me:

You bid on a product target, and that bid affects your product listing ad’s placement or non-placement on the first SERP. If a user sees your product on the first page, then clicks it, you’re charged for the max cpc bid right? You had to beat out others to get the spot that made you money!

But consider a different scenario:

Once the user has clicked into the Google Shopping interface, the game changes, doesn’t it? What if the user didn’t click on a front page product? What if the user goes to a specific product page (like that one shown up above), sorts through all the merchants who sell it, finds the best price, and finally clicks on THAT ad. How much is the merchant charged for that click?

If you’re running a Google Shopping campaign and you don’t know the answer, don’t be surprised. I asked Google about it back in 2012. Couldn’t get an answer. I asked again during this free consultation. I finally got a quick explanation:

You’re charged the max CPC bid.

That’s right. When a user bypasses front page results, goes into the Google Shopping interface, clicks and sorts around for the best merchant, THEN clicks your ad — you pay the same amount as if you had paid to be on the front page.

Accurate? You tell me. This is what I got from a rep at Google. Something else he taught me:

2. Segment by Top vs. Other to Analyze Performance of Autotargets

To analyze the performance of your autotargets, click the segment tab then choose top vs other. This tool shows autotarget conversation rates according to the general placement of your impressions – either top or not. Most revealing is the varied average CPC data between levels. Check it out.

I noticed half of the products that I manage have lower conversion rates away from the top (front page) and higher conversion rates down in the bottom results (where users sort through merchants on the product page). I had been bidding big because I thought I should send ads to the top. Wrong. I was wasting money. Ads are converting on the post-sorted product page, where my ad placement doesn’t matter. People are sorting my ads up and down themselves. My bid meant nothing here. But I was still paying the high price.

Action: Reduced bids. Stopped paying front page prices for my post-sort conversions. Increased ROI. Called it a success. Passed the info along to you.