In Shopping Campaigns Product Groups Are Used to Better Manage the Campaign: The How to Guide

Google Shopping is an excellent way to get traffic and sales for your eCommerce business. However, there are various aspects to it that you need to consider. Shopping campaigns can either drain your wallet or increase your sales, depending on how you approach them. Yet, deciding how to structure your campaign in the best way is a challenge.

This level of difficulty only increases as you add more products to your inventory. Some companies might have dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of products on hand. Setting up your Shopping Product Feed in the right and using product groups could make the difference between success and failure.

In this blog, we’ll cover the basics of what product groups are. We’ll also discuss how to set them up and use them more effectively. That way, your Google Shopping campaigns will be more organized, effective, and profitable for your business.

What is a Product Group in Google Shopping Campaigns?

Shopping ads follow this structure: Campaign > Ad Group > Product Group.

The product group is how you make groups in shopping campaigns. It is under the ad group umbrella. Depending on how you’d like to organize your inventory, you can set it up in different ways. You can organize them by brands, categories, id etc.

You can also structure brands within categories. For instance, if you sell mobile accessories, you might have different brands. By breaking them into different product groups, you can manage your store more easily.

As an example, let’s break them into based on brand and category.

Or you can create product group based on the category as well.

Product groups can be created on different attributes which you will see in this blog later.

In Shopping Campaigns, Product Groups are Used to Do What?

In shopping campaigns, product groups are used to organize your inventory so you can place fewer bids on very similar products. It also helps you understand what search terms are being used.  Because of this, you can make more informed decisions about your advertising.

Keep in mind that only you know which product groups have something in common with other ones. It’s up to you to make a smart decision about how to group them, so you are bidding the right amounts for each group.

How Do Product Groups Work?

Product groups sound simple on the surface, but there is a specific way they work regarding Google Shopping’s platform.

At first, you start with a Shopping campaign. There will be one ad group with one product group called “All Products.” This includes everything in your inventory.

You can then subdivide your inventory up further into groups and subgroups so that your bidding will more specifically align with your advertising and conversion goals.

There are up to seven levels you can use to subdivide your product groups. The order can vary in whichever way you choose.

You could create a product group for each product and thus bid the same amount on each one if you wanted. Conversely, you could have product groups organized by product category or even brand. And for most businesses, you won’t need to worry about having too many product groups — you can have as many as 20,000.

What are the Product Group Attributes?

Product attributes are the name of filed or columns in data product feed based on that you can create product group while creating your shopping campaign.

Let’s take a look at them, one by one:

1. Item ID

This unique identifier applies to each product. The information you input using this attribute is the foundation for your Shopping ads.

2. Brand

For this, put the name of the company that created or manufactured the product.

3. Category

Here’s an example of a category string: Apparel & Accessories > Clothing > Dresses.

If you don’t define the category, Google may assign one for you. Also, note that you can only subdivide by the category if your ads are targeting these following countries:

4. Product type

This is an attribute that depends on your categorization. For instance, Refrigerators would be the product type in the following string: Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Kitchen Appliances > Refrigerators.

5. Custom labels

In your product data, you can create up to 5 custom labels. An example might be “seasonal” or “best seller.”

6. Condition

This allows you to describe whether the product is new, used, or refurbished.

7. Channel

Using local or online, you can tell customers whether they need to enter a physical store or they can order online. You can create product groups based on channels as well

8. Channel exclusivity

Tell shoppers whether they can only purchase your product through one specific channel or if they can order through both. So you can create product groups on single-channel or multi-channel.

How Do I Manage a Shopping Campaign with Product Groups?

The first, and most important, aspect to understand about product groups is the bid. Each product in a product group uses the exact same bid.

Let’s say a shoe store owner has different brands of sneakers for sale. He can divide them into different brands. If each brand of shoe is its own product group, it will have a separate bid.

Keep in mind that each product can only go in one product group at a time. This might seem limiting. However, it will help you with clear analytics when the time comes to look at your data.

