[PPC] – Google Shopping, a guide to getting started

If you have doubts in Google Shopping about how it works, or about its structures or what to do and what not to do. Or you just don’t have a clue and you start from scratch. This post is definitely the one.

There are many companies, if not the vast majority, that decide to make a significant investment in this type of campaign that generates so many benefits. No less than small and medium-sized companies are launching this type of campaign. In fact, according to studies, these small and medium-sized enterprises receive a large part of their income from these types of campaigns.

So, to go from less to more, we will start with the most basic concepts about this type of campaign. So that you are clear about its purpose and we don’t beat around the bush. Then we will talk about the advantages that can be obtained, so that you get the worm with Google Shoping. After this last one we will move on to the creation of your own shopping campaigns so that you can add them to your accounts knowing all the requirements that are necessary to start working. We will continue with tricks/tips to make a proper and effective implantation. We will also start optimizing the campaign from the very beginning. And finally some conclusions to synthesize everything well and that there is no confusion, if there is no problem in making a comment.

If you don’t see yourself trained, or don’t have the necessary resources to put this type of campaign into action, we will be happy to help you. Just click here.

What is Google Shopping?

So that you can understand it as quickly as possible; Google Shopping is the search engine for shopping, designed by Google. Basically, as the name suggests, these are the American company’s purchase ads.

Making it even easier; Google Shopping is when we perform a search on the search engine as for example: “Nike running shoes” and we appear the search ads on the left side and superimposed on these or in the upper right side there is a box of images of the shoes, with a title (usually referring to the model + brand) and the price of them. For some years now, Google has been offering the “Shopping” tab so that you can enter it and take advantage of the filters to segment the product into various variables.

With the screenshots I am showing you, you will be able to see what is most positive and what clients like most when these types of ads appear in our searches.

At first sight, the best thing about these campaigns is that you are showing the product as it is (make sure you have good images of the product or try to get them from your supplier), as well as indicating the price without having to enter the website. These two things make them quite useful if we also add the descriptive part of the product, the different models/sizes that are available and, of course, the user ratings that always give that extra confidence to exercise the purchase. Since we like buyers to give us everything well-chewed.

The clearer, more precise and descriptive the customers that come to your website, through Google Shopping, will be more likely to make a purchase.

I know you’ll be rubbing your hands together thinking this is the panacea… well, as in all cases, there’s always a downside. Not everything could be perfect. A negative aspect is that you can’t put keywords inside your ad groups so that the ads will be activated by them. But don’t worry, the solution to this problem is the Product Feed.

I’ll tell you about it later (Product Feed), but just so you know: this is the cornerstone of a Google Shopping campaign. This is the key to success in this type of campaign. If you don’t have a good Product Feed you can worry about remodeling the one you already have so that with the changes you make it is.
It is also important to know Google Shopping’s policies regarding your country or countries where you are selling. If you’re not clear, here’s what Google has to say

Advantages of campaigns on Google Shopping

Now is when you ask yourself that question: Why should I do Google Shopping campaigns?

Starting from the fact that the clearest advantages that at first sight are obtained with Shopping are: visualization of the product, price, valuation of the client. And there is more, if you click on the product being advertised you can see the models available as well as the sizing. I also don’t want to overlook the fact that within the Shopping tab you can segment products by the various filters available.

But apart from these advantages, there are other advantages you can get with Google Shopping and you should know them. These are:

• If you’re one of those people who says, “I have a better price than the competition”. This will be reflected in the products of the competition, and if it is low as you say it will be even more evident since in all the ads that are being advertised the price appears.
• There are many companies that are present in this type of campaign and there are many that make profits thanks to them. What are you waiting for? If the competition is there, it’s for a reason.
• Improve the visibility of your products. Google is getting busy with this type of campaign and is giving it more and more importance. Formerly there was a marketplace which was called Google Express and merged with Google Shopping, for something will be…
• The traffic that comes in through the ad is more than just “hot customers”. They have seen your ad among many others, if they have clicked on yours it is because they like you more than the others and you have a better price. Then the probability of having a conversion is much higher. Yes, it’s that easy.

With all these advantages you will be eager to know how to implement this type of campaign step by step.

