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Setting up Google Shopping ads can amplify your online presence, boosting sales as well as brand recognition. However, to get the most from the ads, you need to understand more than just how to set them up.
We will outline the basics of how to set up Google Shopping ads and then supplement that information with additional tips to help put your ad campaign on track to success. One of the best things about Google Shopping is that most of the process is automated after completing the initial setup. Of course, you should still check in on it to ensure you are meeting your goals and to make any necessary tweaks and changes.
Before you begin setting up your ads for Google Shopping, you need to understand what Google Shopping is. Google Shopping is the shopping engine from Google that lets retailers display their products at the top of the search engine results when someone searches for a product’s keywords. The ads from Google Shopping can also appear in the Google Display Network on various websites.
No matter where your ad appears, whether on the Google Shopping listings at the top of the search engine or an ad on another website, clicking on it brings the user directly to your product page. Currently, you can use Google Shopping for more than 40 countries.
Each of the ads for Google Shopping will feature an image of your product as well as its title and price. It will also typically include the retailer selling it and can consist of ratings and information on shipping.
If you are used to using Search Ads on Google, then this will not automatically mean you understand how Shopping ads work, as they are different. With Google Shopping, you must upload a product feed containing a range of information and data about your products. Google uses your product feed information to create Shopping ads and determine when your ads may appear.
Your Shopping ads will show up for relevant queries, and if someone clicks on the link, you pay Google. This last part is similar to the Search Ads you may be familiar with. The costs per click vary based on various factors, including the bids made in the auction.
It is common to wonder whether Google Shopping and Google Shopping Actions are related, but they are fairly different. This guide focuses on Google Shopping, an advertising channel. If you want something that functions more similarly to a store, you would want to use Google Shopping Actions, which is a marketplace.
Google Shopping Actions lets users buy products from Google, with Google processing the payment and hosting the cart. After a customer places the order, Google gives the retailer the details, and the retailer ships the product.
Google Shopping Actions products can appear on Google Image Search, Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Express, and Google Assistant, and support for YouTube is coming soon.
While Google Shopping Actions is worth consideration for many businesses, it is not necessary, and so far, most merchants have not found it to be helpful, especially given the complicated and time-consuming setup.
After setting up Google Shopping, it does not require much effort to continue using it, but it is common to wonder whether that initial setup is worth it. The short answer is that yes, it is worth taking the time to set up your ads for this program for several reasons.
It is common knowledge that if you want people to click on your link on Google search results, you need to appear high up on the page. This is not possible without a Google Shopping advertisement, as the top section of the search results is made up of shopping ads. Your only other option would be to win a bid for a paid search ad or be one of the top two or three ranked pages for organic results.
Simply put, participating in Google Shopping is the best way to ensure that your link is visible to those who search for relevant keywords or items.
This organization of the search results page has led to many companies choosing to reallocate some of their budgets from Search Ads to Google Shopping.
The way Google divides its search results page into Shopping ads on the top, then PPC results, and then the organic results is an excellent opportunity to let your website or product appear multiple times on the same results page. If you have a PPC campaign and a Shopping ad, plus great SEO, you could appear multiple times depending on the frequency capping that dramatically increases your chances of at least one of those links getting a click.
You could still appear near the top of the search results page if you win the bid for paid ads, but even then, having a Google Shopping advertisement will likely do a better job. This comes down to human nature specifically that we are more likely to click on images of a product than a description of it. Some of this is the ability to confirm that the image matches the product you want visually.
Another aspect is the fact that images appeal more to undecided shoppers than words do. It is relatively common for consumers to click on the ads to confirm that they want a particular variation of a product.
As opposed to many other types of advertising, the situations in which your Google Shopping listing will appear is one where the searcher has the intent to buy. That is not the case for something like a YouTube ad, where your goal is to convince viewers to buy your product despite not thinking about it or to at least have you in mind in the future when they want a similar product.
The fact that searchers have intent to buy when they see your Google Shopping ad can lead to a higher conversion rate. Of course, Google does make up for this by charging more for product ads than YouTube ads. Even so, that is money well spent.
With that background information regarding Google Shopping and why you want to set it up, you will need to go through a few critical steps, most of which we will look at in closer detail.
Keep in mind that if your products or website include adult content, like erotic lingerie, you will also need to enable adult content.
As mentioned, Google Shopping has allowed you to add your products to the system via a product feed. You do this in the Merchant Center. This is among the most important steps for your Google Shopping advertisements. You can also incorporate optimization strategies as you set up the product feed.
If you are unfamiliar with the idea of a product feed, think of it as a giant spreadsheet that includes all the information about your products and follows a format that Google specifies. You need to follow that format and rules about what information to include, or your products may be disapproved.