How Do You Create a Product Group Subdivision?

As already mentioned above, when first time shopping campaign is created, by default one product group called “All Products” is created. You can further categorize it by creating subdivisions which is a critical part of your product group knowledge. It lets you get even more granular, so you aren’t missing out on key insights. Here are the steps you need to take to subdivide your product groups:

• Sign in to your Google Ads account.
• In the page menu, click on campaigns.
• Select the campaign where your product groups reside.
• Select the ad group that contains your product groups.
• Select the product groups page.
• Select the “+” next to the product group you want to subdivide.
• Click on the drop-down menu and select a product attribute that will determine your product group.
• If you want to use more than one attribute to define your product group, finish creating the current subdivision, and repeat the steps above.
• To add the subdivision, click on the checkbox next to it.
• Select continue.
• Review your bids to ensure they look accurate.
• Use the “New max CPC” column to set the bid for each product group.
• Select Save

How Do You View Your Product Groups?

If you switch between the top product groups, you can change up your view in the settings.  There are two views:

• Hierarchy – This shows you the structure of the product groups. Utilize this in order to remove or add subdivisions in the group.
• List – This view displays a list of all your product groups. It’s useful for a high-level overview of all the groups.

How Do You Filter Product Groups?

Google provides a useful filter feature that helps you take a look at only the data you’re interested in right now. This could be clicks, conversions, or cost-per-click (CPC). Depending on your campaign, one of these metrics is likely to be more valuable and actionable than the others.

Also, each filter can be conveniently saved if you plan using it in the future—so no need to worry about going through the same process from scratch each time.

Here is how you can filter your product groups:

• Sign in to your Google Ads account.
• Select Campaigns
• Select the campaign housing the product group that you want to change
• Select your desired ad group
• Select the filter button
• Choose your filter conditions. The table displayed will automatically show you update previews based on your new filter.
• A single filter can specify more than one condition. Just select on the filter again to add another condition. Or, select the X next to a condition to remove it from the filter.
• Select “save filter” to save it for later and choose a name for easy recognition.
• If you want to see your table without any filters, select the X in the filter section.

And that’s essentially all there is to filters. You could spend hours playing around with different filter settings. However, it’s best to have a clear goal of exactly what metrics are going to move the needle in your business. That way, you’re only looking at actionable insights that save you time.

The idea of filters is not necessary to give you more information, but more refined data as a shortcut. If you use it in this way, you’ll find that you’re saving more time and identifying profitable campaigns. But there is still another step to really get a grasp on which campaigns are working well: analysis.

How Do You Analyze Product Groups in Your Account?

In Google Ads, the Product group’s page is the first place you can check to see how your product groups are performing. Customize the columns you see and download reports with segmented options.  Most metrics are same which you find for standard search campaigns but there are others which are only in shopping campaign.

You’ll be able to view these types of information:

• Maximum cost-per-click (max. CPC)
• Impressions
• Clickthrough rate (CTR)
• Conversion metrics
• Benchmark clickthrough rate (CTR)
• Benchmark maximum cost-per-click (max. CPC)
• Impression share
• Click share
• Absolute top impression share
• Tracking templates
• Custom parameters
• % approved
• % active
• % ready to serve
• Products submitted
• Products approved
• Products active
• Products ready to serve

Wrap Up

Google is the unrivaled behemoth when it comes to paid advertisements online. You can achieve incredible reach, brand awareness, and traffic by running paid campaigns on their platforms. Google Shopping is particularly excellent for e-commerce brands looking to grow.

However, there are so many different aspects to consider when running successful Google Shopping campaigns. You need to understand the different hierarchies of your ads, their title, description, and in particular, their product groups.

In shopping campaigns, product groups are used to better manage and organize your inventory in powerful ways. This will allow you to gather more specific data, learn more about your target customers, and ultimately optimize your Shopping ads to generate higher profits and conversions overall.

Discover more about Google Shopping campaigns in our blog, Google Shopping Campaign Optimization: The PPC Manager’s Guide.