Exploring Google Shopping Campaign Structures and Selecting the Right One

If you are not making the most of Google Shopping with carefully structured campaigns, then you are missing out. A Google Shopping strategy should be a basic part of your overall marketing plan, just like SEO or Google display ads.

When your Google Shopping campaign goes well, you will find yourself with higher sales, frequently without much extra effort throughout the sales funnel. However, you must structure it properly to achieve that success and have your campaign go well.

We will explore some examples of Google Shopping campaign structures and provide general advice on creating your campaigns along the way.

Understanding Google Shopping

Before exploring the details you should include in your Google Shopping campaign, it is important to make sure you understand Google Shopping, as well as the key components you will include in your campaign structure.

Google Shopping refers to the product suggestions that appear at the top of the Google search results page. Your Google Shopping products will also show up on the Google Display Network, including on Gmail and YouTube, as well as in Google Images. In some countries, they also appear on the “shopping” tab of Google search results. Having your product appear there leads to obvious benefits, as people who are ready to buy are more likely to see your product at the key moment.

The structure for determining what products appear on the Google Shopping section for a given keyword or phrase is similar to that of display ads or other pay-per-click advertising. It involves several factors, including an auction where you bid against competitors to appear as a product result.

Take a look at some of the characteristics and features inside Google Shopping campaigns that you will be adjusting as you select your campaign structure.

i. Priority Options

There are three options for priorities for your Google Shopping campaign: low, medium, and high. If you want, you can use advanced, detailed strategies involving these priorities. For those new to this type of campaign, the following guidelines will work well.

Set campaigns to low priority if they are “catchalls” covering a vast array of items, such as a campaign that includes everything in your entire store. By changing the priority, you adjust how much you will bid for a certain search. To demonstrate how to use the three priority levels, look at the example of motorcycles. Your low priority would be general terms that could potentially bring searchers to your entire selection of motorcycles. The medium priority would be specific product lines, brands, or styles of motorcycles. The high priority campaign would be for your newest motorcycles, regardless of brand or style.

Opt for medium priority if you have some level of specification, such as a region you are targeting, a product line, or a product category.

Reserve high-priority status for products that you want to sell more than the others. This will typically be best-sellers, new products, and clearance items.

ii. Ad Groups

If you already use Google Ads, you are likely familiar with Google ad groups, which are also a feature for Google Shopping campaigns.

The general rule of thumb for ad groups is to segment them as much as is feasible. By having fewer products in each ad group, it becomes easier to optimize or change bids. You should try to start with three ads in each group and increase or decrease it if necessary. There are various strategies to choose from, such as SKAG (single keyword ad groups) that only feature one keyword in each ad group, in case of shopping, SPAG (single product in each ad group).

iii. Product Groups and Inventory Subsets

Once you have created your ad groups, you can further divide the products using inventory subsets or product groups. Google offers a high level of segmentation, with each ad group allowing as many as 20,000 product groups.

Each of your product groups will rely on the same bids, so they are subsets of your inventory related to the given ad group. To help you divide and organize your product groups, you can use seven different filters, including product type, category, item ID, custom labels, channel, brand, and condition.

Advice for Creating Your Google Shopping Campaign Structure

i. Create a Tiered Tree

Google suggests that you start planning your campaign structure by segmenting all of your products into a hierarchal tree with tiers. This will help by including your full inventory, improving visibility, simplifying management of your account, and helping with bid management, including providing data to help you select ideal bids.

To use this method, you would start using product type, category, and other broad attributes. You can then use things such as brand attributes and custom labels or item IDs for further divisions. For motorcycles, for example, you could use attributes such as brand (Honda, Ducati, Kawasaki, Yamaha, etc.) or type (scooter, cruiser, tourer, dirt bike, etc.).

ii. Use Priorities

As you plan your Google Shopping structure, make sure to utilize the priorities that we mentioned above. In addition to the priorities, you can use features such as “Excluded” and inventory filters to adjust which items in a group receive which priority level.

iii. Consider the Language of Shoppers

Think about your target audience and what languages they use. If there are more than one languages widely spoken, consider creating separate campaigns for each. Companies that sell in Switzerland, for example, could have custom labels for French and German.

iv. Should You Create One or More Campaigns?

One of the biggest variations you will notice as we explore Google Shopping campaign structures is whether you opt for a single campaign or multiple campaigns.

Some people prefer to use a single campaign to keep things simple, and this tends to be the easier option for those who are new to Google Shopping. However, others are tempted to divide their products into campaigns due to experience with Google Search campaigns.

That said, you should not split your products into multiple campaigns without a good reason to do so, as managing several campaigns can be more complicated. Fortunately, there are tools to help you get around it.

Some reasons that you may want to consider using separate campaigns include dividing:

● New and existing products or categories: Separating these campaigns will help you track how the new products are doing. It also makes it easier to bid high for a few weeks when the products are new before decreasing the bids. Additionally, new products tend to need more negative keywords.