Your product feed should include information for each of the following attributes:
description: This is a product description and can be up to 5,000 characters. It should only include details about the product, not your store or promotions.
id: This is a unique identifier for your product and can be up to 50 characters.
image_link: This is the URL for the main image of your product, starting with https or http.
additional_image_link: This optional attribute lets you add the URL for another image if you want.
link: This is the landing page for the product and should start with https or http.
mobile_link: If your main URL is not mobile-optimized, use this attribute to specify the mobile-optimized one.
title: This is the name of the product, and it should concisely and accurately describe your product in 150 characters or less. There are various optimization techniques to consider when creating a product title.
The above are just the attributes for basic product data. There are also many more attributes, including the following for price and availability. Most are optional unless they are marked as required.
You can also use attributes in your product feed for categorization, including google_product_category and product_type. Other attributes you will define in your product feed are part of a detailed product description (such as condition), product identifiers (such as brand), destinations (such as excluded_destination), shipping (such as shipping_width), and taxes (such as tax_category).
Do not choose the images for your product feed haphazardly. You want high-quality images that will attract customers and let them see as many details as possible. You could spend hours learning about optimizing the photos in the product feed, such as ensuring that the image matches the variant of the product that you are selling. For example, if the listing is for a red shirt, show the red one in the image, not the black one.
You can choose to set up your product feed manually with a spreadsheet or automatically with a tool, extension, or app. Most of the big-name e-commerce platforms have apps that are designed to help with this. There are also various management tools available that can help you clean up the product feed you create to ensure it is in line with the Google requirements.
Only those in the United States need to add tax information, and it is required for those people and retailers. Remember that the tax rate in the U.S. varies by state and will depend on the state that you operate in. You can enter a flat tax rate to charge all customers, let Google choose the tax rate based on the customers’ location, or use attributes.
This process is fairly simple and includes the following steps:
You can also set up tax categories or set up attributes for tax rates that are not standard.
You can configure the shipping in the Merchant Center. As you do so, make sure that the costs for shipping you put on the list are the same as those on your website. If this is not possible, then estimate the shipping costs on the Merchant Center.
To complete this step, you configure your shipping service, with the ability to associate a service with your products. If one product has multiple shipping services within one country, Google will show the lowest rate.
The following is a quick overview of what you will need to configure your shipping:
Google will have you verify that the URL and website your products are listed on belong to you. This can be done with Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, or by giving your website a meta tag.
When you connect your Google Shopping and Google Ads accounts, you will notice that the product data flows between both types of ads. This process is straightforward and appears right in the Merchant Center.
Remember that you will need Administrative access for the account that you link. You can create a new account for Google Ads, use an account that is already connected to your Merchant Center, or link a different Google Ads account.
If you use Shopify or a similar platform that connects your store to the Google Merchant Center using the e-commerce site’s API, then you will not have to upload the product feed, as the data will already be there.
Otherwise, head to the Products tab and click on the blue plus icon to start the process. It will take you through everything you need to do step-by-step.
After uploading the product feed, make sure to visit the Diagnostics page so you can spot errors. The errors are color-coded, with the most urgent ones in red. Start by clearing those red errors. The good news is that Google will give you instructions on exactly what to do, saving you the hassle of guesswork.
Promotions are a great way to boost engagement and sales, and Google has several of them built into Google Shopping.
You can add promotions manually by going to the Merchant Center, then Marketing, then Promotions. Once you click on the blue plus sign, you will be prompted to set up the promotion. Google supports four types of promotions with this method: free shipping, free gifts, percent off, and amount off. All of these allow some level of customization, such as minimum spend amounts.
If you prefer not to use Google’s promotion builder, you could also create a spreadsheet for your Promotions feed and upload it.
Once everything else is set up, you are ready to make your Google Shopping campaigns to get your ads started. You will set up your campaign within Google Ads, which is one of the reasons you need to connect your Google Shopping and Google Ads accounts.
You start this process just like you would make any other Google Ad campaign. Go to the dashboard, then Campaigns, and click on the blue button with a plus sign. When prompted, choose “Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance,” then select Shopping.
If you prefer, you could also choose a goal for your campaign. As you look at how to set up Google Shopping ads, you will notice that you can choose goals related to website traffic, sales, or leads.
You will also need to provide the following information as you set up the campaign:
Bidding: You will have to choose your preferred bid strategy, which will depend on your goals. Examples include Smart Bidding, CPC (cost-per-click) bidding, vCPM (cost-per-thousand viewable impressions) bidding, CPM (cost-per-thousand impressions) bidding, tROAS (Target Return on Ad Spend), and CPV (cost-per-view) bidding.
Budget: You will enter the daily budget for the campaign. (If you are unsure what to budget or bid, consider using Google’s Bid Simulator Tool.) There is also a delivery method option for the budget. Accelerated will spend the budget more quickly, while Standard will use less at a time and spread it out.
Campaign Name: You will be able to change this in the future.
