Unlike text ads in Google Ads, which are shown based on the keywords you select, Google Shopping uses product data that you as an advertiser upload to Merchant Center to display a Shopping ad with a product image, title, price, and the name of your store. Let’s go through how you get started with Google Shopping.
Create a Merchant Center account
The first step is to create a Merchant Center account. After setting up the account, you need to configure several settings, including verifying your website, business information, and contact details. You can find additional information in the Onboarding guide provided by Google.
Upload your product data
The second step is to submit your product information to Merchant Center. This is done by providing a primary feed that includes mandatory product data, in the correct format, allowing Google to structure your product information so it can later be shown in Shopping ads. The feed consists of attributes, some of which are required, such as id (a unique product ID), title, description, price, image (image URL), and a link to the product page on your website.
The feed, which can for example be in XML format or Google Sheets, is time-consuming to create manually, especially if you have a large number of products. Therefore, there is usually an add-on or plugin available for the e-commerce platform you are using that simplifies feed creation. In that case, the information is pulled from an existing source, namely the product data on your website. If you lower the price of a product on your site, the price in the feed will also be updated, ensuring that the correct price is shown to potential customers when they see the Shopping ad.
Start advertising
Once you have successfully created your feed, it is time to link your Merchant Center account with your Google Ads account. This is done by selecting “Linked accounts” in the Merchant Center interface and then following the instructions to link the account.
The final step is to switch over to your Google Ads account and create a new campaign. From the available campaign types, select Shopping. After this step, you will need to choose whether to start with Standard Shopping or Smart Shopping. Explaining the difference between these two requires a separate blog post, but if you are not experienced with managing Shopping campaigns, the “Smart” option can be a good starting point, provided that you already have conversions in your Google Ads account. The remaining steps to complete the setup include selecting the country you want to appear in, deciding whether to create ads for all products in the feed, creating the ad, and setting your budget.
In summary
If you already run search advertising in Google Ads as an e-commerce business, using text ads, but do not yet have a Shopping campaign, it is strongly recommended to expand your advertising with Shopping ads. Brath’s SEM specialists in Stockholm are experienced in optimizing Shopping campaigns and deliver the best possible return on your Google Ads investment.