● Seasonal items: This separation lets you better spot trends and compare performance to that of past years.

● Products with low versus high value: This separation allows you to bid differently on the products and account for differences in the buying journey, such as the longer time typically spent deciding to buy high-value products. You can take this a step further and even create new campaigns based on Device or Geo targets. This would let you allocate a higher budget, or even just separate the budget from the rest of your ads, if they do well. This way, the success of those campaigns does not lead you to reaching your budget limit on other campaigns.

You may also want to separate based on your ROAS targets for your margins, but you will not typically want to do more than two or three campaigns for this reason. Additionally, if your inventory is very large, you may find it less complicated to divide it into multiple campaigns, but you would need to find a strong basis for the division.

You typically should not create a separate campaign for each category or brand because it tends to be more complex. In most cases, you can achieve similar results and segmentation with ad groups and product groups.

Even with all that information in mind, choosing to use one or two campaigns is a personal preference. You may prefer the organization of two campaigns and find it simpler, even if others do not.

v. If You Have Multiple Campaigns, Create a Catchall One

If you decide to create more than one Google Shopping campaign, it is wise to create a core campaign that will be a catchall. Set this campaign to low priority and use it to ensure that everything not in campaigns with higher priorities appears. Think of it as a safety net in case there are unexpected problems or your campaigns with higher priorities reach their budget limit.

vi. Should You Create One or More Ad Groups Per Campaign?

The other big variation that can significantly change your Google Shopping campaign structure is the number of ad groups you create for each campaign. Many of the following common structures only use one, but that is not the only option. If you only use a single ad group, you will have to take advantage of product groups and custom labels.

Unless you have a very small inventory, you will likely want to at least consider creating multiple ad groups. That is because using product groups and other methods of dividing products can be incredibly time-consuming, especially for large inventories. There can also be issues following the data in the case of changes to categories or product prices. You also will not be able to see which keywords lead to which products, have trouble controlling branded search terms for companies you sell some products from but not all, and the fact that not all products will get clicks or exposure.

By contrast, using multiple ad groups in your campaign helps you better manage search terms, better identify which keywords lead to clicks, view more data, and reduce the risk of changes to product groups or feeds ruining the data. However, it can be very time-consuming to set up the ad groups unless you use a third-party tool or Excel. The smaller ad group size also means you will need to wait longer to get data that helps you adjust your bids. You will also find yourself dealing with hundreds or maybe thousands of ad groups, making management more difficult.

Most companies will find a happy middle ground with some ad groups but not an excessive amount. As with the number of campaigns, it will largely depend on personal preference. Just remember that if you only have a single ad group, you will need to be extra careful with landing pages to ensure they are relevant. When in doubt, choose your number of ad groups based on how many separate landing pages you would need to maintain relevance.

Common Google Shopping Campaign Structures

With that advice in mind, it is time to look at some of the Google Shopping campaign structures you may choose to have. Each of them comes with advantages and disadvantages. You may also want to use one structure for some campaigns and another for other campaigns. Remember that these are just examples, and you can easily combine elements of the structures to create your own.

i. One Campaign and One Ad Group

Most people who are new to Google Shopping campaigns will opt for this structure, as it is the simplest. All you have to do is make one campaign and include a single ad group. From there, you can take advantage of product groups to subdivide and organize your campaign.

Pros: This campaign structure is very easy to set up, making it great for those who are new to Google Shopping. It also works well if you only sell a single type of product, as you do not need to make many product groups.

Cons: This campaign structure has barely any segmentation (only via product groups), making it hard to optimize and get the best return on investment. It can also be incredibly time-consuming to remove products that perform poorly from the group. The lack of segmentation also makes it harder to find and view specific data, such as which searches result in sales. Doing so would require negative keyword lists and other complexities.

Another disadvantage of this strategy is that some of your products may not get clicks or exposure. You also cannot boost the bids on certain terms since that would also increase your overall clicks and impressions.

ii. Two Campaigns With Different Priorities

With this strategy, you create two separate campaigns, so you can better control the search terms. That control comes via the use of negative keyword lists and priority settings.

Pros: Although it requires a little more setup than the one campaign, one ad group method, this is still very easy to set up. That is especially true because you can just set up one campaign, copy it, and then adjust the priority settings. This Google Shopping campaign structure also gives you extra control when bidding on brand terms or other terms with higher intent.

Cons: Although it is not many campaigns, you will still have to manage two campaigns instead of one. It may make this more time-consuming or challenging for some. You will also typically have a single ad group per campaign, so you will still have the issues associated with dividing products from them. That also means you still get the related issue of some products not receiving clicks or exposure because of being in just one ad group, plus the difficulty in excluding products that perform poorly.

