Turn Off Your Ads .

... for products that are sold out

[buckworks]

The subject says it all.

I just saw an ad for a product that seriously appealed to me, from a store that I know, but when I clicked through to the product page it was sold out.

That's a lose-lose for both my time and the advertiser's money, not to mention my frustration with the store.

Do you take any measures to reduce the number of times you show ads for products that are sold out?

On Google, Facebook, other?

[engine]

That's a bugbear of mine, too. I tend not to click on ads (it's just a thing with me) preferring to find organic listings. When that cannot be done, and the product is there, front and centre, I will go for it. Such a let down to discover it's out of stock, and tends to put me off the vendor.

[tangor]

If the ad intrigues I just do a new search for that product and see what turns up. I am not an ad clicker. Most times find an active vendor with product in stock, so above described frustrations rarely happen.

YMMV

[buckworks]

Tangor, you are a savvy consumer but do you have knowledge from the advertiser's perspective?

I'm interested in what routines companies might use to reduce the wastage of having out-of-stock items in their shopping feed ads.
.

[tangor]

Buckworks ... tough question to answer. Most companies do not intend to be out of stock, hoping that any shortage will be quickly remedied. On the other hand, taking down an ad between shortages can be time consuming, not to mention confusing. Dollars are likely already spent and what savings (advertiser side) possible might be wasted in running a hands on operation.

I don't have an answer.

[RhinoFish]

Yet another thing that Amazon beats Google on... at Amazon, if you're out of stock on any items, all of your ads stop showing, your organic results too. And if your stock is an ongoing problem, the IPI score whacks you. Amazon knows how to please the shopper. Google used to be very good at that.

[ogletree]

Many companies have thousands and millions of products. You can't just turn off ads. Best you can do is update your feed more often and mark it out of stock and Google won't show that product. No matter what there is always going to be a certain amount of lag between going out of stock and stopping an ad.

There are however companies who never mark things out of stock.

[buckworks]

>> update your feed more often

Someone I know has started turning off products in their ad feeds when the stock gets down to one or two items, rather than waiting for zero. That doesn't completely beat the lag problem you mention but it helps.

[tangor]

And is a sign of conscientious management and customer experience. Hopefully more will pick up the habit.

Might make a difference in these days of global supply chain bottlenecks which will get worse before they get better.