Launch of the Google Automated Discounts Plugin

TLDR

• We launched the Google Automated Discounts plugin for WooCommerce
• It allows you to automatically apply discounts to your Google Shopping campaigns
• It's available on sweetcode.com and the WooCommerce marketplace

Introduction

We're excited to announce the launch of the Google Automated Discounts plugin. It's a plugin that allows you to process Google's Automated Discounts in your WooCommerce store.

Google launched the Automated Discounts beta in 2021. But due to its high bar of requirements, it was only available to a select few merchants. In 2022, Google opened up the beta to more merchants. But it still required a lot of manual work to set up.

By developing the Google Automated Discounts plugin, we've made it easier for WooCommerce merchants to set up Automated Discounts on their stores.

What is Google Automated Discounts?

Google Automated Discounts is a new feature that allows you to automatically apply discounts to your Google Shopping campaigns. It's a great way to increase your sales and revenue.

For each Google Shopping search Google will automatically determine if a discount should be applied and how high the discount should be to maximize your revenue and profit. Only for searches where a discount is applicable, Google will show a discount in the Google Shopping results.

Bar of requirements is still high

While the Google Automated Discounts plugin makes it easier to set up Automated Discounts, the bar of requirements is still high. Here's a list of requirements:

• A Google Merchant Center account
• A Google Ads account
• At least 1'000 clicks per week on your Google Shopping campaigns
• Track conversions with cart data
• Set cost of goods sold (COGS) for each product
• Set auto pricing minimum price for each product that you want to opt in for Automated Discounts
• Process the Automated Discounts within the WooCommerce store correctly (this is where our plugin comes in)

Some of these requirements are easy to meet. But others are not. For example, you need to have at least 1'000 clicks per week on your Google Shopping campaigns. If you don't have that many clicks, you can't use Automated Discounts.

Determining and setting the cost of goods sold (COGS) for each product is also not easy. You need to know the cost of each product, including shipping, taxes, and other fees.

And setting the auto pricing minimum price is best done with a long term strategy in mind. If done correctly, it can not only increase your sales and revenue, but also your profit.

Even with using our plugin to take care of the WooCommerce part of the implementation, taking care of all these requirements is a lot of work. Successfully setting up Automated Discounts can easily take several months. That's where our implementation service comes in.

SweetCode Implementation Service

While some steps are relatively simple, others — such as determining and setting the Cost of Goods Sold and Auto Pricing Min Price for each product — demand meticulous preparation. Businesses vary in their compatibility with the Automated Discounts program, and each one calls for a tailored approach to ensure accurate calculations.

To truly unlock the potential of Automated Discounts, a well-crafted and customized strategy is essential for seamless implementation, execution, and performance optimization.

Should you find any of these steps challenging, SweetCode is here to help. Our team of skilled developers and business economists will guide you throughout the setup process, actively implementing the necessary steps and fine-tuning the program for optimal results. To receive a personalized quote, simply contact us via our support form, and we'll be eager to help you implementing the Google Automated Discounts program.

Where to get the plugin

You can get the plugin on sweetcode.com and the WooCommerce marketplace.

Existing customers with an active license can get the plugin with a discount [1]. Please reach out to us through our support form using an email address one of our plugins is licensed to. We'll send you a coupon code.

[1] For now, as we don't have a way to verify if customers of the WooCommerce distribution have an active license, the discount is only available to customers who purchased the plugin through sweetcode.com.

How well does the plugin work?

We've been testing the plugin for several months. The plugin itself works exceptionally well. It's been thoroughly tested under various conditions and scenarios.

Most issues are to be expected with too aggressive caching layers. But, usually this can be resolved by setting appropriate caching rules and clearing the server side cache.

How well do Automated Discounts work?

We've also been testing Automated Discounts for several months.

While results can vary, we've seen an average increase of 15% in orders, 7% in revenue and 4% in profit.

These results are likely to be improved as many of the factors still can be optimized and fine tuned over time. Also, we are testing additional features in the plugin that may help with improving the conversion rate for Automated Discounts specifically.

Conclusion

If you think your shop is a good fit for Automated Discounts, we recommend you to give it a try. Especially shops that have a lot of products, a lot of Google Shopping traffic are situated in a price competition market can benefit from Automated Discounts.