How to create Google Shopping campaigns?

Before proceeding with the assembly of Google Shopping campaigns you should know that there are two things to do before starting. And these, in order not to have problems, you must do them with a rigorous detail. I’m talking about the Google Merchant Center and the Product Feed that you must upload to the Merchant.

So you can understand it quickly: Google Merchant Center is the platform that supports Google Ads to be able to mount the ads and have a site from which to “suck” data. And the Product Feed is basically the catalogue of products that you upload to Merchant. You must pamper every last detail of this one to make it a complete success.

So let’s take it one step at a time to get it right.

Google Merchant Center

The Google Merchant Center could be said to be the center of operations for Google Shopping campaigns. It is a tool that helps you to load the data of the products you want to sell so that, later, you can include them in your purchase campaigns. If we have this well organized and to perfection, our success rate is going to be much higher since this platform is an indispensable part to proceed with the assembly of the campaigns.

For Google Merchant Center to work perfectly you must have several configurations in perfect condition. I’m going to name them above so you’re clear on what they are.

• Set up your account: you must set up your account with your company information. Whether it’s the name under which you’re registered, CIF, website, address, etc..
• Claim your website’s URL and then verify it. You should check the website you want to sell with. You can do this in different ways such as with an HTML tag, with an upload of files also HTML, with the Google Tag Manager or with Google Analytics. I know this topic is a bit complicated if you don’t have a lot of notions about HTML, if you have doubts here Google explains you very well how to do it.
• Secure page. You must include the https in all your pages so that it is safe.
• You must comply with Google Merchant Center policies. Otherwise you will not be able to run the campaigns. So this point is much more than important. Among all the requirements we highlight that you must have a secure payment/secure page, return policies, no prohibited practices, the page and the products you sell are written in the same language where you want to sell, relevant contact information for Google staff. If you meet all the requirements, to check it, you should go in the drop-down menu on the left, to “Growth” from there to “Manage programs” and all the modules will appear. Well, you must go to the “Shopping Ads” section and enter it and the following will appear:

By checking these settings your Google Merchant Center account should already be 100% configured, now is the step of the spine for this type of campaigns.

Product Feed

We could say that this is the part where you have to put more emphasis, have more care and take care of the details. The more time you spend on developing and improving this sheet, the more likely you are to generate conversions. You can’t create it the way you want either, you must follow Google’s rules for feeds. In this case they should contain the following items:

1. ID:unique product identifier
2. Title: product title (you should include the most relevant keyword here)
3. Description: Describe your product. Take advantage to add more keywords and synonyms for them.
4. Link: link to the product page in question.
5. Image link– An image of your product. Be careful! Try to put the best images, that’s what the customers will see when your ad appears.
6. Availability– whether you have the product in stock or not.
7. Price:the price at which you want to sell it
8. Shipping Cost– The price of shipping.

With all this set up the next step is to upload the feed to Google Merchant Center. It offers you to upload the feed in different formats, there you are which is the easiest to set up and upload.

To upload it, you must go, from the menu, to the products section. In it we click on it “+” and you select the way to upload your feed, specify the country of origin and destination, also tell him what kind of feed is and finally you can automate the update of this feed so you do not have to do it manually and do not forget.

We must add that it is not uploading the feed and that’s it. Google will review all of your products for compliance with its policy. On the Merchant home page you will see a dashboard on which you will see the status of your products.

Google Shopping

Within the Google Ads interface you must proceed to mount the campaign. These are the same guidelines that we follow to mount any other type of campaign. But just in case; you must select as a target “Sales”, then the type of campaign that in this case is Shopping. Select the Merchant account (if it doesn’t appear, you have done something wrong). The next step is to select a smart campaign or the standard one that has always been. I use the standard for the simple reason that the ads only appear in the search network.

Within it you can adjust your bids both at product group and ad group level. It’s up to you how you set up your campaigns in relation to the feed so you can get much more out of your Google Shopping campaigns. You can also adjust bids, as in many cases, based on devices. Your task is to analyze which ones generate more conversions for you.