It is also worth noting that you will have to be careful to make sure you do not set up either campaign, so it gets limited by budget. Doing so would result in queries you do not want to trigger in the campaigns.

iii. Three Campaigns With Three Ad Groups Total

While many experts suggest sticking to a single campaign, at least at first, it is definitely worth considering a structure with three campaigns and three ad groups. This lets you take advantage of all three priorities for campaigns, building on the previous method of two campaigns with varying priorities.

Pros: This campaign structure gives you more control when choosing how much to bid on items, including those with higher intent. You will also likely notice an increase in profitability, thanks to the segmentation by priority. Additionally, you can adjust the audience, location, and device for each campaign based on performance.

Cons: The biggest disadvantage is that you will have to manage three campaigns instead of just one. There are also some familiar challenges that this structure shares with previously mentioned ones. Like the two-campaign structure, you will still have trouble dividing the products into ad groups and still have to watch for budget limitations to remain in control of search queries. Like the one-campaign, one-ad-group structure, you will still be unable to control searches for individual products. Some products will also miss exposure and clicks, and it will be hard to exclude poor performers.

iv. One Campaign With Several Ad Groups

Yet another option is to set up a single campaign and maintain organization and structure by creating several ad groups. If you sell products in multiple categories, each category could have its own ad group. Or, if you sell only a single product, you could create ad groups based on factors such as popularity, price, or design.

Pros: With this structure, you can utilize negative keywords to improve targeting. You also get improved reporting and tracking for each product type.

Cons: Keep in mind that as this structure only has a single campaign and you create a Google Shopping budget for each campaign, all the ad groups will share their budget pool.

v. Several Campaigns and Several Ad Groups

Just because you decide to use more than one campaign, that does not mean you have to opt for three and divide them based on priority. You can choose any number of campaigns and any number of ad groups. This structure is more complicated to manage and set up, but it can provide you with extra control. It is particularly helpful for companies with a wide variety of products or anyone who wants to closely control their budget.

The typical structure for this campaign would be a separate campaign for each product category and separate ad groups for individual products or subsets of products. For the motorcycle example, you would have separate campaigns for cruisers, sports bikes, tourers, and other types. Then, within each of those categories, you would assign each product an ad group. You could also choose another characteristic to use to divide the ad groups, such as creating one for each power level.

Pros: By dividing the products into campaigns, each gets its own budget instead of using the budget pool. Additionally, each product category would get its own performance tracking, giving you the data you need to make better decisions.

Cons: It should go without saying that setting up and managing this type of structure will be very time-consuming. In addition to the initial setup, expect it to take a lot longer to monitor your products and make optimizations.

vi. Adding Query Sculpting to Any of the Above

Once you become more familiar with Google Shopping campaigns, you can enhance any of the above structures using query sculpting. A good starting point for this structure is to make three campaigns divided by priorities, each with a single ad group. From there, you can use query patterns to improve your campaigns.

Once you master this, you can bid based on product type and search the query patterns to boost your ROI. It involves using product exclusions and negative keyword lists, so you can create campaigns with more segmentation and targeting.

Negative keyword lists are a crucial part of this query sculpting strategy, as they let you adjust who will not see your ads and who will. You would create a list of negative keywords for each campaign.

Pros: Using query sculpting maximizes the level of control you have on the search terms you bid on. This lets you set things such as audience, device bid adjustments, and location depending on how your negative keyword lists perform.

Cons: This structure is advanced and will require more experience, along with more time to set up, monitor, and test. Depending on the number of products in your inventory, you may also run into issues with the negative keyword list limit, which is 5,000 negative keywords. You should also keep in mind that by grouping products in campaigns, you cannot control performance for individual products.

vii. Make Divisions Based on Profit Margins

Yet another structure idea is to set up campaigns based on your profit margins, creating as many campaigns as you need. This is wise for companies that make some of their own products and source others, as the latter group likely has better margins. This structure can also combine the previous three-campaign strategy with that based on profit margins. For each profit margin, you could have three campaigns, each with a different priority level.

Pros: This structure lets you create as many campaigns as you need to divide your products based on margins. Since they will be divided by margins, you will notice improved profitability and can concentrate your efforts and bidding budget on the products with the best returns.

Cons: Depending on your product range, you may find yourself making five, 10, or more campaigns, which will be time-consuming and more challenging to manage. You also still have the challenges related to budget limitations, dividing products into a single ad group, certain products not getting exposure, and it being hard to exclude products. If you find yourself with a lot of campaigns, you may want to consider a smart shopping campaign instead of organizing and managing the campaign manually.

Wrap Up

Creating a Google Shopping campaign structure is a must for any company that sells products online, and there are multiple structures to choose from. Beginners will want to start with one campaign and one ad group, then try slightly more complicated or time-consuming structures as you gain more experience using Google Shopping. The ideal number of campaigns and ad groups will depend on your inventory and preference, but three campaigns for three priority levels is a common structure.