Campaign Priority: You can skip this step if each product only appears in one campaign per country of sale. If a product appears multiple times, then the priority function will let Google decide which campaign to take the budget from when displaying the product.
Country of Sale: This is where you choose to display the ads and ship the products to. Make sure the product data in your Merchant Center account for your chosen country. This selection is crucial, as you cannot change it after creating the campaign.
Devices: The default setting for devices is to display ads across all devices. You can adjust this to just mobile devices or computers and will be able to change it in the future.
Inventory Filter: You can leave this setting alone unless you want to limit how many products are part of your campaign. If you’re going to use the feature, you can set the criteria for products to be in the campaign. You will be able to change these settings in the future.
Local Inventory Ads: You can ignore this setting unless you want the Shopping campaign to include products from local stores. If you enable it, you will have to enter the data for local products in the Merchant Center and check a box labeled “Enable ads for products sold in local stores.”
Locations: This setting lets you limit the locations where your ads are displayed. It includes options for both Exclude and Target. It can be changed in the future.
Merchant: This is your Merchant Center account. It will only appear if you have already linked it, which you should have already done.
Networks: Potential networks where you can display your Google Shopping ads include the Google Search Network, YouTube, Gmail, Google Discover, and Google search partners.
Start and End Dates: If you leave the end date section blank, your ad will keep running until you manually stop it.
You will have the choice between a Smart or Standard Shopping campaign. If you are new to Google Shopping, you should probably start with the standard campaign type. Keep in mind that your ads will only appear on the search network in this case, but you get a high level of control, campaign transparency, and optimization potential.
If you already have experience with Google Shopping and want to be able to automate your ads and campaigns, then consider a Smart Shopping campaign. This will expand your reach to include the display network, Gmail, YouTube, and search partners in addition to the search network. You will have lower campaign transparency, optimization potential, and control.
Another important difference between Standard and Smart Shopping Campaigns is that Standard ones can have manual or automated bids, while Smart ones only have automated bidding. Additionally, Smart campaigns include remarketing by default while they are optional for Standard ones.
It is also important to keep in mind that you need conversion tracking for Smart Shopping campaigns, as this lets AdWords track connections between ads and the sales that occur on your website.
As with Google Ads, you can make ad groups for Google Shopping, and this is a highly recommended step if you want your campaign to be successful.
When creating the ad group, you will need to choose the name for the ad group as well as the bid.
The first decision to make when setting up your ad groups is whether you want Showcase Shopping or Product Shopping groups. Most people opt for Product Shopping and are what most guides and tips refer to.
With a Product Shopping ad group, Google will use its algorithms to automatically create your ads for you, using your product feed as guidance. Most of our guide on how to set up Google Shopping Ads focuses on this type of ad group, when relevant.
With a Showcase Shopping ad group, you can gather related products that will work for generic queries. The idea is that the selection of products you choose will help people discover the various options available. They obviously require you to put in more effort.
Generally, you should use Product Shopping ads if you want to target specific search queries, such as a brand and product. Showcase Shopping ads are the better choice if you want to target more general terms, such as the entire category of “laptop.” Google recommends that you only use Showcase Shopping ads if you have at least 1,000 products in your ad group, as this lets you provide relevant results for more searches. This is important because the products that this ad type show vary based on the search term used.
You can use Showcase Shopping ads on any device, but most people set them up to appear on mobile.
Standard Shopping ads are the default, and to create one of those, you would follow all the other instructions already mentioned. For Showcase Shopping ads, you have to take a few more steps.
You will still create a campaign by clicking on the blue plus button. Go to “Select a campaign” and choose the campaign to add your ad group to. Then click on “Create ad group” and choose “Showcase Shopping” for the group type. You will also need to create a group name, which you can change later, and enter a bid.
From there, you will choose product groups to decide which products show up in the ad. The ability to subdivide and exclude product groups comes in handy for this. You can create as many as seven subdivisions in each product group, using attributes like category, item ID, brand, product type, custom labels, channel, channel exclusivity, and condition.
When it is time to create the Showcase Shopping ad, you will start by adding text for your ad, including an optional headline (24 characters or less), an optional description (70 to 120 characters), a final URL (the landing page that people will go to upon clicking on the ad), and the display URL (the website that appears in the ad). Keep in mind that on desktop, the display URL gets cut off after 35 characters, and this drops to 25 characters on mobile.
You can preview the ad on the right of the panel. Google reviews the ads before letting them go live, and this takes less than three business days.
Learning how to set up Google Shopping ads will make a significant difference in your business, helping with conversions and increasing the number of places your products appear, even just within the search results page. To set your ads up, you will need to make sure you have a Merchant Center account, connect your Google Ads account, submit your detailed product feed, and take care of various settings and optimization. Most of the setup process is straightforward, although some tips and tricks can help you get the best results or set it up more efficiently.
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