With what I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I refer to the Product Groups, is where you are going to base your strategy for this type of campaign. You can divide your feed into groups of products, so you can advertise for each category, if they are specific for something, if some are more expensive or less expensive, if with one you get more profit margin … in short all the metrics that serve to granulate your entire catalog.
If you segment your feed as much as possible and this is shown in the structure of your campaigns, the performance analysis of your campaigns will be much more effective than if it is all together.

Tips with Google Shopping campaigns

There are several tricks or tips that will help you to have an easier life in the world of Google Shopping.

What is the most important thing in Google Shopping? The Product Feed!

Well, you got it right. I’ll be a pain, but if we don’t have this aspect right, the operation and performance of Google Shopping campaigns will not be what we expected. So spend as much time as possible doing it and after that he keeps on researching and making modifications in order to improve the feed and consequently its results.

If there are custom tags on products in the stores, the Feed also

You can add several custom tags within the feed. Don’t overdo it either, you can get a total of five tags.

These labels will serve you to group different products that have some property in common such as those that are new, discounted, best sellers, seasonal and a long etcetera. Labels are made to your liking.

Bid for what’s really worth it

That’s right. Go for those product groups that are giving you the best performance. Slowly raise the bids as you can also raise the CPC’s without overdoing it

SEO on Google Shopping doesn’t go unnoticed

If your feed is being assembled in a spreadsheet, you should work on the title and descriptions, thinking about the searches that customers can make to find the product you want to sell them. You can lean on the search terms.

They basically start from the essence of search campaigns and are therefore activated by what customers write in the search engines. If in the title you have added the keyword and in the description you have added more details besides the keyword this will surely help you. The best thing is that you follow an order in all the products as it could be the generic product, the brand if they have it and add other specifications as if it is for man, woman, child or for some sport.

There is No keywords, but negative keywords

We can not include keywords within our ad group, we solve this by making a good feed. Now, the negative keywords here come into play playing an important role. You should optimize these on a daily basis so that you don’t lose part of your budget in unwanted clicks. Here are several examples of negative keywords that you can add to your campaigns.

A picture is worth a thousand words

And so it is, if among all the products that appear to your client your image is the one that stands out the most among the others… the most probable thing is that he will click on your ad and decide to buy it.

Do you have this model in another colour?

How many times have we asked this question in any store. Now you can give this display option to your customerwhen he clicks on your ad to see the availability of colors, sizes, etc. for that model in question.

Do you sell products from some brands?

You shouldbreak down your ad groups into branded and unbranded campaigns. Branded campaigns will obviously be more expensive when they are branded. While those without a brand name will obviously be cheaper. Remember to add brand to your negative list or it won’t do any good.

Do you have a product with several types of flavors/colors/models/sizes?

Take it easy… there is also a solution to that.

Your feed must have product variables so that it can be reflected in the shopping ad. This is when the GTIN and MPNcome into play. The GTIN acts as a unique product identifier and the MPN acts as the manufacturer’s reference number. So you have to merge the two to be able to offer this kind of advertising.

Remarketing lists for Google Shopping

A few days ago I would tell you the benefits of the RLSA. Why not add these lists, which we obtain so many positive results with, to the Google Shopping campaigns.

NEW 2020: Add products manually

This is a novelty fresh out of the oven. Very interestingfor companies with a quite reduced catalogue, and that see very complicated to assemble a Product Feed.

Conclusion

Since you have learned about Google Merchant Center, Product Feed and Google Shopping you should be able to start running these types of campaigns on all your Google Ads accounts.

To sum up, you must take good care of your Product Feed and keep it under constant research. It is not a question of creating the campaign, optimize (that too) and let the algorithm do the rest of the work. You must be in constant research to see which search terms are used to find the products you are promoting so that you can include them in the Feed, see which are more profitable at an individual level and don’t forget here a good SEO helps a lot.

If you liked this post and you want to keep learning more about PPC don’t hesitate to take a look at our blog, besides having several posts about PPC, we are also an excellent CRO blog, in case you don’t know what CRO is we’ll explain it to you, but if you’re here for the PPC, you shouldn’t miss the model’s post. SKAGs.

If you have any doubts about this, do not hesitate to comment.

See you next time!